Pioneers: Creation

The Raid on the Titan

The Raid on the Titan


         Trips through hyperspace were often long and boring in a pirate's line of work, especially when you happened to work a lot and alone.  That was one of the few downsides of pirating in Ruki's opinion.  But in this case, the boring and long trip gave her the one thing she wanted right now: time to think.


         'The glare of that Jarcden and the way he moved...they both resembled Kenshi.  He was even left-handed.  But Kenshi is stuck back by Rietvan.  Even if he fixed his ship by now there's no way he could have made it all the way out to Haqnen II.  How would he have been able to track me?  Plus Kenshi isn't stronger than me.  Determined, sometimes, but not stronger.  But then again, I have seen him do some amazing shit...for a human.  No.  That couldn't have been Kenshi.  But who do I know that is stronger than me, whose voice I can recognize and who has a glare that’s as cold as Kenshi's?  No one.'


         Ruki shook her head and decided to take her mind off the disguised Jarcden.  Instead she focused her thoughts on the Titan.


         The Titan had, in the year 4012 A.R., been the largest, most powerful ship the galaxy, probably even the universe, had ever set eyes on.  It was enormous - nearly the size of a small moon - and required a small military to operate.  It held the firepower of a dozen battlewagons and the armor of a hundred super carriers - or so they said.  Nothing like it had been built before, earning it the class name ‘titan’.  No formal name had ever been registered to it so it was simply known as the class which it belonged to.  It had been a grand sight to behold to those who got to see it in all it's glory before it was destroyed.  The greatest military ship the universe had ever welcomed into it's vastness had been under construction for a known decade and only survived five months.


         The MMC had built it to win the war.  They thought their weapon to be invincible - and it was by just about every right.  But Terrans were incredible fighters when it came down to it and they proved it in the Battle of the Titan.  The Titan had been on a rampage across the universe, destroying Terran patrols left and right while searching for their home base system by system.  The Terrans had gotten tired of it soon enough and launched a large retaliatory force to assault the Titan.  The battle took 43 hours and thousands of lives, but finally the Terran fleet managed to pulverize the guns and hangars around the Titan, rendering it unable to attack.  From there the Titan's captain had ordered his ship to simply ram the attackers.  Of course the ship was too enormous and slow to do much damage in such a way and eventually the Terrans managed to cripple the ship's engines.  Then, to guarantee the massive ship would never take part in the war again, the Terrans launched a small invading force into the ship with the objective to destroy it's power source.  The attackers had done their work with relative ease and few casualties.  They turned the coolant off for the massive fusion system, causing a meltdown which liquidated a third of the ship away, including the bridge.  Much of the crew had been killed in the initial burning.  The rest, unable to get out through the escape pods because of the melted and ruined hull, simply froze throughout the next week.


         There were only a handful of survivors of the battle - just under 3000 Terrans out of their original 50,000.  They had escaped back home and continued fighting for another six months before the war ended.  The battle had been the last major fight of the war and had frightened both sides into peace talks.  The Terran commander of the battle had become the highest ranking MMC Admiral while many of the officers and soldiers became great Commanders, Captains and even Admirals - including, as Ruki found out later, the famed Admiral Degross.


         The Titan itself was pretty much just another piece of rubble in space now.  With the power core and bridge melted into one huge hunk of metal and the hull and engine a giant mass of scrap, the MMC hadn't even bothered fixing it...until now.


         Midolloni was stepping on a few too many toes as of late as far as neighboring governments go.  Others hadn't liked the new changes since the war had ended, mostly due to the fall of trade when Midolloni no longer needed the extra resources as well as the dislike of Terrans throughout the universe and how Midolloni suddenly treated them as good friends.  So in the case that another enormous war did break out, the MMC wanted a big, powerful weapon to strike fear into enemies.  Something like the Titan.  Somehow top brass had convinced the anti-war-to-the-point-of-stupidity Emperor to rebuild the beast.  Reconstruction had begun almost five years ago and was rumored to be around 75% complete.


         All Ruki had to do is sneak into the blackbox section where all the old info was stored and steal everything she could out of the computers.  The only problem was that there would probably be extremely tight security involving hundreds or thousands of guards and a lot of high-tech devices - basics like cameras and motion trackers to more complex traps like computer firewalls and temperature scanners.


         The rational side of her told her to wait, to study and interrogate to have all the information she needed beforehand.  The impatient side pushed that aside and demanded immediate satisfaction.  Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea, but it had worked out for her in the past.  And Ruki wasn't the greatest pirate in the universe if she couldn't rob a simple ship.  Besides, it would be easy with the new equipment she'd received from Ally and Aiston and the old hacking device Ally had given her a decade ago would take care of any computer protections.  She just hoped the guards would provide good enough entertainment.


         She didn't want this to be too easy.


-------------------------


         The fake arm was made of simple steel with plastic to fill in realistically where real flesh would be.  It was a simple construction, really, but it got the job done and was durable.  At least, it was supposed to be durable.


         Kenshi held up the fake left arm of his Jarcden disguise.  The fingers and hand were cracked and the bent metal refused to move properly to it's commands anymore.  This had happened with a simple punch to a person's back.


         Of course Ruki was made of a lot stronger stuff than the average person, but still.  That punch hadn't used half of Kenshi's full strength and yet he had still broken plastic and steel on a relatively soft surface.  For better or for worse he didn't even know his own strength anymore.


         Kenshi continued looking at the broken arm for a few minutes more before stuffing it in his jacket and looking out into space.  His ship was programmed to follow Ruki and, if he looked close enough, he could see a tiny red dot in hyperspace ahead of him.


         Staring at the dot a moment, Kenshi stood up and left the cockpit - it would probably take a few hours to get wherever they were going and he wanted to grow accustomed his new body.  The ship was programmed to alert him when they were coming out of hyperspace.


         He walked to his living quarters first, intending to put away the now useless Jarcden disguise.  Opening the door to the cabin-esque room of his personal quarters, Kenshi walked to his dresser and put away the many pieces to the outfit.


         After everything was locked away, Kenshi stood up and took a good look around the room for the first time since his ship had been upgraded.  Everything had changed with the exception that his personal belongings were still safely stored in his small dresser.


         The bed was huge now - much larger than anything he had ever slept in.  The nightstand he kept by the bed had changed from grey, square and steel to a pleasant round cherrywood.  His floor, which had once been cold titanium, had changed into sturdy wooden flooring.  His computer library had even changed, going from the large, square box with a screen on a small, plastic table to just a keyboard and mouse built into his new large oak desk with a plain round black space in the center and the added accessory of an internet connection.  He had found out from the data pad Ally had given him that it was actually something of a holo computer - nice considering it's size.


         Kenshi finished his sweep of the room and started his way toward the training center, a frown marring his face and disturbing thoughts running through his head.


         'Say hello to my daughter, will you?' she had said.  His fists clenched and unclenched, working double-jointed fingers.


         He didn't want to think on it - didn't want to think on what so much of what had happened added up to.  With a grunt Kenshi punched the elevator button and stepped inside.  He needed to forget about the scientist.  Whatever she wanted him to do was not going to happen and that was that.


         The elevator opened to the training area and Kenshi walked through the black and white room, heading straight to the control panel on the other side.  Reading over the words on it's screen carefully, Kenshi typed in a few commands.  A moment later and the room around him seemed to disappear.  In it's place, Kenshi found himself in some sort of ancient arena with thousands of people standing around him, cheering.  In the middle of the arena stood a single tanned, hairless, well built man clothed in nothing but a pair of brown pants and black boots.


         Kenshi stared in awe at the change for a moment before taking off his own shirt and throwing it down to the ground.  He walked over to the man until he was only five feet away and, noticing the vacant expression on his face, was reminded of a robot.  He stared at the man a moment more, noting the tanned figure was a good deal larger and more muscular than he himself was.  Not like people being larger than him had ever made much of a difference in the fights he’d been in.


         Cracking his knuckles, Kenshi took a couple steps back before saying in a loud, clear voice - or as clear as he could with his rasp - "Start program."


         The man instantly came to life, diving at Kenshi with raised fists.  He supposed the action was meant to be quick, but, just like what happened with Ruki, the man seemed to be moving impossibly slow.  This time, however, Kenshi did not sidestep, instead waiting for the man's fist to hit his jaw.  Curiosity was such a bitch.


         The fist connected hard with his cheek - much harder than it looked - and Kenshi staggered backward while the man dove in for another attack.  Kenshi didn't let him connect this time.  He dodged forward, making the man overshoot his target, and put a quick left hook across the man's face.  The man twisted and went down like a pile of bricks while the virtual crowd erupted into louder cheers.


         Kenshi expected the man to jump up again and try for another dive, but was surprised to see him lay still.  He rubbed his face where the man had punched him, but found that it didn't hurt at all.


         'Ally really did raise my pain tolerance.  But I need to get a good challenge here and find out what I can really do.  Guess I'll just have to raise the difficulty a bit,' Kenshi thought.  He walked back over to the control panel and tampered with the settings for a moment before stepping away.


         Looking over his shoulder, the same man stood in the center of the arena again like a deactivated robot.  Kenshi stepped forward until he was only few feet away.  Studying the man a moment more, the former soldier raised his arms into a fighting stance before calling out, "Start program."


         The reaction was not exactly what Kenshi expected.  The man did lunge forward into a dive, trying to punch Kenshi, but he was much quicker this time - quick enough that it seemed he was moving at a normal speed.  The man had Kenshi staggering back before he even realized what was happening and was already leaping in for another shot.


         Kenshi tried to sidestep, but the man's reaction time was quicker, too, and he corrected his aim, jacking Kenshi in the stomach and following with an elbow to the spine, sending him face-first into the ground.  Fortunately Kenshi had enough sense left in him to push himself up and forward before the man started kicking him.  Off balance, he nearly fell over trying to turn around and get back into the fight.  As expected the man was there, but Kenshi was tired of taking licks.


         Leaping forward in another punch, the man didn't get far before Kenshi tried to lay a left hook into his face.  The man, for his part, managed to block the attack, but was still left off balance by the powerful blow.  Kenshi followed through with a punch from his stronger right arm, sending the man keeling over.


         From there on Kenshi took the offensive, giving the man a flurry of powerful blows.  The man did manage to block or evade many of the punches and kicks, but Kenshi didn't allow the man to get back to his own offensive and in turn evaded the rest of the man's small jabs while countering with his own blows.


         It was only a few moments before the man, just like his predecessor, crumpled to the ground like a pile of bricks and stayed down.  Kenshi wiped off a few drops of sweat from his forehead before turning back to the control panel.


         The man had tested his strength and reaction time to some extent, but Kenshi still had almost no clue as to how much more powerful he was.  As he stepped back to the control panel he pressed a few more buttons, selecting a basic test of strength.


