---Disclaimer---

	Neither Eric nor I own the rights to Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Master 
of Mosquiton, El-Hazard, Hellsing, Tenchi Muyo!, Darkstalkers, Sakura 
Diaries, King of Fighters, Inu-Yasha, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or Bubblegum 
Crisis Tokyo 2040. Nor Love Hina, Street Fighter, Fushigi Yugi, Devil 
Hunter Yohko, Yuu Gen Kai Sya, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Project A-Ko, All 
Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Oh! My Goddess!, Bastard!!!, 
Outlanders, Nadesico or Vandread. Whew! That was a mouthful! Anyway, all 
these characters belong to their respective copyright holders.

---Title---

1/2 a Vanguard Chapter Four
Being the twenty-third installment of the '1/2 Saga'
By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton

---Captain's Ready Room---

	"Well? What do you two have for me?" Magno sat back and sipped at a 
cup of tea as her two seconds nodded in unison. Buzam and Gascogne looked 
at each other warily, a glance which didn't go unnoticed by their captain. 
"What is it this time...?"

	"It's nothing major, captain, but there are several strange 
occurrences in the Dread pilots' behavior that you should be aware 
of...Meia's behavior especially." Buzam stood and pointed the projection 
remote at the holoscreen. Instantly an image of the Dread squadron leader 
appeared. "Meia has been seen...well...smiling."

	"Smiling?"

	"Yes, ma'am. She was seen actually giggling by Jura and Barnette 
after maneuvers yesterday, naturally they reported this strange occurrence 
to me." She clicked the remote again and another image appeared, blurry 
security camera photo of a tall male figure leaving Meia's designated 
quarters. "This photo was taken at 04:37:58 hours today. I assume this 
figure is Ranma."

	"Hmm?" Magno placed her cup gently down on the smoked glass of the 
table. "What possible reason would Ranma have for being at her quarters 
that early in the morning? Could she be ill?"

	"No, all the physical tests that we monitor from the Dreads indicate 
that nothing is physiologically wrong with her." Gascogne spoke as she 
twirled the long straw she was so fond of chewing. "Whatever it is...it 
isn't an illness." Magno wisely decided to ignore Gasco's blush.

	"That's correct, she can't be ill, rather she's the happiest I've 
ever seen her. This is very odd."

	"Could she be...?"

	"Negative. She had no fahma donors the last time we set down, she is 
not with child." Magno frowned at Buzam's words.

	"Since this is causing no detriment to her duties, let's not make 
this a top priority."

	"As you wish, captain."

	"What else do you have?" Gascogne coughed politely as BC sat back 
down in the high-backed chair. "Gascogne?"

	"I felt that you should know about a rather interesting conversation 
I overheard in the Jacuzzi last night. Jura and Barnette were up to their 
usual antics but they were talking about a 'fantastic experience' and 'an 
explosion of bliss' unlike anything they'd every felt. I notified BC about 
this and we surmise they were talking about 'Comet Dust'."

	"You think they've started taking drugs?"

	"Well, I'd say that it's not possible due to their personalities, but 
this combined with Meia's 180 I'd say we have a pusher on board."

	"And this pusher would logically be Ranma?"

	"Correct, captain, he was the only one in close contact with Meia and 
Barnette for extended periods of time. Barnette would of course drag Jura 
into it as well...Ranma is the key and I move for his immediate 
imprisonment." BC slammed the palm of her hand on the table and stood, 
looking at Magno with determination in her eyes.

	"Hold it, girls! Let's not get too carried away, here, Ranma and the 
Hibiki boy are our trump card against the aliens! Let's wait a awhile until 
you two gather more evidence." The captain swiveled her chair to face the 
bridge doors, and turned around to look at them one last time. "I'll have 
the special cameras unlocked in their quarters. We'll get to the bottom of 
this I assure you."

---Sickbay---

	Duelo and Ranma disengaged themselves from each other as they came, 
spilling their fluids down the other's throat, and swallowed with relish 
the nectar of their lover. Duelo was already started to develop a healthy 
relationship with the engineer Parfait and Ranma was becoming quite busy 
with Gascogne, Barnette, and Meia. Still, it was nice to just lie down with 
someone who knows your body and let yourself go. Ranma pulled on his 
clothes briskly and opened the door to their office, surprised to find Meia 
sitting pensively on a bed.

