Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Outlaw Star: All in the Name of Love
Chapter 8: Part 2
The moment before each combatant's weapons were about to meet, a brilliant flash of light streaked in between them, striking the ground at the far end of the ridge. Blinded by the light for an instant, they both recoiled, shaking their heads trying to get their vision back. Having eyes that were less sensitive than the Ctarl Ctarl, Renik recovered first. Turning to face his adversary, again he raised his arm, but shock froze him, the shock of seeing, or rather, not seeing his hand. His hand and arm just below the wrist were gone; the flesh where his hand should have been was charred black, the blood vessels completely cauterized. Still in shock, he looked down and saw his hand still clutching his dagger about a meter away. Before he knew it, Renik was flat on his back staring up at the snarling tigress. He expected her jaws to come down on him but they did not. Instead she gave him a look, a look that said, "It is over."
He shook his head. "I was once a proud warrior in the Saurian Army. Please, I beg of you. Don't let me rot away my years a cripple in some Terran prison. Let me die a warrior's death. Let me die with honor."
Aisha stared down at him a moment longer. He wasn't sure if she could understand his request, but he hoped she could sense it, from one warrior to another. Then suddenly, Aisha brought her jaws down to his neck and bit down hard. As his life slipped away, Aisha could just make out his last words.
"Thank… you…"
"She killed him. Why? He was defenseless." The deputy lowered his binoculars for a moment, then raised them again. He saw Aisha stagger back and collapse to the ground. He threw down his binoculars and quickly reloaded the rifle back in its case. Stowing it back on the ATV, he got in the vehicle to drive it over to her, but the vehicle wouldn't start. It was then that he noticed the odd smell. "The EMP must have fried the electronics on this thing." He jumped in the back, grabbed the first aid kit, and hopped down from the craft. He set a steady pace as he jogged to help the fallen tigress.
Aisha had changed back into her humanoid form by the time Turner showed up. While she was tired and her wounds did sap her of her strength, she managed to stay awake the entire time. Sitting on the ground, her eyes were fixed on the dead Saurian. Slowly her attention shifted to the dagger that lay on the ground in front of her, still in its owner's hand. She reached over to it and picked it up. Prying the cold hand from the knife, she walked over to Renik and placed the hand on his chest. She then walked over to the edge of the cliff, clutching the dagger close to her chest, looking out over the pale red sky. A tear trickled down her right cheek and she absently wiped it away just as she heard the footfalls of someone approaching.
'Terran, about 68 kilograms, probably 172 or 175 centimeters, it must be Turner.' She turned around slowly to see the deputy, who was still about a hundred meters away, jogging in her direction. Turner slowed down and eventually stopped when he realized she was standing there naked. He looked around and spotted her clothes scattered around nearby. Piece by piece the deputy picked up each article then started towards her again. Slowly, Aisha walked in his direction, and with every step, her anger grew, more and more. Not noticing her angry expression, Turner extended her clothes to her. Aisha slapped them out of his hands, and before he could react, she grabbed him by the collar and forced him to the ground. Still clutching the dagger, she held it within a centimeter of his face. "You fool! What do you think you were doing!"
Fear filled every fiber of his being. For a moment, it prevented him from speaking.
"Tell me!" she demanded.
"I… I… was… trying to… to help," he stammered out.
"HELP!" Aisha clutched him around the throat and pressed the dagger against his cheek. "You idiot! You stole my victory from me! You turned an epic battle into a pathetic act of mercy! You turned a proud warrior into… into…" She slowly loosened her grip on him and let the dagger fall to the ground as she crawled away from him and sat on the ground with her knees to her chest, her arms folded over them, concealing her face as she hung her head low.
Slowly, Turner sat up. Fear was replaced with concern and sorrow for the woman he'd come to admire so very much.
"Miss Aisha… I'm sorry… I didn't know… I… I just… I saw you getting hurt… and what you said earlier really got me scared. For the first time since I've met you, I thought this was someone who may actually be able to hurt you, to kill you." He shook his head. "I couldn't let that happen. Not when there was something I could do. I'm sorry, Miss Aisha, but I couldn't let that happen." He hung his head and squeezed his eyes tightly shut, trying desperately to hold back the tears that came when the image of Renik striking a deathblow into Aisha's heart flashed in his mind.