         When Kenshi turned around again, he found himself in a simple white training room with mirror making up one wall.  In the center of the room was a metal bar with two 175 lbs. weights attached.  Back when he was a SEALS he could lift a good 400 lbs.  Of course, now he hadn't worked out properly in a long time and wanted to start a little lighter at 375 lbs.  With his improved performance he would probably be able to lift the weight with ease, but Kenshi wanted to know just how much ease.


         He stepped up to the weight, stretching his arms and flexing his fingers for a moment before kneeling down and grabbing the bar.  He adjusted his hands and legs, trying to be sure he'd be in a good position to lift the heavy weight.  When he was finally ready, Kenshi counted for a few seconds and stood up while lifting the weight to his shoulders.  Kenshi's eyes widened and he dropped the weight to the ground while jumping back.


         'It's like a huge paperweight!' he thought excitedly.


         A rare smile formed on his face and Kenshi stepped back up to the weight, lifting it with a single hand and holding it above his head.  He released a short chuckle and threw the weight away, sending it crashing into a far wall.  He ran back to the control panel, raising the weight to 800 lbs. and turned around to find another bar with dumbbells well over the size of the last.


         Kenshi walked over and bent to grab the bar with both hands.  He stopped himself from lifting the weight, however, and thought to himself before another smile crept to his lips.  Kenshi dropped his right hand and lifted the weight with his left.  It was considerably heavier than the last and Kenshi had some trouble raising it above his head, but he still managed it and he laughed again before dropping the bar and walking back to the control panel.


         'Ally said I was five times stronger.  That should mean I can lift just under a ton.  Let's see if the midget was right.'


         Kenshi typed in 1750 lbs. and entered the weight.  Looking back he saw the weight once again in the center of the room, this time much larger.  The bar was the same size, but the dumb-bells were a good ten times larger than the original 175 lbs. pair.


         He stepped up to the huge weight, once again stretching and flexing his muscles before bending down and grabbing the bar with both hands.  He adjusted his stance for a moment, trying to position himself as best as he could.  As soon as he was ready, Kenshi took a few deep breaths and finally stood up.  The weight seemed pretty normal, about what he was used to, and Kenshi took another deep breath before starting to lift the bar to his shoulders.


         Kenshi grit his teeth against the pain in his arms as he struggled to slowly bring the huge weight up.  It came, ever so slowly, and Kenshi's face turned red at the effort while sweat started forming on his face.  It seemed forever that he held the weight, lifting it up at an excruciating pace, but Kenshi finally felt the cold metal touch his shoulders and he dropped the bar to the ground, ignoring the loud clatter to suck in a deep breath.


         He stared down at the weight after a moment as a smile slowly came to his face.  Kenshi fell down into a sitting position as he continued to stare at the weight, the smile staying with him the entire way.


         ‘This is going to make things interesting,’ he thought to himself.  ‘Probably impossible to keep hidden from the MMC, but interesting nonetheless.’


         Finally shaking it off, Kenshi stood up again.  He felt his balance shift oddly, but managed to keep himself from falling.  If he was heading into a big fight soon he needed to get somewhat used to his new strength first else the slightest touch screw his balance enough to knock him down.


         He walked over to the panel and selected a new setup.  When he turned around again Kenshi found himself on the outer edges of an obstacle course complete with wide mud puddles, rope nets, tires and various wooden objects to hamper progress.


         Cracking his neck, Kenshi started running.


-------------------------


         Ruki woke up to an annoying beeping sounding off next to her.  Opening her eyes the veteran mercenary found the Reaper decelerating out of hyperspace.  She had arrived.


         The Reaper was still a few thousand kilometers away from the enormous ship to keep away from any annoying sensors, but what she saw still amazed her.  There before her floated what could easily compare to a tiny moon.


         "Wow.  You don't see something like that everyday."


         It was a large gray mass in an elongated sphere-like shape in which Ruki could make out a number of large openings where the ship's skeleton could be seen.  A large space station floated near the Titan with a single walkway leading into the ship.  It seemed tiny in comparison.  Around the two ships floated hundreds of smaller ships, looking like shooting stars flying slowly around a moon.  It was quite a sight to behold.


         Ruki didn't think on it long - she had a job to do.  She pulled her ship into a full stop and stood up from her flight seat.  She would need to use a little stealth in this job, requiring a stealthy ship.  Fortunately she had a small one-seater attached to the belly of the Reaper - another of Ally's upgrades from two years ago.  Radars wouldn't detect it and she doubted the MMC would think twice about seeing it unless she started heading for a hangar or performed some other equally stupid act.


         She walked into the small docking area for the ship.  Only the small cockpit and liftable glass canopy could be seen, although she knew the ship itself wasn't much larger.


         Ruki switched on her bracelet and silently commanded her collar to lift her up.  She grinned widely as she floated a few feet in the air, twirling around a few times in amusement before swooping down and through the canopy.  Checking to make sure her body wasn't touching anything, she turned the bracelet off and floated down into the seat.


         "I'm going to have a lot of fun with these," she said to herself happily.


         After a making a few system checks Ruki disengaged the small ship from her precious Reaper and took off toward the Titan, trying to decide the best approach in entering.


-------------------------


         Kenshi ran up to the cockpit the second he heard the alarm go off, not even bothering to put his shirt back on.  Once he arrived he found his ship already decelerating out of hyperspace just after the Reaper.


         It took a few seconds to return to normal space, but when it happened Kenshi was confused - he was in the middle of nowhere with only a moon and a pirate.  That confusion lasted for all of seven seconds when Kenshi realized he was staring at no moon and pure anger nearly overtook him.


         'She wouldn't dare.'  He saw a tiny ship - silver on top and red on bottom - disengage from the bottom of the Reaper and head straight to the gigantic ship he recognized as the Titan.  'It was personal before.  Now she's going beyond personal.'


         All he saw red.  It was hard to think.  There was too much trouble Ruki could cause in that...thing.  There were really only two things she would be doing there: destroy the entire ship and all of it's scraps - which Kenshi wouldn't mind except for the loss of life involved - or steal sensitive information.  Either way it went, Kenshi needed to stop her before she was finished inside the Titan.


         He watched her heading straight through the traffic of other ships without the MMC transports and patrol guards even giving her tiny ship a second thought.  Kenshi started following after her, but thought better of it.  Chances were that someone would manage to see the reflections his ship gave off if he went right through the heavy traffic and that someone would think twice about it’s strange appearance.  Scowling at Ruki’s miniscule ship, he broke off his chase and tried to find an empty section of the enormous ship.


         'I'm going to need to find out where she's going from the inside.  That means I need to be in touch with the surveillance systems or all I'll be able to do is guess since the tracker will probably be scrambled by all the radio signals and magnetic distortions.  How the hell am I going to be able to pull that off?'


         He thought on this while pulling his craft into one of the many large holes littering the Titan's hull.  Once his ship was safely docked within the makeshift hangar, Kenshi walked to his personal quarters with a single, flimsy plan in his mind.


         Looking around his sleeping quarters, Kenshi grabbed his AC pistol and holster from the bed then, as an afterthought, turned back to sift through his Jarcden trench coat and bring out the sonic blaster.


         'This should come in handy,' he thought as he turned back to his dresser.  He opened one of the drawers and pulled out one of his old black uniforms with a gold trim.  'Time to become an MMC again...hopefully not for the last time.'


-------------------------


         No alarms recognized the arrival of Ruki in a dim, underused hallway of the Titan, but no security system every truly expected an invader to simply float through it's walls.  Of course, getting past security would be only one part of the whole raid.  Ruki still had to find the old backup files in the massive ship and she would probably have to deal with a number of guards, on or off duty, along the way.  Guards weren’t the problem, however.


         People were usually easy to fool, but if a single alarm was raised she guessed over 1000 MMC would be gunning for her and Ruki didn't think her small ship could get back to the Reaper if it had so many other ships firing at her.  The problem was that she needed to talk to a person to find the backup files and she needed that person to stay quiet for the rest of her stay.


         'Ah hell, I'll take care of that problem when I get to it.  For now lets just find somebody on this hunk of scrap.'  And so she floated off, going through walls and floors to try and find a more well-lit hall or room.


         It only took a minute to find a bright white hallway lined with a number of doors.  Ruki smiled wickedly and floated down the corridor quietly, keeping her ears at attention for any and all sounds.  Another minute of random wandering and she started to make out the whistling of a man accompanied by his loud footsteps.


         Ruki floated through the floor, waiting for the man to pass.  As soon as she heard his ever loudening footsteps start to become softer once more she floated back up and leaned against the wall luxuriously.


         "Going somewhere, soldier boy?" she said seductively, her tail swaying back and forth lazily.  The man jumped and spun around, looking at Ruki with surprise written all over his face.


         "Where'd you come from?" the man, probably a new recruit around 18 or 20, asked while holding his heart.  "You scared the life outta me!"  Ruki sauntered up to him, keeping her eyes on his the entire way.


         "Me?  I've been here the whole time."  She pouted.  "You didn't even notice me?  I didn't know I was that ugly."  The boy blushed hard while trying to stutter a response.  "Oh, you don't have to lie to me.  I know it's true."


         "B-b-but yo-you're anything but ugly.  I mean...you...you're beautiful."  The blush became even brighter.  He tried to stutter out something else, probably about her sudden appearance, but she diverted such thoughts quickly.


         "Ohhhhh.  That's so sweet of you to say."  She wrapped her arms around the blue shoulders of his uniform.  "But you really don't have to lie to me."  The soldier tried backing up a step, unsure of his new position in the arms of the pirate.


         "B-but it's true!  Honest!"  Ruki smiled sweetly down at him and gave him a short peck on the lips, causing his blush to brighten almost to purple.


         "Well then can you do me a favor?"


         "S-sure," he said weakly.


         "Could you tell me where I can find the blackbox section on this ship?"  The man still looked embarrassed, but confusion rose again in his bashful face.


         "W-what?"


         "Backup files.  You know where they are?"  The confusion became even more apparent and she could see the boy was starting to think a little.


         "Blackbox section?  You need to find the blackbox room?  You don't know where it is?  But everyone on this ship knows it's layout..."


         Ruki's voice started to lose it's seductiveness as she said, "I got lost, so can you point me out to where I should go?"  The soldier looked at her a little more closely, his eyes straying to the tight jeans and black tank top she wore.


         "And shouldn't you be wearing your uniform onboard?"  Ruki's smile vanished as her hands undid themselves from around his neck to slide down his chest.  She grabbed his jacket in either hand, lifting him off the ground and slamming him into a wall.  "H-hey!  What do you think..."


         "I asked you a question, kid, and it's about time you answered it.  Where is the blackbox section to this ship?"  He stared at her scared and confused for a moment before recognition came to his face.


         "You...You're a pirate?"


         "Ruki.  A pleasure, I’m sure.  Answer."  His face hardened.  He started struggling, his flailing limbs kicking and punching at her desperately.  Her smile came back wickedly and Ruki turned and whipped the man into the opposite wall, catching him again before he slid down.  The man coughed violently for a moment as he tried to get air back into his lungs and when he did he glared daggers at the dread pirate.


