Zen Revenge Four
Zens and Portents Part Two
A Citi-Zen of FRED

**** O_O ****

Zen-chan awoke to silence.  Silence is, of course, a relative term.  If 
one listened carefully, one could make out all manner of sounds - 
sounds that were so much a part of the background that their 
perception faded below a conscious level.  The whisper of air through 
ventilation ducts, the gentle humming of active circuitry, the 
heartlike rhythm of the ship's engines - all sounds that made up the 
'silence' aboard a starship.  But if any of them had been absent, the 
silence would have been deafening.

Satisfied that her ship was running smoothly, Zen-chan rolled out of 
bed, yawned and stretched, then padded into the head.  Since she 
was already a girl, she elected to use the water shower, rather than 
the sonics.  The curse notwithstanding, there was nothing like the 
pleasure of a nice hot shower.  Zen-chan's only problem was that, to 
do her any good, the shower had to be rather *too* hot.  Once she 
was well scrubbed, she dressed in a fresh uniform, grabbed her belt, 
and strapped it on as she made her way to the flight deck.

Taking her position at the flight console, Zen-chan began making a 
series of checks.  Fuel status read as 80 percent - about seventy five 
kilos.  The magnetic bottles for the anti-proton cannon had not been 
charged.  Everything else was fully stocked.  All instruments read 
normally - or at least as normally as they could for a vessel that was 
traversing the emptiness between dimensions.  She looked out the 
main view port at... nothing.

Nothingness is a hard concept to describe.  Space, being hard vacuum, 
is full of nothing - and yet it had more 'presence' than the emptiness 
beyond the ports.  Space had a structure, a frame of reference, even 
when nothing was there to fill it.  A space that was empty enough 
could be oppressive in its emptiness - pressing in on the soul of the 
traveller with claustrophobic intensity.  Here there wasn't even that;  
It was just a darkness, and the darkness was without form, and void.

Zen-chan shuddered and closed the blast covers over the viewports.  
There were directions that she felt better not allowing her thoughts 
to explore.  Another sweep of the instruments still read nominal.  
The scopes showed no more than the viewports had - they just 
showed it less forcefully.  And there was the reassuring solidity of 
the _Lovely Angel_ following in _Pathfinder's_ wake.

An indicator on the comm-panel lit up to announce an incoming 
signal.  Zen-chan flipped a switch, and one of the screens cleared to 
display the text of the message.  It was, as Zen-chan had figured, a 
squirt from FRED Traffic Control.  They would be reaching their entry 
point in a little over three hours, ship time.  Zen tapped in a response 
and hit the 'send' key.  They were on schedule.

Zen-chan was just settling back into the pilot's seat, trying to figure 
out some way of killing some time when Kei wandered onto the flight 
deck, with a yawn and a stretch.  Zen-chan turned to admire the way 
the fabric of her friend's uniform held under the strain; truly it was a 
marvel of materials engineering.

Flopping into the co-pilot's seat, Kei yawned again and scanned the 
panels.  "How we doing?" she asked.

"On the beam," Zen-chan replied.  "We'll drop out into FRED-Space in 
time for a late lunch."

"Hell with lunch," muttered Kei.  "How about some breakfast?"

Zen-chan smiled.  "Sure!  Why not?"  She activated a touchpad on the 
console beside her, and addressed the computer.  "Breakfast for two - 
scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, orange juice and hot tea."

There was a gentle humming sound from the replicator stages next to 
either flight station.

"Aww, not that computer generated junk," Kei moaned.

Zen-chan just grinned.  The humming reached a peak, and with the 
peculiar shimmer of a transporter effect, a tray materialized in each 
console.  A heady aroma permeated the atmosphere of the flight 
deck.

Kei sniffed the air.  "Hey... that doesn't smell half bad!" she exclaimed 
in a surprised tone.  She turned, took the tray out of the replicator 
alcove, and stared down at its contents in disbelief.  "This looks like 
real food!"

Recovering her own tray, Zen-chan smirked.  "You better believe it!" 
she said, as she started to attack her breakfast.

After another brief hesitation, Kei dug into hers as well.  She took a 
bite, chewed and swallowed.  Then she started wolfing her food like 
she hadn't eaten in a week.  Within moments, her tray was empty.  
She dumped the tray back in the replicator alcove, and hit the 'cycle' 
button.  The tray vanished.

Settling back into her seat, Kei patted her stomach contentedly.  "You 
know," she said in a wistful tone, "After a meal like that, I could 
really go for a good old fashioned chocolate shake..."

