Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo or any incarnation, concept or character thereof. I just like writing about them is all. I also do not own the mechanoids. That honor belongs to Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books.
A Long, Dark Night
Prologue:
Private Times
Bassox Prime; a pristine Class M world orbiting a binary star system. It had all the traits Earth has- vast oceans, rich forests, dry deserts and fertile plains. High mountains and wide rivers criss-crossed the five major land masses of the world. On three of those land masses, burgeoning pre-industrial civilizations from not one, but two native intelligent species existed, a true rarity in the cosmos.
On the surface the sky was blue in the daylight, with white fluffy clouds drifting by during the day and spectacular starfields by night. In the southern lattitudes, an intense lightshow produced by the planet's version of the Aurora Borrealis was evident. It truly was a strikingly beautiful world.
One the largest land mass, morning was rising in the central plains, to the west, it was already mid day, with people shuffling around in the cities, or doing farmwork in the countryside. All was pleasant and nothing distinguished it from any other normal day.
Until the suns became blotted out by an enormous shadow.
High in orbit above Bassox Prime, an enormous ship almost as large as the planet itself, hovered, standing between the planet and the binary stars. The dull grey gunmetal skin of the ship seemed to come alive, crawling and skittering as hundreds of thousands of shapes launched off of it. Massive bay doors opened to let out smaller ships, of the sizes more commonaly seen in the galaxy. They all began the decent toward the surface of their target world...
...and three days of Hell decended on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Bassox Prime.
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"Mmm...tell me again Tenchi." Ryoko practiaclly purred as she leaned back against her lover's chest and nestled in his arms on the roof of the house. Tenchi smiled a bit and looked up at the starry sky that held a few clouds, but they accentuated the scenery.
"Tell you what?" He teased. Ryoko began nibbling his neck.
"That you love me." She gave a nuzzle "I never get tired of hearing it."
"I love you Ryoko." His arms wrapped around her middle a little more and pulled her closer to him.
"Mmm...I love you too." Ryoko turned her face up to his. Tenchi leaned down to kiss her softly as a small cloud passed over the full moon. When the kiss broke, Ryoko looked out over the lake.
"I won't drag you into space you know." She said.
"What?" Asked Tenchi, suddenly confused at the change of subject. Ryoko giggled.
"For all its faults, Earth is a beautiful planet." Ryoko answered. "Sure I know some great vacation spots out there, but I wouldn't mind staying here and growing old, watching our kids grow up-"
"Hey! We aren't even engaged yet!" Tenchi suddenly got defensive.
"And just when were you planning on getting around to that?" His lover teased. Tenchi had been planning on it for a month or so. While he was sorely tempted to do it now, he knew such an event would lead to a rapid discarding of clothes and tangled limbs. Perhaps even falling off the roof. The young man had already made it clear that their honeymoon was when he wanted to have his first time with her. He wanted it to be special, very special.
"Soon, I promise..." He smiled and kissed her again.
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Six months. Had it really been so long? Aeka folded an obi neatly and placed it inside a luggage crate. Six months, it seemed too long to be away and yet it hadn't seemed long enough. She folded another obi and placed it in the crate. Aeka sighed.
She longed for Tenchi, but now she knew that she could never have him. Ryoko had him, and always would have him. The princess had time to prepare for that day a little more than six months ago, when he finally confessed his love. It lessened the impact, but not the hurt. She had begun to realize his choice in the whole business with Haruna. Little signs kept popping up here and there. Afterwards those little signs continued until that one day she saw him and Ryoko together, and the picture he was drawing. Aeka knew in that moment he loved her, even if both Ryoko and Tenchi were oblivious to the fact.
It took a couple more days for them to figure it out, but they did. A week later, she left to come back to Jurai and be alone with her thoughts; thinking about her future, whether or not she would return to Earth, or if she would continue her royal obligations. Her parents were pushing for the latter, but her heart yearned for the former. What made the decision harder was that Tenchi called her every week via a communicator Washu built just to see how she was doing.
She smiled as she thought of those calls. He alternated evenly between calling her 'Aeka' and 'Sis'. When he told her how he felt about all of the girls of the house, he told her he felt that her and Sasami were sisters to him. She talked to Nobyuki a couple of times during those calls, Washu once or twice and even Ryoko made an effort to speak with her. It certainly seemed like everyone still cared. Still, it would be hard to go back.
