2/8

"Wait." he said holding up his hands, breaking the girl's grip on his hand and ignoring the pouting look on her face with difficulty. "Just wait. I'm not that is, I don't want." Ranma paused. "I, I don't want my first time to be with, no that's not right either, I mean you're beautiful but I…" he stuttered to a halt again when the girl leaned in, placing her forehead against his staring into his eyes, that faint, almost sinful smile still on her lips, which looked so kissable it was really distracting him. There was no comprehension of his words in those eyes, though Ranma guessed that she thought he was giving her compliments.

Despite his body telling him to grab the girl and start kissing her again, Ranma gently pushed the girl back by the shoulders, looking at 25. "I don't want my first time to be with someone I just met." He said, enunciating each word clearly, hoping the droid had absorbed enough of his own language to get some sense of what Ranma was saying.

25 cocked his head, then said. "I believe the youth is trying to say something, perhaps you should back off a moment miss?"

Twila did not want to back off, her body was literally on fire from the kiss she'd exchanged with the young man, and she couldn't understand how the youth had regained control of himself so quickly. Still, she did as asked and Ranma breathed a sigh of relief.

He talked to 25 for a few more moments trying to convey what he wanted to say, but 25 didn't have enough of the vocabulary base from any of the languages Ranma spoke to understand. Desperately Ranma looked around, staring at the miners who had, now that the floor show was done, gone back to their business for the most part. He saw one couple, an older man and woman who were talking to a younger man and bounded over to them, leaving 25 and Twila behind him looking bemused.

He stopped nearby, looking at their hands and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the both of them were wearing rings. Tapping the older man on the shoulder he said, "Excuse me." Then he pointed down at their rings tapping his own finger.

The older man frowned looking over at 25 who had come up behind Ranma. "What is the young man trying to ask, he wants my ring?"

"I do not believe so no. Judging by the context, and the fact that he has been trying to convey something about an unwillingness to perform the mating ritual with the young Twi'lek here, I believe he is trying to say that he wants to say something about relationships."

The older man nodded, looking over at his wife who frowned then smiled a little and held up the hand bearing her ring finger. Her husband put his own hand in hers, and they held them out to Ranma. Ranma nodded then tapped their rings and looked at Twila. "I want something like that, I don't, I mean you're beautiful and I'm sure it'd, um, y'know be fun and all, but I, I want to be in a relationship with someone and build up to that point…"

He tried to use gestures to convey this meeting, doing a sort of dance with one hand, continually pointing to where the couple was holding hands. After a moment Twila finally got it, smacking her forehead. "Are you serious? You want to be in a relationship." She turned to the droid. "Pull up some videos of couples going on dates or something similar on that datapad of yours."

The droid did so before pointing to them. He had quickly found several and clicked through them while Ranma looked on. They began with a couple on a date moving to a couple holding hands, and ending with a traditional wedding on Chandrilla. Ranma nodded along at the sequence, though paused it before the marriage sequence, switching the datapad back to the video showing couples on dates.

"So you'd prefer to date someone?" Twila said sighing faintly, the last of her own ardor having cooled noticeably. "That's a problem, because I'm really not interested in a long term thing. I wanted to reward you for saving us." She slinked forward, touching Ranma's jaw, enjoying the fact that he blushed immediately, desperately looking away from her chest region. "And that offers still open…"

"Oh give over Twila," said the older woman, pushing at her shoulder slightly. "The young man wants his first time to be romantic and with someone he truly cares for, he doesn't even know you yet. Why don't you want to date him?"

"Well for one thing," Twila said, stepping back and putting her hands on her hips to glare at the older woman. "I think he's going to be involved with the Jedi. You know how they are, no attachments. And, even if he isn't going to be involved with the Jedi, I don't think he's the type to be tied down to one planet. Whereas I would rather like to find a single job and stick with it someplace safe."

"Don't we all," said the old miner shaking his head mournfully remembering the loss of their home. Even if they went back, it would never be the same, too many friends had died when the slavers arrived. "If you're just interested in 'rewarding' him though, I don't think you need to worry about that. He doesn't seem to be the type to need repayment for a good deed."

"It's not just because I want to reward him, no." Twila said tartly. "A larger part of it is I don't like being indebted to anyone, my whole race is indebted to too many. And far too many people would hold such debts above my head." The fact she had thought it would be fun was also in there, but not something she wanted to share right now.

