Chapter 16 I Guess I'll Do It "WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!!!" Captain Tathers shouted. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP HER IN THE STATION!!" Mitsuki lowered her head. She was going to catch hell for this, she could see it coming. Lousy Mihoshi, she thought. What the hell was she thinking?! "WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING?!" Tathers shouted. "RUNNING OFF WITH ONE OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT SHIPS!!" "I don't know, sir." "You were the last one to talk with her." "I really don't think you should worry too much, sir. That ship has suffered through . . . slow pilots before." "Are you familiar with Mihoshi's record, lieutenant?" "Uh, I'm afraid not, sir. We've never been very . . . close." "Let me refresh you, Mitsuki. One time, when she was still in the academy, Mihoshi was able to destroy half a city block with her pistol. With just a PISTOL!! She said it was an accident, said she was trying to track down a space pirate with her colleagues, and she accidently hit a fire hydrant, exploding it." "How did that destroy a whole city block?" "The parts of the hydrant flew in all directions, almost killing three people, one of them her teacher. One piece flew right into the driver's seat of a dump truck, blinding the driver momentarily, and making him crash into the side of the biggest building around. The building, which was already scheduled to be torn down momentarily, fell off its supports and crashed down, causing a total of twenty million credits worth of damage to surrounding areas. Luckily no one was killed, but since that incident, Mihoshi has caused calamity after calamity, over and over again. I will NOT let her destroy the most expensive machine this station has ever had!!" "I understand, sir. Should I round up someone to go after her?" "That won't be necessary, Mitsuki. You shall be going." "Me, sir?" "Yes, and if you do a good job, we may be able to promote you above Mihoshi, relieving you of your secretary duties." "THAT'S GREAT!!" "I knew you'd be happy about that. Now, we've already gotten a ship ready for you outside, so all you need to do is suit up and you can be on your way." "Thank you, sir!! I will not let you down!" "See that you don't. And remember to bring back the ship Yukamojo intact." "And Mihoshi," she added. "Whatever." Mitsuki ran to her ship quickly after she was dismissed from the captain's office. She just knew that this was finally going to be her big break, her ticket away from Mihoshi, above her. Maybe she could even get Mihoshi to be her secretary. She laughed at the thought of that. It would be so nice to get away from her, and with Kiyone away on missions like she was most of the time, she would finally be able to have complete control over the entire section. She laughed out loud as she belted down the hall, towards the docking bay. She just hoped that the ship Yukamojo wasn't damaged yet. She prayed Mihoshi hadn't destroyed it. She arrived at the docking bay and stopped in front of the docking officer's office outside the bay. "Good afternoon, Mitsuki," the officer, a rather handsome young gentleman with long brown hair, greeted her. "Your ship is ready for you." "Wow," she marveled. "Word sure flies fast around here." "Yes ma'am." He opened the bay doors for her and she went through. She looked around for her old ship, the Mitsunojo and found it towards the end of the bay. She hopped in and it was only moments before the hull was opened so that she could exit the station. "The place really is quite efficient," she mumbled as she took off. She was ready and geared for action and she could feel her warrior's prowess peaking. She doubted it would take more than an hour or two for her to find the bungling detective. It took her a few hours of driving around to figure out that she had no idea where to start looking. She had absolutely no leads and her warrior's prowess was diminishing quickly. She couldn't return back to the base, though. What would she say?! "Wait!" she suddenly shouted, and her ship halted in space suddenly. She was heaved forward a little and, bungling a little, lost her balance and fell flat on her face. "NOT YOU!!" she shouted at the ship. Mitsunojo bleeped an electronic apology and continued on its course. Mitsuki regained her thoughts and continued with her planning, this time in silence. Mihoshi was stationed at the fourteenth sector, near the planet Earth, she explained to herself. Now, all I have to do is go there! She's sure to be circling there, probably wanting to run through her old routines again. She was almost devestated when she got the promotion away from there. "HA! Mitsuki, you've done it again," she congratulated herself. She sped off, laughing maniacally through space with her prowess coming back full force. It only took Mitsunojo a few hours to travel the three dozen light- years to get to the ninety-ninth sector. The only habitable planets in the whole sector of three solar systems was Earth and perhaps the tenth planet of the second galaxy which the Jurains referred to as Astro (named after a comical dog on a well-loved family channel on the spectral vision). Mitsunojo spun around the second Solar System, the one in which Earth was located, until it spotted the small blue planet sitting idly about one astronomical unit away from the sun. The ship woke its captain, who had taken a much needed nap after all the excitement. The electronic bleep that it sent through the ship's interior were loud and ear-piercing, and it usually left its pilot in a rather nasty mood, but it did the trick. Mitsuki awoke with a start, looking around herself to see what was eating away at her ear drums, and struggled to think against the loud sound. "STOP!!" she shouted, unknowing of what else to do, and the ship obeyed obediently. "Oh, the alarm," she thought to herself. "That must mean we're at Earth!" She jumped, gleeful. "Mitsunojo! Is there a signal coming from Yukamojo somewhere around here?" The ship bleeped a short affirmative. It then showed its master a hologram image of the entire planet, while off to the right of the image a red light flicked on and off. "That's on the planet," Mitsuki said. "Bleep," the ship answered. "Wow. I thought that my ship and the Yagami were the fastest ships in the police force. This ship must be really advanced. Mihoshi's old ship would've taken days to get here." "Bleep." "Well, let's dock down beside the ship, get it, beam Mihoshi up before she can damage it, and get the hell out of here."