She shook her head and continued folding the clothes, slowly packing them as she mulled over the decision. A sudden, soft knock on her door startled her.
"W-who's there?" her voice was a little choked as she turned around. A familiar giggle immediately identified the person on the other side.
"Come in Sasami." She sighed and went back to folding. The girl walked in, smiling.
"Did I scare you?" The little princess chuckled.
"I was deep in thought." Aeka retorted gently. It was not the whole truth, but a subtle sense of sibling rivalry, as well as old habits with Ryoko, prevented her from wholly conceeding.
"Ohh, I see." Sasami was still mirthful. "So you're coming back with me?" She watched Aeka's folding slowly come to a halt.
"I really don't know Sasami." She answered. Something in her voice dulled her little sister's mood. "I want to go back, but it doesn't seem like I belong there anymore. I have duties here...but I desperately wish to go back."
"Mother and father have given you leave of those duties Aeka." Sasami replied. "They know how upset you are over Tenchi. Besides, everyone misses us." She immediately brightened "I'm not supposed to tell you, but Ryoko really misses you. She asks about you every time we talk." That made Aeka smile a bit.
"I suppose...I just need to think on it some more." She turned to smile at her "Even if I stay, I will make time to speak to you often, and I will certainly make time to visit." That seemed to make Sasami feel better.
"Alright Aeka." She smiled as she hugged her big sister "Just don't take too long to decide." They released each other and Sasami left the room.
Once she was gone, Aeka sighed and just folded more clothes.
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A streak of red exited hyperspace, and in a split second coalesced into a ship with a narrow nose and wide aft end. While the red color was not typical for Galaxy Police ships, the markings and design of the vessel were of a standard GP patrol corvette. The ship halted and held position as its occupants studied their surroundings.
"That's odd..." Kiyone remarked "Mihoshi, what's the specifics of the Bassox system again?"
"Let me see...Bassox..." the blonde typed in some search parameters for the Yagami's database then perked up, then began reciting the abbereviated entry. "Um, binary star system, one G-type and one F-type star. Six planets, the four outer ones are Class J gas giants and two inner planets are Class M and X. Second planet, Bassox Prime, is inhabited by two races of sentient humanoids. Underdeveloped world."
"That's what I thought..." Kiyone remarked as she looked out at the starfield, which did not include the two stars nor the second planet, which the officers were supposed to be orbiting. Instead of the planet, there was a small, light asteroid cloud and where the stars should be was a cloud of faintly glowing gas.
"Mihoshi, run a check on the star maps, make sure we're in the right system. I'll run a check too..." As Kiyone checked, she reflected on their vacation. After taking Aeka and Sasami back to Jurai, they returned to Headquarters for an annual debriefing on the year's events. Then, they were given some time off, as well as a pay raise. That pleased Kiyone greatly. Now they wouldn't have to work so hard to keep an apartment on Earth. On their way back to Earth, they had been asked to check out the Bassox system. The small monitor station placed to observe the unusual phenomenon of two intelligent races evolving side by side on the same planet stopped giving its weekly reports to the Science Academy.
Kiyone, as well as the GP, thought for all the galaxy that it was a down transmitter. Now, the situation looked much, much worse.
"Um, Kiyone...my check says we're in the Bassox system." Mihoshi got that slight whine to her voice that always cropped up when she got worried.
"I know. This isn't good." Kiyone answered. "Checking for signals in system...There! I think I found the monitor station. It's transmitting a weak signal, short range." She punched a few more buttons and the Yagami sped off toward the station.
The station wasn't much bigger than the Yagami, but was a bit more spacious, due to the lack of need for a hyperdrive and engines. Most of this space was taken up with storage. Stations of this type usually housed two or three crewmembers, the scientists simply monitoring the instrumentation.
As they approached, both women got a sinking feeling in their stomachs. The closer they got, the less and less the station resembled its normal, correct modular ring shape. Now it seemed to be a loose collection of hull segments and internal workings. A cloud of vapor hung around the station, likely ice crystals from a ruptured water tank. Through the haze they could clearly make out blast marks from weapons fire on the outside of the station. The lack of survivors was painfully clear. Kiyone scrambled for the comms panel.