         "I would never tell a piece of trash like you anything, so you might as well finish me off now, pirate."  Ruki only laughed.


         "That's cute and all, but I have a job to do and you will tell me what I want to know.  If you don't, I'll just kill you and go find someone else.  Would you like me to bother someone else?"


         He looked angrily down at her for a moment, contemplating his choices before asking, "Will you hurt anyone else if I tell you?"


         "There would be less of a chance."


         "Either you promise not to hurt anyone else or you won't get anything."


         "Either you tell me what I want to know or I will kill you, ask someone else and kill them too.  Answer."


         The boy looked dismayed, but a sad resolution came to his features and he muttered, "North side of the station.  Go up 97 stories and you'll find a large hall.  Take it to the end and you'll see the entrance."  His eyes traveled to hers once more and his voice grew louder.  "It doesn't matter, though.  Armed soldiers are crawling around all over up there.  You'll never make it past them." Ruki chuckled at him.


         "You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?  Oh well.  You’ll respect me properly when you wake up."  He looked confused again.


         "Wake up?"  There were no more words when Ruki slammed her forehead into the bridge of his nose, knocking the young soldier out.


         'Everyone here is probably kept track of by personal data transmitters so I can't kill him or leave him in the middle of some abandoned hall.  What can I do with him?'  Her questions were answered when she saw the stick figure of a man painted on one of the doorways.  'Better than nothing,' she thought as she dragged the unconscious man into the restroom where she threw him onto a toilet.


         'Now to get to those files.'


-------------------------


         Bright light filled the dark hallway of the Titan as a cutter sent sparks flying across the narrow passageway.  Seconds later a small, man-sized rectangle clattered to the ground and the cutter shut off.  At the edge of the hull’s new opening Kenshi threw the cutter back into his jacket and pulled out a small flashlight.  Turning the light on, Kenshi looked into the pitch black hallway.


         'This place is a grave.  Figures that I'd connect into a part of the ship that still doesn't have electricity.  At least I don't have to worry about anyone finding my ship.'


         Kenshi ducked beneath the cut wall and into the hall, looking around and trying to decide which direction to go as he did.  'It's going to take me forever to find some life in this place.'  He took out his old Portable Scout System, or scouter as it was more commonly called - a portable HUD used by soldiers to do anything from checking ammo to communicating to scanning equipment, terrain and lifesigns.  'Good I remembered to bring this puppy with me,' he thought while attaching it to the right side of his head.


         There were a few activation beeps when Kenshi started up the scouter, followed by a few more when Kenshi tried to find a decent layout of his section of the ship.  When the machine was finally done scanning, a blurry map appeared before Kenshi's eyes, showing him his position and the direction to the nearest energy source.


         Kenshi allowed himself a grin and made a quick pace through the black corridors.


-------------------------


         Floating through the first two floors had been fine and had gone as expected; Ruki wasn't seen and she just kept on flying, still amused by the fact that now she could both fly and go through walls.  But by the third floor she wasn't so lucky or amused.


         "What in the hell?!"


         "It's a ghost!"


         "GHOST!!!"


         That was about the last thing she expected to hear if and when she was caught.  Two men and a women stood there, gaping at her with fear all over their faces.  She might have laughed, but she didn't want to draw anymore attention.  Instead she just floated forward slowly, trying not to scare them into running.


         "Man, it's coming toward us," said the tallest of the three.


         "Stay away!  Stay back!" screamed the woman.  The third started running.


         Ruki sighed, shook her head and flew as quickly as the collar allowed her toward the running man.  She flew right past him and turned to stop in front of him.  Unfortunately for the man, he couldn't stop so easily and ended up slamming face first into the ribs between her breasts, knocking him out cold.


         "Did you see that?!  It killed Rhedik!" the woman said in sobs.


         "We're so screwed!  The ghost is going to kill us!  The ghost is going to kill us!"


         "I'm not a ghost you twit!" Ruki yelled, tired of the whining.  "And unless you want me to kill you then shut the hell up!"


         "Rory, it said it's going to kill you!  Run!" the girl screamed.


         Ruki scowled and raced toward the overemotional girl.  She tried to scream, but the pirate laid a fist across her cheek before she did, sending her into a long unconsciousness.


         "Oh man.  What did we ever do to you?  Back to the grave demon!"  With that the man got down on his knees and started praying.  This time Ruki did laugh.


         "You people are real morons, you know that?" Ruki said from her standing position above the man.  "I'm going to take real pleasure in shutting you up."  And with those words, she sent her fist, for the second time that day, across someone's cheek, knocking them out.


         Despite her annoyance with what had just happened Ruki couldn't help but think, 'I gotta try this again when I have some free time.  I wonder how Kenshi would react?'


-------------------------


         Kenshi had to put away the scouter as soon as he came to a more brightly lit section of the station to avoid suspicion.  He continued walking, trying not to go in circles while wracking his brain for any and all ideas on how to find Ruki.


         Briefly he thought of simply finding an officer and telling him outright that Ruki was onboard, but that would probably cause more trouble than it was worth.  Ruki was obviously being unusually stealthy - no one was running around in panic - so if alarms were raised she could simply sneak right back out and leave Kenshi to take a lot of flak.  And even if the MMC actually managed to catch her Kenshi would be found out and he wasn't exactly prepared to explain his ship upgrades or the sonic blaster he carried.  Or, for that matter, how he even came to be aboard the Titan.


         Another idea was to simply walk around the ship until he found some trace of the pirate - after all, he did have a tracker.  The problems with that plan was that the ship was too enormous to search through, Ruki wasn't likely leaving an obvious trace and the tracker didn't leave much of a floor plan and could barely work inside the massive ship with so many tight spaces and so much interference.  That left one last idea.


         If Kenshi could find a computer or terminal somewhere fairly remote he could do a little rewiring and look into the ship surveillance systems then narrow things down with the tracker.  The problem here was, again, the ship was enormous and Ruki wouldn't leave an easy trace.  It was the best he had, unfortunately, and Kenshi was now set on finding a empty room with a computer of some sort.


         Finding terminals was easy, fortunately.  The real hard part was finding a secluded area with an operational terminal.  Either the added guards and repair crews took up a ton of space or Kenshi's bad luck streak had kicked back in and he had managed to walk into one of the busiest portions of the ship.  In either case he needed to do something quick - Ruki wouldn't likely be onboard long and Kenshi would need all the time he could get to find her.


         Then another plan came.


         'A plan within a plan.  Me pappy would kill me if he knew I was purposely making things even more complicated,' Kenshi thought with a dose of both amusement and sadness.  ''Always keep things simple.  When things get complicated, things go wrong.'  Oh well.  Things are so bad as is that not much could come of it if it all became worse.'  With that thought Kenshi made his way over to the nearest computer.


         In the middle of a crowded cafeteria.


         People sat in chairs and stood in lines with trays covered with plain, tasteless food.  All of them wore a uniform of some sort, most wearing blue with a silver trim symbolizing that they were low-ranking recruits or grunts. Others wore the black and gold trim Kenshi now wore symbolizing that they were higher ranking - most likely an officer, but maybe a pilot or even an elite like he once was.  A few wore the light green uniforms of engineers and other repairmen.  None gave him a second glance when he walked up to one of the vid phones near one of the food stands.  A few did look twice when he flipped open the wiring panel and brought out the old bypass pad he knew he would need - an expensive device the MMC near exclusively used to enter systems and find some quick info, open a locked door or something of the like.


         Kenshi worked quickly but carefully, unhooking certain wires and reconnecting them into different slots in either the vid phone or the bypass pad.  It only took 30 seconds for what he both feared and expected to happen.


         "What the hell do you think you're doing?" came an irritated and gruff voice from behind Kenshi.  He didn't stop working - not enough time - but he did give an answer, albeit a short one.


         "Repairs."


         "I just fixed that an hour ago, pal, and I don't want to have to fix it again 'cause some asshole wanted to play a damn prank."


         'Shit,' Kenshi silently cursed to himself, but refused to back down.  How the hell was he gonna talk his way out of this?  "Well it looks like you didn't fix it well enough because command just sent me down."  He never took his hands from the wiring.  He was almost there.


         "You saying I can't do my job?"  This time Kenshi did turn around.


         The man before him was a Barcuch - one of the few natural sentient beings who were actually bigger than a Terran with thick fur, often dark brown as was the current case, covering their entire bodies with the exception of their pale faces which were made up of large eyes and a long snout.  He was dressed in a pale green uniform with a patch symbolizing he was with repair.  That bad luck streak was definitely back.


         "No.  Command says you can't do your job, or else they wouldn't have sent me.  Now why don't you run along and finish your food," Kenshi replied, trying to sound cold and detached.  The Barcuch was having none of it, unfortunately.


         "You sonofabitch.  You Terrans are all the same, thinking you're on even ground with the rest of us."  Kenshi's fists tightened, but the Barcuch didn't notice.  A lot of people were watching now.  "You know what?  I don't think command sent you.  I don't even think you're a mechanic.  Never seen a Terran smart enough to be a mechanic, so let's see your patch."


         'Shit.  THINK, Kenshi, THINK!' Kenshi screamed to himself.  He almost smiled with what he came up with.


         "You're right.  I'm not a mechanic."  He turned around and entered a code onto the bypass pad then flipped a switch to turn the vid phone on.  "But I'm certainly a better one than you if this is your idea of repairs."  On the screen a picture formed of a bright room with dozens of work stations with black-uniformed officers busily working behind them - the temporary command center until the bridge was repaired.  The Barcuch's eyes widened to an almost impossible size as he looked at the screen.


         "Is that...?" he trailed off.


         "Someone in command noticed this phone was receiving the wrong feed.  When they looked into it, they found it was receiving feed directly from the security station.  They sent me down to fix it because they didn't want some random mechanic screwing with surveillance.  It seems you crossed some major wires.  Now if you'd excuse me, I have work to do."  Kenshi turned away before he could see the Barcuch give a shocked nod and walk back to his food.  The onlookers also looked away, disappointed in the lack of any violence.


         'Too close.  Maybe I do still have lady luck on my side.'  And that was the end of any thoughts toward the Barcuch.  Kenshi went back to crossing wires - the feed he received was from surveillance cameras, but he didn't have time to keep switching from camera to camera.


         The next screen was also wrong and this time almost useless.  Commands entered into the Titan ordered by time.  Of course, there were trillions of commands to sift through and none of them really pointed out who made them.  More wires were crossed.  A few buttons were pressed.


         A layout of the Titan appeared with thousands of small white dots moving slowly around the screen.  Kenshi played with the wires some more and hooked a couple into the bypass pad, giving him the ability to control the screen.  A rare smile formed across Kenshi's face as he brought the tracker back up.


         Kenshi spent a good twenty minutes analyzing and looking over all the data, trying to match the tracker's given coordinates with the layout of the Titan - not so simple since he had to find his own position first.  From there Kenshi managed to track the steadily moving blob - the size of a medium apartment building - and tried to find exact traces of where Ruki had been and where she was going.  He found some success when he noticed a pair of PDTs transmitting from a storage closet.  While this could have just been a couple having fun in a closet, Kenshi also noticed other strangely positioned people on the floors almost directly above and below.