	"And what seems to be the problem with you, Meia? You seemed 
perfectly fine this morning." He smiled easily and patted her on the 
shoulder. Thus it came as a surprise when she clutched his hand in hers and 
pulled herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably as her rubbery plastic 
gloves grabbed wrinkled bunches of his clothes in her frantic search for a 
warm place. Ranma fell backwards and took the blue-haired girl along for 
the ride, hitting the floor heavily and rolling onto his back. He watched 
with fascination as Meia curled herself into a fetal ball atop his torso 
and wept unceasingly for several moments before they died down to scattered 
whimpers. As she calmed down he sat up and began to cradle her.

	Soon enough he had carried her back to her quarters and they both lay 
on her covers. The blue-haired Dread pilot was inconsolable it seemed, 
completely incapable of being the firm, stern leader she had been for so 
many years; instead she was a fragile shell that desperately needed to know 
her place in the grand scheme of the Universe. Ranma sat up with the girl 
draped across his lap, silently smoothing back her hair with a gentle hand 
and keeping her warm with a thin blanket. Finally, after nearly forty-five 
minutes of consolation, she spoke.

	"I want you to leave." The words hit him like a truck. He began to 
disengage himself from her limp body. "But I don't want to be alone." He 
stopped. "I want my life to stay the same, the same way it was when I first 
joined the pirates, I want my focus!" She pulled herself from the thin 
white sheets and sat on the edge of her bed so that her silhouette was cast 
against the far wall by the blazing pulsars in the galaxy nearby shining 
through her window. She gently, reverently picked up the small wooden music 
box from her childhood and opened it, the tinkling of Louis Armstrong 
echoing in the seemingly cavernous expanse of her bedroom. "I want 
everything to be the same."

	"I'll leave if that's what you want..."

	"No. I don't want you to leave...but I don't want the problems this 
will cause. I want to be with you, be alone with you like last night, just 
lying in bed and holding each other, talking...what nonsense. I'm the 
squadron leader of a Dread unit, I'm Meia Gisborn goddamnit! I'm strong! 
I've always had to be strong!" She let the music box fall to the cold hard 
floor and scatter the odd assortment of jewels and keepsakes she'd saved 
from her childhood. "I _want_ to be strong!" Ranma crawled across her bed 
and took her shoulders in his hands, carefully easing her back into him, 
and spoke softly into her black headpiece.

	"You are strong. Just because you want to be with someone doesn't 
really make you weak, you've made it great by yourself but after all that 
time everyone craves friendship...love." She began to cry a bit as he 
encircled her and set her back against the pillows. "You've been happy 
these past few days because this is what you want, these are the small 
things that you refused yourself earlier, now that you have them you're 
having trouble reconciling these new experiences to the old. It's perfectly 
understandable."

	"I've been smiling...I haven't smiled since mother...since I was sent 
to the main planet. Oh God I've been happy, but I just can't be this 
simpering little girl when duty calls! I have to be tough for the good of 
my team!"

	"The team can be tough by itself, it doesn't need your strength to 
carry it! You just live your life the right way and make a truthful 
decision with yourself. I promise I'll be there with you when your decision 
is made." He lay back and pulled her next to him, setting the covers over 
them both as a group of quasars broke off from the nearest nebula and 
rocketed towards their destination.

---Jura and Barnette's quarters---

	"So will it be tonight?" Jura was drying off from her shower as 
Barnette brushed her hair. "Did he tell you anything?"

	"Nothing." The brunette turned to her blonde partner and winked 
broadly. "Don't worry, it'll be worth it, trust me!"

	"But he's just a man...why are you getting so worked up over him?" On 
the other hand, Jura was sure Barnette was secretly loving the gorgeous 
beauty of her Vandread Beta or 'Dreagata'. The tall buxom woman sighed as 
she thought of various ways to get Hibiki to combine with her...damnit she 
wanted to be beautiful so badly...

	"You'll see..." She smiled at the vain blonde and finished brushing 
her hair, tying it in her usual style before pulling the skin-tight 
jumpsuit over her nudity.

	"So...do they really have a tube between their legs?"

	"You'll have to ask him, I don't know."

---Several days later---

	"Well? Nothing's happened?" Jura had a vein the size of her Dread 
pulsing dangerously on her forehead. Barnette was on her backside with her 
shoulder blades against the wall warding against her furious lover.

	"Just wait! He does have other duties, you know."

