Subject: [Plastic Little][FanFic] Mother's Day 
Date: 1999/06/11 
Author: Patrick Drazen  
   Posting History    
 
I'm a bit surprised that there are so few fanfic based on
such a neat anime.  Anyway, here's mine.  Hope you like it.
 
Patrick Drazen
 
 
MOTHER'S DAY
An Adventure from the logbook of the pet shop hunter
ChaChaMaru
By Patrick Drazen
 
(Characters from the "Plastic Little" anime are the
property of their creators.)
 
Nichol shook his head rapidly from side to side; it kept
him awake but made him dizzy.  He reached for what was left
of the cup of orange juice Mei had brought up from the
galley hours ago.  That should keep him awake until the end
of his watch.  That was only a few minutes away, anyway.
It had been just another quiet night, turning into another
quiet dawn, and Nichol, like most of the rest of the crew
of the ChaChaMaru, was running on automatic. 
 
Wait.  That was a blip on the sonar, right?  But there's
nothing there now.  A hallucination?  No; there it was
again.  But that's...wrong.  Nichol looked at the blip, and
kept looking.  He brought out a book showing the various
shapes of other hunter ships, military vessels, civilian
cargo vessels; anything manmade that sailed the cloud-seas.
No; the profile didn't fit them.  Then the rest of the
book: all the marine life that swam through the cloud-seas
of Yietta.  The old captain had compiled this book, and
never took out a single profile, even if it had been
reported as having gone extinct.  "You never know," the old
captain used to say.  He used to say that a lot, even when
Nichol was five years old and his father was navigator
under the old captain. 
 
Again.  It's on the screen again.  Check it.  No doubt.
Nichol didn't have to worry about staying awake now.
"Mei!" he shouted into the intercom. 
 
"Yes?" Mei answered from her room just off of Sick Bay. 
 
"Could you wake up Captain Tita, please?  She's gonna want
to see this!" 
 
"This isn't another school of dolphin, is it?" she said
sleepily. 
 
"No, no!  This is great!  She won't believe it!"
 
"Won't believe what?"  Mei could hear the voice of engineer
and munitions expert Balboa.  "What's so important..."
Balboa's words broke off.  There was silence, then a low
whistle.  "Mei, get our captain ready.  And hurry!  We may
miss our chance!"
 
"Is it that important, Balboa?"
 
Mei heard Nichol burst in: "It's better than important!
It's, it's..." 
 
"Alright," Mei chuckled.  She went down the corridor to the
captain's quarters and just walked in without knocking.
Mei was the only member of the crew with that privilege.
But then, she and the captain were the only women on board. 
 
Mei walked through the captain's study to the bedroom.
Letting light spill in from the study, Mei went up to the
bunk and pulled back a corner of the blanket.  It revealed
a foot.  She smiled, shook her head and pinched the big toe.
 
"Wake up, Tita.  They want you on the bridge."
 
The leg that was still under the blanket reared back, then
kicked the covers off.  The seventeen year old captain was
half-awake; her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth in a
wide-open yawn.  She had worn only a t-shirt and panties to
bed, and the shirt had crept more than halfway up her
torso.  She sat up, and the shirt slid back down to cover
her more properly.
 
"What's the problem?"
 
"I don't think it is a problem.  But Nichol and Balboa want
you to see something."
 
"Did they say what?"
 
"No, but they sounded very impressed."
 
"Fine," Captain Tita said, rubbing her eyes.  "Give me five
minutes." 
 
Mei left Tita's quarters.  She thought she had time to go
to the galley for something to drink on her own way up to
the bridge.
 
Tita Mu Koshigaya pulled off the t-shirt and--as she had
every single morning in recent months--stared critically at
her breasts in the mirror.  Never mind that some of the
stupid perverts on the ship, namely Nichol and Roger,
risked life and limb to see her undressed; Tita was
convinced that her breasts were too small and that no
boyfriend would ever be interested in her.  But, as she did
every morning, she gathered up her self-doubts and threw
them aside, along with the t-shirt, yelling "SCREW IT!" at
the top of her lungs.  It was an effective morning ritual;
it helped her focus on whatever needed to be done that day.
 
