Chapter 10 
   Ahhh, Family
          
          
          
     "What do you want, Danner?" Nagi asked angrily.  She and Washu had
 been tied to the crosses like crucifixes for almost an hour.
     "What did I tell you to call me, Jamie?" the pirate captain asked.
     "Screw you," she spat.  "The only reason you got this position was
 because you became a cold blooded murderer!  You don't deserve that title!  
 You killed our father because of your selfishness, and for that you'll 
 never be the leader of this vessel!"
     "Says you," Mah-Jong said confidently.  "How do you think father got 
 to be leader from his captain?"
     "That was different!  His captain was a tyrant, like you!  Our father 
 was decent and you killed him!"
     "I'm really growing tired of this, Jamie.  If you don't want to be 
 nice to me, you can stay up there all day!"  He turned and made his way to 
 the door, his lackeys swift on his heels.
     "Coward!  Just like always!!"
     "And you're just as head strong as ever.  You know, you were never cut
 out for this pirate stuff anyway.  You just couldn't handle it."
     "YOU SHIT!!!" Nagi screamed, but Danner and his men were already out
 the door.
     The two captives were now left alone, hanging from crosses.  "So what 
 do we do now?" Washu asked.
     "You're the genius!  How am I supposed to know?!!"
     "Well, you do seem to be familiar with our situation.  You are 
 obviously familiar with our opposition."
     "We can't talk anyway." Nagi hung her head.
     "Why not?" Washu asked.
     "We're being watched."
     "Well that's obvious, but why don't you tell me something about this 
 man Danner.  Related to you, is he?"
     "Yeah.  From the shallow end of the genetic pool, however."
     "That as it may be, perhaps you can tell me a little about him."
          
     Danner was indeed watching the two from a video monitor in the 
 adjacent room.
     "It's doubtful that they're going to talk about anything important, 
 sir," one of the pirates said.  "Should we try and beat some information 
 out of the two?"
     "No," Danner replied.
     "Why not, sir?"
     "Well, for one thing, Nagi can take a world more pain than you can 
 dish out.  She's not going to talk about anything.  And as for the smaller 
 one, she is probably just some hapless colleague, or perhaps a bounty.  And 
 besides, I want to see what my sister says about me behind my back."
     "Very well, sir," the dronie replied, and marched off to be with his
 comrades, who were in the process of eating at the moment.
     On the screen, the two were indeed talking, and the small, red-headed 
 one was asking about him.
     "Alright," Nagi said on the screen.  "You really want to know about my
 family?  Why not!  Might as well pass the time doing something.
     "First off, my father ran this little pirate organization for most of 
 his life, after he led an uprising against his captain, a wrathful man 
 called Jurgen the Conqueror.  He then married my mother, a beautiful woman 
 named Heral.  My father and mother wasted no time having children, and had 
 their first child only months after they married.  That was my sister, 
 Nagi."
     "But isn't that your name?" Washu asked.
     "No, but I'll get to that.  After a few months, my mother got pregnant
 again, this time with me and my brother, Danner.  Mother died during the 
 birth, and me and Danner were barely saved.  Father was kind and he raised 
 us all very well, taking special interest in Danner, however, since he was 
 the male.  Then, when Danner and I became thirteen, he killed father and 
 took over the ship."
     Nagi seemed to look straight at Danner as she said the next part.  
 "The murder was in cold blood.  My father was kind and had never done 
 anything to make Danner or any of us angry."
     She then looked back to Washu.  "Nagi and I tried to lead an uprising
 against our brother, but we were far outnumbered, so we fled.  I joined the 
 Galaxy Police and Nagi settled down on the outskirts of Jurai.  Danner tried
 to track us down, but we were too hard to catch, I suppose.
     "But then, one day, I got a telegram telling me that Nagi had been 
 killed in cold blood by the space pirate Ryoko."
     "So that's why you hate Ryoko."
     "Yes.  She has to pay and it has to be by my hand!  Same as my 
 brother."
     "Sounds like you're a little too obsessed about revenge."
     "You want to hear the rest of the story or not?!" Nagi asked angrily.
     "I bet I can guess the rest, but go on."
     "Anyway, I dropped everything and became a bounty hunter.  Nothing 
 else mattered to me.  I just needed revenge and it didn't matter on who."
     "Just as I thought!  Obsessed."
     "Shut up!  You know what the bounty is on you?!  Why, you could fetch
me a small fortune for your little trick at the science academy."
     "Just as I thought," Danner said to himself, grinning at the screen.  
"She's nothing but a bounty!  Well, we can just dispose of her then.
JOHNSON!" he called, and one of the dronies across the room ran to him, 
almost tripping over his own feet.
     "Yes sir?!" Johnson asked at attention.
     "Round up a few others and dump the midget and her cross outside.  
 She's of no use to us.  She's merely a bounty."
          
