Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

The spaceship never actually touched down, hovering twenty feet above the treetops. As soon as the vessel was stationary, five short columns of sparkling blue and white light formed a half-dozen meters in front of us. The columns of energy each deposited a human being. Teleportation through technology; amazing. I was still working on my own teleportation spell using what I had seen of Setsuna's as a guide. It had a few bugs to work out.

What do you say to humans with a lot more technology than those from your own planet? The three men and two women from the ship didn't appear threatening, and weren't armed with any kind of weapon that I knew. Those things at their waists did hold a lot of energy, though. Here goes nothing. "Hey, nice to meet ya," I said.

The man in the red jumpsuit stepped forward and cleared his throat. "I'm Commander Riker of the Enterprise. This star system is in imminent danger from a nearby black hole. Do you need assistance?"

Black hole. That would not have been fun. "We didn't come here by ship, Commander Riker," I replied. Now to see if they believe in magic here. "My friends and I were transported from our home dimension by mistake when a containment spell I was performing went awry.”

To my surprise, the Commander just nodded and tapped a small device attached to his suit. "Eleven to beam up, Ensign." Not bad, but the Senshi's are better. "You do wish to return to the ship with us, correct?"

Stupid question. "Yeah." The girls behind me squeaked in fright when the teleporter grabbed them. I thought it felt pretty good, sorta like the bubbles in a hot tub. When the blue and white lights dissipated, the Senshi, the Commander and I were standing on a raised platform in a stereotypical futuristic space ship. All cool earthy colors and smooth, flowing lines.

"Welcome to the Starship Enterprise, ladies. You are currently being held within a containment field. As soon as you've been checked out in the sick bay and given clearance, Captain Picard will see you." I nodded and smirked at the Senshi. They were a little overloaded at the moment. Too much input all at once.

A man in a yellow suit did something to the console in front of him and the teleporter dumped us in the sick bay. I could still feel the energy field around us and could have easily nullified it, but that would probably leave a bad impression with our hosts.

An attractive middle-aged woman in a blue lab coat approached the field. "Hello, I'm Dr. Crusher. If you all would just lay down on those examination tables, we'll be finished in a few minutes." I complied and the Senshi followed my example. Whatever the doctor did, it didn't even take the predicted few minutes.

"All right," the doctor said, typing in a command on a touch sensitive flat panel. With the command the energy field surrounding us disappeared. "You're all in perfect physical health. The Captain wishes to meet with you in his ready room, and since I don't have anything better to do, I'll show you the way."

"Is this ship from Earth?" I asked after following the woman through a couple of corridors. I'd already seen a blue guy and a green woman. They weren't demonic in origin, so I guessed they were aliens.

"Yes," answered Dr. Crusher. "Well, it was built in one of the shipyards orbiting Earth. May I ask why you wish to know?"

"It's just unusual. The Earth we come from is way too primitive to possibly build something like this." Useful exchange of information.

"I was under the impression that you and your friends were involved in a reactor containment failure that somehow transported you to Berov IV." The doctor gave us all a confused glance.

"Heh, heh. The Commander must have misunderstood." I don't really know what a reactor containment failure even is. "I was working a containment spell, as in magic, to release the spirit of an ancient warlock without blowing up the countryside that held his tomb. Something went wrong, and poof, here we are."

I got another confused and slightly skeptical glance. Squeezed into a tiny elevator, Ami finally spoke up. "What does the ship use for propulsion? I didn't notice any exterior thrust apparatus."

The doctor laughed and said, "Engineering isn't exactly my area of expertise. As I understand it, though, the Enterprise uses a matter/anti-matter reactor to provide propulsion through particle drive or warp-space manipulation."

For someone who doesn't know what she's talking about, Dr. Crusher sounded considerably knowledgeable on the subject. Ami's eyes were shining with interest. Oh, boy.

The elevator stopped and we stepped into what I assume was the bridge. There sure were a lot of controls and people and a really big TV screen. "This way."

The Captain was an older man who was as bald as a cue ball. I repeated my story, this time in more detail, while the Senshi gawked at a particularly ugly alien named Worf, and a guy named Data who I'm absolutely sure wasn't alive.

"And your certain that you didn't somehow travel into the future with your… magic?" asked the Captain cautiously.

"Positive. For one thing, our future has her," I pointed to Usagi who smiled and waved to the Captain, "as Queen of Earth. I'm told that she'll grow into the role, and I can tell that that hasn't happened or someone here would have recognized her. Mostly, though, I just know that this isn't my universe of origin. The energy is off a little. Ami says that it's a quantum variance or something like that."

"If I may," the woman named Diana interrupted, "Ranma is being truthful in this matter, or she has been so heavily programmed that she completely believes what she's saying." Sure hope she isn't psychic. All kinds of bad stuff could see the light of day.