She slipped into the one-piece hunter body suit, closing up
its series of zippers, clasps and snaps.  It offered
thermal protection in extreme cold; buoyancy if one fell
overboard, and was even tough enough to stop small arms
fire at point blank range.  Fortunately, she only needed
the suit to do that three or four times so far.  Then she
tied on a sweatband; her only attempt to gain any control
over her unruly head of chocolate-brown hair.
 
In exactly the five minutes she had asked for, Tita was
stepping onto the bridge of the Pet Shop Hunter ship
ChaChaMaru.  "What did you find, Nichol?" 
 
"See for yourself."  Anyone could tell by looking at him
that he was bursting at the seams to tell her, but he
wanted her to discover whatever-it-was for herself.  She
looked at the sonar.  Then she stared at the sonar.  "Is
this right?"
 
"I checked the circuits myself before you got here," Balboa
nodded.  "It's right."
 
"How long `til visual contact?"
 
"Well, to tell the truth," Balboa grinned sheepishly,
"we've been holding back, trying not to scare it away.
We've been waiting for your orders.  It's not like we see
this every day."
 
"Nichol."
 
"Aye, Captain."
 
"We need to make a visual sighting.  Get us as close as you
can, and surface as fast as you can, but don't scare it
off."  With that, Tita ran for the ladder.
 
"She doesn't want much, does she?" Nichol muttered to
Balboa. 
 
***
 
Tita reached the top of the ladder and closed the airlock.
From there, it was just a matter of climbing one more
ladder and going through one more hatch to the ChaChaMaru's
conning tower.  She checked their depth; still 100 meters
to the surface.  She knew those top 100 meters had the
swiftest and most treacherous currents.  Still, she thought
she could risk it with a secured bungee cord...
 
"Better take two cords, Captain," said the voice behind
her.  
 
There in the shadows was Mikhail, the oldest member of the
crew, but sometimes just as big a discipline problem as
Nichol, especially after he'd gotten some vodka under his
belt.  
 
"Why are you hiding like that, Mikhail?"
 
"Because I knew you'd try some damn fool stunt like going
onto the tower while we were still surfacing.  I thought
you kept me around to save you from yourself."
 
"But, Mikhail, have you heard..."
 
"Of course I heard; that's big news and this isn't such a
big ship.  Still, we have enough to do without having to
pull you out of trouble." 
 
Mikhail didn't say it; he didn't have to.  Captain Tita
knew that Mikhail had led the search for her father, the
previous captain of the ChaChaMaru, missing at sea and
presumed drowned.  He wanted to avoid the comparison
between father and daughter, and spare her feelings.
 
The ship gave a shudder and a lurch, then leveled out on
the surface of the Yiettan gas-ocean.  "Well," Mikhail said
jovially, "that point's academic now. Thanks for waiting."
 
"Thanks for making me wait," Tita smiled.  They went up
onto the conning tower.
 
They were in the middle of the ocean.  Clouds stretched all
around them, their particles reflecting back bits of light
from the sun which was halfway above the horizon.  Tita
picked up the intercom.  "Where is it, Nichol?" 
 
"Look about 5 degrees starboard.  It looks like it's going
to break!" 
 
And it did.  As Tita and Mikhail watched, the surface of
the clouds was ripped silently apart as a leviathan vaulted
out of the sea and into the air. 
 
Tita stared wide-eyed as a little girl.  "Awesome!" she
whispered. 
 
Mikhail started to weep at the beauty.  "I never thought
I'd live to see another Terran Blue."
 
As soon as the giant mammal dropped into the cloud sea
again, Tita seemed to remember herself.  She grabbed the
intercom.  "Are we getting all this on video?"
 
"Live and in color," Balboa's voice crackled back.  "She's
a beauty, captain." 
 
"Yeah," Nichol added, "but some of these life-sign readings
are a little strange."
 
"Let me see them, please," Mei said, politely but firmly
pushing Nichol away from the monitor.  After a minute she
straightened up.  "They're not really strange, Captain, as
long as you realize she's about to give birth." 
 
"WHAT?!"  Every jaw on the ship dropped.
 
