Midnight on the Firing Line

[Deleted]

{Note, this topic is occurring parallel with “Arrival, destruction.”}



As soon as Royd had detected Suki’s arrival in the mountains below and Zach’s accompanying thoughts of attempting to kill him in one shot, the captain knew there was going to be trouble. Rather then stick around as planned, the raven haired telepath directed his anti-gravitational disk to carry him to orbit. With the seven star dragon ball safely tucked away in the knapsack that was tied to the railing, Royd ascended into the airless vacuum of space and slowly approached the mysterious behemoth that was the Nightflyer. His vehicle plodded along as it ascended up beneath the great ship’s bulk and after a minute to align it’s self with the docking port, continued up into the circular receptacle in the floor of the main cargo hold.

The crafted docked with a slight shudder and immediately the power and data umbilicals automatically attached, starting the process of recharging the vehicle’s energy storage cells. Wasting no time Royd proceeded to untie the sack and make his way towards the transit tube. He road the lift up to the residential tower and then headed down the gilded and marble main corridor to the palatial lounge, all the while the computer was urging him to plot a course out of orbit. The overprotective machine wanted to save Royd anyway it could and at the moment, the only option open was simply to run away. The Nightflyer carried over seven decades worth of fuel onboard and is was unlikely anyone would spend seventy years chasing down a freighter.

“No, we’re not going to run. We couldn’t outrun them long enough to get out of sensor range, even if we left now.” Royd responded to the computer’s urgings. “I agree we do need to take some form of action… Heat up the reactor and bring the main engines online. We may need to maneuver.” Royd continued as he half walked and half glided in the one sixteenth Earth gravity that the ship was maintaining. The man entered the lounge and dropped the sack containing the dragon ball amongst the pillows on one of the couches and then proceeded through the concealed entryway into his quarters.

“Bring the hologram emitters online and prepare to project to the planetary surface.” Royd instructed as he unlocked his helmet and placed it beside his bed. The large, bowl shaped bed doubled as the control point for his hologram and was lined with neural nodes that enabled Royd to communicate with the computer and manipulate his hologram as if it were his own body. Not bothering to remove the rest of his space suit, Royd laid down and motioned for the computer to start the process. An instant later Royd would find himself back down on the surface of Earth, seeing everything through the ethereal eyes of his hologram.

[Toshio Katsuo]

Toshio’s lean and muscular body appeared on the Captain’s ship. While he had not directly transmitted to Royd’s position, he had at least made it onto the ship. Using Instant transmission from the planet below was difficult, and Toshio was glad he at least made it onto the ship. He looked around and noticed that the room he was in was a large, palactial room with a projector screen displaying Earth for a ceiling, a few couches, and a kitchen to one side. Of course Toshio didn’t take into account any security systems that the feeble legged captain had. And He watched as the projector image changed form Earth to something more so of a warning of something.

A siren the interrupted Toshio’s thought process, making him jump and nearly giving him a heart attack. Toshio frantically tried his best to stop or convince the alarm system he didn’t mean any harm. Waiving his arms around and his frantic voice didn’t help much. He knew that the loud sounding alarm wasn’t a good thing, and probably thought Toshio was some sort of intruder.

”Wait!! Wait!! wait !! I’m not an intruder. Captain Royd knows me, I know Royd. No No No I don’t mean any harm. I’m just here to get the dragonball!! Wait wait wait that sounded wrong..”

Toshio didn’t know what to do or where did go, as he continued to frantically try and convince the non-voice alarm that he wasn’t an enemy. His flailing stopped when he had jumped so high he smacked his head against the projector ceiling, he immediately grabbed his head in pain. AAHH…I was barely jumping… It was then he noticed the gravity…or lack there of…Their seemed to be hardly none at all, much lighter than Earth. That would explain the high jump….ow… Toshio slowly floated back to the floor, still holding his bumped head. The siren continued to irritate him and if Royd was alive he would certainly know someone was on the ship by now.

It would be best for Toshio if he would just stay put and not move, he hoped that Royd would eventually find him. Time was of the essence but Toshio was sure if he tried finding Royd he would just get lost ever more. Sitting down, Toshio would wait for the arrival of the captain. Hopefully he would turn the siren’s off as well…

[Deleted]

The battle on the lookout was something Royd didn’t particularly care to witness but he knew he had to stay informed as to what was going on, and so remained in his holographic form. Non-verbally he’d instructed the computer to record everything within the radius of the hologram’s perception field, intending to make the footage available if need be. The battle was going particularly badly though and eventually Kami pulled Toshio back and gave him instruction which his holographic alter ego could not hear. A moment later and Toshio vanished entirely from sight.