"Headquarters! This is Detective First Class Kiyone Makibi! Come in over!" She waited as the signal traveled through hyperspace much faster than any ship could. She had no idea why, but she looked over at Mihoshi and got a slight urge to panic. Finally she got a response.
"This is headquarters Detective." The channel was weak and "What's the problem?"
"The monitoring station at Bassox has been destroyed..." She said nervously "So have Bassox Prime and both stars."
"Destroyed by what?" The person on the other end of the line asked, not believing what he was hearing "Was it a supernova?"
"Negative." Kiyone couldn't believe what she was saying. What the hell could destroy stars like that? "The station shows clear evidence of being attacked."
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"Let me see all your data."
"Transmitting now. Are you sure this channel is secure?"
"Absolutely. Even if it wasn't, I could just erase all evidence that it took place. Don't worry Kiyone."
"I just don't want to go to jail over this."
"Don't worry, you won't. Not with the greatest scientific genius in the universe looking out for ya!" Washu cackled a little "Now, this is everything you saw and were able to get from the station?"
"Yes, not much is it?" Kiyone replied.
"No, but it is something to work with." Washu nodded her head "I'll let you know if I find out anything your headquarters doesn't, then give you clues to steer those blockheads in the right direction."
"Thanks Washu."
"No problem...and Kiyone?" She waited until she had Kiyone's attention "You were right in coming to me with this. Anything that can destroy a star is a serious matter."
"Right, Makibi out..." The link was cut.
Like all good little nerds, Washu Hakubi never left the house. Litterally as well as figuratively. The Masaki house was as close to a home as she has had in a long time. She enjoyed being there and with Aeka and Sasami gone, things were a little dull, so she decided to keep things interesting by antagonizing Ryoko every so often. This she accomplished in a number of ways, mainly by poking fun at her relationship with Tenchi. Those always provoked an immediate, strong and amusing response, even if she sometimes had to scramble away for dear life. That girl was so sensitive about her boyfriend. She also harrassed the young man on occassion, but he wasn't nearly as much fun.
"Now let's see if I can come up with something about this...let's try and see what attacked the station." She accessed the files containing the camera logs of the monitor station, and her screen was little more than static.
"Hmm, going to have to clean this up..." she muttered. As she set to work, a part of her mind drifted off to think of some new way to get at Ryoko's goat.
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Preliminary Author's Notes
I have based this fic on the Tenchi TV (Universe) series and the movies that accompany that series. However, there was some information lacking, so I took from other series (mainly OVA) to fill in gaps. These details are relatively minor but were included to achieve a sense of completeness of detail. In all I have tried to stay as true as possible to the Tenchi TV series and avoid the whole cross-continuity mess.
I have also included some aspects of what might be considered 'hard-core' science fiction. Some of this, such as stellar and planetary classification, were included so as to make it seem as if characters who lived and worked in space knew their environment, as they should be expected to. Others, such as the use of Lagrangian Points, were included for dramatic purposes. And yes, I did rip off the planetary classification system from Star Trek, but after searching, it was the only comprehensive source I could find on the subject.
The villains, known as the Mechanoids, presented in this story are evil. I have tried to present their behavior as much as possible within their original canon. As such, they are capable of grotesque attrocity, which I have presented within the scope of this fic. If scenes depicting the results of physical torture, implied mental torture and mass death trouble you, then read no further. As for their technological capabilities, I have made reasonable assumptions and extrapolations based on what I know and in keeping with plot convenience.
The next point I have thought long about giving a notice of, but have decided to supply advanced warning. There is character death in this series. It's actually one of the reasons this fic exists (I will explain in the post-fic author notes). I know a lot of people don't like this sort of thing, but I have included it for dramatic purposes.
I have based the relationship of Tenchi and Ryoko on what I have seen in TMiL2 and I feel that from that, a T/R relationship is a reasonable extrapolation of the events within the Tenchi TV series and the accompanying movies. That said, this is not a Tenchi/Ryoko romance fic. The romance has passed. Tenchi and Ryoko already know they love each other and will be affectionate, but that is as far as it goes.
I also know in advance that there is not much 'screen time' of some of the other characters in the early parts of this fic. That is just how the story developed. It was not an oversight nor was it intentional snubbing of the characters. To get everyone into the positions and situations they find themselves in, and keep true to the opening scenarios I had concieved then turn them into what happens in later chapters is the only way I felt the story could progress.
