Masaki Family Secrets...
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Masaki Family Secrets...
Chapter 09... Results...
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( LONG ago... )
A young, dark haired male stood in the shadow of a tree, on top of a cliff, over looking a secluded valley...
A number of people were on the valley floor below, causing him to smile...
He had been coming here for some time and this was why...
A number of the people below were wandering around, looking at some thing they were holding...
They seem to be looking for some thing; others stood watch, as if on guard...
At the foot of the cliff was a deep crevasse and deep within in was a good deal of twister metal...
It was that metal that had drawn these people to this secluded spot, far from any native eyes...
The young male sighed, some people were just so predictable...
He knew about the metal because HE had helped place it there...
And this was why...
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Like the metal at the bottom of the crevasse, he too was not from this world...
As were the people below...
The metal had been a lure, as well as an alarm...
The spot had been carefully chosen so that the radiation belts that encircled this world would not prevent a space craft in orbit from detecting the metal...
At a glance, it would appear to be the remains of an off-world shuttle craft that had crashed and had been pushed into the crevasse to hide it...
It was, in fact, a lure to warn certain people ( like the young male ) that off-worlders were around...
As this was a lost colony, FAR from any other colonized worlds, one couldn't be too careful, especially when you were the losers of the most recent galaxy war...
The winning side wasn't into the habit of accepting the surrender of loser survivors...
So, the ALARM was a way of letting those who had settled on this world know there might be trouble...
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The young male had been coming out here for quite some time...
Unlike most of the others, he had known that the 'others' would come...
The question would be if they were more survivors or these hunting them...
It had only been a matter of 'time', in this case, about half of the time it took this world to orbit it's sun...
But they had come and from their dress - they were the Hunters...
From the number, it was a small special scout team, beamed down from low orbit to check out the metal...
Even in time of conflict, contact with natives of such low-tech world was one of the few galactic laws that still had a death penalty...
Due to the orbiting radiation belts, hand scanners were only good for very short distances and then only for basic data...
Several of the people below were at a spot right over the hidden mass of metal...
It seem that they had finally able to pin point it's location...
Now came the wait while they identified it...
The young mail leaned back against the tree and smiled, this was going to take awhile...
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( Another sector of space... )
A mature male sat in a chair, on a high balony, sipping a drink and taking in the amazing view...
He had traveled to many worlds around this huge galaxy in his long life, but this was one he couldn't get enough of...
On most worlds, if you stood in a high spot like this, you could see the edge of the world disappear down from sight...
That wasn't true here, for here the edge of the world slowly disappeared UP, into the sky...
As hard as it was to imagine, but it was true, they WERE on the inside of a gigantic sphere instead of on it's outer surface...
1st Captain Seina Yamada Jurai, the youngest son of the Juraian Emperor smiled as he shook his head...
Here was more land and water than any galactic Empire could ever fill or conquer in several life times...
And Juraians tended to have very LONG life-times, that is, barring accidents, wars or assassination...
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When he'd first learned of this place, he thought it was some wild story...
But when he and the others got here, more than one jaw dropped...
His entire fleet of ships was now housed in a sub-surface area which made his large 'pocket-battleship' look like a small scout ship...
ALL the ships had been emptied of their passengers and crews, then put into 'storage', where mechanical workers began to repair and restore them before securing them, for the future time that they would be needed again...
The survivors and crew members now were exploring this vast new world and trying to forget all the recent horrors...
Some of the survivor had been scientist and with others, had volunteered to help this world's caretakers in some very important projects...
The caretakers hadn't been prepared for the huge influx of survivors from the 'war'...
His task farce had not been the only one that had manage to find it's way here...
Only a very tiny portion of this huge world was inhabitable, the rest was still wild and untamed...
But plans were under way to help...
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HOWEVER, it seems that some one had foreseen the worst and begun construction of special shelters for the survivors...
Sleep chambers had been constructed and with the increase in survivors and others, even more chambers had to be built and sources of power found to supply them...
There was no telling how long these chambers would be needed or even how long they would operate...
Up in the 'sky' was a small star, which supplied the power to this world, a really reliable source...
The plan was that the survivors and others would be sealed in sleep chambers, to be awaken, at a later date, to a better world...
However, some would remain 'awake' and, in shifts lasting years, they would be watching over the others and even the world it's self...
He had decide that he would be in the 1st shift, to later be put into a sleep chamber when it was time...
But he had requested that he be among the first awaken, when the time came...
He would be the last in and the first out...
He believed it was his duty to watch over his people as best he could...
There had only been one problem...
This world had been doing that for several hundred thousand years already and even stars had only so much energy to give...
In another couple of hundred thousand years, it would become a white dwarf as it energy was used up...
Most of that going to the unusual 'engines' which kept this whole huge world safely anchored in sub-space away from unwanted eyes and out of unwanted hands...
At least THAT had been the prediction BEFORE the addition of all those additional sleep chambers...
Now no one could agree on how long the power would last...
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But on one thing ALL the caretakers agreed...
There was a message carved in stone, long ago, by the goddess Tsunami herself...
That no matter what became of the empire know as the Masaki worlds, Teunami would watch over her children...
And that in it's greatest hour of need, the Emperor returned...
Captain Seina didn't have the heart to tell them about the coded message he had intercepted on his way here...
TO ALL EMPIRE SHIPS AND UNITS - THE MASAKI HOME WORLD HAS FALLEN - ALONG WITH ITS RULER...
He had checked other reports and found confirmation that the Masaki Emperor and ALL his knights had indeed been there at the final battle...
No quarter had been asked and none had been given...
That meant that the last Masaki Emperor, Tenchi Masaki, was dead...
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( A distant world... )
A young girl had joined the young boy and they sat under the tree, watching the people below them...
The girl had brought a small basket and the two were enjoying the meal she had fixed...
She had found that 'cooking' wasn't as hard as she thought it would be...
She had spent the last two decades as a fleet officer and until recently she had gotten her meals where every one else got theirs, the mess hall...
Thank the Goddess that there were a number of chiefs and cooks among those who landed on this world with them...
With helpful hints, the newly wed couple, her and the boy had survived and prospered...
She looked down as he reached over and placed his hand on her belly...
Their first child would be arriving in 2-3 months...
A make shift hospital had been created underground in the nearby mountain range...
A small village/city in the rock above it...
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A larger, better protected settlement had been created far to the east, high in the mountains...
Not only was it better concealed, but minerals in the soil protected the people from the surrounding radiation that would soon begin to affect their life expectantly...
Here in this dry, dusty area it seem to always be hot...
But, he had heard of an island far to the east, where life was quieter...
It had been one of many places chosen as infiltration points or landing sites for the off-worlders...
However this harsh area had been chosen as the main site, easier to lose one's self among the moving tribes and natives...
So, after the child came, they would be setting out for that far distant island...
From what he'd heard, it sounded like a much better place to raise a family...
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But for now, they watched as these below went about their 'business'...
After a while the group rejoined and spent time in a long and some what heated discussion...
It took a while, but they finally broke up, walking around, 'policing the area', picking up after themselves, removing any trace that they had ever been there...
A sure sign that they were leaving and not planning on coming back...
Finally, they returned to a small area and began to disappear one at a time...
They were returning to their ship...
After the last one disappeared, the couple got up and headed down the trail, hand-in-hand...
He would continue to check out the area until they left, another colonist would take over for him...
Mister and Mrs. Kenshi Masaki were head home...
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To be continued...
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Please feel free to comment and review for any errors...
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