         'So what?  She's going through floors?  How the hell is she cutting through them without drawing attention?'  After a certain floor, the bodies just stopped, and Kenshi was left wondering where Ruki had disappeared to from there.  Kenshi looked around the layout frantically, trying to find another trace of the pirate, but with no luck.  'She must have decided she was cutting too close to suspicion and gotten even more stealthy.  Damn.'


         Kenshi looked back to the red blob of a signal, transmitting around three major hallways and an enormous maintenance tunnel system.  He sighed and massaged his temples.


         'Go back to the start.  Something goes wrong and you go back to the start.'  Of course, there wasn't any time to go all the way back to the start, so he just compromised and looked back to where a single body sat on the last floor, or so he guessed Ruki had cut through. It was, after all, an empty room without electricity instead of a bathroom or other somewhat reasonable room.  'If there's one thing to know about Ruki it's that she has no patience.  She got sick of hiding bodies.'


         He looked around from the body, trying to find anything that could narrow down any of the three hallways as her possible position...assuming she wasn't cutting through any more floors or walls.  The maintenance tunnels were connected everywhere so Kenshi decided to take a gamble and ignore them.  Unfortunately, around the body Kenshi found nothing.  Just empty space and very conscious and alive people walking around.


         Kenshi was just about to give up and head up to the closest major hallway when he finally noticed a peculiarity.  An elevator.  A fairly small elevator which currently held over a dozen people.  Kenshi looked a little closer and noticed a few of the passengers seemed to be standing directly on top of one another.  He switched the position of the viewscreen and found his answer.  A half-dozen bodies were laid atop the elevator, devoid of the slight twitches conscious bodies made on the screen.


         "Bingo," Kenshi said aloud, relieved he had picked up the trail once more.  The elevator lead to only one of the hallways: the largest of the three which in turn lead to many of the major areas of the Titan.  There was no way to know where exactly she was heading from her position, but he at least had a legitimate start.


         With another smile, Kenshi quickly ripped the wires from the bypass pad and connected them haphazardly back into the vid phone then put the tracker and bypass pad away before flipping the wire panel back up and heading toward the nearest elevator.  In his excitement Kenshi never noticed a certain Barcuch stand up and walk over to the vid phone.


-------------------------


         Ruki floated through seven more floors before she finally decided to find an elevator.  She had encountered three more sets of people phasing directly through the levels and after the third she felt it less annoying and safer to be a little less bold with her new abilities.  Added, she knew less people lying around meant less chance of an alarm being raised.


         So from then on Ruki had been walking around randomly, trying to find the lift she knew had to be around somewhere.  That's when she made her fifth encounter.


         "Whoa.  Who are you?  Shouldn't you be in uniform?" asked another MMC, this time a small human who looked to be in his mid 20's.


         Ruki normally might have played with the man, but her frustration with the high number of guard encounters was getting to her.  Instead she walked up to the man, slammed him into a wall and said, "Tell me where the nearest lift that can reach 87 floors up is or I will slit your throat."


         The man, of course, was confused and sweating profusely from the sudden violence of this strange woman and, with his impressive intelligence, could only manage to say, "Wha-what?"


         Ruki rolled her eyes and asked again.  "Where is the nearest lift that can go to the floor 87 stories up?"


         "You want to know where the lift is?  But why aren't you familiar wi..."


         He was cut off by Ruki saying, "Just answer the damn question."  He pointed to his right.


         "Down the hall and left.  But..."


         "Thanks."  And with a headbutt, the man joined 12 of his comrades in unconsciousness.  She opened a nearby door and threw the man inside before continuing onward.


         Ruki followed the man's simple directions and soon found herself standing in front of a small pair of elevator doors.  She gave a quick grin, called down the elevator and waited a few moments for the lift to come down - or up, she didn't really know.  Seconds later it gave a pleasant beep and opened up.


         What she saw through the opened doors wasn't exactly a pleasing sight.  There before her stood four men and two women waiting patiently and silently to reach their floor.  All six looked at Ruki for a second with raised eyebrows during which Ruki sighed heavily.  As soon as that second was over, Ruki dove forward with raised fists.  The surprised elevator occupants never had a chance and, in a flurry of quick punches and kicks, Ruki had all six of them lying in a heap on the floor.


         “Now how the hell am I supposed to hide this mess?” she said to herself dejectedly while looking at the roof of the elevator.  'Oh.  Yeah.  I really gotta get used to this.'  With that thought, Ruki lifted one of the men onto her shoulder, floated through the roof of the elevator and laid him down.  After repeating this five times she giggled and took a quick look at her handiwork then took off up the elevator shaft.


         The floors whizzed by at a dizzying pace, but Ruki's eyes managed to count the stories as she went up just fine.  When she reached the 87th floor, she phased through the elevator doors and glanced around quickly for any sign of life.


         The corridor was almost as narrow as the elevator, but it was bright and long and, fortunately, held no one else.  There were the sounds of many people walking, talking and generally moving around, however; probably from where this hallway met with the larger one nearby.


         Ruki made her way forward slowly and cautiously, keeping herself alert for anyone coming her way.  The noise grew steadily louder as she made her way to the bend on the other side of the corridor, making her uncomfortably aware the number of people which could potentially spot her.


         'From the noise that's coming in that hallway I might have to find another way around.  Either that or fight everyone, but I don't want to raise an alarm so soon.  I'll need to check it out and see what I'm dealing with.  I'm not even completely certain there is another way in or even which direction the damn room is.'


         And with that thought she took to flight again, hiding over the low ceiling of the corridor and flying in the direction she heard the noise.  She flew fairly slowly so as not to overshoot her  destination and peaked through the walls every second or so to keep her bearings straight.  It took less than a minute for Ruki to get her first peek into the hallway and what she saw didn't excite her much.


         What she could see was only a small bit from the corridor opening into the side of the hallway, but there was not a single moment in which she saw less than three people walking by that opening.  Uniformed soldiers in black, blue or green traveled both directions, talking among themselves and making noise equivalent to that of a grade school playground during recess.  It would be hard to get a better view of the hallway without chancing anyone seeing her and odds were luck would be against her if there were so many soldiers walking around.


         Ruki smiled.


         'I asked for a challenge and I got one.  This is going to be fun.'  As she finished that thought, Ruki sank back into the ceiling and moved to float over the hallway.  Progress would be slow-going from there on with all the caution Ruki would need to keep an eye on the hallway and stay hidden, but the thought of the first great challenge in years excited her to no end.


-------------------------


         It was odd, really.  Three years spent dodging MMC patrols and then to just slip on a uniform and walk among them.  It was made even more strange by the fact that, no matter how justifiable, Kenshi was doing something he never would have dared in his former life.  It grated on him to think that he could very well be risking the lives of everyone on the station, probably even more than that, just so he could get a better shot of getting his own life back on track.  Unfortunately Kenshi was prepared neither to go to jail nor to keep running.  Besides, catching Ruki was more than just getting his life back.  It was getting revenge for what she did to him.  And there was only one person Kenshi trusted to get that job done.


         As it was Kenshi was on a small elevator heading up toward the hallway he calculated Ruki was/had been in.  Surrounding him stood four MMC recruits doing nothing but staring at the shiny elevator doors in anticipation for their floor.  It was a strange switch standing around his former allies and not being chased, yelled at or shot at by them.


         'Many of these people would recognize me if they had even slightly expected me,' Kenshi thought.  'I have the advantage of surprise on my hands at least.'  He gave a small, barely noticeable grin.  'I bet I'll even give Ruki a good surprise.  That will be a good moment.'


         The elevator stopped and opened it's doors, allowing Kenshi and another man to exit into a large, busy hallway.  The man was soon lost in the bustle of people but Kenshi stayed to the side and focused on finding his target.


         As he noted the hundred plus soldiers walking back and forth through the large corridor he realized chances were that the pirate had tried to dodge around the area and was in the one place Kenshi hoped she wouldn't be: the maintenance system.  He wanted to take out his tracker and try to get a better signal - with less distance between them the tracker could probably make that red blob considerably smaller - but Kenshi didn't want anyone noticing him carrying unknown equipment through the hall and get suspicious.


         Instead, Kenshi walked down the hallway, trying his best to look like he knew where he was going and blend in with the crowd.  Silently he wracked his brain on what to do next, trying to figure out where he was going.


         Find a room devoid of people so he could take out the tracker?  It'd look suspicious going from room to room like he was looking for something.  Someone would be bound to ask questions.  Kick open a maintenance hatch and search through the shafts?  Too little time, too much space, and where would he find a hatch without anyone around?  Ignore everyone around and just take out the damn tracker?  So tempting, but it would have to be last ditch.  Hook into another computer somewhere and find any and all major rooms he could check?  He'd tested lady luck once with that one today and almost gotten in trouble.  He didn’t want to tempt her again.


         Kenshi continued to wrack his brain, looking for any plan that didn't have a probability of him getting caught, but coming up with nothing.  Closing his eyes, Kenshi rubbed the back of his neck and head firmly.  He needed a vacation from this.  Chasing a woman who was practically a professional fugitive could really grate on the nerves.  Kenshi opened his eyes to stare at the metallic ceiling...


         ...and saw a single strand of dark blue hair hanging down.


         Kenshi blinked, shook his head and looked back up only to let out a breath when he saw nothing but then widened his eyes when, further down the hall, an eye and nose appeared and sank back into the ceiling.


         'What the hell?'  He didn't get chance to think on this any more when somebody crashed into his back, making him realize he had just stopped in the middle of the hallway.


         "Oh, I'm so sorry.  I didn't see you there," a soft voice accented heavily by Evenall, a far quadrant of Midolloni not especially remarkable in any way other than it’s proximity to the border and it’s unique dialect, called from behind Kenshi, making him turn around and look at the offender.  What he saw made him blink a few times.


         She wasn't the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, but she was definitely damn close.  The woman before him was shorter by probably a full foot and had a petite body under her working uniform - a green mechanic's outfit dirtied with oil.  She had a strange mix of soft and exotic facial features that made her all the more appealing.  Two bright blue eyes stared from behind a dirty face with questioning eyes while strands of dirty blonde hair hung down her forehead from where they had gotten free from her ponytail.


         The woman cocked an eyebrow, thrusting Kenshi into the realization that he'd been staring for a few good moments.  He mentally shook his head and started to cover up his momentary lack of mind.


         "No, my fault.  I guess I shouldn't stand in the middle of busy hallways."  The woman smirked.


         "You're lost, aren't you.  It happens to all the new guys so don't worry about it."  Kenshi blinked again.  Smart woman.  At least she was partially correct.  "Where are you headed?  I've been around long enough to guide you anywhere you need to go."