"Yep, that's me, Ms. Honesty. Really, though, I appreciate you and your ship saving us from the black hole, and don't want to be ungrateful, but the sooner we get home the better. All I need is a mirror, some candles, and a few crystals— quartz, if you have them."

"How would those items… Oh, yes, magic. I'm sure they can be found. In the meantime, could you demonstrate to us your magic? We've encountered a number of powerful entities over the years who possessed powers that could have been termed as magic."

Talk about hard to please! I had to eventually start blowing stuff up and flying around on the holodeck to convince the Captain that I wasn't just some kind of hoax. That holodeck place really kicked ass. I had Ami download the plans for one from the ship's computer once we were assigned quarters, not that I expected her to be able to build one with the junk back on our Earth. That was one hell of a space ship. It was big and luxurious, and I wouldn't have minded staying on a few years; but duty called. Sigh.

Of all the advanced technology on the ship, I have to say that the food replicator was the best. Anything you wanted to eat, with no more hassle than it takes to say a couple of words. Usagi did short hers out for a couple hours with the ice cream addiction, but the guy with the freaky sunglasses fixed it up.

Speaking of Usagi, the girl was getting treated way better than she deserved. I shouldn't have mentioned that she was royalty.

We were invited by the Captain to see the destruction of the star system we had just left. The observation deck was full of ship's staff and off-duty workers who turned out for the spectacle. I didn't really care much for seeing what could have easily been my fate. I went along because the experience could be valuable. Ami had mentioned that black holes severely distorted time, and anything I could get together to fight off Setsuna, if the need arose, was worth looking into.

Ami squeezed her way through the crowd and managed to lean against me. She's a nice girl, and I like her as a friend, but I don't really want to get into a serious relationship with her. Casual sex and friendship is good; commitment is bad. I just hoped she felt the same. For now, though, I didn't mind the few odd looks from the other Senshi or the crew of the Enterprise. I was mostly accustomed to being female and I wasn't really a lesbian, so… Why not enjoy it?

She hugged me. "Thank you so much for bringing us here, Ranma." For the last few days, when we hadn't been making whoopee in my quarters, the girl had been sponging up knowledge from the computer at such a rate that Data— the Android (real fancy robot) that I thought was a dead guy at first— commented that among humans, he had never seen as fast a learner. "When we get home, I am going to be able to change the world."

Our little side trip to this alternate dimension could be the cause for the rise of Crystal Tokyo. With everything Ami has learned, she's assured me that she can end world hunger, stop pollution, fix the weather, and re-colonize the solar system. The little minx is plenty grateful to me. "No problem… not that I did it on purpose or anything."

She shrugged against me. "It's the results that matter, not how they're arrived at." I hope Setsuna sees it that way, or I may be making a return trip to the Enterprise.

"You're pretty tough," I admitted to Data. We were sparring in one of the holodecks. I was kicking his robotic ass. I hadn't had a purely physical fight like this in years, though, so I was enjoying myself immensely.

"Thank you." He leapt for me, using sheer mass to knock me off my feet. Whatever this guy is made of, it's a lot heavier than anything I've ever dealt with.

Once I had solid ground under me, I flexed my muscles and threw the android into the wall. I'll say one good thing for Happosai; he trained me well. I almost wish he hadn't tried to take over my younger body. Oh, well, the past is the past.

"If I may ask," Data began, picking himself up and dusting his uniform off, "how is it that a human of your size is capable of withstanding the stress of direct combat with me? The only other life form of similar size to you that I have encountered that could were the Borg, and they were highly augmented with cybernetics."

"It's all in the training," I answered. "There's a certain peak that a person reaches where their body simply can not improve upon itself any longer; with the proper training, a person can use their internal energies to strengthen their body. I've done it for so many years that I don't even have to use my chi to get it to work."

Data nodded. "Chi being the spirit force of a living individual."

Data had duty in a few minutes and I had volunteered for some tests that the doctor wanted to run on my brain. They still didn't really believe that magic was real, as if the Senshi's transforming without any visible energy source wasn't proof enough.

Within a week of searching, I had narrowed our home dimension down to three possibilities. These last three were so similar to each other in most significant ways that I was having problems getting past this last hurdle.

The door to my quarters slid open without prompting and Ami threw herself off of me, forming a cocoon within the blankets and hiding inside. Captain Picard stepped into the room and sat in a chair near the door.

I tried not to glare too hard at the man. He'd done a lot to help the Senshi and me, the least of which was saving our lives. I'd been this close, though.

"I've just received orders from Starfleet Command. The Enterprise is to head to the nearest starbase immediately, with our newest guests under close guard, where you will be turned over to Starfleet Intelligence for debriefing. I won't assume to say that the experience would be pleasant. For now, I will be following these orders to the letter. I suggest you and your friends jump to another dimension as soon as possible. The replicators can provide you with whatever you need." And he stood just as quickly as he had sat and left the room.