Silence hung over the ridge for some time as the two stayed motionless except for their breathing. Finally, Aisha spoke. "It's okay. You did the right thing." She stood up and he looked into her face. What he saw scared him in a different way. In the time he had been around her over the past year, he had seen expressions of joy and mirth, of anger and rage, on the beautiful Ctarl Ctarl's face, but never could he recall ever seeing her so serious, void of all humor and happiness, void of fury and rage, just a serious solemn expression, almost sad. His heart broke at seeing her like this. So painful was the expression that he had to turn away. She turned and started gathering up her clothes. "You did what you were supposed to do." He looked up in time to see Aisha slip on her underwear.
"Miss Aisha…"
She turned towards him.
"Oh…" Removing the first aid bag from his shoulder pack, he said, "Let me treat your wounds… to prevent infection." He opened up the bag and pulled out a bottle of peroxide and some gauze.
Aisha hesitated a moment, but eventually walked over to him and sat down in front of the deputy, staring blankly at him. Not entirely sure if this action of hers meant she was giving him permission to treat her or not, he just knelt there for awhile, waiting for her to say something.
Eventually, she did. "What are you waiting for?"
"Oh! Right!" He opened the bottle and poured it on the gauze.
"Peew!" Aisha turned away from the bottle, scrunching her face and holding her hand over her nose. "That stuff stinks."
"Sorry, it's all I have." He started with the wound on her shoulder, wiping away the dried blood and cleaning the wound of dirt and dust. Aisha didn't flinch even when Turner had to rub vigorously to get the clumps of cauterized blood out. It had started healing already, and all traces of the wound would be gone within the week. He then worked on her face, starting with the cut across her right cheek just below her eye. "You were fortunate he didn't get you in the eye," Turner said, freezing the moment the words passed his lips. He had been around Aisha Clan Clan long enough to know that she did not appreciate such comments. He stared at her for a moment, expecting to get a tongue-lashing. If he was lucky that was all he would get. But her eyes were cast down, and she looked like she hadn't even heard him. He knew that was not possible, but went back to cleaning her face, not wanting to press his luck.
He then started cleaning the burn marks on her left cheek and over her eye. This caused Aisha to flinch a little. "Sorry." He gave a sheepish grin but continued his work.
"What was that you fired anyway?" she asked, gritting her teeth to endure the pain.
"It's a plasma rifle," he replied.
"Plasma rifle?"
"Yeah, it shoots a high energy plasma beam up to 10 kilometers, and is supposed to be accurate to within 0.6 centimeters.
Aisha cocked an eyebrow. "That was some shot, taking his hand off like that."
With those words, Turner shrank a little bit. "Actually, I was aiming for his head."
"WHAT?" Aisha's eyes grew wide. "His hand was more than .6 centimeters from his head," she shouted.
"More like 30 centimeters," the deputy corrected.
Hearing that, Aisha touched the burn marks on her cheek. "You idiot! You could have blown my head off!"
Turner shrank a bit more.
Aisha growled fiercely, then yelled. Jumping to her feet, she stomped off.
"I knew I shouldn't have said that," Turner mumbled to himself as he stared down at the bottle of peroxide and the bloodstained gauze in his hands.
Several silent moments passed before he realized Aisha was standing in front of him.
"Ahh!" he reacted, seeing her bare feet. Looking up, he realized she was still just wearing her underwear. When his eyes met her full, round bosom, he gasped and turned away quickly. His face burned a bright crimson.
Ignoring his embarrassment, Aisha plopped down in front of him and stared at him with an expression Turner found difficult to read. 'Is she still mad at me? Has she decided to forgive me? What?'
After about ten seconds, her patience ran out and she snapped, "Well, are you going to finish what you started?"
"Oh!" His eyes met hers. She could see a mixture of fear and embarrassment in his eyes. She thought she'd let him off the hook with a smile. 'After all, he was just trying to help.' But she thought better of it. 'Nah… I'm still mad! … Sort of, anyway… I'll just make him suffer a little while longer,' she told herself, staring at the nervous human as if he were a bug and she hadn't decided whether to squish him or not yet.
"Well?" she snapped again.
"Oh, yes. Sorry." He tossed the gauze he had in his hand and grabbed a clean one, going back to the task of cleaning her wounds, this time working on the numerous cuts she had on her upper chest above her breasts. While the blade of the dagger did not touch her breasts, the blood did flow down to them, covering most of the skin above her nibbles and covering one nipple entirely. Turner's hand trembled violently as sweat rolled down his brow.
