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Chapter 7 - Chapter 2: +12 Kick of Reality Readjustment to Your View of the Galaxy... Part2

A few hours after that incident, Ranma and 25 were still talking in a corner of the hangar bay while elsewhere on the ship event continued apace.

At Dooku's command the Kaiseki stayed where it was, where Dooku hoped to keep it until the freighter jumped into the Gran system. Dooku hoped to see what this ship's arrival in his destination would cause before revealing his own presence. If he was lucky someone would recognize it and call it by name, giving him even more leverage to work with. He already had two of the astromech droids from his ship working on cracking the captain's personal files, and they were making decent enough headway, but every little bit helped.

Most of the crew of the ship had congregated in the hyperdrive system. It was a very makeshift job, and the captain was not at all happy about it, which the captain, Michael, made certain that Master Dooku was aware of the moment the Jedi master explained his plans to the man. "This systems been shot to hell sir, frankly I wouldn't trust it at all. We might, just might, get a single jump out of it but that's about all, but what condition the ship'll be in when we come out of, or even where in the system, that's up in the air."

"It would be that inaccurate?" Dooku asked somewhat dismayed. He had thought his ruse an excellent idea, but it didn't seem to be a viable one.

"Sir, we'd need a full engineering crew and parts to get this running again, that's the truth of it. Right now I would not trust it with my life, let alone the civilians or yours."

"Your devotion does you credit captain, thank you. If that is the case, can we transport all of the miners on the frigate? Including the prisoners?" Several crewmen, including one who had confessed to being the ship's communication officer, had surrendered, and surprisingly been taken captive by the miners during their takeover of the ship. Those prisoners, the ship, and the captain's logs would give Dooku enough hard evidence to really hammer the Gran government in his negotiations.

The man winced. "I don't think so sir. We could possibly head for the nearest Republic planet, but even a short jump like that with this many people would overload our atmospheric systems."

"You said we might be able to get one jump out of it, could we jump there and get repairs?"

"Not with any speed sir, which given the plan of your schedule is of the essence I'm afraid." Michael frowned, thinking hard, going over what he knew of the local star systems. "I think there are a few Alderaan Ranger ships near here, helping local law enforcement groups hunt down pirates. A few of them could have the carrying capacity for the miners."

Dooku frowned closing his eyes for a brief moment, sending his mind out into the Force. Then he opened them, nodding decisively. "Can they be here in the next few hours?"

"I… I think so master Dooku, if I get the message off quickly. Why?"

"Just a Force premonition, I believe that this slaver ship's friends are searching for it along its route." The miners represented a financial resource after all, as did this ship, an even larger one at present. "I will need your crewmen's aid to take statements of the miners, all of whom will be going with the rangers. I will also canvass the prisoners, four of which will be joining us, as will young Ranma."

"I'll get right to it then sir." The captain nodded crisply moving away, already talking into his communicator summoning up his crew from various areas of the ship. As he moved out of hearing range however Dooku could still hear him start to mutter under his breath. "And if that kid goes anywhere near my engines, I'm going to whack him upside the head with a spanner!"

With that being taken care of, Dooku talked to a few of the miners once more then sifted through the prisoners for three more to add to the communications officer. After that, Dooku made his way back down to the hangar bay, where he was unsurprised to find Ranma and 25 talking. 25 was holding up a large tablet and showing images as he enunciated words carefully, with Ranma doing the same. "Have you made much progress?"

"Master Dooku." 25 said turning his head to them as Ranma did the same. "Yes, barring a few interruptions we've made very good progress. Young Ranma learns remarkably quickly, and seems to retain knowledge far better than the human norm. Nonetheless, I believe it will be at least a week, possibly two before he is fluent in Basic enough to communicate effectively."

"Two weeks?" Dooku said surprised. Most of the time when younglings had to be taught Basic it took months. And wasn't it supposed to be that the older a person was, the harder they found it to learn languages? "Do you think that is normal for his race, or is it just Ranma?"