Well, damn. "You'd better download as much info as you can, Ami, while I gather up the others." She had already summoned her computer and was interfacing with the ship's systems.

I dressed quickly and went to wake my students. None of them were happy, but they forgot their desire to pound me when I passed the news on.

Usagi stared longingly at the replicator, tears gathering in her eyes. I didn't even want to know how much ice cream she had forced the poor machine to make her.

"I thought you still weren't sure where home was," Rei said.

"I'm not. There are only three choices: a thirty-three percent chance of getting it on the first try. If it's not the right one, the odds keep going up until we hit the jackpot." Heh.

Ami was dressed and had backpacks for each of us. The Captain had said we could use the replicators. "Everyone grab one," she ordered.

I had been performing the location spell in an empty cargo bay. My quarters would do this time. The circular mirror surrounded by replicated (those machines are damned convenient) crystals stopped reflecting light as soon as my energy, augmented by my Crystal, began to pour through it. Each of the Senshi held a colored candle representative of her color. They lit them with a spark of magic, as directed by me, and the light generated by the flames was redirected straight into the crystals. A five-pointed star formed above the mirror, its corners the now glowing crystals.

I didn't really need the Senshi to do what I had them doing, but they felt useful and it eased the strain on me slightly. Win/win situation.

"Jump into the mirror," I told them. One by one, starting with Rei and ending with me, we jumped through the mirror and appeared in a lightly wooded area on the edge of a larger forest.

Damn, this wasn't the one. Ami and Rei looked at me. They, too, knew. I told the others and endured their disappointment.

"All we have to do is find another mirror and some more crystals and I'll try again. Chances are fifty-fifty that it'll work next time."

There were definitely people on this planet; enough of them that I could easily detect several of the larger populations. We were in the boonies and flying to save time. Minako suddenly dropped from my peripheral vision. I stopped sharply and glided down towards where she would have gone down if her spell had lost power. I found the girl sitting on the ground with an unusual looking little dog creature. It was barking happily and licking the girl's face like candy.

"Damn," Makoto hissed. First time I'd ever heard her use that particular word. "It's a pokémon, a real live pokémon! Hey, Minako, it's a Growlithe." She set down beside the blonde and between them they lavished an almost indecent amount of attention on the… pokémon.

"Oh, my gosh!" Usagi exclaimed. "Shingo has a stuffed pokémon just like that one!" And she joined the first two. That thing was seriously eating up the attention.

When I thought about it, I knew that it was theoretically possible for something like an anime to truly exist in another universe, but what were the odds of stumbling across such an occurrence? I asked Ami and she just shrugged.

"Are they dangerous?" I asked. I'd seen the commercials for the show a couple of times, and some of those little creatures had real power. Neither Rei nor Ami, the only Senshi not trying to mother the Growlithe to death, knew any more than I did about pokémon.

"I wish I had a pokéball," Makoto said. I think it's some kind of dog treat.

"You don't need one," Minako told her. "This one has imprinted on you like normal puppies. He must have just hatched." That thing didn't look much like a bird, but who was I to say where little pokémon came from?

"I wish I had one." That innocent statement by Usagi totally halted any further progress for the day. Usagi and the other Senshi— I just enjoyed myself watching Makoto try to teach hers to talk— searched the forest for more pokémon. The future Queen was attacked by giant birds, giant insects, and a walking tree. Despite these difficulties, she returned with a stupid-looking lamb thing. Ami came back next. She had a giant butterfly resting on her right shoulder, and a big egg held under her left arm. She gave me the egg.

"Thanks," I told her with real gratitude. I have absolutely no idea what to do with a pokémon, but I don't get gifts often enough to accept them casually. "What do you think it'll be?"

"Minako says that there's no way to tell just by looking at the egg. I tried to scan it, but it's so thick that I couldn't get a reading." She was leaning against me with her butterfly sleeping in her lap when Minako finally came back. The girl led behind her a small parade of pokémon. Two different birds, one like Makoto's, one of Usagi's lambs, and two giant caterpillars.

"Yes, yes, I know I'm good," she said and settled down on a cushion of air of her own creation, with her cadre gathered around her. I don't mind taking along a pet when we jumped again, but there was no way we were going to have this zoo with us.

I was the only person awake at the makeshift campsite, pokémon included, when Rei stomped into the clearing. She didn't have a pokémon and didn't look too happy about it. The light given off by the last embers of our dying fire was enough for her to see the horde of pokémon collected by her friends. Then she saw me grinning at her. The girl turned around and stomped back into forest.

She didn't return again until midmorning, and the squirming rat she held to tightly couldn't possibly have been a pokémon. Turns out that it actually is a pokémon. Is every animal on this planet a pokémon? That must really suck for people when wild animals with the power that Makoto said some of them had went on the rampage.

To be continued.

Author's Notes: A few chapters in Pokémon Land might be fun. What will the next world be? C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

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Last revision: May 21, 2007