The tiniest of smirks flashed across Aisha's face as she watched the deputy staring at her breasts. Seeing his discomfort was enough to lighten her mood. She waited several minutes as she laughed hysterically inside over the deputy's embarrassment. Finally, she let him off the hook. "It's okay, clean them already."
"Ahh!" He stared up at her. Seeing the mirth in her expression, he proceeded, still trembling slightly. The last thing Turner wanted to do at this point was offend Aisha again.
Aisha stared off into the distance as the deputy continued the task of cleaning the blood off her chest. Not usually one to allow a Terran to touch her body, the proud Ctarl Ctarl was simply too sore and too tired to do the task herself, but she wasn't about to admit it to the young human. Instead, she simply put on her best aristocratic expression and waited for him to finish so she could get dressed. Staring off into space it finally dawned on her. "Ben, where is the ATV?"
Caught by surprise, the already nervous deputy dropped the gauze he was holding while his hand moved forward to wipe away the blood. He looked up to face Aisha, still moving his hand. "Wha….?"
Aisha's ears sprang up and her eyes went wide.
'Now what did I do?' Turner thought to himself. Slowly, he followed her gaze down to her chest. To his shock, he saw his hand massaging the feline's left nipple. His hand froze for an instant, then flew off her as he jumped back in horror over his actions. "I'm sorry, Miss Aisha. Really, I am." He bowed his head till his forehead touched the ground. "Please, please forgive me."
Aisha shook her head. 'Today is just not your day.' "Okay, just don't let it happen again."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am." He started to sit up.
"In fact, do you have anything in that bag bigger than those stupid little things you've been using?" She reached down and grabbed the bottle of peroxide and poured a liberal amount on her chest. The deputy quickly searched the bag, pulling out a meter square piece of white cloth.
"Well, there's this." He held it up. "It's meant to be used as a sling or a large bandage."
Aisha took it from him. "Well, now it's a wash cloth." She splashed more peroxide on the cloth and rubbed it over her chest vigorously. "So, where's the ATV?" Aisha asked again.
"Oh, it's still on the other ridge." He pointed off to the distance. "The rifle emitted an electro-magnetic pulse when it fired. It knocked out all the electronic systems in the area. The ATV is dead. … So is the communications system."
Aisha nodded, then a moment later she stopped scrubbing and looked up at him. "And you didn't contact the marshal's office before you fired the rifle, did you?"
The deputy just hung his head again.
The Ctarl Ctarl sighed, looking off into the distance to see where the vehicle was. She sighed again. As she went back to the business of cleaning herself up, she asked. "Are there any provisions on her?"
Turner glanced over at the ATV. "Yeah, standard rations and water."
"About how far away are we from the nearest town?" She tossed the stained cloth aside and started getting dressed.
Turner stood up and surveyed the area. "I'd say between 25 and 30 kilometers to New Austin." Getting the last of her uniform on, Aisha tucked her epaulets and collar under her arm. "Well, we may as well get over to the ATV to get the rations." She started walking with Turner two steps behind, when she stopped suddenly and looked back at the motionless body of Renik Drago. She turned around and handed her things to the deputy, then walked over to the fallen warrior. Turner followed.
Standing over the Saurian's body, the deputy asked, "Is there something wrong, Miss Aisha?"
The former Ctarl Ctarl Space Fleet Captain replied, "No mater what he may have done later in life, Renik was first and foremost a warrior; a soldier with a soldier's pride. He deserves a warrior's funeral." She started looking around.
"What are you looking for?" Turner asked.
"Something we can use to cremate his body." She eyed the truck and walked over to it. With her right leg still hurting from the spill she had suffered when she was thrown from the truck, she climbed rather than jumped up the underside of the fallen vehicle and climbed back down inside the cab. Once inside, she started look for flammable materials. She ripped off the cloth covering the top of the cab and the insulation underneath it and tossed it out. Feeling the cloth seat, she ripped it open to reveal the foam padding underneath. Nodding to herself, she pulled the bench seat loose and tossed it out as well. With the seat out, she spotted the unopened bottle of tequila on the floor of the cab. Somehow it had survived the crash. The Ctarl Ctarl grabbed the bottle and climbed out of the cab.