"I believe it is just Ranma, Master Dooku. All the body language I'm getting often is the most basic of human standard as I said earlier."

"I see." Dooku said with a nod. "Very well, continue. We will talk soon." he said to Ranma nodding his head at the youth.

Ranma nodded back with a faint smile before turning to 25, pointing at Dooku as Dooku walked off. "Tell me about him, and this Jedi thing."

25 shook his head. "You do not have the words yet for that." He said in a sentence that Ranma had heard before and understood the meaning of. "Let us continue for now."

Ranma rolled his eyes but did so, starting to do some sit-ups and push-ups in place as he looked at the images while listening to 25 describe them. The droid had mimed him doing such things when it began to notice Ranma becoming antsy and inattentive. Man, if only the teachers back at school could've let me do this kind of thing in class, meh too late now.

Within an hour, a few more small frigates arrived. Two of them quickly took off the miners, including Twila'Cren much to Ranma's relief/regret. Two of the others slaved the larger ship to them, then all four went to hyperspace quickly, their destination Alderaan. A planet known for its devotion to diplomacy and peace, Alderaan was both home to the Rangers and a planet which routinely was used to house evidence or witnesses in cases ongoing against members of the Senate or other planetary governments, its own government's probity unquestionable by any save the most corrupt.

OOOOOOO

Several days passed by with the ship in hyperspace which Ranma put to good use studying the local language almost all the time. By this point Ranma was becoming more fluent in the local dialect every day, adding words to his growing vocabulary. He still screwed up a lot of the specific words, and his general knowledge of this universe was still lacking tremendously, but for only a few day's work the ability to speak at all and be understood was still an achievement.

Despite the droid's aid in helping him and his general awe of being in space however, there were some aspects of it that Ranma just could not get used to. Getting out of the sonic shower, Ranma shook his head. How the hell these people think that's a real shower is beyond me.

Ranma understood the need to conserve water aboard a spaceship, after all you could only have so much interior space. But the entire 'sonic shower' idea was just weird! I don't actually feel clean, not really. Worse, it don't exactly help with my self-control issues.

He was still dealing with 'odd' dreams every night, and more often than not had to clean his sheets before leaving the small room he had been assigned upon coming aboard (more of a closet in size really) before starting his day. Luckily there weren't any girls among the crew to cause him to react, giving him more time to try and get a handle on that kind of thing. But his body's control wasn't coming nearly as easily as his emotional control.

On the other hand, I bet if I did try to have an actual shower aboard the ship, the heating or something would break. Stupid water attracting portion of the curse!

It was all too easy for Ranma to remember the hundreds of times water simply reacted oddly in his presence. Traveling uphill was one, splashing far harder off the pavement just to get him or one of the other cursed individuals rather than splashing like normal another. Or the one time he tried to take a shower at in the boy's bathroom at school. The water, which had until then been warm enough to make steam as it fell out of the tap, had a bare few minutes into Ranma's shower turned cold as the heater broke. He'd had to break several people's legs that day…

Out of the shower he pulled on a shirt one of the ship's crew had given him. It was a little tight, hugging him like a second skin, but Ranma didn't mind. At least I'm not trying to wear it in my female form, that I'd have a problem with.

Now, he thought, stretching and cracking his neck and shoulders, 25 said I should probably talk to some of the crew to, what was it 'get used to lingual shifts' or something? Don't know what that means, but whatever. Once fully dressed, Ranma moved through the ship, nodding his head at a crewmen moving about the business, an alien that looked sort of like a grasshopper standing on his hind legs called a Verpine.

The crew of the small cruiser was composed of six, three human men and three aliens. Apparently two of the aliens were technically female, including the Verpine, but their forms were such that Ranma couldn't think of them in that manner.

