And here we go. End notes and Omake left. The deluge never ends sometimes:

-----------------------------

'Explorer', they called him. 'Pioneer', sometimes. At the very least,
'wanderer'.

Some called him, 'Putz', but rarely to his face, and never more than once.

He sighed, crouching before his portable stove, and prodding the slowly
heating pot of soup. The skies overhead were clouded, though to the
south he could see the massive greenish sphere of Cyaga over the
horizon. The northern skies offered little more than clouds, but
directly overhead, the stars glittered without worry.

They tend to do that. Except the sentient ones.

"No worries for rain," he mused quietly.

No one else spoke to him in the solitude,

It wouldn't be solitude if they did. :)

and the wind whispered softly

through the area that his camp sat in, rustling the tall, leafy grasses.
It was a forest, he knew. Or at least, it would be someday.

Yeah. If it's full of grass, it's not a forest. :)

For the

moment, the tallest plants were the grasses, genetically engineered
oxygen generators. Their entire breeding cycle would end in a few short
decades, and they would become extinct, providing nutrients to the short
saplings that were scattered about.

They were also edible, if not very tasty. Shrugging, he plucked one, and
nibbled on it slowly, leaning back against his pack, and staring up at
the stars. "I could look for Akane," he mumbled quietly to himself.
"They say that they found her."

Yep. Back in interlude three.

"Maybe a promising iron deposit a few kilometers north, and possibly a
deposit of gold somewhere west of here, sir. There's a pretty deep
aquifer underneath this whole area, though," one of the men answered,
flicking his headset into a pocket. "Jeddah thinks the area is too rocky
for farming,

Nonsense. That just means you farm rocks. Lots of rock farmers out there. :)

 and Kenshiro says the land's not useful for much else,

unless the ore deposits are good."

It's like 'Outpost' isn't it? Except there's atmosphere. :)

"They remind me of a time when I couldn't see, even when I had them on,"
he replied, grabbing his shirt, and rising to his feet as the girl
straightened up. She looked at him curiously, one finger pressed to her
lower lip as she considered what he had said. "It's not important," he
said, pulling his shirt on.

Ah, giving her some beefcake shots, I see.

"And... how do we deal with the outsiders? Saffron...."

"Saffron can't guide us anymore.

Kiima; It's that whole 'Encased in ice on another planet thing.' that's the
problem

***

Brooding silently near a stand of very young trees, he wondered -- not
for the first time -- about his betrayal.

Hmm.

"You're angry because he doesn't care about you?" the girl asked,
surprised. "My, I didn't know that your... allergy... affected you that
much!"

"It's not that!" he protested. "And you know it, too!"

"Yes," she admitted, giggling. "But I think you're thinking

believe you're thinking (sounds better to me)

"Damnation," he growled softly, a smile playing across his face as his
anger faded. "I propose a new treaty. The Musk nation is willing to
offer an ice cream sundae to renegotiate the terms of our alliance."

"Is that so?" she asked, arching one eyebrow and grinning impishly.

"Purely for political purposes, I assure you, my princess," Herb said,
chuckling quietly.

"Of course," Rei said, giggling along with Herb's laughter.

heh. Cute touch.

***
"Well, come in!" the younger man insisted, grabbing the bag before he
could be stopped. "Are you going to be a teacher? We've started to
establish this area as a potential district for building a good school,
and Seta-san's already been put in charge of that project.

Already up to his old tricks, I see. :)

"I was," Norris said frankly. "And I think I've got a lot of writing to
do before I'm ready to rejoin a service -- any service."

Makes sense. For some it gives life purpose.

"Feh. Fine, fine. But the odds of this lady looking for someone either of
us knows are pretty damn unlikely, I think," he grumbled, striding
through the crowd. For the crowd's part, people parted

part... parted. I think you can rephrase that.

The woman blinked, eyes widening as they fixed on him. Something...
something in those eyes was not quite right, though, and it unnerved him
very faintly. "I'm... looking for my son," she said quietly. "He... he
left on a ship from Earth. I... I lose the papers that said which one,
but it was before the Juraian people came to Tokyo," she answered slowly.

Ah, so Nodoka came to her senses. Interesting, if probably a bit late.

"Okay, and, uh, who was your son?" the girl behind him asked nervously.

"His name was Ranma. I... a monster... or maybe some space creature tried
to convince me that he was my son once," the woman sobbed. "But I know
he left! He left with Akane! Tendo Akane, he'd be with her -- he's not
some monster!"

Oh, still off the deep end after all. Too bad. But I guess everything can't
be happy for everyone.

"Well, whatever," he grumbled. "I like to think I know Ranma pretty good.
I trained with him on the fleet to Shanghai -- Ranma's a hero, and a
hero deserves better than some woman who's going to call him a monster
for a mother."

Cold. But it fits Ryu's personality.

"Hello, I was wondering if you've seen a girl I'm looking for I'm--

for. I'm

It wasn't Earth, and it never would be

It will be to the next generation.

"I would never dodge an important question like that!" Katsuhito said
indignantly. "But I took in a wandering girl a while back as a shrine
maiden -- you should meet her."

Yakumo opened his mouth to protest the lack of answer, but his jaw merely
hung open, as his eyes fixed on the girl over Yosho's shoulder, dressed
in shinto shrine maiden attire, and blushing at him shyly. "You win this
round," he said, finally finding his voice. "Pai!"

Heh. What an evil man he is, teasing Yakumo like that.

"Understood. If they do spread?"

"Then it's a big paperweight."

Voice: Can I put it on my desk, then?

"I have a friend with connections, if it gets to that," she said quietly.
"But we'll try not to bother him at the moment. Now if you'll excuse me,
I need to monitor Selene's functions before we move on to the new core."

Any particular reason for that name?

She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I suppose Mamoru got
lucky, just going into hibernation," Ami reasoned. "Higurashi got worse,
after all.... I hope I live long enough to see you wake up, Usagi.
And... when the Earth thaws enough for him to wake up, you will, too."

Hmm. Usagi elected to get frozen with him. I can see that,

"... by reading books of poetry," the black cat concluded.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, the woman grumbled, "I don't need to listen
to you two."

"You know, I think I know where that man -- Yosho, was his name? I think
I know where he lives," Artemis commented.

"Do you? How interesting," Luna responded. "But I don't suppose anyone
here would be overly concerned with that information, do you?"

Unable to resist smiling, Setsuna shook her head. "I never spent any time
with him like that," she asserted. "But... maybe now would be a good
time to start...."

Oh? I didn't think she indicated any inclinations to him. Interesting.

-----------------------------
Author's notes:

And thusly is concluded book one of Process of Elimination.

Interesting way to tie things up. Don't have any idea which course you'll
take in continuing it, but it should be interesting to see. This was
certainly an epilogue. Excellent work and I'm glad I took the time out to
read it. Moving in the right places, nice mix of action and character
interaction while keeping things from being obvious in what would happen
next. Certainly a work I've enjoyed from start to finish

D.B. Sommer

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