Sol Bianca, Jupiter orbit
"MWAHAHAHA! Those FOOLS shall Tremble before the Power of SCIENCE!" Hollers my master at an unnecessary volume. He has been awake for over six weeks straight now, the insanity of choice this time seems to be usual monomania. I have no idea what he is working on this time, and frankly I don't care, as long as he is this focused on his work he won't notice me. As I sneak closer I do check that it doesn't look as if it's about to explode though, having learned that lesson from painful experience. Raising my combat knife I'm about to plunge it in his back when I hear the door open. Swiftly hiding the knife I turn around to see Miyu entering the room, carrying the bowl my master calls a coffee cup.
"Professor, your coffee is ready." Says Miyu in her precise, clipped voice.
"Hmm?" My master seemed to finally realize that there where other people in the room with him and takes his head out of the mess of wires he was working with. Unfortunately he doesn't release the wires leading into the engine and we all go flying to the rear bulkhead as the ship shudders and heaves under us. Of course I am the one getting coated with the scalding hot beverage, this is going to take forever to get out of my clothes. I glare at Miyu as she lands in a prefect crouch, while I'm on my ass and have the damn cup on my head.
"Whoops sorry about that., just a second." Says my master as he stands up end reaches for the open panel on the engine, fidels with something, and gravity promptly starts pointing in the right direction again, though this time I'm forewarned and land on my feet. My master though he should have known what was coming lies in an unconscious heap at my feet.
Sighing I lift him up and say "I'll bring him to the infirmary."
"No need I'll do it," says Miyu, helpful as ever, as she grabs his other side and starts to carry him too. "Why don't you go clean yourself up."
I barely managed to keep from glaring at Ryoko as we helped the Professor to the infirmary, wishing that blue haired goody two shoos would go away. First she wastes all my carefully poisoned coffee and now she refuses to leave us alone. Just one moment and I could punish him for taking me away from Alysa but she sticks with me until we reach the infirmary maintaining her cheerful demeanor the entire time, even though she is clearly worried about the Professor. Really it's just too hard to stay mad at the pseudo-girl, especially when she's wearing that oversized mug as a hat.
When we reached the infirmary Catty is already there, in a nurse outfit that I am sure didn't come with the ship. "I was expecting to see him in here when the gravity went crazy, what happened?"
"He was tinkering with the engines ranting about science as usual after the one week mark." Answerers Ryoko, "Well I have to take a shower and get this stuff of my clothes before it dries."
I hang around for a bit helping Catty check the Professor, though I already know she will be next to him while he is unconscious. She never leaves him alone when he sleeps either, my chance to assassinate him is gone until he wakes up again.
"Ouch, what blew up this time?" I asked as I came to with a pounding headache.
"Nothing, the artificial gravity went a little wonky though. Do you remember what you where working on?" Asks the sweet voice of Catty and I turn to look at her. Pink hair frames her delicate face with large golden eyes which sparkle with humor. Not for the first time I feel a sense of awe at what handwavium is able to accomplish, to bring to life a perfect creature such as this or the two others crewing this ship. Oh sure their basic frame was hand crafted by experts, built by a Japanese company specializing in life size dolls. The dolls had been just that, dolls, lifeless and uninteresting, but after I carefully molded handwavium into muscles and tucked a few select pieces of machinery here and there through their bodies they came alive. The first to be successfully animated with anything approaching human like intelligence. I was already been a mad scientist then, my intelligence enhanced to ludicrous levels by the handwavium, though back then I hadn't understood the price I would pay for enhancing myself like I had. I gave a mental snort, the insanity wasn't that bad, even if it had gotten me kicked off earth with a warning from NATO that if I ever tried to so much as re-enter the atmosphere I would be shot down. It also had gotten me the former royal yacht of Denmark, along with an unofficial thanks. Come to think of it that thanks what probably the only reason I hadn't been shot, just exiled. Focusing my drifting mind back to the question I was asked I tried to recall what I had been doing, I got a vague jumble of equations and four dimensional thrust vectors, and a couple of contradictory theories about how handwavium would react under certain conditions. I think all the theories where right though, which only stands to reason, I'm the greatest mad scientist in the universe! Shaking of my delusions of grandeur I answer the question.