"Yes," Mei smiled, "she's very close to it.  Should be
sometime later today." 
 
The gigantic mammals of the sea have always been a mystery,
no matter on what world they were found.  There seemed to
be no way to completely account for their evolution, and
some cultures simply took it for granted that they were
intergalactic travelers who had lost the way to get home.
But here they were on Yietta, and the crew was about to
witness the birth of one of the rarest species of sea
mammal...
 
"Captain!  Something about 2 kilometers astern, but closing
fast!" 
 
"I'm afraid to ask, but who is it?" Mikhail asked the
intercom. 
 
Balboa's voice crackled out: "I don't have to tell you, old
man.  You figured it out."
 
"Damn." Mikhail muttered under his breath.  "What do we do
now, Captain?" 
 
"There's not much we can do.  We have to close in on the
Terran Blue.  If the Iocasta tries to hail us, don't
answer.  We might buy some time if we pretend to have a
broken radio."
 
"She won't go for it.  We all know that.  Captain," Balboa
ventured, "let's try hailing them first.  Maybe we can talk
them out of doing anything stupid." 
 
"We're talking about the Iocasta," Nichol muttered.
 
Tita and Mikhail descended to the bridge.  No sooner were
they back than the radio crackled to life.  The static gave
way to the voice of a woman who sounded very pleased with
herself.  "I know you see it, ChaChaMaru.  You're
practically on top of it.  Are you going to claim it or
not?" 
 
Everyone looked at Balboa; he just held up his hands and
shook his head, whispering "I don't want any part of this."
Tita grabbed the microphone: "What is there to claim?  Just
another orca."
 
"Come on, Tita, you know you can't bluff me on this one.
We both know it's a Terran Blue."
 
"Actually, you shouldn't say "it".  The whale's a she, and
she's going to give birth any time now."
 
"Well, this is our lucky day.  We won't have to fight over
it.  I mean, her." 
 
"Come on, Captain Ikialos."  Tita stressed the "captain" as
if it was an insult.  "The Guild has rules about how to
treat pregnant animals." 
 
"The Pet Shop Hunters Guild isn't out here in the middle of
the cloud-sea.  The Guild doesn't have standing orders from
a half-dozen millionaires for a live Terran Blue.  And any
one of those fat cats could set us and our crews up for
life.  Two whales means there's enough to go around."
 
Mikhail grabbed the microphone away from Tita.  "A pregnant
female means that there's a male Terran Blue out there
somewhere that's the father.  That's three that we know
about.  If you take away the mother and child, then the
Terran Blues have that much less of a chance of increasing
on Yietta." 
 
"It's not my lookout that the Guild doesn't know how to
breed them in captivity."
 
Tita grabbed back the microphone.  "Nobody knows what
they'll do in captivity! There have never been enough of
them!"
 
There was silence for a few seconds.  Then the voice came
back: "I'm tired of this conversation.  Tell Balboa I'd
like to talk to him again.  In the meantime, you'd better
not get in my way when I come for my Blues." 
 
There was a click, and static over the radio.  Mikhail
turned it off and spun to face Balboa.  "How did you ever
get involved with Sasha Ikialos, and can't you make her see
things our way?!"
 
"We went through this.  I didn't know she was a Pet Shop
Hunter.  And that's the way she always acts.  She thinks
she can get the edge on you." 
 
"She may be right this time.  What are we going to do?"
Mei's question hung in the air.
 
Tita knew that she had to make the decision, and had only a
few seconds in which to make it.  "Balboa, where's Roger?"
 
"His watch ended at 0100.  He's probably still asleep." 
 
"Wake him up.  You two have to work on the containers." 
 
Mei stood up. "Tita, you're not serious."
 
"We don't have a container big enough for them.  We'll have
to combine two by taking out a wall.  Then we get the
Terran Blue in here.  Unless the Iocasta wants to blow us
out of the clouds, and lose their Guild license, they can't
touch the whales while we have them.  And there's nothing
in the Guild rules that says we can't let an animal go once
we've caught it."
 
"A pregnant animal.  You brought that issue up yourself,
Tita." 
 
