Miss Ranko Saotome

The ghosts of Saotome, Hibiki, and the three Tendo sisters would always find him, no matter where he went or what he did.

He bowed his head for a moment, gripping the wire cable that ran along the catwalk for support.The tradewinds sighed mournfully around him.

Kasumi...

Wiping his eyes, he stepped out onto the service catwalk above the great 300 meter Arecibo radio telescope and started for the antenna receiver island.Far, far, below him was the massive bowl of the reflector set in a deep valley between the rocky hills.
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Ranko Saotome, NCA-03900-A, Mission Specialist (ENGINEERING).3.Tatewaki Kuno, NCA-95181-A, NCA Deputy Mission Commander (ASTROGATION).4.
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Ranko Saotome was no surprise for the mission.She had applied for and been accepted to the NCA Academy as soon as she completed her bachelor's degree.That she could excel at the academy without a post graduate degree should have come as a surprise to no one, as would her ultimate career goal: accompanying the Discovery II to Jupiter to recover the Discovery.She had beat out other astronaut candidates by the sheer volume of her knowledge of the original Discovery's systems.It was likely that at the moment she knew more about U.S.S. Discovery than the architects, engineers, and contractors that launched her.
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Doctor Tofu floated aboard the People's Liberation Army (Navy) Spacecraft Tsien with Ranko, Tatewaki, Tsubasa, and Ukyo in tow.
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Ranko nudged him in the ribs as she passed him.

"Haven't been on board five minutes and you're already hitting on someone, eh, Kuno-baby?"

"Certainly not," Tatewaki protested stiffly."Know that I only have eyes for thee, my pig-tailed temptress."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ranko said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

...
"Please don't tell me we have to put up with that jerk for the rest of the flight," Ranko muttered.

"No kidding," Ukyo quietly added.

"Indeed," Kuno agreed."Commander Herb is possessed of a most rancorous and ill-humored temperament.Methinks there shall be more than unkind words exchanged shouldst he presume too much upon the Blue Thunder of Clavius Base."

...
Shampoo showed Ranko and Ukyo to their quarters, which they would share with her when they awoke in Io orbit.
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Ranko Saotome scowled and tried to find the source of the familiar voice.Tatewaki Kuno floated in free-fall nearby, dressed only in the skimpy drab green gown of a hibernaut.He was wired by inductive sensors to a heart-lung monitor under the supervision of Pink.

"I wish I could say the same about you, Kuno-baby," she managed.
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"I'm sure you do," Ranko muttered.
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Ranko blinked twice."I dunno, it might have been fun."

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Tsubasa had declined from dressing in drag just yet, Ranko noticed.
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Ranko stuck her tongue out in reply."I don't care about that.Has the Discovery been found yet?"

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Ranko closed her eyes.

**Just hold on a little longer, big brother...**

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Ranko looked particularly crabby as she sat in her chair.Or perhaps she was just too anxious.

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Ranko took this last part to heart.It would be herself and the Chinese engineer, Mousse, who first went out into space to link up with the Discovery and board her.

Mousse was a likeable enough fellow, and certainly cute, but also apparently painfully in love with the ship's pilot, Shampoo -a fact that was obvious to Ranko with only a few hours of consciousness aboard Tsien.He tended to keep his head in the clouds around her.Ranko hoped he could get himself together enough to do some good when they boarded Discovery.

CHAPTER FOUR

09:11 UMT, November 18, 2010

The orbit of the Jovian moon Io.

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"I think so," Ranko answered."A loss of power to the motor, or a motor failure itself would cause the centrifuge to slow down by friction, but because momentum must be conserved, the angular momentum of the centrifuge would be transferred to the ship itself.It had to be gradual; any sudden cessation would have torn the ship apart."

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"Not so fast, Ukyo," Ranko retorted."I'm not going to give up hope just yet.If they went into hibernation, it would only make sense to shut everything down to conserve power."

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"I think we need to reiterate the fact that the survival of Ranma and Akane are highly unlikely, Ranko.We need to remain objective about this, and do the job we came to do."He regarded the rest of them."That goes for all of us."

Herb gave orders over the ship's intercom circuit to prepare for approach.Shampoo deftly engaged the Tsien's attitude thrusters to bring them within one hundred meters.They dared no closer until they could correct Discovery's spin and could ensure no further threats to the Tsien.

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Down in Tsien's Number One Airlock, Ranko Saotome and Mousse were suited up and ready to go.Both carried 'broomsticks,' those wonderful tools born of spaceworkers' ingenuity.Part hook, part thruster, and part brake, the device made EVA much easier than using a bulky backpack manuevering unit.The throbbing of the airlock pumps was a dull sound emanating through their boots as the chamber cycled the air out.

A green light flicked on, and Ranko stabbed at the 'open' button.The airlock door slid open to reveal the hundred meter length of Discovery tumbling a football field away across the black void of space.Io loomed beyond, its sulfurous surface baleful and glaring with yellow intensity.They could see vast lakes of fire seething upon its pocked and tortured skin.The characteristic yellow-orange glow of elemental sodium mingled with an electric blue of excited plasma in the auroral discharges that raged just over the other side of the hellish world.Jupiter was beyond Io, an ominous presence lording itself over both its moon and the tiny spacecraft that men had made.

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Ranko checked her broomstick's operation, and then gave herself a hard shove off Tsien's hull towards Discovery.Mousse followed at a respectful distance.

As she neared the tumbling mass of Discovery near the Main Antenna mount and the center of rotation, Ranko extended her broomstick to its full length of six meters.She gripped the device tightly as it touched down against the hull, and a heavy duty spring mechanism began to absorb the force of her impact in a slow steady deceleration.She was practically at rest when the broomstick was fully compressed, allowing her to reach out to a handhold and grab onto the ship.Mousse repeated her maneuver with as much ease.
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So far there are no obvious signs of damage," Ranko reported.

"No waste time getting inside," Link advised."You only have twenty minutes before our orbit brings us around to Jupiter side of Io.I no need tell you what few quintillion coulombs of current moving down flux tube to Jupiter will do to you."

"Make me look like a hot dog that spent too much time in the microwave?"Ranko half joked.

"You fortunate meet such kind end," Link intoned.

"I get the idea," Ranko said dourly.She tugged on Mousse's suit sleeve."Come on, Mousse."

The Chinese man followed her as they pulled themselves towards the spherical habitation module forty meters distant.As they made their way along the hull, the spinning motion of the ship was beginning to approximate gravity.Ranko found it was rather like climbing down a ladder face first.Still, she'd prefer that uncomfortable experience to not seeing where she was going.There were projections on the hull that could easily tear a pressure suit if one wasn't careful and observant.

They reached the airlock door with six minutes to spare.Ranko flipped open the access panel door, sending a fine yellow haze of sulfur particles drifting about them.There was at least a millimeter of the stuff built up on the hull, blasted many kilometers into space by the gigaton detonations of Io's more active volcanoes.

As expected, there was no power to the door's electrohydraulics.Mousse handed Ranko a torque-driver, which she inserted into the emergency station.The driver vibrated rapidly in her grasp as it rotated the gearing mechanism in the airlock door.

A little winded by their efforts, they slipped inside the dark airlock chamber to catch their breath.Very soon they would enter the flux tube, and radiation levels outside would climb past fatal very quickly.The door was much easier to shut from the other side.

They were now surrounded in pitch black silence.

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In the near darkness of Discovery's airlock, Ranko checked the manual gauges on the inner door.

"I'