	"I want to have it now!" She hadn't gone through all the trouble of 
learning the pilot the men's horrible bangatas just to fail in her quest to 
achieve beautiful perfection. Yet she had. She had demeaned and debased 
herself into using a man's weapon in the attempt and had failed miserably. 
She wouldn't lose twice in one day simply for lack of trying. "And I _will_ 
have it now!" She belted her saber to her shapely waist, made sure the 
blade was sharp and clean, and pushed a gold laser-ring onto her finger. 
She'd experience the pleasure Barnette was talking about even if she had to 
threaten him to get it! "Come on, Barnette, I'm going to get it from him 
whether he likes it or not!"

	Meanwhile, Parfet and BC were listening into the conversation in the 
hopes of discovering exactly what the two Dread pilots were talking about. 
BC was convinced that it was 'Comet Dust' and would have Ranma's head if 
the assumption was correct. Parfet was simply there because she'd just 
finished the spy device.

	The extremely well-endowed and sexy Dread pilot raced down the halls 
towards the men's quarters with her green-haired companion close in tow, 
fully convinced that Ranma would be more than willing to share that kind of 
intense pleasure with her. If he wasn't...well, her rapier could be quite 
convincing. The corridors passed quickly until she was in the drab environs 
of the Ikazuchi old section. Facing the thick outer door of the men's 
cells, she took several deep breaths before pressing the 'open' key and 
storming inside.

	"Ranma! I want to talk to you! Ranma!?" Jura stomped down the cells 
until she reached the last, and the only one with a door. Ranma had 
insisted on the door and built it himself from spare parts so it locked 
into the energy systems of the cell 'bars' and opened and closed 
automatically. She pressed the 'open' key on his door, virtually mashing 
the make-shift control panel in her hurry, and rushed into the room. 
"Ranma?"

	"What is it?" The tall figure laying on the bed shifted and rose, 
throwing off a thin sheet. Ranma sat up with the sheet covering his lap and 
combed back his hair with a hand before turning to her silhouette in the 
doorway. "Come in if you're going to, Jura, you too, Barnette." Both women 
had the good grace to look abashed as they slowly walked into his room and 
the door shut with startling finality behind them. No sooner had they 
entered then a dull yellow light turned on and illuminated his sparse cell.

	He was completely naked except for the sheet over his crotch and sat 
hunched with his elbows resting atop his knees. Barnette noticed the 
complete lack of any kind of furniture and the equally small amount of 
clutter on his desk, while Jura was more preoccupied with the expanse of 
naked male flesh before her eyes. That wasn't to say she was attracted to 
him, no not at all, she was in a relationship with Barnette after all, but 
there was just something about how his muscles and abdomen looked that 
seemed to catch her eye. Even more eye-catching was the possibility of 
seeing what lay underneath his sheets.

	"What brings you here?" He watched as Barnette began looking at the 
things on his desk and in his bookcase. "Anything in particular hurting 
you?" Jura just continued to stare at him. Barnette began to take books off 
his shelf. "How about you, Barnette-chan?" His teasing tone broke through 
the emerald-haired woman's curiosity and the holo-album she had in her 
hands fell and clattered to his feet.

	As he bent down to pick it up the sheet around his waist fell down to 
the floor and both Dread pilots were witnesses as his generous endowment 
swung between his legs as he knelt. Jura felt her mouth go dry at the 
flaccid organ swinging before her eyes, the rumors of a tube were 
incorrect, men had a hose hanging between their legs! Barnette, who had 
only enjoyed Ranma's digital skills, suddenly felt warm at his exposure. He 
seemed to pay their glances no mind and sat back down with the album, his 
penis settling itself once more atop the pillow of his testicles in the 
dark recesses between his legs.

	"What exactly is that?" Jura was pointing and referring to his cock, 
but Ranma interpreted her question as pertaining to the holographic 
projector in his hands.

	"This is just a little momento I have from a long time ago." He 
opened the thin frame like a book and a shimmering 3-D image of a short 
girl with red hair appeared. Washu-chan bowed to Ranma and abruptly 
transformed into her adult state. "One of my friends made this for me as a 
joke." He held it up so both of them could see as the image changed.

	What appeared next was a series of utterly pornographic 3-D, life-
size images of Ranma engaged in copulation with a variety of women. Each 
time the pairs were in a different position and at the bottom their 
position was named and described. It was Washu's holographic Kama Sutra, 
the Ranma Saotome edition. Jura and Barnette watched the images go by and 
felt their anticipation grow. After two-hundred and sixty-nine positions, 
the encyclopedia continued into the various practical and sexual uses of 
semen. Jura and Barnette watched those comparing the copiously thick 
substance that coated the bodies of the women with their own thin and silky 
cum. Moisture began to fill their mouths again but didn't stop, resulting 
in the two drooling uncontrollably on the floor.