Still nibbling on a piece of toast, Zen-chan pointed at the replicator.

Kei looked dubious, but shrugged.  Why not?  "Computer," she said, 
"Chocolate milkshake.  Large."

"Malted?" queried the computer.

"Oooh, yes, please."

Again there was a humming from the replicator, and Kei's shake 
appeared.  A large, chocolate malted topped with whipped cream and 
a maraschino.  "Hey, Zen," Kei asked, "You want my cherry?"

Zen-chan choked on her orange-juice.

"Hentai."  Kei said with a grin and a wink.  She scarfed down her 
milkshake while Zen-chan finished her own breakfast, and cycled the 
debris.  When she was done, Kei turned to the rookie TC and said, 
"Okay.  I'll bite.  How'd you get real food out of a replicator?"

"Fundamental redesign," said Zen-chan.  "Simple, really."

Kei rolled her eyes.  "Yah, right," she said.  "C'mon.  How'd you 
*really* do it?"

Zen-chan shot Kei a dark look.  "Zen told you.  I redesigned the damn 
things."  Noting Kei's still skeptical look, she sighed.  "Look, do you 
know how the replicators work?"

"Of course," sniffed Kei.  "They're based on the same technology as 
the transporter."

"Right so far," prompted Zen-chan.

"Well," Kei went on a little more slowly, "as I understand it, the 
transporter rips matter apart and then transmits the structural data 
from point 'A' to point 'B', where it basically reassembles the original 
object.  The replicators do that too, but instead of reassembling the 
original object, it makes something new."

Zen-chan nodded.  "So how come replicated food is never as good as 
the real thing?"

"'Cause the pattern for the replicator is computer generated," Kei said 
promptly.

"So?" asked Zen-chan.  At Kei's confused look, she continued.  "The 
fundamental difference between transporters and replicators is that 
transporters are NOT digital devices.  They're analogue."

"No way!  Transporter patterns are digital!  That's how they work!  
They digitize you and then..."  Zen-chan shook her head in a negative 
and Kei trailed off into silence.

"Kei, think about it.  If a transporter had to work as a digital device, 
it'd be impossible - the sheer computer power required would be 
prohibitive, at least in any portable sort of form.  A transporter 
pattern isn't digital, it's exactly what it says it is - a quantum level 
pattern of resonant interference that is characteristic of the object 
being transported.  If the pattern were digital, it'd just be too damn 
large."

"But the pattern buffers..."

"Are largely empty space.  They're not so close to computer memory, 
Kei, as they are to a bell.  They're resonators that hold the pattern 
harmonically.  The pattern can be sustained as long as the fields are 
energized and clean.  That's why there's a risk of pattern degradation 
in a slow or delayed transport - there's a chance for noise to get into 
the system."

Kei looked confused.  "But then, how do the filters work?  They have 
to be digital, don't they?"

"No, not really.  The filters are essentially elaborate noise cancellers.  
Not only do they help to maintain the integrity of the pattern, but 
they cancel out non-resonant harmonics... signals that don't belong 
because they disrupt the balance of the pattern."

"It sounds so simple..."

Zen-chan shrugged.  "It is."

"So what has that got to do with the replicators?  They *are* digital, 
aren't they?"

"Yup.  And that's the problem.  Replicators work in a similar manner, 
in that they take matter apart, and then reassemble it according to a 
pattern.  But in this case, the pattern doesn't come from the matter 
being used, it comes from the computer.  The computer generates a 
model of what the object should be like - its chemical composition, its 
shape, all of that.  Then the computer simulates the pattern, and uses 
that to make whatever it is you want."

After a moment's consideration Kei said, "Okay.  I can see that, but I 
don't understand why it makes food that tastes so damned odd.  It 
should be just as good as the real thing, shouldn't it?"

"Hmmmm," Zen-chan thought for a second.  Suddenly she brightened.  
"You like old science fiction films, don't you?"

Kei blinked.  "Sure, but what has that got..."

"Do you remember how they used to make them?  All the special 
effects?  The spaceships?  The fantastic cities and all?"

"Well, if you're talking about the *really* old ones, they used models 
and stuff.  Then they'd muck with the film, and paint, and special 
lighting to make it all look real."

Zen-chan was nodding.  "Precisely.  But then they started using the 
computers to model the ships... they'd render each object, and then 
composite the images frame by frame.  But that took a while to catch 
on, didn't it?"

"It sure did.  It took 'em forever to make the things look real.  The 
spaceships looked pretty good, but the people...  Ugh."  Kei looked 
thoughtful for a moment.  "I think I see what you're driving at.  The 
spaceships were easy - they were generally rigid, and had consistent 
surface textures and all that.  And they moved fairly simply..."

