The Sisko dropped out of warp nice and smooth, another reminder that their poor helmsman was lost on some planet somewhere. Karyn stood and looked at the viewscreen as Kaii eyed the scanners.
“There are two in this system,” Kaii reported.
“One of them is Kaskia 3. Not Federation, but post warp and has a Federation monitoring post in orbit,” Makoto reported. “If they were there, their communicators would have been able to contact the monitoring post.”
Karyn nodded. “Send a probe anyway.”
Makoto activated the launchers. Two science probes fired from the forward torpedo tubes. One went to Kaskia 3, the other to a small moon.
Kaii's terminal began to chirp. “Getting telemetry back.” He began to read the display. “No Federation signatures on Kaskia 3.” He sighed. The terminal began to chirp again. “No Federation signatures on Kaskia 4, moon 2.”
Karyn sighed. “What's next.”
Kaii looked at his log. “Ayase system and then Yaholo system with one planet and one moon.”
Karyn nodded. “Helm, set a course for the Ayase system, engage when ready.”
The helm officer complied. Jansen leaned into Makoto, pointing something out to her.
“Commander?” Karyn asked, noticing the conversation.
“Captain, it appears that Ayase 4 is a pre-warp civilization,” Makoto reported.
“Well, that ain't good,” Karyn commented. “Alert Commander Hino to have her teams on standby. They may be needing to do a covert extraction if our people have been captured.”
“Aye,” Makoto responded.
Karyn walked over towards Kaii's station as the Sisko slowed to impulse. “This is going to be the first time I am actually hoping they aren't on a planet.”
Kaii nodded slightly as Karyn turned to Makoto. “Launch the probe.”
“Launching.”
The front of the Sisko lit up as the probe shot out. The science probe with highly refined sensor equipment flew towards the planet at high impulse till it reached its destination, then began making orbits, quickly and efficiently.
The probe, far too small to be picked up by any scanning equipment, dipped and dove into the atmosphere, gathering scans and telemetry on the planet, making a complete orbit of the Earth-sized planet in just over 7 seconds.
Once finished, it returned to space and initiated a transportation program that returned it to the Sisko's cargo bay to be checked for damage and returned to service.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Kaii checked his terminal. “Nothing.”
Karyn was both relieved and distraught. “Okay. Yaholo system.”
The helmsman set a course and engaged the Sisko's engines. Karyn looked to Makoto who was beginning to look like she had given up hope.
“Commander, we're not done,” Karyn reminded her.
“I know, Captain,” Makoto said.
The rear turbolift doors opened and JC and Usagi walked out. Both looked quite concerned themselves.
“Captain, do you know what the odds are that an ionic cloud can deflect a transporter beam?” JC asked.
Karyn shook her head.
“One in eight hundred fifty-three trillion, two hundred sixty-nine billion, eleven million, four hundred ninety-two thousand, one hundred and five,” JC responded.
“No kidding,” Karyn replied, unsure of why JC was bringing this up.
“That was such a major fluke, and there is no way it could ever happen again,” JC said, waving his arms around.
Usagi shook her head at JC's antics. “The point JC is trying to make is that the transporter cycle starting even a nanosecond earlier or later would have allowed the beam to penetrate the cloud like they do on a daily basis.”
The Sisko began to slow down as it arrived in the Yaholo system. Karyn looked to Usagi, then to Makoto. “Launch them.” She turned back to Usagi. “What can we do to prevent this in the future?”
JC walked back up. “We're installing a new fail-safe that will hold the patterns in the buffer if the cycle is taking longer than it should, based on the distance between the ship and the target.”
Usagi nodded. “It won't necessarily stop people from being misdirected on the same planet, but it will stop THIS.”
Karyn nodded and patted both JC and Usagi on the head. “Good work.”
“Captain, I got something,” Kaii spoke up. Everyone turned to him.
“What?” Karyn asked.
“The fifth moon of Yaholo 4. I have six communicator signals and three tricorders transmitting distress signals,” Kaii smiled.
“IKUHARA!” Karyn barked at the helmsman.
“Already halfway there, ma'am,” he replied.
“Good work,” Karyn turned to Kaii. “Open a channel.”
Ranma was getting tired of this jungle. If it was not a giant snake trying to kill her and Shampoo, it was a giant spider. There were several other creatures that she did not know what they would be classified as. She felt like she was in a real-life Dungeons and Dragons quest.
Regardless, it was getting old. At this point, they would just like to find a clearing where they could just stay.
“Shampoo tired,” Shampoo sighed.
“Ranma tired too,” Ranma sighed. Shampoo growled, thinking Ranma was mocking her.