	Ranma noticed their blushes and could feel the sexual energy 
radiating off them but played it safe, not showing them he knew. "So what 
did you two come here to talk about?"

	"Barnette?" Jura glanced sideways at her partner.

	"Uh...y-yeah." The shorter woman coughed into her fist and pointedly 
looked away from the naked man as she began to speak. "Um...S-
Saotome...uh...er..."

	"Would you just spit it out already!?"

	"If you're in such a hurry why don't you ask him yourself!?" Jura 
simply huffed and crossed her arms. Ranma looked back at Barnette. "A-about 
what happened w-wh-wh-when we combined...uh...what Jura wants to ask is if 
you can d-d-do that to...her...?"

	"Oh..." He looked at the full bust and svelte dress of the blonde 
Dread pilot and couldn't deny that he'd wanted to fuck her since stepping 
on board. "Is this true...?" Jura just nodded in embarrassment. "Well...do 
you two know about male-female relationships?"

	"No...at least we know that you are vicious brutes and miserable 
fools." Ranma laughed out loud at Barnette's exclamation.

	"Right you are! If...if we were talking just about men from Tarak. 
You see, I come from a place where men and women live together and fall in 
love with each other."

	"No way! You lie!" Barnette couldn't help but feel that something 
about what Ranma said was correct deep down in her genes but her entire 
life seemed to refute his statement. "Men and women could never peacefully 
co-exist!"

	"Than how do you explain those images?"

	"..."

	"Just listen. You know how women combine the egg from a fahma with 
the genes of an ohma to create a child?" It was at that point that Parfet 
triggered the audio systems all over the ship to patch into her pirate 
line. Thus, everyone on the ship heard Ranma's next statement. "In the old 
days, men would use their 'tubes' or penis and insert it into a woman's 
vagina." He really felt stupid explaining it like this, but he wouldn't do 
anything unless his partners fully understood what they were getting into, 
Gascogne already knew so she wasn't the problem. "He'd then move his 
'penis' in and out of the woman until he expelled 'sperm' or 'semen', man's 
seed. This 'sperm' would travel up into the woman and would sometimes 
impregnate the woman, thus creating a child."

	Jura and Barnette stood stock-still for several minutes as the 
information sank into their brains. "So wouldn't men eventually die out? I 
mean all children are girls! Did they use the genetic machines of Tarak?"

	"No. If a child is conceived between a man and a woman, there's no 
guarantee that the child will be a girl! It could be a boy or girl by a 
matter of chance." Jura considered that. Risk having a child with a man? 
Worse, to have the child perhaps be a boy? Then she had to consider the 
fact that Ranma would have to insert that 'penis' of his into her snatch. 
Maybe it wouldn't be too bad considering all her 'toys' were of the same 
basic shape, although not as thick or long. "Do you still want to do this?"

	"Let me think about it, okay?" Jura grabbed the thin black material 
barely concealing her breasts and pulled, peeling the fabric from her chest 
and letting her breasts swing enticingly before his eyes, the thick nipples 
hard and pouting already in desire. She undid her belt and the rest of her 
dress fell to the floor in a thin pool of satin black. Jura stood in front 
of Ranma in nothing but a g-string panty that didn't even conceal her 
fleshy lips as they sucked the crotch of the material into her canal. Ranma 
was willing to bet Jura was a tight as a fourteen-year old virgin (he had 
experience in that matter). "But for now, show me what you did to 
Barnette."

	Soon the entire ship was filled with the orgasmic cries of Jura as 
Ranma expertly massaged her entire body, hitting clusters of pleasure 
points as she lay face-down on his cot. Barnette was just sitting on the 
sidelines, watching with fascination the interplay between Ranma's 'penis' 
and her beloved's back. He was straddling her thighs and leaning over her 
back as his hands rubbed the tension out of her shoulders but his penis was 
sliding across her spine with every movement. Barnette watched as the thin 
layer of skin covering the angry-looking purple 'head' was pulled back and 
forth slowly, as if there was moisture between the two that made it 
difficult for the skin to move.

	Jura was in heaven as Ranma's big hands traveled over her back, 
easing her muscles and teasing her senses. Her breasts were spread out on 
either side of her chest by their sheer size and her rosy nipples were 
exposed to an occasional pinch or caress from his hands. Her arms supported 
her chin as he continued and she could feel the heat of his 'penis' against 
her back, a burning rod of flesh lying across her body. She screamed in 
climax as his hands began to knead the flesh of her buttocks, indirectly 
pulling apart her nether lips and pushing her clit against the cold metal 
of his bed. A stream of thin, milky fluid began to seep from her cunt as he 
began to move closer and closer to her sex.