"Got it in one!" Zen-chan said with a grin.  "Organics, people and the 
like, were orders of magnitude more complicated.  They had very 
irregular surfaces, and inconsistent colouration.  Their movements 
were complex, and they changed shape when they moved.  The rate 
of motion was tremendously variable, both as a unit, and between 
the various parts of the whole.  And the number of datapoints that 
were required to define such complex shapes with any degree of 
realism was huge."

"So what you're saying is that simulating organics with a replicator is 
the same sort of thing.  That the models don't have enough resolution 
to make them 'look real'..."

"Exactly.  Replicators have no trouble with machine parts or other 
manufactured objects - hell, they're an ideal prototyping tool for 
them.  But the organics - the modelling software just isn't that good.  
They'll produce edible food - some of it's even pretty tasty.  But in 
the end, it just can't compare to the real thing.  Again, it's a function 
of size.  The memory required to hold and render a pattern that 
complex would be enormous, and not very efficient."

"When you put it like that it makes a lot of sense.  I'd never really 
thought of it in those terms before.  But that still doesn't tell me how 
you got the replicator to produce food that, if it isn't real, is so close 
that *I* can't tell the difference."

"Cheated.  Zen was digging through the archives back on Academy 
and ran across some very interesting articles on fractal compression.  
All Zen had to do then was figure out how to actually digitize a 
transporter pattern."

"But you said the transport patterns were too large and complex!"

"They are.  But a transporter has to be able to safely move *living* 
things around.  It's a question of resolution.  Transporters work on 
the quantum level - every atom, every particle, their energy states, 
their relative positions, every single property is absolutlely critical.  
But to make food, or other 'dead organics', you can cut resolution to 
the atomic and molecular level.  That's several orders of magnitude 
simpler.  Couple that with new compression algorithms and you can 
get a 'real' pattern that takes up even less space than its computer 
generated counterpart.  It's not so much a digital model as a digital 
recording of an analogue signal.  Of course, you have to have a real 
original to scan for the pattern, but once that pattern is recorded..."

"You can have it any time you want," finished Kei.  "Sneaky.  I like it."  
There was a moment of silence.  "I don't suppose," Kei started 
hesitantly, "that I could talk you into rigging up a system like that on 
the _Lovely Angel_..."

Zen-chan made a show of studying the instruments.  "I dunno... It'd 
be an awful lot of work..."

The next thing that Zen-chan knew, Kei was sitting practically in her 
lap, staring into her face, her brown eyes wide and innocent.  "Please 
won't you at least consider it?" she begged.

"Anou..." stammered Zen-chan, startled.

"I'll bet that I can convince you," Kei's voice dropped to a sultry 
growl as she abandoned all pretext of innocence.  Reaching up, Kei 
started to pull open the top of her uniform.  She was breathing 
heavily, her chest heaving, a wicked smirk on her face.

"Yipe!" squawked Zen-chan.  She tried to jump back, but Kei had her 
pretty well trapped in the pilot seat.  "Okay, okay!  I'll do it already!  
Just cut that out!"

Kei adopted a hurt expression and pouted, her eyes glistening.  "You 
mean you don't want me to 'convince' you?" she sniffed.  "What's the 
matter, don't you like me?  Don't you think I'm pretty enough?"

"Eeeep!  C'mon, Kei... you're freakin' Zen out here..."

Kei's expression hardened.  "It's Yuri, isn't it?"  She pinned Zen-chan 
into her seat and glared at her.  "She got to you first, didn't she?  It's 
always the same story.  That tramp is always stealing my toys..."

Zen-chan was starting to get really worried.  "Anou..."

"Well, no matter.  She's not here now, and you're *all* mine!"  Kei 
leaned forward and kissed Zen-chan full on the mouth.

For Zen-chan the world seemed to stop.  This couldn't be reality, it 
was just too bizarre.  Then again, this *was* Kei...  Zen-chan struggled 
briefly, but Kei had the advantage of leverage.  After what seemed 
an eternity, Kei broke off the kiss, and still staring into Zen-chan's 
eyes, murmured throatily, "Convinced?  Or may be I should..."

Zenchan eeeped and took the opportunity to hit the backrest release 
on the pilot's chair.  The seat back dropped and Zen-chan rolled with 
it, scrabbling back toward the flight deck bulkhead.  Putting her back 
against the wall, she stared at Kei, ready to bolt should the senior TC 
try another approach.