         'Well isn't that something.  I've got to dodge around a person offering help for once.  What can I say?  “Actually, I have absolutely no idea where I'm headed.  Maybe you could point me out to any rooms a famous pirate might be interested in breaking into.”  Yeah right.'


         "Actually I'm just taking a walk," Kenshi said instead.  "Trying to get to know my way around before command starts me running around the ship.  Where are you headed?"


         "Me?  Command's having power troubles with the backup computers."  She pointed toward the end of the hall where a set of blast doors lay with an eye, voice and hand scanner standing to the side.  "They're all afraid the old ship log and blueprints might somehow get deleted, but they're just overreacting."


         "Typical of the MMC."


         "No kidding.  Quinn Kelly, by the way."


         "Len Hower."  The two shook hands firmly with a small grin on either's faces.


         "You got a bit of a death grip there, Len."


         "I've been getting a lot of that lately.  Guess it’s genetics."


         "You're Terran?"  Kenshi nodded.  "Hmm.  I always wanted to know a Terran.  Maybe I'll see you around sometime."  Kenshi nodded once more, smiling slightly as he did so while Quinn walked past with a small smile of her own tainting her lips.  Turning away, Kenshi started walking down the hallway in the opposite direction...


         ...then realized where he was and what Quinn had said and where Quinn was headed.  Kenshi whipped around just in time to see the gigantic blast doors close.


         'SHIT!!!  Backup files!  That has to be where Ruki is headed.  And chances are she's already in there, tearing Quinn apart piece by piece.'  Kenshi walked quickly up to the blast doors, ignoring the many complaints he received from those he'd pushed past.


         The door was locked with the three scanners - eye, voice and hand - representing it's key.  There would only be three or four people with the clearance to enter the room and others, such as Quinn, could probably get temporary clearance to fix something, download information or guard the area.  He could probably hack into the system and open the doors himself, but there would be too many security measures and much too little time.  Kenshi had already seen Ruki - or what he guessed was Ruki - heading toward the doors and there was no doubt that she was stirring up all kinds of trouble inside.


         'This is going to turn out just like last time.  And the time before that.  And the time before that...'


-------------------------


         Progress was excruciatingly slow, but Ruki managed to remain patient and hidden.  She moved only a few feet at a time down the long hallway and she was quickly becoming ready to jump down and give everyone hell, but rational thought clouded her mind.  She knew the blackbox section was at one end of the long hallway and had instantly guessed it’s location when she had seen the huge blast doors at one end.


         'Things sure have changed over the years,' Ruki thought, trying to occupy her mind with something other than impatience.  'I remember when I'd rush right into something like this and kill everyone and everything with my own two hands before getting the job done.  Get beaten the shit out of in the process, but there’d always be a way out.  Hell, I was still doing that a lot up until a few years ago.'


         These thoughts were stopped when Ruki floated through the thick wall separating the hallway from her destination.  The old computer room was much different from the corridors and various small rooms Ruki had seen so far in just about every respect.


         Unlike the heavily lighted white and grey walls of the rest of the ship, this room consisted of dimly lit black and blue and was, therefore, considerably darker.  The room was also much more spacious than anything she’d seen so far.  It was made up of three tall stories lined with storage computers reinforced with thick armor and hooked into a single large holo projector sitting in the middle of the room.  Catwalks ran back and forth and around the room - probably to make any repairs or data transfers easier. Finally, guarding every corner of the room were 15 guards - five for each level.  Ruki was about phase herself completely into the room when the doors below her opened with surprising quickness to allow a small woman to enter.


         'Looks Nindathu, but she must have other blood mixed in as well, 'she thought to herself, studying the attractive new arrival.  'Wonder what she's here for,' she asked herself while looking over the dirtied green uniform the woman wore.  Not athletic, not voluptuous, but not petite either.  Ruki smirked.  If only there was the time.  Alas, she had a job to do.


         The woman stepped up to the holo projector where she flashed a waiting soldier her identification and set to work on opening a panel and tampering with the chips and wires inside.  Watching silently for a minute as the woman replaced a burnt-out card with another and started reconnecting wires, Ruki floated to the third floor to begin the fun part of her job.  Sneaking around the dark shadows lining the large room, she crept up behind the nearest guard.  The man never saw her coming.


         In less than a second the young soldier was lying on the ground with a dent in his thin half helmet and a smiling pirate walking over his unconscious form toward a second unaware form.  This one was looking down at the woman below, probably trying for a view down her shirt.  Ruki chuckled lightly and the guard spun around with a jump.


         "Who..." was all he got out before Ruki punched him in the stomach and laid a fist across his helmet, knocking him out.  The noise, however quiet it was, was too loud for the silence of the room and the three remaining guards of the top level quickly started making their way over to their fallen comrade.  Ruki smiled widely and went back through the wall.


         She listened to three sets of boots stop right where she knew she had left the second fallen soldier and heard the muffled voices of the three of them.  Her grin widened impossibly more as she flew to the ceiling and came down over the unsuspecting men.


         "...but he's got a dent in his helmet."


         "He must have landed on the railing."


         "He couldn't have fallen that..." the words were cut off as Ruki swooped down and picked up two of the men by their chins and slammed their heads together.


         "SHIT!" the second of the three men called.  "Intruder!  Someone’s..." this one was cut off as Ruki lifted him over her shoulder and jumped over the railing to base floor.  She threw the man into another as she dropped and the two men let out quick yelps as they collided.  Ruki herself hit the ground hard, but was up again and diving for the nearest opponent before anyone could even try to raise a weapon.  The seventh man went down hard with yet another concussion just as the five men on the second floor opened fire on the speeding pirate.


         The three remaining guards and the woman on the base floor crouched as plasma rained down from above them, but Ruki continued speeding toward her next two victims.  Plasma crashed all around her and a few scored marks on her legs and sides, but Ruki ignored the brief pain and lifted the two men up only to slam them back down to the ground.  The tenth man was quicker on the draw, however, and managed a trio of hits along Ruki's chest which almost sent her to the ground before she dented her fifth helmet.


         Three of the five men on the second level were now reloading their rifles while the other pair were probably about to run dry when Ruki leaped up to the second level next to one of the soldiers.  He stopped his reloading and tried to sling out a pistol, but Ruki kicked the gun away, breaking the man's wrist, and belted the man across his cheek.  Two men were now firing with renewed magazines as the other pair dropped their first to the ground.


         Ruki flew across the room to one of the reloaders, who merely screamed as she laid a swift kick to his face and floated toward the other reloader ten meters away.  This one concentrated on quickening his reloading, which Ruki stopped with another kick, snapping a few fingers in the process.  He didn't give up, much to Ruki's pleasure, and leapt toward her with a raised left hand while his right fingered his sidearm.  Ruki merely grabbed the man's collar and threw him over the railing where she heard a loud thud and a groan of pain.


         Another bolt of plasma connected, this time going through both cheeks and Ruki growled in pain and anger as she flew once more across the room toward the second-to-last guard.  This one managed to score three more hits across her shoulders before Ruki decked him into the wall with a sickening crunch.


         She turned slowly toward the last guard, who was now loading in his third magazine with trembling hands.  He looked silently at Ruki's face, which she knew was plastered with malicious glee, and doubled his speed.  Ruki watched him load a new magazine in and cock the gun, finishing by aiming the weapon directly at her torso.  The man didn't hesitate to pull the trigger and he didn't let go until an audible click signaled he was dry once again.  The man threw his weapon down and stumbled backward.


         Not a single bolt had hit.


         Ruki floated slowly toward the man, who responded by whipping out his pistol and firing at her with vigor born of fear.  Every shot hit it's mark.  Not a single shot made her flinch or so much as slow her pace.  She reached the man just as the clip went dry.


         "Please..." the man pleaded.


         "Please what?" Ruki asked with false sincerity.  "You're going to give up?  Ask for your life?  You'll do anything for me?"  She lifted him into the air by the collar.  A small grin lit her face.


         "Just don't hurt me.  Please."


         "No."


         Her head slammed forward with blinding speed and the man was left on the ground with a shattered nose and cheekbones.  Ruki turned back toward the holo projector to find the woman silently making her way toward the blast doors.


         "Now where do you think you're going?"  Ruki asked as she floated toward the woman lazily.  The woman tried to put on a brave face, but Ruki could see her lips trembling.


         "Just going for a breath of fresh air.  It does get rather stuffy in here," she called back in an accented voice.  Ruki smiled at the fact that the woman's body did not tremble in the slightest, even if her voice did.


         "But you just arrived.  You weren't going to tattle on me, now were you?"


         "Of course not!" The woman said as she reached the controls to the blast door.  "I just hate this dark atmosphere."


         "I understand."


         And with those words the woman started quickly punching in some button code as Ruki leaped forward and threw the woman to the ground.  The woman crawled backward as Ruki walked forward.


         "Now I have one question and I want you to be honest.  Will this thing," she pointed to the projector, "download information?"  The woman nodded slowly.  "Good!"  Ruki stepped around the woman and toward the computer panel.  The woman started crawling toward the door again, but Ruki stopped this with a harsh smirk and went to work playing around with the system.


         She took out Ally's hacking device and connected it into a disk opening beside the control panel.  Seconds later and the Titan's blueprints were flying in 3D above the two spectators in a dazzling display of colors.


         The download was almost complete when Ruki heard the blast doors open.  She whipped around, expecting to see the woman retreating into the hallway.  What she did see made her jump into the air and stare in pure surprise.


         "Kenshi?"


-------------------------


         Keslo was quick to reach the nearest vid phone as soon as he realized what had happened.  The Terran had tricked him with the “broken” phone and gotten away with it, but Keslo was no idiot and he knew when something wasn't right.


         After the Terran had left, Keslo had checked the vid phone to find it practically gutted.  He knew he was a good mechanic and had wondered how in the hell he had managed to make such a huge mistake.  But there were two nagging thoughts which hinted at the truth.  It was probably impossible to rewire the terminal to get into the surveillance systems and the Terran was holding a bypass pad, something completely unnecessary in such repairs and something that did have the ability to slip into surveillance from a terminal such as this.  When he checked the phone he confirmed his suspicions.  Something bad was going down.


         And now Keslo was standing by one of the other vid phones in the cafeteria, waiting on hold for a commanding officer to come on.  He didn't wait long and soon a weasely looking Midollonian appeared with a slightly annoyed expression adorning his face.


         "This is Hozantas," the man said quickly in a voice so high Keslo was surprised it wasn’t squeaking.


         "Sir, I believe there is an intruder on board the Titan."


         "Intruder?  Why would you think that?"  Hozantas looked and sounded surprised, but annoyance was still plain to see on his face.


         "A Terran came through here dressed in an MMC veteran’s uniform.  He was tampering with one of the vid phones and hacked into the security systems.  He said command had sent him down to fix it."  The Commander was now at full attention.


         "What did this Terran look like?"


         "Tall.  Over six feet.  Lean.  Red hair."  Hozantas frowned and nodded.


         "Good work.  I will see what I can do."


         "Yes sir."  And with that, the connection cut.