"I don't think the idea to do that would even enter the young man's head." Said the older woman, watching as Ranma looked between them his brows furrowed as he tried to figure out what they were saying. "If you want a one night stand with him, just say so."

"Can you find some video or other to describe a one night stand?" Twila asked, turning to the droid once more.

25 shrugged. "That might be a little too sophisticated, but you're welcome to try."

Twila did so, putting together after a few moments a sequence of videos. It showed two people meeting in a bar, getting to know one another, then heading towards a bed, before fading to black. Then they were shown exiting the room, immediately going their separate ways.

Ranma blushed throughout the movie, which was a little odd Twila then he frowned as the two figures moved away from one another going their separate ways. He shook his head looking at Twila. "I don't want that." He said, and Twila frowned before sighing.

She pointed again at the video and then pointed to herself indicating she wanted that. She smiled at him, indicating that really was what she wanted, and then slowly ran her hands down her sides tantalizing him, while her lekku twitched slightly, sending a message all their own to those who could read such.

F

or moment Ranma simply stared at her hands as they moved down Twila's body, resting on her sides then her hips, and then moving back up again, tantalizingly moving to her stomach right below her breasts before moving away. He gulped, then stared at her, at the video, and then finally closed his eyes, shaking his head rapidly. "No." No matter how good looking she was Ranma didn't want his first time to be with a complete stranger who he'd never see again afterwards.

A few of the miners nearby, and one or two of the crewmen of the Jedi's ship shook their heads at that, muttering to one another that Ranma had to be insane to pass up what Twila was offering. A few of the women thought it was romantic, but made no move to offer to date him, and more than a few also though he was being stupid, though admittedly for more convoluted reasons than the men. But Ranma was resolute.

Seeing that Twila sighed, nodded her head in understanding. "I actually respect that, and if I was looking for a relationship at this point, you better believe that would be a mark in your favor Ranma, but I'm not." She leaned forward, kissing him lightly on the lips pulling back before either of them could get to into it. "It really would've been fun though."

With that she moved away, shaking her hips just slightly more than normal to make certain that Ranma knew what he was giving up. The groan of agony behind her was all she could have wished for, as the Jedi Master returned to the hanger bay.

A few hours after that incident, Ranma and 25 were still talking in a corner of the hangar bay while elsewhere on the ship event continued apace.

At Dooku's command the Kaiseki stayed where it was, where Dooku hoped to keep it until the freighter jumped into the Gran system. Dooku hoped to see what this ship's arrival in his destination would cause before revealing his own presence. If he was lucky someone would recognize it and call it by name, giving him even more leverage to work with. He already had two of the astromech droids from his ship working on cracking the captain's personal files, and they were making decent enough headway, but every little bit helped.

Most of the crew of the ship had congregated in the hyperdrive system. It was a very makeshift job, and the captain was not at all happy about it, which the captain, Michael, made certain that Master Dooku was aware of the moment the Jedi master explained his plans to the man. "This systems been shot to hell sir, frankly I wouldn't trust it at all. We might, just might, get a single jump out of it but that's about all, but what condition the ship'll be in when we come out of, or even where in the system, that's up in the air."

"It would be that inaccurate?" Dooku asked somewhat dismayed. He had thought his ruse an excellent idea, but it didn't seem to be a viable one.

"Sir, we'd need a full engineering crew and parts to get this running again, that's the truth of it. Right now I would not trust it with my life, let alone the civilians or yours."

"Your devotion does you credit captain, thank you. If that is the case, can we transport all of the miners on the frigate? Including the prisoners?" Several crewmen, including one who had confessed to being the ship's communication officer, had surrendered, and surprisingly been taken captive by the miners during their takeover of the ship. Those prisoners, the ship, and the captain's logs would give Dooku enough hard evidence to really hammer the Gran government in his negotiations.

The man winced. "I don't think so sir. We could possibly head for the nearest Republic planet, but even a short jump like that with this many people would overload our atmospheric systems."

"You said we might be able to get one jump out of it, could we jump there and get repairs?"

"Not with any speed sir, which given the plan of your schedule is of the essence I'm afraid." Michael frowned, thinking hard, going over what he knew of the local star systems. "I think there are a few Alderaan Ranger ships near here, helping local law enforcement groups hunt down pirates. A few of them could have the carrying capacity for the miners."