A few minutes later he entered the bridge of the ship, which was a small area only big enough for one observer, the captain, and three other stations, with very little room in between. The captain of the ship, Michael, turned as the door to the bridge opened. He nodded politely at Ranma though internally he was still wondering what exactly the younger man was. Jedi master Dooku was obviously fascinated by him, and the captain had heard all about Ranma saving the would-be slaves. But his strange abilities, and of course the curse threw Michael off, as it would anyone.

"25 said I greed to talk, learn more, is okay?" Ranma asked in his pigeon Basic.

Michael nodded. "That's fine, er and that's need there, not greed. We're in hyperspace right now so we don't have much in the way of duties except to watch our boards for anything going wrong. Ask away." He smirked a little, deliberately waggling his eyebrows, knowing Ranma was far better at body cues then at verbal ones. "Though I'm surprised you don't want to talk to Carson, he'd be happy to talk to you all you want."

Carson was the cook aboard the ship. He was the only one who had not been involved in repairing the hyperdrive of the slave ship, and as such hadn't met Ranma before Ranma came aboard. When he did, Ranma had just had splashed himself deliberately to deal with Twila and a few of the other girls trying to get a rise out of him. Carson believed himself a suave womanizer, and had immediately hit on the small busty redhead only to be turned down via a kick to the crotch.

The younger man smiled showing all of his teeth for a moment as he reached down to the small handrail separating the operations area from the observer's position. The metal under his grip bent easily under his hand, and he cocked an eyebrow. "Dead male what say?"

"Nevermind!" Michael said waving his hands quickly. To his other side the other crewmen laughed at his misfortune.

The Mon Calamari communications specialist waved his hand. "Do not mind the captain." He rasped. "He is a typical Corellian, they always think they are more amusing than they actually are."

"As a captain of the Republic fleet I am above such slander, but as a Corellian I take offense at that remark, and will have my revenge." Michael laughed.

"Corellian," Ranma said mouthing the word a few time before getting it right. "Human world?"

"One of them is, er, Corellia's the name of the system, and one of the planets." Michael said elaborating slightly. He turned to his computer, punching in orders, and a small hologram of a star system appeared in the observation area causing Ranma to turn around and look at it.

"Corellia." Michael said as he stood up from his chair to come over, pointing at one of the planets. "This is my home planet, Corellia itself." pointing at it, the hologram obligingly enlarged at his touch. Then it was substituted for several pictures of the planet itself, showing forests, mountains, oceans and blue skies along with several large but seemingly beautiful cities.

Ranma stared at it, a wide smile on his face. "Beautiful." he said in Japanese then tried in basic. "Er, more than pretty for un-living things?"

"Beautiful or gorgeous or I suppose. In terms of planets picturesque?" Michael guessed.

"All of above." Ranma said with a laugh causing Michael and the helmsman, another Corellian, to laugh as well.

Michael went on, shrinking that planet and pointing to the others. "Selonia, Drall, Tralus, and Talus. The Five Brothers, they're called. Selonia is the home planet of the Selonians."

A image appeared, standing taller than a human set next to it for comparison. It had fur and coloring that reminded Ranma of otters or maybe stoats. "Huh. Two… er… people… in one system, normal or not?"

"Species. Very normal, most planets, while governed by one race or another, will have a smattering of other races represented among its population. If by that you mean if it's unusual for a planet to be the home system for two different species, well, that is unusual. But humans didn't originate in Corellia, the Selonians and the Drall did."

Another button popped up an image of a Drall, which barely reached the human's waist. It was a furry mammal looking alien which again didn't wear any clothing, though with his fur, it probably didn't need any.

"Huh." Ranma mused, staring at the image.

Michael turned the hologram back to the system, and continued on, speaking about the planets, and the fact that two of them, Tralus and Talus, had been colonized originally by humans from Corellia.

"What this?" Ranma asked as Michael finished speaking about the Twins, pointing between them at the point directly between the Twins as they moved around one another.

"Ah, one of the greatest mysteries in known space, Centerpoint Station. All three species that live in Corellia believe that someone created Corellia using Centerpoint Station somehow. After all, no other system has ever been found that has five planets capable of bearing life, let alone three that could support the evolution of intelligent life."