Jumping down to the ground, her right leg buckled on impact, but she recovered almost instantly, confident Turner didn't see her in a moment of weakness. She grabbed the seatand dragged it over to Renik's body. Setting the bottle down, she proceeded to break the back of the seat so it would lie flat on the ground. She then went back and retrieved the cloth and insulation. Turner looked on, not sure what to do.
Aisha laid the cloth over the seat and set the insulation over it. She then went over to the Sairan's body and turned to lift him from under his shoulders, but her own shoulders and arms, weakened from the battle, strained and gave out in the effort.
Suddenly Turner was standing next to her, crouching down beside her. "Here," he said, "Let me help you with that, Miss Aisha." He grabbed one shoulder. Normally Aisha would have protested, but she knew she needed help so she quietly shifted to the other shoulder and lifted the Saurian's upper body. Slowly, they placed him on top of the make-shift cremation mound.
"Place him diagonally, otherwise he won't fit." Aisha instructed. The deputy nodded and complied. After adjusting his legs to rest straight on the opposite corner, the feline wrapped the cloth around the fallen warrior, tucking in the ends to hold them in place. She then grabbed the bottle, opened it, and poured it over Renik and the padding. Tossing the bottle aside, she said, "Give me your lighter."
"What?"
"A match, a lighter… something to start a fire." The deputy padded his pockets and shook his head.
"Ugh!" The Ctarl Ctarl rolled her eyes as she walked over to the truck. Spotting what looked like a loose piece of metal, she pulled it free from the truck and walked back. Picking up the dagger, she crouched down next to the cushion and began scraping the dagger across the metal. Sparks shot out and the cloth ignited. Aisha jumped back just in time to keep from getting burned. She repeated the action on the opposite side of the mound. This time when she jumped back her leg buckled again, and she fell on her ass.
Turner rushed over to help her up, but she pulled away from his grasp, saying, "I can do it myself." As she stood up, she tossed the piece of metal down and carefully slid the dagger under her belt. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head as she chanted an ancient prayer of her ancestors in the ritual tongue. Taken aback by Aisha's actions, Turner simply stared at her for a moment before bowing his head in respect for the dead. As the Saurian's flesh began to be consumed by the flames, Aisha wiped a stray tear from her eye and looked up into the red sky. She drew in a ragged breath, then asked, "How long have I been here, Ben?"
The deputy glanced over at her. He knew this day was coming, but deep inside he had hoped that someway, somehow she might just forget, or simply decide to stay on indefinitely. But it was obvious to him that this battle had drained her of more than just her strength. He'd seen her take the lives of countless criminals, not once hesitating to finish them off. But against the Saurian she had paused, clearly preferring not to kill him. In the end she had no choice. 'Why?' He still didn't understand. "Miss Aisha?"
"Hmm?" She continued to gaze up at the sky.
"Why did you do it? Why did you kill him when it was obvious he couldn't fight anymore?"
Silence hung heavy in the air for several long minutes. Finally, the feline warrior responded. "Because he deserved to die like a warrior, not spend his last days rotting away in some prison."
He wasn't sure if he understood or if he would ever understand. To prefer death, over life sounded crazy to him. But he wasn't going to argue. He wasn't a warrior or a soldier, and the only reason he was in law enforcement to begin with was because his father, a bureaucrat for the Space Forces Administrative Division, had pulled some strings to get him this job. He had taken the job because it seemed to have more of a future than cooking ramen all day long at the noodle cart he had been working at. Turner sighed softly. "You will have fulfilled your contract in two more days. The additional Space Forces personnel and equipment are scheduled to arrive tomorrow."
"Good." She looked back down to the Saurian's body, which was consumed in flames. "I've grown tired of all this killing. I'm ready to go home." She gasped silently to herself. Images of her father and mother, her nanny and her friends: Amery, Striker, and of course Augusta, all flashed in her mind along with images of Jim, Melfina, Suzuka, and even Gene. When the images of her Terran friends outnumbered the images of her Ctarl Ctarl friends, she shook her head clear, wondering, 'When did I start considering Heifong my home?' "Has the transportation to Heifong been arranged yet?"
"It was arranged the day you signed the contract," Deputy Ben Turner reminded her. "Remember, you insisted upon it."
"Hmmm…" Aisha gave a slight nod. "That's right, I did."
Silence fell once again. The only sounds were the crackling of the flames.
When the flames had died down and all that was left of the Saurian was ash, Aisha turned and walked to where the deputy had set her epaulets and collar on the ground. Tucking them under her arm, she glanced in his direction. "Let's go."