“Don't mock me.”
Ranma shook her head. “Sorry. I'm just so worn out.”
“RANMA!” Shampoo screamed.
Ranma looked up as a giant ant-slash-beaver came after her. Ranma dove out of the way as Shampoo pulled out her phaser. She shot the creature, knocking it out.
“It's still alive,” Ranma commented.
“I have phaser on kill!” Shampoo exclaimed.
Another beaver-ant came from around the corner, this one looking very, very angry. Shampoo fired at it, causing it to be knocked down, but not out.
“You have to be kidding,” Ranma groaned.
“Phaser only have enough power for two more shots,” Shampoo whimpered.
“Walker to Saotome,” Ranma's communicator squawked.
Ranma quickly pulled out his communicator. “Oh, thank God. Two to beam up, quickly, me and Shampoo, now now now now now now now.”
Karyn looked to Kaii, who shrugged. She then turned to Makoto. “Can you get a lock on their communicators yet?”
“No,” She whimpered. “Once we get in orbit of the planet.”
“IKUHARA?” Karyn called out.
“Less than a minute!”
“Commander, we're still about a minute out from transporter range.” Karyn relayed.
Ranma and Shampoo both began to cry. “Okay,” Ranma turned to Shampoo. “Run?”
Shampoo nodded.
The pair hopped on top of the beaver-ant and began to sprint through the jungle. Apparently, the beaver-ant didn't feel like pursuing, as he stayed behind to tend to his unconscious friend. After they got, what they felt was a decent distance away, Ranma and Shampoo stopped to catch their breath.
“Ranma...” Shampoo whimpered.
Ranma shook her head. “I don't want to know.”
Ranma had no choice to look though when she heard the hissing of a giant spider. Shampoo shot it, which seemed to knock it out. However, the spider managed to shoot web all over Ranma, incapacitating her.
“Ranma okay?” Shampoo asked, trying to free Ranma.
“Oh yeah, never better,” Ranma replied. Ranma, who was wrapped from her knees to her neck in the spider web, was struggling to break free of the sticky silk, however, it was to no avail. Shampoo simply found herself getting stuck to Ranma the more she tried to help.
“Walker to Saotome.”
Shampoo, who was now glued to Ranma, squished her boob against Ranma's boob to activate the communicator.
“Go,” Ranma said dryly.
“We're in range and we can get all six of you at once.”
“Yipee,” Ranma replied, again, very dryly.
The transporter beam began to grab them just as a couple of new spiders came around the corner. The spiders looked quite disappointed when their dinner disappeared.
“What the hell?” the transporter chief pondered, looking at Ranma and Shampoo.
Ryouga and Minako ran to each other and hugged. Jeff smiled as he witnessed the reunion, but something concerned him. Somewhere in the room, he sensed something that he had not felt in a long time.
Murderous intent.
“RANMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Akane screamed. “WHAT ARE YOU TWO WOMEN DOING!?”
“I'M TIED UP IN A SPIDER WEB YOU IDIOT,” Ranma yelled back.
Explanation or not, Akane was having none of this. “Oh, I suppose that is why Shampoo's breasts are all squashed against you, huh? That's why her arms are all wrapped around you, right?”
“You're making a scene,” Ranma replied.
“Akane just jealous,” Shampoo added.
“Oh jeez,” Ranma sighed.
Akane turned red. “JEALOUS?!” She ran over to the pair and began to try and pry Shampoo off of Ranma.
“NO AKANE DON'T!” Ranma protested.
“Oh, so you WANT to be stuck to her?” Akane asked.
“NO! You don't understand!” Ranma whimpered.
“Shampoo, let go of my hands!” Akane growled.
“Shampoo no have your hands! Akane get hands off Shampoo's breasts!” Shampoo yelled.
Minako turned to Ryouga. “So, was it like this before?”
Ryouga nodded. “This might be the first time it actually wasn't Ranma's fault. Though you do have to question why her breasts were so close to him.”
Minako narrowed her gaze at Ryouga. “Looking at her breasts, eh?”
Ryouga blinked. “No.”
Jeff blinked. “I sense more murderous intent.”
“Oh, I was just kidding.” Minako smiled, kissing Ryouga on the cheek.
“No, not you,” he said, pointing to the door. “Her.”
In the door to the transporter room stood Captain Walker, Makoto, and a glowing Amanda Jansen.
“Hi Amanda,” Shampoo smiled.
“What's going on here?! Get your hands off Shampoo!!!!!” Amanda stated before joining the fray and eventually getting stuck to the Ranma/Shampoo/Akane ball.
Ranma began to whimper. “For God's sake will someone please call security?”