Kei was twitching violently and it took almost a full minute for Zen-
chan to realise that she was laughing.  As Kei was making no move 
toward her, Zen-chan dropped back to Defcon 2.  Meanwhile Kei was 
still gasping for breath.

"You... you should have *seen* the look on your face," she managed 
between fits of laughter.  "I've never seen *anyone* run like that 
before..."

"I almost didn't run," Zen-chan chided her.  "What would you have 
done then?"

Kei smirked.  "Well, you can still find out..."

Zen-chan paled, and Kei's smile dimmed a little.  "Are you always this 
skittish around women?" she asked.

Sensing the shift in mood, Zen-chan finally allowed herself to relax.  
Kei moved back into the co-pilot's position, and Zen-chan resumed 
her station in the pilot's seat.  She studied the instruments in silence 
for a time, trying to think of a way to answer her friend's question.

"I guess maybe I am." Zen-chan said at last.

Kei shook her head.  "That doesn't make sense to me, given your past.  
You're a shameless flirt.  Most of your really close friends have been 
women.  You had a very happy, albeit... unusual marriage... Naze...?"

"I dunno.  It's kinda hard to describe.  It's just that when a girl starts 
acting like she's 'interested', it just doesn't seem *real* - you know 
what I mean?"

"Not really, no."

"Okay, think of it like it was a movie, or a fanfic.  You're reading 
along, lost in the story, when suddenly one of the characters turns to 
the camera and says something to the 'audience'... breaks the fourth 
wall, as it were.  All of a sudden the mood is shattered, and you 
know that it's just a story - it's not real anymore."

"Yah, I get that bit.  What I don't understand is *why* it would seem 
so unreal to you."

"Because it's so bloody *unlikely*.  Who in their right mind would be 
interested in someone like... well, like me?"

Kei blinked.  "Who wouldn't?" she countered.

"Would you have been?  Before the revenges?  If you had come into 
a bar, and Zen had been sitting there, would you have given him the 
time of day?  If Zen had come up and said 'hello', would you NOT 
have thought that he was hitting on you?"

"That's not very fair!"

"No, its NOT fair, but it's true!  Tell me it isn't!  It's not like I haven't 
seen it from both sides now.  After all, with this curse," Zen-chan 
indicated her body, "I've had to deal with the same thing myself."

Pausing for breath, Zen-chan continued, her tone low and intense.  "I 
have always gotten along just fine with women.  As long as it was 
absolutely clear that I wasn't trying to ask them out.  As long as I 
kept my distance.  Kept my place.  The instant that I tried to take a 
relationship past the point of casual friendship, it was, 'oh, dear, look 
at the time, I've really *got* to do my nails...' and that would be the 
last I'd ever see of the person.  Finally, I just gave up."

"Gave up?  That doesn't seem like you."

"I quit trying.  I'd convinced myself that I didn't care.  I accepted the 
fact that I would spend the rest of my life alone.  I developed a rule 
for dealing with women, and I stuck to it.  Before too long, I had no 
shortage of women to talk to.  Friends, and some of them really good 
ones.  All of them ready to talk to me... about their boyfriends, their 
hopes and dreams, their fears...  I was safe, you see.  I was like a big 
brother.

"Don't get me wrong, it had its good points.  It felt good to be able to 
help someone, even if all I could do was listen.  I was a good listener.  
But after so long... it started to wear on me.  Good news would always 
come over the phone.  Most of the time if I saw someone in person, it 
was when they were upset about something - usually some fight 
they'd had with a boyfriend or a lover.  It was like being a communal 
teddy bear."

"That doesn't sound so bad.  Everybody loves teddy bears."

"Oh yes.  Everybody loves a teddy bear."  Zen-chan sighed.  "But you 
know, people don't hug their teddy bears unless they're crying about 
something.  Teddy bears are soft shoulders to cry into - and are left, 
forgotten, under the bed when everything is going well.  And where 
can a teddy bear go to cry?"

"I never really thought about it that way."

"I guess it's one of the reasons that I always had such a soft spot for 
Ukyou.  I knew how she felt.  Always there for Ranma, always ready 
to listen, and having the knife twisted a little harder every time.  
How it must have hurt her to keep hearing him talk about Akane all 
the time.  It was why Ukyou tended to win Ranma in all the stories 
that I wrote.  At least she could have a happy ending."

Kei looked thoughtful for a moment.  "You mentioned a rule earlier.  
Just what *was* your rule for dealing with women?"