"That's why I need you in the containment area, Mei.  We're
not breaking the rules if the ship's medical officer is
keeping an eye on her while we have her."
 
"But what's the point?" Nichol demanded.  "We let the whale
go, and the Iocasta picks her up."
 
"That's why we have to be careful how to play this out.  We
have to convince the Iocasta that we're selling the Terran
Blue, then when they've gone away, we let them go."
 
"Preferably on the other side of Yietta," Mikhail nodded. 
 
"Alright.  Nichol, where's the Iocasta?"
 
"It's off sonar now.  It held still when she cut the
transmission." 
 
"Balboa, do you think she's still there?"
 
"Not a chance.  Sasha, er, Captain Ikialos would wait until
she was out of sonar range, then sweep wide toward the
Terran Blues.  We have one advantage.  Like us, they don't
have a container big enough on the Iocasta.  They'll have
to rig up something.  Until they do, they'll try to keep us
from moving on them, but that's all they can do."
 
"Then get Roger and get started.  The rest of us will help
if you need it, but we've got to have a double container
ready in one hour."
 
"But that's impossible!" Nichol shouted.
 
"So is a family of Terran Blues," Mikhail nodded.  "I'll
help with the container, Captain."
 
"Just call me in thirty minutes and let me know what's
going on." 
 
***
 
"I do not believe this."  Roger was pulling rivets from the
bulkhead that separated two cargo containers.  "We have to
tear this wall down?" 
 
"And as fast as possible."  Roger had been muttering to
himself, and didn't expect Balboa could hear him.
 
"And we're doing this to bring a Blue in here?"
 
"You saw the video."
 
"Oh, I believe THAT part," Roger said as he bagged the last
rivet, and he and Balboa kicked loose part of the wall.
"But will it fit through the door?" 
 
Balboa's brows furrowed with concern.  "It can't."
 
"I hope I'm not the first person to figure that one out." 
 
"We all know there's only one way to get something that big
into the container.  We'll have to jettison engineering."
 
Roger's black skin seemed to get just a touch paler.  "How
does the Captain feel about it?"
 
"Mikhail just gave her the basics, but she understands that
it's the only way."  They both understood that this would
be a rough maneuver for the Captain emotionally.  Six years
ago, to save the ship, her father jettisoned Engineering;
he was never seen again.
 
"Are we gonna have time for a move like that?  I understand
your lady-friend on the Iocasta is breathing down our
necks."
 
"Look, I'm not saying this again!  She is not--"  Balboa
stopped.  He was letting Roger upset him, and they couldn't
afford it today.  "We had...an understanding.  But then it
turned out she was using me.  I won't let myself be that
stupid again."
 
That's right, Roger thought to himself, say what you want
and you think I'll believe it.  But I know our little
Captain's got you by the...
 
"What's your progress?"  Tita's voice cut through the
intercom. 
 
"We still have one section of wall to move," Balboa
answered.  "All the rivets are out; it will only take a
minute."
 
"Do it in half a minute, then get up here fast!"
 
"What's that all about?" Roger asked.
 
Balboa heard the engines of the ChaChaMaru grow louder and
felt the deck start to vibrate.  "Looks like the race just
started."
 
***
 
"But they don't have room on the Iocasta, do they?"
 
"Probably.  Maybe they just knocked out some walls, too." 
 
Balboa came onto the bridge from belowdecks.  "Why the
rush?" 
 
Nichol looked up from a calculator.  "The Iocasta just came
back on the scope, on a top speed intercept course.  I
guess they solved their problem." 
 
"And ours is just beginning.  Mikhail!" Tita shouted into
the intercom. 
 
"In position, Captain," Mikhail answered.
 
"Nichol, where is the Blue?"
 
"She's been headed steadily southward since she breached.
I've kept us 500 meters behind."
 
"Mikhail, Nichol: be very careful.  We'll only have one
chance and we wouldn't want to hurt her."
 
"Aye-aye, Captain!"
 
"SHOWTIME!!"
 
The ChaChaMaru began to close on the Terran Blue whale,
which swam ahead of them as if she were unconcerned about
being followed.  When they were only 200 meters apart, the
entire nose section of the ship swung out and to the side. 
 