“Check that… What happened?... No it’s not a sensor failure, I can still see everyone else.” Royd conversed verbally with the ship’s computer while it responded in it’s customary fashion of hushed, electronic whispers. Before Royd could get another word out though, the computer detected the sudden presence of another person on board the ship. Several of the computer monitors in Royd’s quarters started to flash intruder warnings and the general alarm claxon started to blare.

“Ah! What are you doing?” Royd yelled, his concentration jarred to the point that he lost his link with the hologram and the image on the planet vanished. The computer responded with a frantic, almost angry sounding barrage of it’s cryptic form of speech and a moment later a live video feed of the lounge came up on all of the monitors. The computer was in a near paranoid state at the sudden intrusion and immediately closed the passage to Royd’s quarters as well as sealing the exit from the lounger and prepared to vent the compartment.

“No, stop this at once!” Royd demanded. “He’s not here to harm me, that’s one of the men from the floating building. He’s here to protect me.” the telepath tried to convince the computer. The machine though responded with more frantic sounds as this was the first person other then Royd or Adara to set foot on the ship in over seventy five years. After a few more moments of stern reassurance that Toshio wasn’t there to hurt him, the machine relented and opened the passageway back up, killed the sirens and returned the ship’s lighting and displays back to their normal functions. Royd immediately climbed out of the bowl shaped bed and glided down the darkened corridor and through the concealed entrance into the lounge.

“Master Katsuo. I apologize for the rude welcome. You’re the first guest aboard in well, ever… and your method of arrival startled even me. I’ve afraid the computer is even more easily unnerved then me and since it runs the ship, well, just try to tell me next time you want to come up.” Royd greeted the man at length. Royd suppressed a chuckle at Toshio’s somewhat clumsy movements in the light gravity. Sure he’d seated himself now, but the image from the security footage was still fresh in his mind, that of Toshio face planting himself into the ceiling. It was understandable, the people on Earth were used to a full G all of the time so when suddenly placed into a once sixteenth G environment, they would tend to overcompensate. Royd’s movements though, unlike on the surface were natural and even graceful as he’d lived his entire life in the low gravity. Indeed it might even surprise Toshio how easily Royd’s movements were not, in sharp contrast to his constant struggle just to remain standing on Earth.

[Toshio Katsuo]

As Toshio waited, he finally listened as the sirens stopped and the ceiling projector screen return to its normal view of the Earth. Toshio’s ears were still ringing when Royd came into the room. Toshio noticed that Captain Royd took to the light gravity fairly well, a lot better than he did…As Toshio’s ears were still ringing from the siren’s he caught part of what the Captain said.

“Master Katsuo…aplogize..rude welcome. First aboard…startled me...tell me next time you want to come up...”

Toshio, sticking his finger in his ears to try and get rid of the ringing he spoke rather loudly because he was having trouble hearing himself.

“YEA SORRY ABOUT THAT IT WAS KIND OF SPUR OF THE MOMENT THING. NEXT TIME I’LL SEND A NOTICE.”

Finally, the ringing stopped and Toshio shook his head before speaking again, this time in a more quieter voice.

“Kami sent me here to get the dragonball you have, time is against us. I don’t think I need to tell you that if Suki gets the dragonballs were all pretty much in massive trouble.”

When Toshio finished, his mind couldn’t help but think about how Kami was doing… He only hoped that Kami was still alive…

[Deleted]

Listening to Toshio, Royd nodded his head, now knowing what his hologram had missed when Kami spoke to the man. He didn’t need Toshio to tell him that time was short though, with Suki on the planet there wasn’t any time to lose. Once thing did not make sense to the telepath however, why bring the only safe dragon ball down to earth. Right now, as long as the Nightflyer didn’t try to leave the planet, to would appear to be just another orbiting spacecraft, a large one yes, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary, and who would spend time coming Earth’s orbit for a dragon ball on a space going supertanker?

“Of course, it’s right here.” Royd responded and motioned to the couch, the backpack Zach had given him having been tossed amongst the pillows on the sinfully comfortable piece of furniture. “I don’t understand though, surely we should keep this ball here where it is safe, perhaps even bring the others here, unless you have gathered the other six already. Right now this ball is not in play and should remain that way as long as Suki does not suspect it has been moved off the planet. From what I observed this is not the case, he seems convinced that they are on the lookout.” Royd explained, laying out his confusion as to why they were bringing the ball down from the safety of his grand ship.