Zen-chan laughed.  "Oh, it's very simple.  It was a translation of sorts.  
'If a girl says 'no', she means 'no';  If a girl says 'maybe', she means 
'no';  If a girl says 'yes', she means 'no'.  If a girl says 'I tell you three 
times yes', she means 'maybe, but don't get your hopes up'."

"That sounds awfully cynical to me," Kei said.

"I suppose that it was.  But it *did* keep me out of trouble."  Zen-
chan heaved a sigh.  "I had almost gotten to the point where I could 
ignore the loneliness.  As long as I didn't let myself *think* about it, 
it didn't hurt so much.  Then I met Lee and Kelly."

"What was so bad about that?"

"Nothing!  Nothing was bad about it!  It took them time, but they got 
through all of my defences... they just wouldn't give up and go away.  
And for the first time, I started to believe.  Believe that I might NOT 
have to spend my time alone.  For almost four years I was allowed to 
believe that.  When they died, my world effectively came to an end.  
And I didn't even have a teddy bear."

"So," Kei said at last, "What it all boils down to is that you find it 
difficult believe that someone else could truly love you, because you 
don't love yourself."

"I never doubted that their affection was genuine.  Never.  I will 
admit that I never understood it.  Never knew what they saw in me.  
But I never doubted it."

"Zen-chan?"

  "Yes?"

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

Zen-chan snorted.  "Oh, yes.  Zen knows that."  There was a brief 
pause.  "Kei, have you ever wondered just why Zen uses... why I use 
the third person referents?"

"You're weird?"

"Well, yes, that too, I suppose...  but it started out as a joke of sorts.  
A subtle way to poke fun at some of the bigger egos on the 'net.  
Stole the idea from Julius Ceasar.  As time passed, it grew to fit.  It 
became second nature - even felt natural.

"It made being a teddy bear easier too.  It was a good way to keep 
the rest of the universe at arm's length.  To dissociate a little.  And 
after everyone started dying on me... a way to keep anything or 
anyone from getting close enough to hurt me that badly again.

"It doesn't always work... there have been people who managed to 
get close enough...  Lee...  Kelly...  You...  Yuri...  But for the most part 
it's been a pretty effective defence."

"Cor, Zen.  You don't believe that anyone'll want to get close to you, 
but you're ready to try and push 'em away if they try... If it weren't 
for stubborn people, you really *would* be alone."

"It's not *that* bad... I'm getting better.  Really."  Zen-chan fiddled 
with a few switches, then looked up at Kei, her expression serious.  
"Though I'm damned grateful for those stubborn people.  You and 
Yuri included."

Kei had to smile at that.  "Friends are too hard to come by, Zen.  That 
makes a good friendship worth fighting for."

"Yes, I see your point," said Zen-chan turning back to stare at the 
instruments once more.  Closing her eyes she went on in a quiet 
voice, "It's just that I'm not sure that it's safe.  People who get close 
to me..."

"I know all about that, Zen, remember?  We all have a lot in common, 
you know.  You.  Me.  Yuri."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, for one thing, you're the closest thing to a friend that I've had 
for more than six months that hasn't died."

"Ouch.  I'm sorry..."

Kei shrugged.  "I know... if it hadn't been for Yuri... I don't know what 
I would have done.  Frankly, I sometimes wonder how you managed 
to survive without someone like her."

"A friend once told Zen that 'not even the Gods will still play with a 
broken toy'...  It may be that he was right," said Zen-chan a touch of 
bitterness in her voice.  Turning to the replicator console she secured 
two large root beer floats.  Passing one to Kei, she took a sip and 
asked, "So, how *did* you meet Yuri?  As I understand it, you two 
are from very different worlds..."

"Yuri and I have known each other forever, it seems.  We met when 
we were kids, on one of the more popular vacation worlds.  From 
that moment, we were inseparable.  We did *everything* together.  
Finally, the time came when we had to go home, but we always kept 
in touch.  We wrote letters and sent vids back and forth all the time.  
We squabbled a lot too, but the truth is, you couldn't ask for a better 
friend.  There is nothing I have that I wouldn't share with her."

Zen-chan smiled, a sad look in her eyes.  "Sounds very like another 
pair of extremely stubborn girls that I used to know..."

Kei echoed the sad smile.  "Yes.  Very like, I suspect.  When the time 
came, we decided to go to Academy together.  We lived together, we 
studied together, trained together... we were going to be the best 
team that the 3WA had ever seen.

"When we graduated and were assigned partners, the Central 
Computer, in its infinite wisdom, didn't assign us to each other.  It 
was a rude shock, I can tell you.  But we adapted and did our jobs.  
We could still spend our off time together."