Turner nodded. Picking up the first aid bag, he flung it over his shoulder and jogged to catch up to her.
Not a word passed between them as they walked to the ATV. Aisha glanced at the young deputy several times, catching him staring at her. Of course, he would turn away the instant she caught him.
'My silence must be driving him crazy, but I just don't feel like talking right now. I hurt, and I'm tired and hungry. I know those rations will hardly put a dent in my appetite, and I'll have to share them with him as well. Thirty-kilometers normally wouldn't be a problem for me. I could normally run that in less than an hour; but the way I'm feeling right now, especially my leg; I'll be lucky to cover that distance in six or seven hours. And it's already getting late. The suns will be down in a little over an hour. Man, this sucks.' She glanced over at Turner again. 'There he goes again.'
Once at the ATV, Turner opened the back bottom panel and pulled out the water and rations. Having packed all of the vehicles himself, he made sure he placed double the water and food supplies in the vehicle he normally used to drive Aisha around, knowing the Ctarl Ctarl's appetite and propensity for drinking water.
"Here you go, Miss Aisha." He handed her the water.
She took it from him and downed half of it in one gulp. Closing the bottle, she licked her lips clean. "That hit the spot." She sat down and placed the bottle next to her.
"I know you don't really like these things, but you should eat something." He held out the energy bar to her.
"Right now, I could eat the bark off a tree," she replied. Taking the bar from him, she ripped the wrapper open and took a big bite. After chewing for a few minutes, she amended, "I take that back. Eating the bark off a tree would be better than eating this stuff." She continued chewing.
"Sorry, but at least it will help you get your strength back."
Aisha snorted. "What I could really go for right now are a couple thick, juicy steaks and a nice tall mug of Ctarl Ctarl Ale." She looked around her, seeing how very desolate the area was. "But under the circumstances…" She looked at the deputy and frowned, swallowing down the thoroughly chewed but still horrible tasting energy bar. "I guess this will have to do."
Turner gave her a crooked smile and took another bite out of his bar. With her mouth around the offensive food, Aisha's ears suddenly shot up and she jumped to her feet. Looking around in the sky, she was sure she heard something, something loud and mechanical approaching.
Looking up at her, the deputy asked, "What is it?"
"I hear something…" She continued to look about when suddenly she spotted it coming from the southeast. "There!" She pointed off in the distance.
The deputy hopped off the back of the ATV and stared in the direction she was pointing.
"I don't see anything." He strained to see.
"It's there, trust me. It's there." She jumped up on the vehicle and began waving vigorously. "HEY! WE'RE OVER HERE!" She strained to look for a moment. "Damn it! They're not looking in this direction." Turning towards Turner, she asked, "Don't we have a signal flare or something we can use to let them know where we are?"
Still trying to make out what Aisha claimed to see, he replied, "No, we don't but… but we have something else, something better." He ran to the side of the ATV and pulled out the plasma rifle once again. Quickly, he opened the case and set it up.
"Damn! That is one serious looking piece of hardware," Aisha marveled.
"If we can send a vertical blast, it should be enough to get their attention." The deputy continued setting it up from memory.
"But the EMP. Won't it knock out the craft?" The Ctarl Ctarl looked back in its direction to verify it was still in her visual range.
He glanced in the direction she was looking, "No, I think they should be well out of the EMP's range." A moment later, Turner announced, "The rifle's ready, but the stand isn't designed for a vertical shot." He looked up at Aisha, not knowing what to do.
Aisha jumped down from the ATV and grabbed the big gun, pointing it straight up into the air. "FIRE!"
"But… Miss Aisha…"
"I SAID FIRE!"
Without any further hesitation, Deputy Ben Turner pressed the firing button.
"It doesn't look like they made it out this far," the marshal said to the pilot. "Circle around once more, then we'll head further east."
Suddenly a blinding light appeared to the left of the craft.
"What the hell!" The marshal turned to look and caught a glimpse of the energy blast streaking up into space. He also caught sight of what looked like an EMP emanating from the distant twin ridges.
Slapping the pilot on the arm, he commanded, "Head for the source of that blast!"
The pilot nodded and veered hard left.
Aisha was half conscious on the ground, the force of the blast and the EMP causing her to hit the ground hard. Turner kneeled beside her, desperately trying to revive her. She could see his lips moving, but couldn't make out what he was saying. Slowly, she sat up. Taking hold of her head with one hand and keeping the other on the ground for balance, she tried shaking her head clear. The expression on her face told the young deputy that that had been a bad idea.