“Still, if that is what the Kami wants, I shall not argue.” The man continued. “He didn’t by any chance specify how he wanted us to bring it and where did he? I can offer you a space suit for the ride down on one of my anti-gravitational disks, that would take close to an hour though. Alternatively we could take the ship it’s self, although it would be rather conspicuous if a half mile long tanker suddenly descended into the planet’s atmosphere.”

The mere suggestion that the Nightflyer make an atmospheric dive threw the computer into another tantrum, an angry sounding jumble of eerie, mechanical whispers cascaded through the opulent lounge, leading Royd to shake his head. “Look, I know you think it is too dangerous, but we are all in danger now. If that monster on the planet is tipped off or otherwise decides to come searching up here, we can’t outrun his vessel. You have to stop resisting me on these matters, I am taking the only safe course of action.” Royd stated, trying to get the machine under control, to which it replied with another barrage of cryptic sounds.

“No, I said it before, we can’t just leave. His ship will probably detect that and will be in the air before we can get far enough away to lose them. Our only course of action is to do what we can to save this planet from him. Do you understand?” Royd continued to converse with the paranoid computer and then turned to look at Toshio once more.

“Sorry, the computer has a bit too much of a personality at times and is much too protective.” he explained to the man.

[Toshio Katsuo]

Toshio watched as Royd pointed to a backpack on the couch, he then listened as Royd provided pretty good points about the dragonball staying here on his ship. After Royd finished talking and apologizing for his computer, Toshio smiled and the spoke.

”Heh, that’s okay. I understand it’s concern. I’m much like that with my students. As for the dragonballs we have got most of them, and I believe were going to have to make that wish sooner rather than later. And do not fret, I know of a much quicker way down to earth. The reason I appeared on here was because I know a technique that is quite useful although taxing if used too much or for great distances. I haven’t tried it before, but I’m sure I could have someone accompany me using that technique. So you don’t have to worry about transportation as I got that…as for the location…I was going to It back to the lookout back to kami but..”

Toshio had not noticed it before, but when he tried to locate Kami’s ki signature he couldn’t anymore…which would mean…Toshio didn’t want to think about it..Maybe theirs another reason…I have to get back down there…Let’s see…who can I arrive on…Ah…. theirs somebody.

Toshio looked at Royd before speaking once more.

”..I can’t seem to locate Kami’s ki signature…I don’t want to fear the worst..but I need a ki signature to lock onto for my technique to work.. Lucky for us everybody hasn’t been killed yet…If you need to gather anything now would be a great time. We need to get back down to earth as soon as possible.”

[Deleted]

“Hmmmm, very well, as long as you think you can get us down safely.” Royd replied to Toshio’s offer to take him back to Earth. “I’ll need a minute to get my helmet and cane and give the computer some instructions.” The black haired man added as he turned and gracefully bounced his way back through the concealed passage next to the pipe organ that dominated the left hand wall of the grand lounge. It took him only a few moments to traverse the passage to his quarters, during which time he expected Toshio would pick up the backpack.

Grasping his cane and securing his helmet to his belt, Royd turned to the wall of computer monitors and in particular the camera that fed directly into the ship’s computer. “I will be heading back to the planet with mister Katsuo. I want you to prep the anti-gravitational disk and send it down as soon as you have a fix on my radio beacon. I’ll likely be using it to get back up here. If there is trouble though, I may need the ship to maneuver so keep the engines at the ready. Understood?” Royd instructed the machine. Predictably it protested the dangerous course of action but relented and the telepath departed the room, heading back to the lounge.

“Ok, I have everything set here. The Nightflyer will remain in orbit and as soon as we are on the surface it will send a disk down for me. The flight though will take about an hour so we won’t have use of it until then.” Royd explained. “Is there anything else you think we may need while we are up here?”

[Toshio Katsuo]

Toshio nodded as he let the captain gather what he needed, Toshio then strolled over to the couch and picked up the backpack. All this fuss over some little orange ball…well once gathered could grant a wish…honestly, who would want that…

Toshio looked back up to see Royd was back and seemed ready. Shaking his head no to the ‘need anything else’ question, Toshio smiled and lifted up the backpack.

”Nope this is the only thing I need, unless you have something that can stop an mad tyrant with massive power. Now come, grab hold on my shoulder. Try not to let go, letting go would not be good.”

Toshio walked to Royd, and waited for him to grab a hold of his shoulder. When that was done, Toshio concentrated on the signature of a warrior, and without another second the two were gone from the ship.

[Gray Callahan]

Royd:1200
Tosh:1000