[unrecoverable text]

"Okay," Ryu wasn't sure if he could convince her, but he decided to try something else. "I'll tell you what will most likely happen. Once the rest of the team gets back, we'll have a doctor take a look at you to see if you're okay. Then we'll get you back to your family." "You'll really do that?" Ryu drew an X over the center of his chest. "Cross my heart." "That's exactly what will happen when the rest of the Science Ninjas get back?" "Well, some people might want to ask you some questions. But I can't think of anything else." He gave her a moment to think. But then a tweet sound came from his wrist communicator. "Stand by." he said into his wristband. "Look," he then said to the girl, "I'll just be outside that door if you need me. I should be only a minute." "Go ahead." Ryu quietly said into his communicator as soon as the sick bay door closed. "Why the delay?" Ken's voice sounded slightly annoyed. "It's kinda long and complicated." Ken waited for Ryu to say more. When that didn't happen, he clicked his teeth and continued. "It looks like Galactor bugged out just before we got here. They left a lot of equipment and --" "Pregnant schoolgirls?" "Yeah. How did you know?" "We almost squished one when I put the GodPhoenix through the wall. She's in sick bay now." "How bad is she?" "She's not hurt, but, apparently, she's a high-risk pregnancy." "Just like the rest..." Ken's voice trailed off. "So how many are we taking?" "None. We aren't equipped to handle their medical frailties, and there are just too many of them." "What about Jyoti?" "Jyoti?" "Yeah, the girl I've got here. I think we'd better take her back with us -- she's been through enough extra stress already." There was a pause. "I'll make my decision once I'm back and have made my assessment." "Thanks, Ken." Ryu entered the sick bay just as Jyoti finished getting back onto the table. He decided to pretend he hadn't noticed. "How're you doin', Jyoti?" "Um, okay..." Her voice wavered a little and trailed off. "Jyoti?" "Ryu, will you be mad at me?" "Why would I be mad?" "Well, I, um, kind of heard some of the things you said to Ken." "I'm not mad. Just don't get into the habit of eavesdropping, okay?" "Okay." A moment passed. "Jyoti, is something bothering you?" "Um, did I hear right, that other girls were left behind?" "Yeah, that's right." "How many?" "Ken didn't say, just that there's too many for us to take with us." A moment passed. "Are they like me -- they might lose their babies?" "That's what it looks like." Jyoti looked down. A large, round tear ran down her cheek. "I thought Brad cared, but he dumped me...he dumped us." "Who's Brad?" "The base commander." Of course, Ryu thought, I should've guessed that. "He told me I reminded him of somebody he liked when he was a kid. That's why he put me in this room next to his." Ryu took her hand. He didn't know what else to do. Jyoti stifled a sniffle and looked at her hand in his as she talked. "I got a lot of shots that made me feel really yucky because he said I needed to start having periods." Something occurred to Ryu. "How old are you, by the way?" "I'll be twelve next month." Ryu swallowed down the nausea creeping up from his stomach. "Nothing was like they told us in sex ed class." "You had --?" "At Freemont, everyone takes that class by the age of ten, since some girls start having their period then." "Oh." "Didn't you have that --" "Yeah," Ryu answered quickly, "but I was a little older." "Oh. I guess it's pointless, anyway. Nothing happened the way the teacher said it would." Ryu reached out and placed his other hand on Jyoti's shoulder. "Even the baby," Jyoti started to say. Ryu grit his teeth. He wanted to tell her to stop, he didn't want to hear that part...but he knew she needed to talk, so he held his breath and braced himself. "didn't happen they way I thought it would." "Huh?" "I didn't get this baby like they said I would in class. The Galactors made me have a medical procedure -- enfeeto?" "Do you mean 'in vitro'?" "Yeah, that's it -- in vitro." Ryu relaxed a little. It wasn't as bad as he expected, but it was still unforgivable to put a little girl through this. And for what? "And when all this was happening, Brad acted like he cared. But he didn't. He just ran." Tears started coming more freely. Ryu pulled Jyoti close enough to put his arms around her. "Hey, look at the bright side." "What bright side?" "You're going home. You'll get to be with people who've missed you and who care about you." "Really?" "Really." a new voice from the doorway replied. Jyoti caught only a tiny glimpse of white before letting out a shriek and trying to bury herself in Ryu's arms. "Hey, it's okay!" Ryu whispered to the trembling girl, "Ken's not gonna hurt you...I promise