     "Uh oh," Washu whispered.
     "What is it?" Nagi asked.
     "Something's wrong."
     "You just figure that out?!!"
     "No!  I mean- Oh no!!"
     "What?!!"
     "I gotta really rotten feeling about this.  Something's happening."
     "How can you be so-" Just then, three rough looking guards busted in,
 followed closely by Danner.  "Danner!  What are you up to?"
     "Oh, nothing much," the brother answered nonchalantly.  "Just getting 
 rid of some useless baggage.  Boys!  Take our small red-headed friend 
 outside for some air."
     "You bastard!!"
     "What's the big deal?!  She's only a bounty."
     "Do you have any idea who she is?!"
     "Nagi!" Washu shouted as the guards surrounded her cross.  "It's ok! 
 They don't know about my powers yet!"
     "What powers?" one of the guards asked shakily, backing away.
     "You idiot!" Danner shouted.  "That little toad has no powers!  She 
 looks like a little child!  Dispose of her!!"
     "Yes sir!" the guards answered simultaneously.  With one powerful 
 heave, they lifted the cross and started carrying it out the door.
     "You morons!" Nagi yelled at the guards.  "If you value your lives, 
 you'll put that cross down!!"
     The guards stopped and looked to their master.  "Go on," Danner 
 ordered.  They did, and they were out in a few seconds with the heavy 
 baggage.
     "Why do you protest the killing of a useless bounty?!" Danner asked 
 his sister.
     Nagi just scowled and turned her head.  "You'll be sorry for that!"
     Danner only shrugged and turned away, following the guards out the 
 door.
     Why do I want to save Washu? Nagi thought.  She had no idea.
          
     The guards had a lot of difficulty carrying the cross and scientist 
 out the door.  They had to put her down from time to time and then lift her
 again.  Each time they did, Washu would pull her hands against the rope,
 squeezing them through the bondage.  She had almost gotten one of her hands
 free while Nagi was talking, and she was sure she would be able to get free
 before the slowpokes got to the hull.
     Half way there, Danner got tired of following them and said that he 
 was going to his quarters for a while and he was not to be disturbed.
     "Figures," one of the guards mumbled when their leader was safely out 
 of earshot.  "He never likes to see hard work."
     "You're telling me," another said.  "Just the other day, he was 
 supervising us going through the rifle drills and he fell asleep."
     "Sounds like him," the first said.  "If he didn't have that damn sword 
 of his, we could overthrow him easily."
     "Yeah!  It's all because of that damn sword his father left him."
     "You mean that he stole from his father."
     They were almost at the hull, and all Washu had to do to get free was 
 to yank her hand one last time.  Her other hand would take a few more 
 seconds to free, but one hand was all she needed.
     "Ok, Johnson," one of the guards ordered.  "You open the hull and 
 we'll toss the thing out."
     "Listen, gentlemen," Washu said, finally.  She had been silent the 
 whole time she was carried.  "Wouldn't it be pretty wasteful to throw out 
 this nice cross just because of little ole me?"
     "Shut up, you!" Johnson spat.  "We have orders, and I don't like 
 dying!  We're carrying these out exactly like he said to, and he said to 
 throw out cross and all!"
     "Ok, fine," Washu said, cracking a smile.  "I guess I'll just have to 
 make you disobey that order."
     The guards looked confused at the little one's words, but only for a
 second, because soon Washu's hand was free.  She reached over to her watch 
 on her other hand and punched a button, sending a violent ringing throughout
 the hull. The dronies dropped to the ground in agony, clutching their ears 
 in pain.
     Washu, possessing an extremely high endurance for the sound, wasn't
 nearly as affected.  She composed herself, and started clawing at the rope
 which bound her other hand.  Once that was free, the guards were screaming
 and bleeding out their ears.  Washu guessed that their must've been quite a 
 crowd brewing outside the hull shut off room by then, though none of them 
 probably wanted to open the door and let out the sound.  Once Washu 
 succeeded in freeing both her ankles, she hopped off the cross and looked 
 down at the guards.
     Johnson was going into convulsions, and the other two were in a silent
 whimper.  All were in the fetal position.  Washu smiled and turned off the 
 ringing.  The guards didn't get up, and two of them were still whimpering.
     "They'll be fine," Washu smiled.  She supposed that now she would have 
 to save Nagi.  She wondered why it was always up to her to get people out 
 of trouble.