-------------------------


         Hozantas sat pondering in his chair as he thought of the implications of what he had just heard.  Was this...Terran an onboard MMC?  If so, why hack into surveillance feeds aboard a dead ship in repair?  No, it was more likely the man was an outsider.  It was easier than it should have been to sneak aboard the mostly dead Titan.  Without power it was nearly impossible to set up any decent security system.  The question still stood, however: why hack into a surveillance system aboard a dead ship in repair?  Hozantas turned to the rest of his crew.


         "Has anything out of the ordinary been reported in anywhere within the past half hour involving a red-headed Terran?  Especially within the bridge, engine room and blackbox room?"  The team looked at each other collectively before one officer spoke up.


         "A Terran called in a couple seconds ago to enter the blackbox section, sir.  He said the mechanic inside left behind her tools and asked permission to enter."


         'Odd,' Hozantas thought.  'Nobody outside of the MMC would be recorded in the system.  We would need to put his exact scans in place for him to enter that area.'  "What was his name?" he asked aloud.


         "Hower, Len.  Petty Officer Third Class."


         “Show him on screen.”


         A photo of a red-headed Terran with a bored look to him appeared on the room’s large viewscreen.


         ‘I recognize him from somewhere...’ the Commander thought curiously.  Hozantas’ eyes widened.  "Clear out the North section.  Get the largest security force you can muster in three minutes down there immediately, fully armed and ready for war."


-------------------------


         15 meters away from the large blast doors Kenshi stood in front of a vid phone nervously.  He had every right to be nervous, too.  There was a good chance that this wouldn’t work, but Kenshi needed to get through those blast doors fast.


         Typically the MMC kept records of all of it's soldiers no matter where they were stationed due to past complications with transfers and incorrect imprisonments.  While Kenshi’s name would have been long destroyed as far as access security went, his alternate name was probably still in circulation.  That meant that Kenshi's alternate name was more than likely in the Titan's computers somewhere with all his former records including the eye, voice and hand scans he needed to get through the blast doors.  All Kenshi needed was to get security to allow those scans to open the doors.  What was risky was if the person he got in touch with recognized him or if the alternate identity had been discovered in some way and destroyed without his knowledge.  And even then security might just deny him access.


         Kenshi gritted his teeth.  'No use putting this off,' he thought reluctantly before he punched in the universal code for the security station.  It wasn't long before a young, wet-behind-the-ears officer appeared with a bored look on his face.


         "This is security.  What can I help you with?" the man asked in monotone.


         "A mech was just sent into the blackbox room and left a few of her tools behind.  You mind if I head in there quick and drop them off?"


         "Sure thing.  Name and id please."


         "Hower.  1409-3572-6528-745."


         "Got it."  There was a pause where the man disappeared from the screen.  He came back a couple seconds later.  "You're all clear.  Have a nice day."


         "You too."  The screen faded to black.


         Kenshi took three steps, gave a huge sigh of relief and walked the rest of the way toward the blast doors.  He gave the three scans and the huge doors slid open so quickly that if you blinked you would miss it.  The room inside was small and white - a connection room to prevent people in the hallway from seeing anything that might currently be showing on the holo projector inside.  The doors shut behind Kenshi and he took the private moment to unholster both his AC pistol and sonic blaster.  When the moment was over, the doors in front of him opened with the same blinding quickness, revealing to Kenshi the destruction inside.


         Fallen soldiers were strewn around seemingly everywhere.  Some were tangled together and some lay alone within the dim room.  Plasma burns scorched the ground and walls in every direction.  There had obviously been a huge firefight only moments before.  A few of the weapons still smoked slightly from the use of such large amounts of plasma.  All this was taken in with a glance, but Kenshi's gaze was drawn to the center of the room.


         About 10 meters in front of Kenshi, Quinn lay leaning on her back, looking over her shoulder in surprise at his sudden arrival.  Another few meters in front of Quinn, Kenshi saw Ruki finish spinning around.


         What he saw next Kenshi would treasure forever.


         Ruki literally jumped five feet in the air and stayed floating as her mouth opened and closed a few times as if trying to form words.  Her stance was of pure surprise; wide eyes, upraised brows, silent but moving lips and a rigidly standing tail.  The silence lasted a good seven seconds before Ruki finally managed to get something out.


         "Kenshi?" she said quietly, as if asking if he was really there.


         "Ruki.  Put your hands on your head and kneel on the ground.  I will not tell you a second time."  There was a moment of silence finally broken by Ruki's loud laughter.  Kenshi had faced Ruki enough times to know not to give her another warning or chance to move.  He fired a single shot from his AC pistol and caught Ruki in the stomach, making her keel over and stop laughing.


         "I said to get down with your hands on your head!  Now!" Kenshi said more forcefully.  Ruki only responded by looking up and wheezing out a giggle.


         "How'd you get here, Kenshi?  You must be getting more resourceful."  She paused.  "Your ship was never really damaged, was it?  Sneaky dog."


         Kenshi fired another shot, but Ruki just fell out of the way.  When Kenshi expected her to impact with the floor, however, she just went through like some ghost.


         "What the hell?" he said quietly to himself.  He spun around a few times trying to find any sign of the pirate and where she really was.  'Where'd she get a mobile holo projector?  And since when would she use one?'  He finally stopped  his scan of the room and settled his eyes on the confused form of Quinn.


         "You alright?" he asked.


         "Fine."  Kenshi nodded and continued his scan of the room.  "Who are you?"


         "Long story."


         "What's your real name?"  Her voice was somewhere between a mix of confusion, fear and anger.  Not that she didn't have a right to all three.


         "Kenshi Tamaki."


         "The pirate?"  Now she was awed.  Definitely not what he was expecting.


         "I'm no pirate."  He all but spat the last word out.


         "No.  You're a pioneer."  Kenshi spun around at the playful voice of Ruki, whipping his two pistols in front of him to rest on the grinning mercenary.  "Now I'm curious, Kenshi.  I really am.  I'm guessing you were that Jarcden back at Haqnen II?"  Kenshi grunted and raised the two guns a little higher.  "How did you find me so fast?  And how did you get stronger than me?"


         Kenshi stepped forward and whipped the AC pistol as hard as he could across Ruki's face.  With his new strength and speed, Ruki never saw it coming and was laying on the ground with a bloody face only a second after the pistol hit.  She looked up, dazed at the former SEALS.  Already her cheek was healing.  Kenshi scowled down at the pirate and leveled the sonic blaster at his rival, hoping she would stay on the ground long enough to see the powerful weapon.


         "You know what this is?"  Ruki's eyes leveled on the gun and her eyes widened seconds later.  "Make a move I don't like and we'll see how much you really can survive."  There was a moment of silence, broken once more by Ruki.


         "You would kill me here, Kenshi?  I die now and any chance of redemption is gone for you."  Her voice turned angry.  "And what right do you have to bother me at work?  I have a job to do and I can't play whenever I want!"  Kenshi stepped forward and gave Ruki a brutal kick to the jaw, sending her sliding across the room.


         "This isn't a damn game!" Kenshi roared.  "And this little heist you're pulling off goes far beyond my ‘redemption’."  He just finished the words when Ruki floated through the ground once more.  “Son of a bitch!” Kenshi roared and fired a blast from the sonic blaster, shattering the steel where Ruki had lain.  He managed to get back under control quickly, fortunately, and turned toward the control panel where Ruki had first stood.


         Kenshi walked up slowly, waiting for the pirate to jump him at any time.  He ignored Quinn's fearful backing away and continued to where he found some sort of long, thin device sticking out of where he guessed the disk drive was.  Kenshi pulled the object out forcefully and stuck it in his coat.


         'If she does get away, she's getting away empty-handed,' he thought.  He heard a startled scream behind him and Kenshi turned around to find Ruki standing behind Quinn, holding her up against herself with her tail playfully wrapped around Quinn's waist.


         "Now here's a new game, Kenshi.  You give me that little device and I'll let the girl live.  Don't and she'll die."  Kenshi raised the AC pistol, aiming for Ruki's head.  "Now, now, Kenshi.  We both know it would take a flick of the wrist for her to die."


         "There's more at stake here than the girl's life.  Let her go or I destroy it."  Ruki laughed.


         "That's why I like you, Kenshi.  You're just too stubborn to give up.  But now you're playing with fire and we all know that sooner or later you'll get burnt."


         "What's a little pain to the lives of millions?"  She laughed again.


         "Kenshi, you can't kill me here.  With that blaster of yours you'd be in trouble all over again.  Let's just let this meeting go and wait for the next encounter."


         "I'm tired of waiting.  I'm tired of running and chasing.  This ends now."  Now she frowned.


         "I think you're going a little nuts there, Kenshi.  Don't snap on me here.  It's not time for our game to end."


         "This isn't a game!  You are screwing with my life!  I don't want to have anything to do with you!  All you deserve is to rot in hell."  Ruki’s face turned red with anger at that and her jaw clenched tightly.


         "Fine.  So I'll rot in hell.  But correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a little unreasonable to get us both in jail or dead?"  Her face softened.  "Let's finish this later.  This isn't the time."  Kenshi thought on this, frustration clear on his face.  It was a tough decision, but both his eyes and gun never wavered.


         'I'll have a better chance at life, but delicate information would be in the open.  I would escape for another day, but many would probably die.  I can end this on my own terms, but I would still have little chance for my life back.'  Back and forth he went, weighing his options.  It was twenty seconds of tense silence before his face hardened.


         "This information does not leave this ship."


         "That's not an option, Kenshi," Ruki tried to reason.


         "Then it looks like we both go down."


         The two rivals stared at each other with stony expressions set on their faces.  Between them, Quinn tried her best not to squirm in fear, but was still trembling hard.


         Ruki acted first, throwing Quinn aside and diving away from Kenshi's pistol shot.  The sonic blaster was held up again and Ruki dove through the ground just in time to avoid the incoming wave, it's approach only apparent through the distortion in the air.  More steel shattered and collapsed and Kenshi scanned the room quickly, keeping his weapons raised.


         When Ruki rose again, she stood behind Kenshi.  The sound of plasma eating air filled the room, alerting Kenshi to the presence of Ruki's plasma swords.  Only Kenshi's new reaction time saved him from becoming split in half and he dove forward just as Ruki sliced her first sword through where his torso had been.


         "You've gotten quicker, too.  Tell me, where did you get your newfound strength, Kenshi?"


         "Adrenaline."  Kenshi said as he raised the sonic blaster once more.  Ruki laughed and jumped up and onto a catwalk just in time to avoid the incoming distortion.  Kenshi adjusted his aim and fired another shot, sending the catwalk crashing to the ground, but Ruki was floating in the air to the next level already.


         "Come on, Kenshi!  This is supposed to be our last fight.  Why keep any more secrets?"


         "Because I don't like you."  The answer was simple and Kenshi didn't see the flash of anger across her face, but the effect was instantaneous.