you. If he even looks at you wrong, I'll go at him!" It took a few minutes for her to stop shaking. "I'm sorry, Ken," Ryu said to his commander, "It's just that --" "I know." Ken replied, "The other girls saw the videos, too." He went over to the table and crouched down until he was looking up at Jyoti. "And you know what?" he said to her, "After all the stuff they saw me do in those videos, I'm kinda scared of me, too!" Jyoti blinked a couple of times as she looked into Ken's face, trying to read what wasn't obscured by his visor. A thin smile appeared on her lips. She let out a small giggle. + + + + + + + + + + The city of LaRamie is in the same Amerisian state as Bluestone National Park, but the city is in the southeastern corner whereas the park is in the northwestern corner. In downtown LaRamie is an ISO-run hospital considered one of the best hospitals in the country. But there is no surprise in that, since the ISO maintains high standards in its hospitals all over the world. If anybody had been paying attention, they would have seen a happy-go-lucky looking young man carrying a small basket full of baby clothes and bottles enter a service elevator in a restricted parking garage. The doors closed. Right away his mind went back to the meeting immediately after the Science Ninja Team rescued the schoolgirls Galactor abandoned. "I don't understand, Hakase." Jinpei said, "Why did Galactor kidnap all those girls?" "They're using the girls for a baby farm." Joe replied. He almost spat the words out. "That sounds horrible." Jun hadn't said much since they arrived back at the Crescent Coral Base, but she seemed to be on the verge of tears the whole time. Ryu couldn't blame her -- he kept thinking about Jyoti and how she was literally forced to grow up before her time. "So what's a baby farm?" Jinpei was being a typical kid of his age -- wanting everything spoon-fed to him rather than thinking it out for himself. "I think Katse's having problems with recruiting." was Ken's response. "Galactor's cross-generational hold on families isn't as strong as it used to be." Dr. Nambu added. "Now that almost all the people in Galactor can't get beyond cannon-fodder rank..." Joe muttered. "I still don't get it." "Jinpei," Jun replied, "Galactor's planning to make those girls have babies for as long as they can have babies. And because Galactor would carefully control the environment those babies grew up in, they wouldn't be as likely to rebel, since they wouldn't be aware of what life's like without Galactor." Jinpei bit his lower lip as he thought about what Jun said. "So...it's kinda like a puppy mill where mama dogs do nothing but have litters and the puppies are trained to be mean and fight?" "That's right." Nambu answered. A few minutes after the young man had entered the elevator, the Owl, carrying a gift basket, emerged on an upper-level floor. After a quick stop at the nurse's station, he stood in the doorway of a 12-year-old girl's room. Jyoti was sound asleep. An older man and woman sat by her bed. They looked up, and their jaws dropped in disbelief. The man quickly regained his composure. "May I help you, sir?" the man said with a thick, Indirian accent. "Um..." Ryu stammered a little, "I was just popping by to see how Jyoti's doing." He didn't remember entering the room; the next thing he knew, he was setting the basket down on a table by the bed. " I brought a little something for the baby... oh yeah, I'm Ryu..." "Jyoti's talked about you so much, sir." the man replied. "But we had trouble believing her." the woman added. Her accent was as thick as the man's. Ryu didn't remember Jyoti's accent being so strong. "It's one thing to hear about the Science Ninja Team helping others on the television," the woman continued, "but to hear your daughter describe how she was rescued...well, we were sure she was exaggerating, as many young girls do." All Ryu could do was blush and mutter, "Aw, shucks..." "Oh, and we've forgotten our manners!" the woman proclaimed, "I'm Jyoti's mother, Saheli, and this is Varoon, my husband and her father." "Nice to meet you folks." "Have you seen my grandson yet?" Varoon asked. "No, sir." "Come, let me show you. And maybe Jyoti will be awake when we come back." Even though he was in an incubator, Jyoti's baby appeared to be healthy. "She named him Ryu." Varoon said. Ryu turned to him. "Really? I'm honored." "If the boy turns out to be anything like you," Varoon replied, "then we will be honored." Ryu just stood there, mouth and eyes wide open. "My only child was in darkness, abandoned and confused." the father explained, "In those few moments you spent with her, you brought her back to us. She realizes that Galactor lied to her. If it hadn't been for you, where would Jyoti be now?"