He laughed quietly. "Of course, even though billions of scientists have studied it for thousands of years, we're no closer to figuring out its secrets than we were in the beginning. There's a sect of Corellians made up of all three races, that look on it as a mystery and as a point of pride. That we were brought together for some reason, some destiny in the future."

"Create?" Ranma asked sharply. He hadn't actually understood a lot of what Michael said, in fact he was only getting one out of every four words or so, but that word came through clearly. "Create system? How?!"

"Like I said, no one knows, but It's not normal for that many life bearing planets to be in the same system, and the system itself has some other anomalies, like Centerpoint itself, and the Twins."

Ranma frowned. "Strange, yes? Not normal?"

All three of his listeners laughed then, even the Mon Calamari. "Definitely not normal." The sensor specialist said.

Ranma turned to him. "Your home where?"

"Dac. We too share our system, and our homeworld itself, with many other intelligent races which have evolved within its waters. Though not without tension it must be said." His voice was dust dry even for a Mon Calamari as he referenced the state of fragile peace that existed between his people and the Quarren. "An aquatic world," he said simplifying slightly at Ranma's look of incomprehension.

Michael tapped a few more buttons, and pictures of Dac came up, showing a planet almost entirely dominated by blue sea.

"All planet water?" Ranma asked in shock.

"There are a few places of rock and earth yes, but mostly it is just water. Our first cities were underwater, our first civilizations too, before we learned to make them float. We were extremely advanced before we went to the stars because of the need of our environment."

The picture slowly moved away from the planet, showing the massive rings around it, man-made space stations ringing the planet. "What those?" Ranma asked staring at them intently.

"Construction rings for the creation of starships." The Mon Calamari said. "We have a thriving mercantile fleet, as well as explorers and a defense fleet."

Michael nodded. "The Mon Calamari are reckoned as some of the finest ship engineers in the known galaxy, though very rarely do they sell their ships to others. Not even the Republic has access to their ships. And they are also rumored to be the slowest." He teased, looking over at the coms specialist. "Every ship they make is seen as a work of art, and that kind of perfection takes time."

"Amazing." Ranma said shaking his head. "Ship and stuff so different here."

"Your people haven't started to make their own ships?" Michael asked. Ranma had not opened up about his origins, but his lack of Basic made everyone assume he was from some backwater way out on the Rim.

"We not go past moon." Ranma said with a shrug. "Sent unmanned, little things, to see what out there?"

"Probes?" Michael guessed.

"That work." Ranma said with a shrug. He smirked then at Mon Calamari. "I visit your world, I go swimming, good fun! Have to be in female form for that though. If most people you, I not get hit on, right?"

"Yes, what is with that?" The Mon Calamari asked, voicing a question that the entire crew wanted the answer for, while ignoring the second part of what Ranma had said, since it was true. Humans and many other races might find one another attractive, but Mon Calamari did not find human attractive or vice-versa in the main. "I've never heard or seen of anything like that, changing from one sex to another upon the application of water. Which were you originally?"

Ranma laughed. "Been wonder why no one ask that. I born man first, then idiot father take me on training journey. I then… hmmm…"

Realizing he didn't know the words for curse or magic Ranma frowned tugging at his pigtail as he began to think how to explain. He decided he couldn't explain the actual magic of it, but maybe he could explain how it happened. "We go to training ground, it have lot of poles stuck in water. Job was to fight one another on the poles, not get wet follow?"

"Pretty much." Michael said with a grimace. 'But you seriously need to work on your grammar before you talk to anyone important. I know that they're not supposed to, but I think even Jedi Council at least make first impressions on how people talk."

"Jedi." Ranma said. He had made the connection that the Jedi were an order of ki users, who served this universe in some fashion as a police force or diplomats, though what the Force was and why he was getting quasi-religious overtones when hearing about the Order eluded him. "Have lots of questions about them. I explain first then you explain Jedi?"