"Augh, I think the EMP scrambled my brain," she mumbled.
"Can you stand up, Miss Aisha?" Concern was written all over his face.
She looked up at him for a moment as if she wasn't sure what he had just said. Eventually, she replied, "Yeah, sure." Aisha tried to stand, but didn't get so much as a centimeter off the floor. "Maybe I could use a little help, this time."
Turner smiled and took Aisha by the arm to help her to her feet.
Moments later the helo-craft came into plain sight even for Turner, who had since retrieved his binoculars. "It looks like you're going to be able to get that steak a lot sooner than you thought, Miss Aisha." He grinned over at her.
"Just Aisha … Aisha will be fine, Ben," she replied.
He smiled and helped her take a seat on the ATV, then repacked the plasma rifle.
As the craft came in for a landing, the marshal jumped out and trotted to the pair. "Resting comfortably, I see," he said sarcastically.
Aisha shot back, "Yeah, right, comfortable." She hopped off the back hatch of the ATV only to have her leg buckle on her, but she caught herself and straightened up.
"Are you all right, Miss Aisha?" What happened to Renik?" He was close enough now to notice the cuts and scrapes on her body.
"I'm fine, just some minor cuts and scratches," she replied.
"Ah-huh." The marshal eyed the wound on her shoulder that looked much worse than a minor cut and the burns on her face as well, but he kept his observations to himself.
"The wanted criminal, Renik Drago, is dead, sir," the deputy announced as he stood up.
"Good, I'm glad to hear it." He looked around. "Where is the body?"
Aisha simply picked up her belongings and walked over to the helo-craft.
The marshal stared after her, then gave his deputy a questioning look.
"We cremated his remains over there." He pointed to the neighboring cliff. "On the field of their battle."
The marshal walked a few steps in the direction his deputy indicated and lifted his binoculars to see for himself. He spotted the jackknifed truck first, then he spotted, a few meters away, the charred remains of the wanted criminal.
"Miss Aisha felt the Saurian deserved a warrior's funeral," the subordinate added.
"Yes, I see." The marshal continued to survey the area. "That Miss Aisha is truly an amazing woman."
"Yes, sir, quite amazing." Turner's voice betrayed the same longing he showed in his eyes for the remarkable warrior he had come to admire and perhaps even love. The deputy immediately straightened his posture and shook his head clear when he realized his boss was referring to the Ctarl Ctarl's fighting prowess, while he was not.
This little slip was not missed by the marshal, though he chose to keep silent about it for the time being. "Well, let's go. I'll send a salvage team to gather his remains later."
The two Space Forces officers headed for the craft. The marshal got in next to the pilot and the deputy got in beside Aisha in the back. To his surprise, she had fallen asleep while waiting for them with her hands folded behind her head and her legs stretched out in front of her.
"Well, would you look at that," the marshal said, smiling in her direction.
"She passed out not a minute after getting in," the pilot said.
"Is that right?" replied the marshal. "Well, let's head back home so she can get some rest on her own bed."
With that the pilot nodded and took off.
AN: I feel really bad that it took me so long to get this chapter out. I know I had indicated in my last chapter that this one should come rather quickly, but I was not expecting the interferences that life sometimes throws our way to be so great. But enough with excuses, I do hope you liked this chapter. I wanted to take some time to show the more thoughtful side of Aisha. A side rarely explored in the series because for the most part the creators chose to use her for comic relief, unfortunately. Aisha is one of my all-time favorite anime characters largely because of her potential as a lead character.
I'd like to thank my always awesome Beta-Reader who turned this chapter around for me in record time. Thanks a ton Janice. You're the best.
I'd also like to thank everyone who has taken the time to write a review of my story and has pushed the number of reviews for this story to over 100. It brings me so much joy to know people are reading my work and have taken the time to let me know what they think of it. Thank you all.
By the way, to those of you planning on attending the Anime Central (ACEN'05) anime convention at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont from May 13th to the 15th. Be sure to drop by the Outlaw Star Fan Panel I will be running this year. I hope to make it interesting and fun for everyone in attendance and I could really use your support. Also, if you are a hardcore Outlaw Star fan and will be attending ACEN as well, and would like to help out with the Fan Panel, please feel free to email me at and we can talk about it.
A. Amishi