Kei took a pull on her root beer float.  "Yuri's partner was the first to 
die.  It was barely a month after graduation, their third mission.  An 
epidemic had broken out on Ransonh, and there were allegations that 
it was more than just chance.  3WA hadn't started using nanites yet, 
and Yuri's partner caught it.  It started in her lungs and spread to 
her heart.  It was hellishly fast.  They did manage to stop the plague, 
but not in time to save Tara.

"Within a week of that, my first partner was dead too.  We'd been 
chasing after a thief by the name of Jim DiGriz.  He was a damned 
slippery one.  Sera had gone undercover, but she got caught by his 
wife.  DiGriz had a reputation for non-violence, but that sure didn't 
apply to the woman he married.  We never did recover all of the 
body."  Kei shuddered at the memory.  "I'm ashamed to say that I 
took a lot of pleasure in bringing her down."

Zen-chan nodded knowingly.  It was a feeling that she understood.

"After the dust from the investigations cleared, the Central Computer 
ruled that both were unavoidable accidents.  We were each assigned 
new partners, and sent out again.  But it was the same thing over and 
over again.  The longest either one of us managed to keep a partner 
was six weeks.

"After the sixth or seventh try, it was becoming harder and harder to 
find people that were willing to come near us, let alone work with 
one of us.  The last partner that was assigned to me quit the agency.  
Said that she wasn't going to work with a jinx.

"We were pariahs.  Cursed.  It didn't matter that what happened 
wasn't our fault;  people that were partnered with us died.  Every 
time.  The CC finally had to put us together.  For the whole of the first 
year that we were a team there was a betting pool running on which 
of us would be the one to die.  Of course, neither of *us* ever did, 
and, well, you know a lot of the rest.  No one who gets close to us 
stays alive for very long.  You're the first."

Zen-chan shuddered.  "Yes..." she said quietly, her gaze focused 
inward.  "It's hard to tell at times... sometimes you think that the 
Gods are protecting you - no matter what happens around you, you 
manage to come out of it unscathed.  Miraculously surviving 
accidents that should have been fatal, passing calmly through the 
storm of destruction like the eye of a hurricane.

"Other times it's as if the Gods hate you.  Maybe they're trying to hit 
you, and are just lousy shots.  Maybe they're trying to hurt you by 
destroying everyone and everything that you care about.  Whichever 
it is, you find yourself asking what you could have done, what sin 
you must have comitted to have deserved such pain.  You keep 
wishing that they'd either protect the ones close to you as well, or 
else just finish you off... anything to stop the screaming..."

Kei's face was grey.  "Yes.  That's it exactly."

A heavy silence descended that was finally broken by a chirp from 
the comm panel.  Zen-chan toggled to accept, and Yuri's image filled 
the screen.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her initial grin fading into an expression 
of concern.  "You two look like you've just lost your best friend!"

Kei managed a wan grin.  "No, that we haven't.  We were just talking, 
that's all."

Yuri looked dubious.  "It must have been a hell of a conversation.  
Rough night?"

Kei smirked.  "No... at least none of the stains are permanent."

Yuri adopted a lecturing tone.  "Now Kei, I've warned you about the 
risks of using too much chocolate..."

"We *didn't* use chocolate.  Opted for caramel!" Kei sniffed.

Zen-chan was turning a bright red again, until Yuri let her off the 
hook.  "Hey, Zen, what's our ETA?"

Scanning the board, Zen-chan replied, "Ten minutes.  Lock your 
transponder and IFF to the settings I gave you, and prep for real-
space entry."  Zen-chan reopened the blast covers on the main view-
ports, allowing Kei her first real view of the nothingness through 
which they had been travelling.

When it came, minutes later, the transition from no-space to real-
space was startling in its suddenness, but in the final analysis, 
something of an anti-climax.  There were no flashes of light, no 
spirals of energy, no dramatic portals...  One second they were in the 
nothingness of the void and the next they were back in space.

Zen-chan checked her instruments and grinned.  "They brought us in 
in the outskirts of the system," she said.  "Yuri, if you'll slave your 
autopilot to this console, we can make our approach.  We'll be taking 
the scenic route."

Scenic route was an understatement.  Zen-chan plotted a spiral 
approach in-system that managed to take them on close passes of 
most of the major planetary bodies.  Arcing over the plane of the 
ecliptic, the two 3WA cruisers swung past the second outmost world, 
Samui.  Barely more than a large, dense snowball, the planet had two 
moons.  Sternbach, the larger of the two, looked like an ember from 
some cosmic fire, its shattered surface cracked and split, exposing the 
firey magma to the cold of space.  The smaller moon, Okuda, was as 
dark and cold as their parent planet.