"I was working on a subspace drive I think. The details are a little fuzzy, how long was I out? and for that matter how long was I working?"
"You where unconscious for two days, and before that working almost six weeks." She answered while holding out a very welcome cup of coffee.
"Thank you," I say as I accept the coffee. "Six weeks eh? Ouch, no wonder my head feels like it should explode if only to put me out of my misery. Anything I should take care of right away?" Ah caffeine, pure bliss.
"Your sister has a few of the usual questions on handwavium theory, but those could wait for a day or two. You have also been invited to speak at a Convention at Phobos, but we are to far out to reach it in time."
"When is the convention?"
"In three days, but we are still in orbit around Jupiter. We didn't want to try using the engines until you checked them out."
"Well them time to see if what I was working on actually works. I think I finished it. I'd better check it though, I wouldn't want to get stranded in subspace."
"Oh I can think of plenty of ways to keep us entertained should that happen." Catty says with a smirk as she runs her hands along her side in a very suggestive manner. It is then that I notice for the first time what she's wearing and I can feel the blood rushing to my face and ... other areas.
"Gah, well I better go check up on the engines." I stammer out as I race out of the infirmary, garbing a lab coat as I do so. Lucky someone had dressed me in my pajamas, though considering I was the only male on board I didn't want to think of who had done it. Catty's amused laughter echoes down the hallway after me. I relax a bit, she was only teasing, and even if she wasn't it's hardly the sort of thing I should be running away from.
Guzzling the cup of coffee next to me I set about answering the emails that Ryoko had set aside until after I got some rest. Mostly it where the usual questions about how handwavium worked, and requests for experiments beyond the Limit. I put the later aside, we would have to go back beyond the Limit after the convention, I wanted to visit Junior anyway. At least with the new engine it wouldn't take more then a month to get out there. Currently the Sol Bianca was cruising at a 0.01 c, almost five times faster than she has ever moved before inside the Limit. Now if only using the engine didn't cause radioactive spiders to appear. Oh well at least it didn't have any quirks when it wasn't being used. Sending off the answers along with a request for some materials to be delivered to Phobos while I was there anyway. I'm lucky my sister got me this freelance job at Northrop Grumman Corporation, this way I can get supplies for my research easily and only need to spend a few hours a month answering some simple questions about handwavium. Some interesting ideas regarding what would happen when handwavium and plutonium where combined in certain ways had been going around on the mailing lists, and it definitely merited further experimentation.
Kicking a spider that tries to bite me aside I go and check that the navigational system isn't too drunk and that we are still on course. I will need to stock up on more Jack Daniels, the navigation system seems more reliable with it.
Miyu Glear:
I like Phobos, it is one of the few places where the Sol Bianca can dock, and with their traffic control I don't need to deal with the whining of the sensors about their Pokemon episodes being interrupted. I'll need to ask the Professor if he can't upgrade them to something less annoying. With a soft clunk the Sol Bianca settled down in it's docking slip. 12 hours before the convention officially starts and already this place is crawling with fen, which is understandable considering how long it takes to get around. Well I'd better get ready to escort the Professor. Maybe we can go for a romantic walk along the promenade and I can convince him to buy me a new katana. Then we can go to some nice secluded spot where I can finally kill him in peace without Ryoko or Catty interrupting. Who am I kidding, it'll be way too crowded with the upcoming convention, a katana would be nice though.
"Hey Miyu are you alright? You look a little preoccupied." Asks Ryoko, interrupting my pleasant daydream. Really how can someone be so cheerful all the time?
"Just thinking about stuff. I ordered a few extra gallons of bleach, I know spider goo is hard to get out of that shirt."
"Thank you, I hadn't thought of that. Any preferences for dinner?"
"Not really, whatever you feel like making is fine. Well I better get ready to help the Professor, we don't want the power of science unleased on another poor lynching mob. Is there anything I should pick up while I'm in the shopping district anyway?"
"No, we are good until the next batch of supplies arrive. See you tonight." She says as she waves me off with a cheerful little wave. She is so nice, if I didn't know better I would say it's impossible to be so cheerful all the time.