Dooku frowned closing his eyes for a brief moment, sending his mind out into the Force. Then he opened them, nodding decisively. "Can they be here in the next few hours?"

"I… I think so master Dooku, if I get the message off quickly. Why?"

"Just a Force premonition, I believe that this slaver ship's friends are searching for it along its route." The miners represented a financial resource after all, as did this ship, an even larger one at present. "I will need your crewmen's aid to take statements of the miners, all of whom will be going with the rangers. I will also canvass the prisoners, four of which will be joining us, as will young Ranma."

"I'll get right to it then sir." The captain nodded crisply moving away, already talking into his communicator summoning up his crew from various areas of the ship. As he moved out of hearing range however Dooku could still hear him start to mutter under his breath. "And if that kid goes anywhere near my engines, I'm going to whack him upside the head with a spanner!"

With that being taken care of, Dooku talked to a few of the miners once more then sifted through the prisoners for three more to add to the communications officer. After that, Dooku made his way back down to the hangar bay, where he was unsurprised to find Ranma and 25 talking. 25 was holding up a large tablet and showing images as he enunciated words carefully, with Ranma doing the same. "Have you made much progress?"

"Master Dooku." 25 said turning his head to them as Ranma did the same. "Yes, barring a few interruptions we've made very good progress. Young Ranma learns remarkably quickly, and seems to retain knowledge far better than the human norm. Nonetheless, I believe it will be at least a week, possibly two before he is fluent in Basic enough to communicate effectively."

"Two weeks?" Dooku said surprised. Most of the time when younglings had to be taught Basic it took months. And wasn't it supposed to be that the older a person was, the harder they found it to learn languages? "Do you think that is normal for his race, or is it just Ranma?"

"I believe it is just Ranma, Master Dooku. All the body language I'm getting often is the most basic of human standard as I said earlier."

"I see." Dooku said with a nod. "Very well, continue. We will talk soon." he said to Ranma nodding his head at the youth.

Ranma nodded back with a faint smile before turning to 25, pointing at Dooku as Dooku walked off. "Tell me about him, and this Jedi thing."

25 shook his head. "You do not have the words yet for that." He said in a sentence that Ranma had heard before and understood the meaning of. "Let us continue for now."

Ranma rolled his eyes but did so, starting to do some sit-ups and push-ups in place as he looked at the images while listening to 25 describe them. The droid had mimed him doing such things when it began to notice Ranma becoming antsy and inattentive. Man, if only the teachers back at school could've let me do this kind of thing in class, meh too late now.

Within an hour, a few more small frigates arrived. Two of them quickly took off the miners, including Twila'Cren much to Ranma's relief/regret. Two of the others slaved the larger ship to them, then all four went to hyperspace quickly, their destination Alderaan. A planet known for its devotion to diplomacy and peace, Alderaan was both home to the Rangers and a planet which routinely was used to house evidence or witnesses in cases ongoing against members of the Senate or other planetary governments, its own government's probity unquestionable by any save the most corrupt.

OOOOOOO

Several days passed by with the ship in hyperspace which Ranma put to good use studying the local language almost all the time. By this point Ranma was becoming more fluent in the local dialect every day, adding words to his growing vocabulary. He still screwed up a lot of the specific words, and his general knowledge of this universe was still lacking tremendously, but for only a few day's work the ability to speak at all and be understood was still an achievement.

Despite the droid's aid in helping him and his general awe of being in space however, there were some aspects of it that Ranma just could not get used to. Getting out of the sonic shower, Ranma shook his head. How the hell these people think that's a real shower is beyond me.

Ranma understood the need to conserve water aboard a spaceship, after all you could only have so much interior space. But the entire 'sonic shower' idea was just weird! I don't actually feel clean, not really. Worse, it don't exactly help with my self-control issues.

He was still dealing with 'odd' dreams every night, and more often than not had to clean his sheets before leaving the small room he had been assigned upon coming aboard (more of a closet in size really) before starting his day. Luckily there weren't any girls among the crew to cause him to react, giving him more time to try and get a handle on that kind of thing. But his body's control wasn't coming nearly as easily as his emotional control.