Sweeping on towards the inner worlds, the next in line was Kinen Hi, 
or 'Monument' for short.  Not quite a gas giant, it was still of a fairly 
impressive size, it's atmosphere heavy in methane and argon.  It all 
but glowed, its non-surface a rich azure in colour.  Seven moons, Zen-
chan thought.  How appropriate.

The next two planets were the real sights to see in the FRED system.  
RAAC was a multi-mooned gas giant that had a ring system to put 
Saturn's to shame.  Chemical ice of varying compositions caught the 
feeble light from Taiyo and reflected it in many-coloured sheets.

UBCCA, the giant of the system, dwarfed its many moons, including at 
least two that were of planetary size.  The computer identified the 
green one as 'Endor' and read as class M.  As Zen-chan remembered, 
a fighter base had been established on the heavily forested body.  
The thought of trees ten meters wide and 150 meters tall made her 
itch to be back in her woodshop.

As the two vessels passed over an incredibly dense asteroid belt, rich 
in metals and water ice, they began their downward arc toward the 
ecliptic, and the inner planets of the system.  Ethyl, planet three, was 
a large, moonless body with a thick atmosphere rich in greenhouse 
gasses.  The surface temperature was high enough to melt iron, even 
though sunlight never made it through the opaque envelope of 'air'.

Finally, they were on approach to FRED itself.  FRED was a young 
world, very much like Earth might have been in the late Jurassic.  
Two super continents and a smattering of islands, large and small 
accounted for a little over forty five percent of its surface.  It looked 
very Earthlike from where Zen-chan was sitting.

The equitorial regions of space around the planet were crowded with 
ships and orbital stations of every description, so Zen-chan opted for 
a polar approach.  Signalling to FRED traffic control she received the 
clearances and approvals for her intended route, and arced in.  The 
ships dipped into atmosphere over the equator, and were down to 
twenty thousand meters as they crested the North pole.

Millions of acres of virgin land raced by as the ships hurtled 
southward once more, coming in low over the Takahashi Mountains.  
Angling down on final descent, Zen could just see the coast of the Uru 
Sea on the horizon as they approached the FRED main base and the 
sprawling spaceport to the west.

The _Pathfinder_ and the _Lovely Angel_ were directed to a landing 
area close to the FRED main complex.  Reserved for smaller ships, 
scouts, couriers and the like, it was tailor made for the compact 3WA 
vessels.  Zen-chan dropped the _Pathfinder_ gently into her assigned 
docking cradle and cut power to the lifters.  There was the slightest 
of shifts as the grav fields were cut, and FRED's normal gravity made 
itself felt.

They had arrived.

**** O_O ****

After unshipping one of the _Pathfinder's_ hover cars, Zen-chan and 
Kei picked up Yuri and, leaving Mughi in charge of the _Angel_, 
headed for the Operations Centre.  There they met a young woman 
who introduced herself as the MON-Force Liason Officer for new 
arrivals.

She was shorter than Zen-chan, standing at about five feet, slender, 
with a well defined figure, and fiery red hair that fell in disarray to a 
point just past her shoulders.  She wore a baggy jumpsuit that looked 
about two sizes too large, oversize boots, and a commo headset.  But 
when she looked up at Zen-chan, and on to Kei, her eyes took on a 
glazed look and her welcome speech ground to a halt.

"Ano..." Zen-chan asked, concerned, "Are you all right?  Hello?"  She 
waved a hand in front of unblinking eyes.  "Hello?"  Zen-chan and Kei 
exchanged glances and a shrug.

"Red hair..." muttered the liason.  It looked to Zen-chan like she was 
starting to drool a bit.

Zen-chan snapped her fingers in front of the catatonic officer, and 
gave a relieved sigh as the young woman shook herself out of her 
stupor and adopted a distinctly harried expression.  With a smirk 
and a not un-sympathetic look, Zen-chan asked, "Jyusenkyou?"

The redhead nodded.  "Sorry about that.  Yup.  The Prime Sagittarian, 
at your service.  Welcome to FRED.  So.  You're the infamous Zen, ne?  
Pleased to meetcha."

Zen-chan shook the proffered hand with a grim smile.  After making 
the round of introductions,  "So," she asked their host, "where do you 
want us?"

Prime-chan pulled a datapadd out of hammer-space and scanned the 
display.  "Well," she said, "You and your two companions here have 
been assigned to Wyrm-chan.  She's putting together some kind of 
special unit, but the plans aren't complete yet.  In the mean-time, a 
dormitory has been set aside for the group, and you guys will be 
living there.  If you'd like, I'll escort you to your new home."