Michael looked around at the others, who all nodded. "We won't answer any questions that we don't want to, but yes, we can talk about the Jedi."

"Okay. Anyway, my father big time idiot! He not listen to a warning about the training ground. Training ground each pool have something different …" Ranma frowned, realizing he didn't have the right word, substituting "died from water?"

The Mon Calamari frowned. "'Drown'?"

Ranma nodded. "Drown in them. Weird forms, weird creatures, small creatures, large, not matter, all die in water. Anyone else falls in water take on form of what die there. I start winning against father, smack him into pool of drown…" Ranma frowned again, thinking of how to explain, then brightened, smacking one fist against his palm as he pointed at the hologram thing. "This have picture of animals?"

Fascinated and wondering where this story was going and frankly thinking most of it was made up Michael nodded, and showed Ranma how to work the controls. Eventually Ranma found something that looked sort of like a bear. "I knock my father into a pool, and he came out looking like this creature."

"That was a much better sentence." Michael said nodding his head. "You're learning quick! Quick question though, how big was your father before?"

"Come to think of it, where does the mass go when Ranma changes forms? Ranma's what, four, six inches taller in his male form?" The Mon Calamari asked.

"Oh that's easy," Duncan, the helmsman said. "It goes straight to his tits!"

"I've talked to you about that kind of language before on the clock Duncan." Said Michael glaring over at the man, while Ranma looked as if he was trying to work out what the guy had said. "You're just lucky Ranma didn't understand what you just said, or else he'd probably kill you right now."

"Oh come on you know it's true!"

"Doesn't matter if it's true or not, we're a diplomatic corps crew, not some low life pirates. When you're on duty you watch your language!"

"Or?" Ranma said, having finally worked out what Duncan said, reaching out with two fingers again to bend the separating rail out of shape once more. "I watch it for you, yes? As for father, he big fat man, but mostly muscle." Ranma said rather grudgingly.

"But still there must've been some kind of mass conversion correct?" said them on Mon Calamari.

"I don't know what that is." Ranma said with a shrug.

"Now there your grammar was much better." Michael said with a faint grin. He could also tell that the boy's accent was beginning to resemble that of a Corellian. Not that Michael had any problems with that of course. He frowned for a moment thinking how to explain what the problem was from their perspective, then nodded. "Duncan, stand up for second."

Duncan groaned, but stood up. He was a larger man, very much given over to fat, the only one among the crew who was really overweight. "He weighs more than I am understand? His mass is more." Michael said pointing first at Pearson then himself.

Then Ranma understood, and he laughed. "It magic, it doesn't have to care about mass. Who knows where it goes." Ranma shrugged, using the Japanese term for magic since he didn't know the word in Basic.

Even so, the meaning of the word came through and once the crew took his meaning they all shivered a little. "That is honestly terrifying." Said the Mon Calamari, who doubled as the ship's second engineer. He knew what kind of energy was created by that kind of matter conversion.

Ranma shrugged. "It's just the way it is. Now…" he grinned. "You answer my questions yes? Republic, what is it? How many planets, how many people?"

"Species again, and thousands, hundreds of thousands." Michael said with a shrug. "Can you read our language yet?"

Ranma shook his head but the Mon Calamari raised his own hand. "We can set him up on the hologram device in the sitting room. That's easy enough he can watch some of the history vids and get some more info that way."

"That work." Ranma nodded, having gotten the word video, and hologram device.

"We'll set that up down in the lounge then, and either of us, Master Dooku or 25 will be available to answer your questions, okay?" Master Dooku had after all said that they were supposed to go out of their way to help Ranma understand Basic, and this seemed to be part and parcel of that.

Ranma nodded. "There anything I can do for you guys? Lift stuff?"

They all shook their heads and Ranma shrugged. "All right, I owe you a flavor, okay?" Michael nodded, understanding Ranma meant 'favor', and Ranma left the bridge.

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