On the other hand, I bet if I did try to have an actual shower aboard the ship, the heating or something would break. Stupid water attracting portion of the curse!

It was all too easy for Ranma to remember the hundreds of times water simply reacted oddly in his presence. Traveling uphill was one, splashing far harder off the pavement just to get him or one of the other cursed individuals rather than splashing like normal another. Or the one time he tried to take a shower at in the boy's bathroom at school. The water, which had until then been warm enough to make steam as it fell out of the tap, had a bare few minutes into Ranma's shower turned cold as the heater broke. He'd had to break several people's legs that day…

Out of the shower he pulled on a shirt one of the ship's crew had given him. It was a little tight, hugging him like a second skin, but Ranma didn't mind. At least I'm not trying to wear it in my female form, that I'd have a problem with.

Now, he thought, stretching and cracking his neck and shoulders, 25 said I should probably talk to some of the crew to, what was it 'get used to lingual shifts' or something? Don't know what that means, but whatever. Once fully dressed, Ranma moved through the ship, nodding his head at a crewmen moving about the business, an alien that looked sort of like a grasshopper standing on his hind legs called a Verpine.

The crew of the small cruiser was composed of six, three human men and three aliens. Apparently two of the aliens were technically female, including the Verpine, but their forms were such that Ranma couldn't think of them in that manner.

A few minutes later he entered the bridge of the ship, which was a small area only big enough for one observer, the captain, and three other stations, with very little room in between. The captain of the ship, Michael, turned as the door to the bridge opened. He nodded politely at Ranma though internally he was still wondering what exactly the younger man was. Jedi master Dooku was obviously fascinated by him, and the captain had heard all about Ranma saving the would-be slaves. But his strange abilities, and of course the curse threw Michael off, as it would anyone.

"25 said I greed to talk, learn more, is okay?" Ranma asked in his pigeon Basic.

Michael nodded. "That's fine, er and that's need there, not greed. We're in hyperspace right now so we don't have much in the way of duties except to watch our boards for anything going wrong. Ask away." He smirked a little, deliberately waggling his eyebrows, knowing Ranma was far better at body cues then at verbal ones. "Though I'm surprised you don't want to talk to Carson, he'd be happy to talk to you all you want."

Carson was the cook aboard the ship. He was the only one who had not been involved in repairing the hyperdrive of the slave ship, and as such hadn't met Ranma before Ranma came aboard. When he did, Ranma had just had splashed himself deliberately to deal with Twila and a few of the other girls trying to get a rise out of him. Carson believed himself a suave womanizer, and had immediately hit on the small busty redhead only to be turned down via a kick to the crotch.

The younger man smiled showing all of his teeth for a moment as he reached down to the small handrail separating the operations area from the observer's position. The metal under his grip bent easily under his hand, and he cocked an eyebrow. "Dead male what say?"

"Nevermind!" Michael said waving his hands quickly. To his other side the other crewmen laughed at his misfortune.

The Mon Calamari communications specialist waved his hand. "Do not mind the captain." He rasped. "He is a typical Corellian, they always think they are more amusing than they actually are."

"As a captain of the Republic fleet I am above such slander, but as a Corellian I take offense at that remark, and will have my revenge." Michael laughed.

"Corellian," Ranma said mouthing the word a few time before getting it right. "Human world?"

"One of them is, er, Corellia's the name of the system, and one of the planets." Michael said elaborating slightly. He turned to his computer, punching in orders, and a small hologram of a star system appeared in the observation area causing Ranma to turn around and look at it.

"Corellia." Michael said as he stood up from his chair to come over, pointing at one of the planets. "This is my home planet, Corellia itself." pointing at it, the hologram obligingly enlarged at his touch. Then it was substituted for several pictures of the planet itself, showing forests, mountains, oceans and blue skies along with several large but seemingly beautiful cities.

Ranma stared at it, a wide smile on his face. "Beautiful." he said in Japanese then tried in basic. "Er, more than pretty for un-living things?"

"Beautiful or gorgeous or I suppose. In terms of planets picturesque?" Michael guessed.

"All of above." Ranma said with a laugh causing Michael and the helmsman, another Corellian, to laugh as well.

Michael went on, shrinking that planet and pointing to the others. "Selonia, Drall, Tralus, and Talus. The Five Brothers, they're called. Selonia is the home planet of the Selonians."