	Barnette was almost at her own breaking point, fingering herself on 
his chair when he lewdly spread Jura's legs out flat and drove his face 
between them, burying his nose into the crack of her ass as he nibbled at 
her folds. By that time, virtually everyone on the ship was pleasuring 
themselves, especially those already touched by Ranma.

	Buzam was sitting at 'her' station on the darkened bridge with 'her' 
pants laid across the control panel, stroaking her cock and pinching her 
nipples as Jura's cries of passion echoed in the cavernous room. As Ranma 
began to make slurping noises as he swallowed, she cried out softly and 
spewed semen across the console, leaving it thick and dripping as she 
recovered. Unfortunately she didn't know that Mika, the navigation officer 
usually dressed in a teddy bear costume, was still on the bridge at her 
post, albeit still in disguise. Fortunately, the girl was busy frigging 
herself to notice the fact that the XO had equipment not standard on a 
woman.

	Parfet and her engineers were already in the thick of it when Jura 
screamed out Ranma's name. Gascogne was forcing a slime bullet up her pussy 
when Ranma began to comment on how Jura tasted. Ezra was fisting herself 
(hey, she's pregnant not celibate) when Barnette offered to 'help' him with 
his 'penis'. Dita was already forming a puddle when the emerld Dread pilot 
asked what was exactly entailed in pleasuring a man. Hibiki had been white-
washing the wall of his cell since the whole affair started (mainly because 
it was happening right next door).

	Finally, Duelo was finding the noise very condusive to gathering 
sperm samples as Bart filled another sample dish. He had some theories 
about the women he wanted to test based on Ranma's stories.

	Hmm, wouldn't it suck if an enemy attacked just then?

---To be continued---

	Just for the record, the girls shown in the Saotome Kama Sutra were 
(in order):

1. Washu
2. Makoto
3. Carmilla
4. Minako
5. Ami
6. Usagi
7. Haruka
8. Michiru
9. Setsuna
10. Aeka
11. Ryoko
12. Mihoshi
13. Kiyone
14. Kaori
15. Nodoka
16. Chisato
17. Tenchi
18. Zero
19. Misaki
20. Funaho
21. Mayuka
22. Kusumi
23. Mitsuki
24. Shitsuki
25. Nagi
26. Haruna
27. Achika
28. Mai
29. Shermie
30. King
31. Yuri
32. Sakura
33. Chun-Li
34. Motoki
35. Nuriko
36. Soi
37. Rune
38. Diva
39. Nanami
40. Shayla
41. Afura
42. Miz
43. Kaoru
44. Ifurita
45. Alielle
46. Fatora
47. Ikuko
48. Utena
49. Wakaba
50. Anthy
51. Juri
52. Kozoe
53. Miaka
54. Yui
55. Integra
56. Seras
57. Maya
58. Misato
59. Ritsuko
60. Asuka
61. Rei
62. Yui
63. Naoko
64. Ibuki (Yagami)
65. Naru
66. Motoko
67. Kaolla
68. Amalla
69. Mitsumi
70. Kitsune
71. Haruka (Hina)
72. Shinobu
73. Sylia
74. Priss
75. Nene
76. Linna
77. Princess Aoi (Empress of Japan)
78. Yohko
79. Azusa
80. Ayaka
81. Nanami (Yuu Gen Kai Sya)
82. Eiko
83. Biiko
84. Ayumi-sensei
85. Morrigan
86. Lilith
87. Nuku-Nuku
88. Emi-chan
89. Mara
90. Urd
91. Kahm
92. Sayuri
93. Yuka
94. Tsunami
95. Tokimi
96. Washu
97. Miho
98. Sakura (Lum)
99. Kasumi
100. Nabiki
101. Akari
102. Hotaru
103. Kiima
104. Shampoo
105. Spice
106. Lin-Lin
107. Lung-Lung
108. Soap
109. Brush
110. Bubbles
111. Perfume
112. Rouge
113. Hinako
114. Asuka (the White Lily)
115. Kodachi
116. Mieko
117. Urara
118. Megumi
119. Minato
120. Ryoko (Subaru)
121. Izumi
122. Hikaru
123. Howmei

After 123 they repeat.