I'll repost my thoughts here... That was touching...good to see Ryu as the hero this time. The idea of breeding soldiers like puppy mills do with dogs is awful, but believable. After all, they have to be running out of potential recruits as time goes on. Great story!

While I find the idea of a baby farm to be an interesting solution to a manpower problem, it also brought me to tears -- my mom was a legitimate dog breeder who also worked to get puppy mills shut down and get tougher laws to punish the puppy mill owners. The thought of putting little girls through that kind of hell...but, then again, Galactor isn't a cookie-of-the-month club, so I guess it would be natural for them to be so heartless.

Moving my comment over here, too: Aw, Ryu got way more than his wish, didn't he? Sadly I can see an organization like Galactor doing things like this. He was the perfect one to find her with his huge, kind heart. Smile

That was sad and touching. makes me wonder about those school girls taken in Africa by some of the Fundamentalists. I can't imagine doing that to a child. I hope Joe catches this 'Brad' and cuts few things off.

For once Ryu got to be the hero and specifically because he had to stay behind. I loved the sweetness and innocence in this one!

Great to see a Ryu-centric story where he got to be the hero! I hope all of the other girls were rescued as well, given time.

Aww, this is beautiful! I just want to give the Owl and his big heart a a big hug! Perfect! Thank you

So good to see Ryu at the forefront. It's sad to think stuff like that really does happen to adolescent girls in some countries. Maybe not to that extreme but they are "married" off shortly after their first period. Going to get off my soapbox and go hug my daughter.

Thank you, ElectricWhite, for writing this -it fit the prompt so very well, and in a way I'd never have come up with. Well done!

I'm glad you liked it, LB! I had a plot bunny from an early episode of BSG -- I found the idea interesting in a strange way, but I never thought about it or developed it until I received your prompt*...and then I started slamming into aspects that made me really uncomfortable. So I feel I must thank you for the prompt, because it forced me to go to areas that I would have avoided. * For everyone else: Someone on the team doesn't get what they want. Instead, they get what they need. (Gatch or BOTP)

I think this is a very likely (albeit tragic) situation for Galactor's 'recruiting'. I've explored similar concets, but with older girls. Although as Kritter says, there are countries in the world where this kind of thing does happen regularly, except it is considered 'marriage', a;beit without the girl's consent. We are very lucky to live where we do.

Three cheers for Ryu! At least he got his reward when they named the baby after him. Seriously, though, as you guys have said already, it's so sad that this kind of thing actually happens -- and no one does anything about it!

Originally posted by ElectricWhite * For everyone else: Someone on the team doesn't get what they want. Instead, they get what they need. (Gatch or BOTP)

Can you tell I'd recently heard a certain Rolling Stones song when I came up with this one?

Originally posted by ElectricWhite So I feel I must thank you for the prompt, because it forced me to go to areas that I would have avoided.

I'm glad the prompt did that for you -it happens to me too, with prompts, and I'm always glad that they take me places I wouldn't have gone otherwise.