"Hold it steady, Mikhail."
 
"Everything's fine, Captain, as long as our guest doesn't
do anything foolish."
 
"Speaking of foolishness," Roger asked, "what's the Iocasta
doing?" 
 
Balboa checked the scope.  "Still closing.  About 300
meters behind us now." 
 
"Speed it up, Nichol."
 
"I don't want to scare...  Damn!  She's diving!"
 
Mikhail's voice crackled over the intercom.  "Don't worry
about me!  I can hang on!  Follow her!"
 
The ChaChaMaru did just that, following the great cetacean
under the surface of the cloud-sea.
 
"Balboa!  Are they still following us?"
 
"They'd closed to 250 meters, Captain, but that dive threw
them off a bit.  They're back to 300 meters, but they're
still following us." 
 
"Come on," Tita muttered under her breath, "stop for a
minute and get inside.  We're with you."
 
The whale, however, put on a burst of speed, diving deeper
and faster into the clouds.
 
"Tita, what's wrong?"  It was Mei on the intercom.  She'd
gone down to the container to keep an absurdly small eye on
the whale, when and if they got it on board.
 
"She's just being temperamental," Tita answered back.  "We
should have her in a minute."
 
"If we don't lose Engineering first!" Nichol shouted.
"She's diving straight into a thunderhead!"
 
Sure enough, the whale seemed to be making straight for a
dark mass within the cloud-sea; a mass that occasionally
gave off ominous tongues of lightning. 
 
"No you don't!" Tita said, racing to the ladder.  "Not
twice on the same ship!"
 
"Stop, Tita!" Balboa yelled.  "What are you doing?!" 
 
"I have to make sure Mikhail is alright.  Pull out and slow
down!  We'll worry about the whale later."
 
"But what about the Iocasta?" Roger asked.
 
Balboa checked the scope.  "Looks like the thunderhead
scared them off as well; they've come to full stop about
500 meters back."
 
Tita didn't wait to hear the rest.  She raced through the
corridors, finally finding the airlock to the
newly-expanded container.  She put on a mask and bit down
on the attached NitrOx cylinder, cursing the slowness of
the airlock. Finally she was in.  She slammed the door,
then, spotting an I-beam that was part of the skeleton of
the ChaChaMaru, she started toward the opening hand over
hand.
 
The nose of the ship had swung open like a misshapen door.
Mikhail was waiting inside, where he had been prepared to
fire small rockets to close up the ship once the whale was
aboard.  But that was now a secondary concern.  The
thunderhead was causing the Engineering section to vibrate
on its improvised hinges, and lightning licked at the hull
once or twice. 
 
"What the hell are you doing here, Captain?  Get back on
the bridge!" 
 
"Sorry, Mikhail.  It's not time for you to go yet."  While
she talked, Tita tied two bungee cords end to end, then
tied one end through a rivet-hole in the container
bulkhead.  She wrapped the other end around her waist, then
climbed along the top of the container entrance to the
hinge that still held onto the Engineering compartment.
 
"Don't worry about me!" Mikhail yelled.  "Tell Nichol to
back up and get the hell out of here!  We're drifting into
the thunderhead!"
 
The dark cloud was looming larger every minute.  The
increasingly thick ozone burned in Tita's nostrils.  Still
she climbed, until she could swing herself down to the
hatch to Engineering.  When she landed, she tied the other
end of the bungee cord to the bulkhead.  Then, she slumped
down to sit on the deck.  "NOW you can tell Nichol to back
us out of here."
 
But before Mikhail could get to the intercom, a burst of
lightning came from the thunderhead, squarely hitting one
of the hinge plates and blasting it to pieces.  Resting now
on one hinge and secured only by a thin elastic cable,
Engineering began to toss and pitch as the storm winds
picked up speed. 
 
"Do something!" Mikhail shouted into the intercom.
 
"We can't!" Nichol answered.  "If we move at all it'll
shake you loose for sure!"
 
Mikhail turned to Tita.  "Captain, it's been a pleasure
serving under you, and your father."
 
"Don't talk like that, Mikhail."
 
"Why not?"
 