The trip to the dormitory building was a short one - the structure 
was located just inside the second defencive perimeter, next to a well 
landscaped park.  This section of the base had been virtually 
untouched during the past battle, though signs of heavy repair and 
construction work were always in evidence.  Just across the park, 
Zen-chan could make out the tower of what Prime said was the 
central medical facility.

The dormitory building itself was, compared to its counterparts on 
Academy, downright luxurious, and ideally suited for a small group.  
The first of its two floors housed a large common area with an 
entertainment center, couches, chairs and tables, as well as a large, 
round dining table.  There was also a huge kitchen and pantry, a 
practice range for small arms, a fair sized garage and shop facility, 
and a dojo for hand to hand training.

Upstairs there were ten sleeping rooms, an enormous linen closet and 
laundry room, and the bathroom.  The bath was in the traditional 
Japanese style, with several small shower areas for washing, and a 
large tub for communal soaking.  Lavatory and toilet facilities were 
in an adjoining room.  Zen-chan gave the tub a wistful look before 
Prime-chan led her and the Angels down the hall to their new rooms.

Going to the end of the hall, Prime-chan opened a door with a large 
number "5" stencilled on it.  "This'll be your room, Zen."  Zen-chan 
hefted her duffel and followed their escort into the room.

It was huge.  Six meters by eight, one wall was filled with built in 
cabinets and shelves, and a built in workspace.  The entire upper half 
of the far wall was glass, affording a lovely view of the park in front 
of the building.  The lower half of that wall sported a standard 'ship's 
services' console with replicator, computer terminal, comm unit, and 
environmental controls.  Kei looked at the replicator and winced.

There was a large closet in which Zen-chan found a futon and other 
bedding, and where she dumped her duffel.  Meanwhile, Prime-chan 
set the doorlocks to match the ident patterns of the room's new 
tenant.

The procedure was repeated twice more, installing Kei in room six, 
and Yuri in room two.  Then the group trooped back downstairs to 
the common area.

Plopping down on one of the sofas, Prime-chan started rummaging in 
one of her pockets.  As the others were taking their seats, she drew 
out a number of isolinear chips.  She gave each of the girls two of the 
chips.

"If you'll look at those carefully," Prime-chan started, "you'll find that 
the blue one is your new ID chip.  It'll serve not only as ID, but it also 
works as a key to get you into any restricted areas for which you 
have clearance, as well as a means of accessing your 'money' - use it 
like you would a standard credit chit."

"Sounds handy," said Zen-chan.  "ID, huh?"

"Yah.  You, Zen, have been assigned the rank of..." the liason officer 
looked back at her ubiquitous datapadd, "Commander.  Kei and Yuri 
have each been assigned slots as Lieutenants."

Zen-chan looked startled.  "That doesn't make a lot of sense.  Kei and 
Yuri both have lots more combat experience than Zen does."

Prime-chan shrugged.  "Take it up with Wyrm-chan.  It's her pet 
project, and she made the rules."

Zen-chan looked like she was about to say something more, but she 
thought better of it.  Instead, she shrugged, pocketed the ID chip, and 
hefted the other.  "So what's on this one?" she asked.

"The other chip is your 'welcome packet' of sorts.  It includes all you 
ever wanted to know about FRED, the FDF, MON-Force, and all the 
facilities here.  You'll find maps, rules and regs, general services, 
everything you'll need to get around."

Kei stuffed her chips into a belt pocket and turned to ask a question 
of her own.  "So what is it we'll be doing, now that we're here?"

"Well, at present, you don't have any specific duties.  You'll pretty 
much be on your own until Wyrm-chan declares the unit operational.  
Until then, take your time to get used to the place, and feel free to 
jump in and help where ever you see an opportunity.  There's no 
shortage of things needing to be done."

Prime-chan stood up and stretched.  "It's been nice talking to you, 
but I've got to get back to the ops center... there are two more ships 
due in today.  If you need anything for your ships, just go talk to the 
people in Engineering."  She paused on her way out the door.  "Oh.  
One more thing.  There'll be a wake for those killed in the Pfhorr raid 
a week from tomorrow at sixteen-hundred.  You're all more than 
welcome to attend."  With that, she was gone.

Kei, Yuri and Zen-chan sat looking at each other.  Finally, Kei broke 
the silence.  Grabbing the remote control for the television off the 
coffee table, she said, "Well, I guess we might as well see what they 
have on TV here, ne?"

**** O_O ****


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