A image appeared, standing taller than a human set next to it for comparison. It had fur and coloring that reminded Ranma of otters or maybe stoats. "Huh. Two… er… people… in one system, normal or not?"

"Species. Very normal, most planets, while governed by one race or another, will have a smattering of other races represented among its population. If by that you mean if it's unusual for a planet to be the home system for two different species, well, that is unusual. But humans didn't originate in Corellia, the Selonians and the Drall did."

Another button popped up an image of a Drall, which barely reached the human's waist. It was a furry mammal looking alien which again didn't wear any clothing, though with his fur, it probably didn't need any.

"Huh." Ranma mused, staring at the image.

Michael turned the hologram back to the system, and continued on, speaking about the planets, and the fact that two of them, Tralus and Talus, had been colonized originally by humans from Corellia.

"What this?" Ranma asked as Michael finished speaking about the Twins, pointing between them at the point directly between the Twins as they moved around one another.

"Ah, one of the greatest mysteries in known space, Centerpoint Station. All three species that live in Corellia believe that someone created Corellia using Centerpoint Station somehow. After all, no other system has ever been found that has five planets capable of bearing life, let alone three that could support the evolution of intelligent life."

He laughed quietly. "Of course, even though billions of scientists have studied it for thousands of years, we're no closer to figuring out its secrets than we were in the beginning. There's a sect of Corellians made up of all three races, that look on it as a mystery and as a point of pride. That we were brought together for some reason, some destiny in the future."

"Create?" Ranma asked sharply. He hadn't actually understood a lot of what Michael said, in fact he was only getting one out of every four words or so, but that word came through clearly. "Create system? How?!"

"Like I said, no one knows, but It's not normal for that many life bearing planets to be in the same system, and the system itself has some other anomalies, like Centerpoint itself, and the Twins."

Ranma frowned. "Strange, yes? Not normal?"

All three of his listeners laughed then, even the Mon Calamari. "Definitely not normal." The sensor specialist said.

Ranma turned to him. "Your home where?"

"Dac. We too share our system, and our homeworld itself, with many other intelligent races which have evolved within its waters. Though not without tension it must be said." His voice was dust dry even for a Mon Calamari as he referenced the state of fragile peace that existed between his people and the Quarren. "An aquatic world," he said simplifying slightly at Ranma's look of incomprehension.

Michael tapped a few more buttons, and pictures of Dac came up, showing a planet almost entirely dominated by blue sea.

"All planet water?" Ranma asked in shock.

"There are a few places of rock and earth yes, but mostly it is just water. Our first cities were underwater, our first civilizations too, before we learned to make them float. We were extremely advanced before we went to the stars because of the need of our environment."

The picture slowly moved away from the planet, showing the massive rings around it, man-made space stations ringing the planet. "What those?" Ranma asked staring at them intently.

"Construction rings for the creation of starships." The Mon Calamari said. "We have a thriving mercantile fleet, as well as explorers and a defense fleet."

Michael nodded. "The Mon Calamari are reckoned as some of the finest ship engineers in the known galaxy, though very rarely do they sell their ships to others. Not even the Republic has access to their ships. And they are also rumored to be the slowest." He teased, looking over at the coms specialist. "Every ship they make is seen as a work of art, and that kind of perfection takes time."

"Amazing." Ranma said shaking his head. "Ship and stuff so different here."

"Your people haven't started to make their own ships?" Michael asked. Ranma had not opened up about his origins, but his lack of Basic made everyone assume he was from some backwater way out on the Rim.

"We not go past moon." Ranma said with a shrug. "Sent unmanned, little things, to see what out there?"

"Probes?" Michael guessed.

"That work." Ranma said with a shrug. He smirked then at Mon Calamari. "I visit your world, I go swimming, good fun! Have to be in female form for that though. If most people you, I not get hit on, right?"

"Yes, what is with that?" The Mon Calamari asked, voicing a question that the entire crew wanted the answer for, while ignoring the second part of what Ranma had said, since it was true. Humans and many other races might find one another attractive, but Mon Calamari did not find human attractive or vice-versa in the main. "I've never heard or seen of anything like that, changing from one sex to another upon the application of water. Which were you originally?"

Ranma laughed. "Been wonder why no one ask that. I born man first, then idiot father take me on training journey. I then… hmmm…"