Tita seemed to look into Mikhail's face; then he realized
that she was looking past it, at something happening behind
him...  Suddenly Tita smiled.  "Because it's not over yet!"
 
They were both jolted off-balance by a shock to the
Engineering compartment.  It was the Terran Blue; somehow
she had sized up the situation and nosed Engineering back
into place.  Mikhail grabbed the intercom.  "Balboa, get
down here and help me secure Engineering!  Roger, make sure
Nichol has enough power to get us clear of the storm!"
 
The ChaChaMaru eased back slowly, meter by meter, pulled by
its engines and pushed by the whale.  Both Nichol and the
whale seemed afraid of further lightning damage but also
wary of tearing the ship apart by moving too fast.  After
three minutes that seemed like an eternity, Balboa
announced that they were out of immediate danger.
 
"Good piloting, Nichol.  That took steady nerves."
 
"Thanks, but I had help that time."
 
Tita just stared at the Terran Blue, now on the ship's
video monitor.  "Mikhail, how do you say "thank you" to a
whale?" 
 
"I think it would be like everything else in life.  If
someone does you a favor, you do them one."
 
"But what could we do?"
 
Mei came over and stood next to Tita.  "Let's just watch
and see." 
 
The whale went through a curious dance.  First it let
itself sink toward the ocean floor, only to be frightened
away by the thunderhead.  It would try going right, or
left, or even over the thunderhead, but lightning strikes
made it shy away.
 
"What's she trying to do?" Nichol asked.
 
"You mean, where's she trying to go," Roger added.  "She
wants to get to the other side of that thunderhead, but
can't see how."
 
"Then she knows something.  Nichol, put up the charts.
What's she looking for?"
 
"Aye, Captain."  The whale now occupied a smaller window on
the screen; the rest showed a map of the ocean floor at
that point.  "Now, what are we looking for?"
 
"Something a whale would care about," Balboa said.
 
"There's nothing there," Mikhail said, "except that
trench." 
 
"But it's not even that deep," Nichol replied.  "Why would
she care?" 
 
"Maybe it's a marker," Tita said.  "Maybe she needs to find
it to get somewhere else."
 
"So the only thing we can do is get her through the
thunderhead.  Does anyone know how?"  Mikhail sounded
doubtful that it could be done at all. 
 
"This would be easier if we had weapons," Balboa said. 
 
"But we do!" Tita turned to Balboa.  "Take the pulse-net
and route it through the forward radar assembly.  Couldn't
we cut a hole through the clouds that way?"
 
"That's madness," Balboa shook his head.  "If we then tried
to sail through that hole, we'd draw lightning like blood
draws a shark.  And you don't want to put our new friend at
risk."
 
Nichol turned away from the screen.  "We can't go through
the middle of the thunderhead.  But what about under the
bottom?  Look at this."  He switched the monitor from the
whale to a forward view of the thunderhead.  "We may even
be able to get under the cloud and into the trench without
hitting it with the pulse net."
 
"We can," Balboa nodded, "but she can't."
 
"Fine.  Then target the base of the cloud, just above the
trench.  We'll go through, then hope she follows us."
 
Roger and Mikhail went down to the engine room.  "This is a
lot to go through for a fish."
 
"Roger, how many Terran Blues have you seen?"
 
"This is my first.  So?"
 
"And how old are you, about twenty years?  It's been about
forty since I saw my first Terran Blue, and it's only my
second.  This species isn't just rare.  It's endangered on
every planet where it's still known to live.  There's no
way to put a value on them.  Now, get ready."
 
The crew busied themselves with their unlikely assignment:
cutting a hole through a thunderhead for the sake of a
Terran Blue.  Since the whale would no longer be going into
a container, Mei returned to the bridge, looking over
Nichol's shoulders at instruments tracking the whale and
its soon-to-be-born calf.
 
"The blast won't shock her, will it?" Tita asked Mei.
 
"It won't do any damage.  I do wish we could warn her,
though." 
 
"Speaking of warnings," Balboa interrupted, "look there."
He was pointing to the wide-range sonar, which now picked
up a blip on the other side of the thunderhead.  "They're
back."
 