         Ruki swooped down, taking a blast from the AC pistol to the side, and cut her swords toward Kenshi, intending to shred him.  But Kenshi stepped forward, letting his guns drop and grabbed her wrists and the ends to the swords’ hilts, blocking the swords and giving her the chance to tackle him to the ground.  The two lay on the floor together, Ruki with teeth barred and Kenshi with a glare that could kill.  She straddled his waist with both swords aimed toward him while Kenshi still held her arms, keeping the deadly blades away.  Kenshi couldn't push her away without allowing her the opportunity to cut something off and Ruki couldn't beat his strength.


         For a full minute the two struggled against each other, hate gleaming in their eyes.  Quinn watched only a few feet away, fearful but curious of the outcome.


         The battle was cut short, however, when the blast doors opened and 30 soldiers piled into the room, surrounding the three.  Each raised a weapon of some sort - most with assault rifles, but some with shotguns and submachine guns - while the doors closed and opened again with another 30 soldiers.


         "Drop your weapons and put your hands on your head," one of the more elderly soldiers demanded.  Kenshi and Ruki continued to stare at each other - Ruki with blinding anger and Kenshi with smug hatred.


         "Might as well listen, Ruki.  Even you can't survive a few hundred shots at once," Kenshi said with false pleasantness.


         "I don't plan on being captured on this day," she hissed out.  Behind her, her tail stood rigidly on end.  "And I won't go down without a hell of a fight."  She dropped the swords then, which deactivated as she let go, and jumped up to one of the many catwalks.  Most of the soldiers opened fire on her, but a few kept their weapons trained on Kenshi.  Ruki was a blur in the air, going from one side of the room to the other in less than a second and never letting up her speed.  But even with speed on her side, the soldiers were too many and hits were scored all over her body.


         Meanwhile, Kenshi stood up slowly and put his hands on his head while keeping his eyes trained on the sight above him.  It seemed like forever, but was only a few seconds before Ruki's form, smoking and barely recognizable, came crashing to the ground.  The only signs that she was still alive was the pitiful moan coming from her lips and the mending flesh you could see all along her body.


         A few soldiers surrounded her blistered and scorched form, aiming their smoking weapons down at her and ready to unleash hell.  The soldier who had spoken earlier walked up to her and pulled out his sidearm.


         "So we've got the dread pirate Ruki, do we?" he asked hatefully.  Ruki only groaned in response.  "You killed my brother, bitch."  Kenshi's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen.  The other soldiers looked on coldly, knowing what the man was about to do and not doing anything about it.  The man kicked Ruki across the face, making her grunt in pain.  She was healed considerably, but she wouldn't be awake in time.  "Wake up.  Time to die," the aging soldier taunted.  He leveled his gun with her head.


         "Hold up!"  Kenshi shouted to the soldier, who looked back and sneered at Kenshi.


         "I don't think you're in any position to negotiate, traitor."  Some soldiers looked at Kenshi with hate while others looked to the older man in confusion.  "This is Kenshi Tamaki, if you don't recognize him.  The traitor at Orlius three years ago who was responsible for the deaths of 12,000 MMC men and women."


         "It didn't happen that way," Kenshi interrupted.


         "You'd like us to think so," the man shot back.


         "You've captured her.  You can't just kill her."


         “I can and I will.  Who would complain?  Why are you?  She just tried to kill you, did she not?" he asked curiously.


         "There’s no point to this!  You have her!"


         "Oh there’s a point to this.  There are those who don’t belong in this universe - demons among men who should be wiped from existence.  Say goodbye to your lover, Tamaki."


         A million thoughts raced through Kenshi's mind.  He hated Ruki.  She deserved to die.  She really did.  But you couldn't just kill someone like this.  This wasn’t even an execution!  There was no trial.  No prison.  No fight.  No chance.  Just quick, simple murder to someone who couldn’t even give their last words.  But she deserved it!  But she couldn't even defend herself.  She needed to die!  But...


         But it wasn't right.  She shouldn’t die.  Not like this.  It wasn’t right.  It wasn't time.


         Kenshi leaped forward just as the vengeful soldier was about to pull the trigger, shoving the man to the ground and forcing the shot to skim Ruki's head instead of hitting it dead on.  The soldiers stared in frozen shock at the movement, giving Kenshi the moment he needed to gather Ruki into his arms and jump with all his might to the second story.  He laid down just in time to avoid the wave of plasma tearing apart his body.  Below him, a few men screamed orders while others kept Kenshi lying down with blast after blast of plasma.


         "Dammit, Ruki!  Why do you always get me in shit like this?"  The only response was a loud groan, probably from the pain of moving.  "I can't believe I'm actually trying to save you.  And what will I get in return?  A sure bet that I'll never be accepted by the MMC ever again.  Thanks."


         That was a hard realization.  He had saved Ruki.  People would think he helped her raid the Titan.  His chances for redemption were gone.


         'Goodbye life,' he thought depressingly.  'It was nice knowing you.'


         He heard people start to climb a ramp up to the catwalk.  The plasma wasn't coming anymore - probably to save ammo - but Kenshi knew weapons were trained in his direction.  He needed to think hard and move fast.  Thoughts and plans formed, all of them at least semi suicidal, but that's what happens when dozens of armed soldiers ready to kill you corner you unarmed.


         'A cornered soldier is the most dangerous enemy you can ever face,' Kenshi heard the cold voice of Mavys say.  He smiled slightly.


         There was one plan, though he didn't like it at all.  And he would need to be quick.  He'd almost definitely get shot, but it was all he really had.  Kenshi gathered Ruki closer.


         "I need you to hang on.  You want to survive then hang on tight."  She kept her eyes closed, but he noticed a small nod and her arms slowly wrapped around his neck.  She was at least recognizable again, though the blast from the officer had torn much of her face off, and obviously semi conscious.


         Kenshi took a few deep breaths and jumped over the railing of the catwalk.  Almost immediately the soldiers opened fire again.  He impacted with the ground unscathed and ran forward with all the speed he could muster with the extra weight.  Shots started skimming past his shoulders and back, making him grit his teeth, but Kenshi continued onward, diving forward and sliding on the floor both to dodge plasma and scoop up his two dropped weapons.  When he had the pistols secure in his hand Kenshi leapt up again, taking a pair of hits to his side as he did so, and landing on the other side of the projector where Quinn was crouched down.


         "I'm sorry," was all he mumbled as he lifted the woman to her feet, hooking his free arm around one of her arms and pinning her to him while aiming the AC pistol at her head with the same arm.  The firing stopped immediately, allowing Kenshi to breathe heavily.  His pain tolerance was raised, but the burns still hurt like hell and Kenshi was sure he wouldn't be able to take many more shots.


         When he finally managed to catch his breath, Kenshi wheezed out, "If another shot is fired you can say goodbye to the girl's head.  Now someone open those blast doors."  The soldiers looked angry and a little frightened, but he saw one move and punch a code into a panel next to the doors.


         Kenshi moved slowly to make sure Ruki didn't slip out of his right arm or Quinn didn't try to break the hold of his left, limping slightly from the burns all along his backside.  The soldiers reluctantly moved out of the way to allow Kenshi to pass, giving him all the space he needed.  From the side, the aging and vengeful soldier screamed in rage.


         "What are you doing!?  It's a single girl!  Who cares if she dies?!  This is Ruki and Tamaki!  We can't just let them go!"


         "You are playing with more than one life!" Kenshi rasped back.  He felt Quinn press herself closer to him in fear.  The man's words had obviously hit hard and she was probably feeling safer with the person who was a little more reluctant to kill her.


         "No!  No!  You can't leave!  I won't allow it!"  Kenshi stopped as the soldier stepped forward with his pistol raised, ready to shoot.  He was about to turn his own pistol toward the crazed man when a fellow soldier tackled him to the ground first.  The man screamed incoherently and Kenshi nodded a silent ‘thanks’ to the soldier and continued toward the blast doors.


         As soon as he entered the bright white room on the other side, the doors closed behind him, allowing Kenshi the momentary privacy to prepare himself properly.  He let go of Quinn and holstered the two pistols, then brought out his scouter and hooked it up to his ear.  He finished by unholstering his AC pistol once more.  He started focusing on his back, trying to figure out how bad the burns were, but decided to forget about it.  It would probably be healed and as good as new in a few hours and there were more important things to worry about than pain.


         "Why?"  Kenshi looked up to where Quinn was speaking.  "You were prepared to kill her before.  Why let her go now?"


         "I'm not letting her go.  It's just...nobody deserves to die like that.  Defenseless.  For some petty revenge."  Even as he said it he knew it wasn’t completely true.  There was no time to think on it, however.


         "But she's killed so many."  Kenshi nodded.


         “She’s not getting off.  But she’s not dying now either.”  Quinn paused a moment before responding.


         "What about you?  You killed so many without remorse.  You killed for her."  Kenshi glared at her angrily for her assumptions, then shook his head sadly.


         "It's a long story.  One that only Ruki and I know the truth about."


         "What will you do with me?"


         "I need you to get out of here.  After that I'll drop you off somewhere."  She nodded.


         "I suppose I have no choice."


         "Sorry."


         "Talking with the hostage, Kenshi?  You have a lot to learn." a rough laugh was heard.  Kenshi looked down to see Ruki smiling up at him.  "I won't let you turn me in."


         "I won't let you get away."  Ruki's grin widened and Kenshi frowned.  "Let's go."


         Kenshi pulled Quinn back into his hold and the three were off again.  The second set of blast doors slid open, revealing the crowded hallway just as crowded as it had been earlier, but now dead silent and with a countless number of raised weapons.  Kenshi moved slowly, still trying to keep his grips tight and make sure that nobody would try anything.


         His mind was torn apart.  Was this right or wrong?  Was this just an excuse to stay free?  Should he really be doing this?  How would he keep tabs on Ruki?  Should he get Quinn involved like this?  How would he turn Ruki in?  What would he do after all this was over?


         Kenshi turned to the elevator he arrived in and started walking.  One group of soldiers stepped in his way, forcing Kenshi to stop in his tracks.


         “Drop the weapon and let the girl go,” one of the men demanded nervously.  Kenshi scowled and gave the simplest answer he could think of.


         “No.”  The word put beads of sweat on a few people’s faces and Ruki started giggling.  An older man, probably a Lieutenant or Major, stepped forward bravely and started his own ‘give it up’ speech.


         “You can’t leave.  There are too many soldiers here to handle.  Just let the girl go and you may stay alive.  If not, we will fire on all three of you.  That is a small sacrifice for what you’ve stolen.”  Quinn pushed herself closer once more into Kenshi, trembling slightly at her allies lack of care for her well-being.


         “If you want to shoot then shoot.  Then the girl will die and I may just get the chance to bring my weapon up and take a few of you down with me,” Kenshi bluffed, trying to force the officer to back down.  “Now move before I make a bad decision.”  The man hesitated for a moment before stepping dangerously close.


         “I won’t let scum like you two to escape without a fight.”