Mikhail looked like he wanted to punch something, or
someone.  "Damn that woman!  Is she trying to kill us all?!"
 
"Not likely," Balboa replied.  "Sasha is too shrewd a
businesswoman.  She wants the whale.  Look at where the
Iocasta is."  He reached out and switched Nichol's sonar
display to a three-dimensional array.  "She's practically
touching the thunderhead.  I think she figured out our
little trick with the pulse-net and she's waiting for us to
sail through.  Once we're all on the other side the Iocasta
could blast us, make it look like a lightning hit, and by
the time we limped into port to tell the authorities, she'd
have sold the Terran Blue."
 
"Boy, that is so low," Nichol was outraged.
 
"Well, I would have done the same," Balboa smirked, "back
when I wasn't so law-abiding."
 
"Fine," Tita said.  "If they think they can get away with
it, then we should be able to do the same."
 
"You don't want to damage the Iocasta!" Nichol said.
"Guild rules say that they could ask for our ship, and get
it!"
 
"May I suggest, Captain?" Mikhail interrupted.  "We don't
want to damage the Iocasta, just shake it up a little."
 
"Fine.  Cut the power of the pulse-net to one-half, and
disperse it in a thirty-degree arc.  That should give them
a warning.  Prepare to fire on my signal."
 
"Aye, Captain."
 
"Three, two, one, ZERO!"
 
A band of power shot from the ChaChaMaru into the cloud.
It only lasted a second, but it was enough to disrupt the
thunderhead, and those hiding behind it.
 
"Nichol!  Get us through the trench, and let's hope she
follows us." 
 
The ship actually scraped the bottom of the seabed as it
sailed through the trench.  When they were halfway through
the thunderhead, Nichol checked the rear sonar.  "She's not
following us yet."
 
"When we're through, get out of the trench.  She may be
waiting to see if we make it."
 
Sure enough, when they were out, the Terran Blue raced past
them down the trench, and stayed in it.
 
"Nichol, it's up to you now.  Don't lose her!"
 
"Aye, Captain!"  Nichol nosed the ChaChaMaru down into the
trench, its conning tower just missing the thunderhead.
Tita checked the video as they came out the other side; the
Iocasta seemed to be at a standstill, until it slowly
started up toward the surface.
 
Roger elbowed Balboa in the ribs.  "You know the next time
you meet her, you may need a grenade launcher just to get
past the first hello." 
 
Balboa winked an eye.  "She's always been like that."
 
"Hang on!" Nichol yelled, as the ship nosed down and into
the trench.  It had become a canyon, getting wider and
deeper by the second.  The Terran Blue was racing for the
bottom, even as it got deeper and deeper.
 
"Can anyone tell where she's going?" Roger asked.  "And why
it's so damned hot all of a sudden?"
 
"Look down there."  Mikhail pointed to the video monitor.
"There are thermal vents all over this valley."
 
"Wonderful," Balboa muttered.  "If the pressure doesn't get
us, the heat will."
 
"Neither is going to get us," Tita said with absolute
conviction.  "It isn't bothering the whale."  Sure enough,
their quarry was racing through the depths of the canyon,
skirting lava vents hundreds of degrees hotter than the
ChaChaMaru was used to.
 
"Is she playing games with us?" Nichol asked, frustratedly
trying to keep up. 
 
"I think it's deadly serious," Mei answered.  "We don't
know whether Terran Blues have a spawning ground."
 
"Then you think Mister Blue will be there?" Tita asked. 
 
Mei laughed.  "I wouldn't have said it quite like that,
but..." 
 
"She's gone!" Nichol yelled.  All eyes looked to the video
monitor.  The Terran Blue had vanished.  "I swear I only
looked away for a second!" 
 
"Full stop!" Tita called to Mikhail.
 
"And back up the tape!" Balboa roared.  "I don't want to
argue with the captain, but the ship really wasn't built
for this kind of pressure."  The ship was making buckling
and groaning noises that indicated the pressure was getting
too great.
 
Nichol meanwhile had recued the tape and was running it
frame by frame.  At last he shouted "Got it!" and pounded
the control panel.  "There's a break in the wall to
starboard.  You can hardly see it at this angle." 
 
Their momentum had carried them just past the mark.  They
backed the ship up and, sure enough, found the fissure.
They started down an even narrower tunnel.
 
"Are we going to get stuck in here?" Roger asked.
 
"I'd like to know whether we'll collapse in here," Balboa
replied.  "Nichol, what's our depth?"
 
"It...It's crazy," Nichol answered.  "Most of the
instruments say we're about eight kilometers below sea
level, but the sonar says we're only 500 meters from the
surface."
 
"You're right, it is crazy," Mikhail said, "unless there's
an air pocket." 
 
"Temperature's dropping; pressure's dropping."
 
"Slow down, Nichol," Tita said; "we're coming up too fast." 
 
A few seconds later the passage opened up...
 
"What the...  There are blips all around us!"
 
"Boats?"
 
"On the surface and underneath!  But...they're all..." 
 
"Wait until we surface," Tita said, putting a hand on
Nichol's shoulder.  "Don't lose control of the ship."
Nichol bent over the controls, hoping that nobody could see
his cheeks burning.  He didn't want to let the crew know
about the terrible crush he had on the captain, although
they all knew already.
 
By the time the ship broke through the clouds to the
surface, Tita was almost at the conning tower, with the
others behind her.  It was a tight fit, but all six managed
to fit on the tower and behold where they had surfaced.
None of them spoke for five minutes.
 
They had come up in an underground cavern easily three
kilometers across.  The roof was a natural dome shape, and
at the apex was a hole that at the moment let sunlight come
through.  Below the dome was a cloud lake, and in the lake
were Terran Blues.
 
Thousands of them.
 
No living human had ever seen such a sight.  The whales
were everywhere.  Many milled around a spot off the port of
the ChaChaMaru.  The water churned, then one of the whales
began its whistling call.  It was taken up by one, then
another, until hundreds of whale songs were serenading a
mother and her newborn calf.
 
Roger was the first to speak.  "We've found the Mother
Lode.  We're rich!" 
 
Balboa, who had been standing at the rail, felt his knees
give way as he sat down on the deck.  "With the whales
here, we could buy whole planets!" 
 
"No."  Tita's voice was quiet, but firm.  "We don't touch
these whales.  It would go against everything we do as Pet
Shop Hunters.  Anything that lives in the open sea is fair
game.  We have to work to catch them, and they have to work
at staying alive.  It all equals out in the end.  But this
is a sanctuary.  The Terran Blues came here maybe thousands
of years ago, because they knew nobody would find them.  We
found ours by accident; maybe there was a storm, or being
pregnant confused her.  But we can't come in here and just
start harvesting Blues, like this was a farm or something.
 
"When we get back," she turned to the crew, "nobody says a
word about this place, ever."
 
"That's a lot of money swimming around there," Roger said
wistfully. 
 
"Not if anyone finds this place," Mikhail spoke up.
"Terran Blues are worth millions because they're so scarce.
The more Blues there are on the market, the lower the
price."
 
"So that means we can't do anything?" Balboa asked.
 
"Why do we have to do anything?  We can just watch while
they swim back and..."
 
Nichol was cut off by a pair of whales, only a few meters
off the port bow.  They had been swimming near each other
for several minutes, brushing past each other, belly
touching belly, nose to tail.  Only on this pass, they
shifted position.  One of the whales now sported a massive
erection, which he worked effortlessly into his companion.
 
Tita stared at the pair, her mouth hanging open.  Blood ran
from Nichol's nose like water from a faucet.
 
"Come on, you two!" Mikhail laughed, grabbing both their
shoulders and pulling them toward the hatch.  "You don't
need to get those kinds of ideas!"  Nichol and Tita glanced
for a moment at each other, then looked away as both their
faces burned a violent red while the rest of the crew
laughed.
 
The ChaChaMaru backtracked through the fissures, and
finally resurfaced near Yietta's southern polar cap.  When
they returned to land, it was with several giant rays, some
electric eels, and a report that, while they had sighted a
Terran Blue, the ship's instruments had been knocked out by
a thunderhead and they'd lost all trace of the animal.
 
And that was the official story.

    Source: geocities.com/code_name_d