         “Nobody has to die here,” Kenshi whispered.  “We both know this could easily turn into a massacre.  I don’t want that and neither do you.”


         “The information you hold could take more lives than any last stand you may have.  You can’t take us all on.”


         “On the contrary,” Ruki piped in as she reached into Kenshi’s coat.  “We could kill everybody here and get out with our own hides intact.”  She pulled out the sonic blaster, aiming it unsteadily at the officer.  She was almost healed, but looked weak still.  The officer looked at the weapon for a long moment before recognition came and he started backing away.


         “This isn’t over.  We’ll knock you out in space.”  Kenshi said nothing in response to the change in tide, only continued forward toward the elevator.  Ruki wasn’t quite so graceful in victory.


         “Damn straight!  You can never beat me!  I hope you all remember this as the day you didn’t catch the dread pirate, Ruki.”


         “Shut up,” Kenshi rasped quietly to the gloating pirate, who merely gave him a wide smile in response.  Kenshi looked forward and kept walking.  Adrenaline pumped steadily through his veins as he passed the officer, expecting the man to try something, but the veteran soldier only glared in frustration.


         It seemed to take forever for the three to make their way to the elevator through the battalion of heavily armed MMC who wanted nothing more than to watch Kenshi and Ruki bleed. When they did reach the silver doors, Kenshi whispered to Quinn, "Bring it up," and she gave a slight nod before pushing the call button.  Kenshi heard a few soldiers mutter curses, but ignored them as the elevator opened and the trio entered.  As soon as the doors closed and the three were moving, Ruki jumped out of his arms, landing softly on her feet with a twirl.  She seemed to be fully healed finally.


         "Well, as much as I'd like to stick around and play s’more, I should be leaving now."  She gave a surprised Kenshi a quick hug and came back with her hacking device in hand.  "See you around, Ken..." he grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him, holding her to himself with all the strength he had with one arm.


         "You're not going anywhere," he growled.  She smiled sweetly.


         "Now Kenshi...I know you don't want to say goodbye, but I really have work to do.  So if you'd just let me go..."


         "You know Miss Ruki,” Quinn started in annoyance, “I don't believe our captor has any intention to let you go.  Actually, he looks angry right now, so it might be best to play along for the moment."  Ruki frowned.


         "But I really have work to do."  She pouted and stared up pleadingly into Kenshi's eyes.  He headbutted her.


         "I said you're not going anywhere, so stay quiet and keep still," he growled again.


         "The fuck's up your ass, Kenshi?" Ruki said, angry by this point and in pain once again.  "You're not even acting like yourself."


         "It might have something to do with the fact that he wants you dead or captured and his own morals got in the way of that," Quinn said wryly.  "Just a guess."


         "Stay out of this, bitch.  This is between me and him."


         The elevator stopped and the three continued on through the throng of soldiers, who moved reluctantly out of the way to let them pass.  Obviously the officer had warned them of the situation during the trip in the elevator.


         "Bitch?  Bitch?!  Who's the murderer here?"


         ‘She must be feeling braver now that I have Ruki under control,’ Kenshi thought exasperated.  ‘Just what I need.’


         "I'll have you know I haven't killed anyone in three weeks, thank you very much!  And besides, you don't need to kill someone to be a bitch."


         "Well isn't that a nice cup of tea?!  I haven't murdered anyone!  Period!  You complain about your situation.  Well let me tell you this: you decided to steal information and you don't even have a gun to your head!  I think you should consider yourself rather lucky."


         "I'll consider myself lucky when Kenshi, here, cools off.  Until then you can just eat me."


         Kenshi stared at the ceiling in embarrassment and annoyance.  Around him, the soldiers were either doing the same or trying not to.


         "You’d like that wouldn’t you?!"  Ruki turned to her with a sly grin and allowed her eyes to roam up and down the engineer’s body.


         “Yes, I would.”  Quinn shut her mouth and turned her head away, her face an odd shade of scarlet.  Kenshi couldn’t blame her.  The way she had said it didn’t leave much room for doubt.  Still, to add insult to injury, the pirate snaked her tail up and wrapped it around Quinn’s thigh, causing the engineer to almost jump out of Kenshi’s arm.


         "Settle down and shut up," he whispered harshly to Ruki, squeezing her ribs between his arm and chest.  He was starting to lose patience quickly.  Ruki’s only response was a wheezed giggle.  He stopped this with another tightened squeeze, making her wince slightly.


         The trio walked in silence from then on.  Slowly, step by step, they made their way through the many corridors of the ship.  They passed the cafeteria, whose tables were flipped to form a makeshift bunker.  Soldiers aimed weapons carefully, sweating and scowling at their inability to do anything.  Kenshi just moved past them slowly and cautiously, never looking back and never speeding up.  Nobody tried to negotiate from that point on, instead silently waiting, searching for a weakness.


         At one point, a blue-clad recruit had tried to catch Kenshi by surprise with a quick burst from behind, but Kenshi had seen it coming far beforehand and had moved out of the way, whipping his gun across the mans face and resting it back on Quinn's head before anyone else could try something.  From then on no one even thought of making a move.


         Gradually the corridors became darker and Kenshi had asked Ruki to reach into his pocket for the flashlight.  She had responded with a seductive glance, but a harsh glare was all she needed to keep her from saying anything.  The soldiers had stopped appearing in front of them by the time the hallways became pitch black, but a few dozen dedicated men and women - mostly recruits - still followed behind.  They were about 30 meters away from his ship when he turned to them.


         "When I launch my ship the pressure will be gone and you will die.  Get behind the nearest blast doors."  Some of the soldiers nodded angrily and, all together, they left with much hesitation, increasing speed and more than a few complaints lined with profanity.  It was another minute before the entrance to Kenshi's ship came into view.  He sent Quinn ahead to turn on the lights while he made his way cautiously forward.


         'It's not over 'till it's over,' he said to himself.  There was a chance that some MMC had found the ship and had boarded it without his knowledge.


         "Kenshi, we're there.  You can let me go.  I can walk on my own," Ruki pleaded suddenly when Quinn disappeared from view.


         "No."


         "Come on.  You have me.  Just let me walk on my own." She shifted slightly.  "You are holding me a little uncomfortably."  He glared at her.


         "Whatever," he said, deciding to just ignore her.  There was a pause where Ruki flicked something at her wrist.


         "Suit yourself."


-------------------------


         Ruki was a lot of things as she caught sight of the outer hatch of Kenshi's ship.  Confusion was there.  Kenshi was stronger and faster than he ever should have been and was using that to his advantage.  She was angry at the fact that he was angry with her.  What had she done so differently than usual that had gotten him like this?  She was afraid that this time Kenshi really had snapped for good and that everything that she had grown to like about the man over the years had changed.  It was a conflict of negative emotions and it made Ruki even more angry.


         Kenshi let Quinn go to turn on the lights of the ship, giving Ruki one more emotion: jealousy.  Why should some woman Kenshi had just met have more of his trust than her, a woman Kenshi had known for three years?  But maybe he did trust her.  Maybe all she had to do was ask and he'd let her go.


         The term wishful thinking never entered her mind.


         "Kenshi, we're there.  You can let me go.  I can walk on my own."  Her voice sounded hopeful even to her.  The response was like a slap to the face.


         "No."  Now she was desperate.


         "Come on.  You have me.  Just let me walk on my own."  She adjusted herself in his arm a little.  "You are holding me a little uncomfortably."  That nice friendly Kenshi Tamaki glare was sent her way.


         "Whatever."


         She grit her teeth and looked over the man holding her so tightly.  The man that actually thought he could capture her.  It seemed Kenshi didn’t know her too well after all.  She flipped the switch on her bracelet.


         "Suit yourself."


         She jabbed the sonic blaster she had been holding against Kenshi’s skull making him wince slightly, probably for forgetting she still held the weapon.


         “Now you’re my hostage.  Let me go.”  Truth be told, she had no intention of killing him.  Even if he refused she would be unable to kill the man.  He had been her greatest source of fun for three years.  Her rival.  Her competitor.  It would take a lot for her to be forced to finally end all that.  But she could still scare him into doing what she wanted.  Or try at least.  She knew Kenshi probably wouldn’t take the bait.  He never did.  There was a long pause before Kenshi answered.


         “You know the properties of that thing?  There’s a good chance the waves it lets out would bounce off my head and come right back at you from this range.”  He didn’t loosen his grip in the slightest.  Just as she expected.


         “Fine.”  She put the weapon back into one of his pockets.  She was becoming frustrated now, not to mention more than a little angry.  “Playtime Kenshi.”  He opened his mouth to respond but a startled grunt replaced any words he might have said.


         Ruki flew into the air and through the ceiling, dragging a surprised Kenshi along with her.  His grip tightened and Ruki laughed.  She swerved back and forth in the air, trying to break his hold on her, but Kenshi kept firm on her back.


         "Why do you always have to be so stubborn, Kenshi?  We'd get along so much better if you didn't fight me."  He brought himself closer and grabbed her wrist.


         "Because you piss me off."  And with that, he unhooked the bracelet, causing the two to crash into a wall Ruki was about to speed through.  Ruki groaned as her regenerative system was put to the test once again while Kenshi picked himself up and threw the pirate over his shoulder.


         "Why do you have to ruin the game, Kenshi?" Ruki wheezed out as she rubbed her broken teeth weakly.


         "You say that because it's harder to win?"  It was a rhetorical question and Ruki wouldn't be able to honestly answer it if she could.  It was the truth, but Ruki tried to delude herself, remembering the other encounters with Kenshi and the game they'd played.  She always forgot that Kenshi really had been trying.  And now that he was at least her equal, things had grown too intense for her.


         She watched as Kenshi hooked the bracelet onto his own wrist and fumbled around for it's switch.  The next thing she knew, the two were falling backwards through the floors and landing in front of the outer hatch of Kenshi's ship.  Inside the lights were on, showing the silhouette of Quinn standing in the doorway.


         There were no words as Kenshi entered his ship and locked the outer hatch.  He made his way quickly to the cockpit where he finally set Ruki down in the rear seat.  Sitting down in the pilot's seat himself, Ruki heard Quinn enter the cockpit behind them and watched her stand beside Kenshi.


         "Quite the ship you have here," she said, her awe intensified by her strange accent.


         "No kidding," Ruki agreed, suddenly noticing the changes from the last time she’d visited an MMC craft.  "You get a new ship or have you just been upgrading over the years?"


         Kenshi ignored them both and disengaged his ship from where it was positioned just inside the Titan's hull.  After a moment of careful maneuvering, he flew through the open hull and into the waiting space.  Around them a good hundred ships sat waiting for any sign of the trio, but none seemed to notice them as they passed ship after ship and moved away from the Titan.


         'What the hell?' Ruki thought to herself, not willing to speak to those who would ignore her.


         "Do you have a cloaking mechanism?" Quinn asked.


         "Not exactly," was the hesitant response.


         As soon as the ship was safely away from the crowd, Kenshi typed in a set of coordinates and the trio blasted off into hyperspace.