Galaxy 1001D presents:
Star Trek: Pioneer
Starring Tenchi Masaki as Captain James Jean-Luc Tenchi
Washu Hakubi as Science Officer Washu
Ryoko Hakubi as the Space Pirate Ryoko
Ayeka Masaki Jurai as Lt. Commander Lydia Ayeka
Sasami Masaki Jurai as Midshipman Sherry Lynn Sasami
Mihoshi Kuramitsu as Lt. Barbie Mihoshi
Kiyone Makibi as Tactical Officer Cassandra Kiyone
Katsuhito Masaki as Doctor Katsuhito Yosho
Ryo-oh-ki as Ensign Whiskers
Tenchi Muyo and all related characters are © AIC/Pioneer. Star Trek and all related material are © Paramount Studios. This story has been written solely for entertainment. The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the opinions of AIC/Pioneer, CBS/Paramount Studios, the author, the readers, or this website.
Based on "Star Trek" created by Gene Roddenberry
And "Tenchi Muyo" created by Masaki Kajishima
Dagger of the Brain
By Galaxy1001D
Chapter Twenty: The Shattered Mirror
In a turbolift car just outside the stardrive bridge on deck nineteen, three figures listened carefully to the conversation on the emergency bridge. Lieutenant Washu had opened a panel in the elevator and attached a wire from her tricorder a port in the wall, allowing her to use the security cameras to spy on Zero and Ayeka. The little redhead stared at the tricorder's tiny television screen, and listened to a small earphone she wore. Captain James Tenchi and the space pirate Ryoko waited next to her, listening with rapt attention as Washu provided tactical intelligence.
"Too bad your stupid emergency bridge has a protective forcefield," Ryoko grumbled. "Then I'd be able to just pop in and take care of business."
"That android has a hostage, remember?" Tenchi countered. "We can't just charge in there like the Lone Ranger! We've got to be very careful and methodical about this!"
"The imposter just activated the ship's self-destruct sequence!" Washu reported.
"That's it, I'm going in!" Tenchi cried.
"Be careful," Ryoko warned him, "and methodical," she added sarcastically.
The boy shot her a dirty look, then took a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay, I'll shut off the autodestruct. That makes me the distraction. Ryoko, wait for your chance, then rescue Ayeka. Washu, you'll be backup. In the meantime, get this door open!"
"Roger," Washu pulled out a handheld tool that looked like a box cutter with a glowing blade. She used it to tap an exposed circuit in the open panel.
"Autodestruct sequence engaged," the science console on the stardrive bridge. "Begin final thirty second countdown. Thirty… twenty nine… twenty-eight…"
"No…" the teary-eyed Ayeka murmured. She had failed Tenchi in every way. She didn't save his life, she didn't save his ship. She didn't deserve the uniform she was wearing. She just wanted to crawl into bed and die.
"Goodbye Ayeka," that android said softly as if put its arms around her. "I love you."
"…twenty-four, twenty-three…" the computer ticked down the last seconds of the Pioneer's life.
At that moment, the door hissed open and out stepped Captain James Jean-Luc Tenchi. "Computer," he commanded while striking a heroic pose. "Recognize Captain James Tenchi of the USS Pioneer! Code one two three continuity! Abort destruct order! Repeat, code one two three continuity. Abort autodestruct sequence."
"Code confirmed," said the computer after an intolerable amount of mechanical clicking from the science console. "Autodestruct sequence aborted."
Washu and Ryoko remained hidden in the elevator car by pressing up against the walls next to the door. For a moment, the only sounds that could be heard were the beeping and droning sounds of the computers. Then Ayeka broke the silence. "Tenchi! You're alive!"
"That's right, Ayeka," he said as he drew his phaser pistol and stepped into the room. "Clay's escape ship had a transporter. When the Pioneer locked its phasers on us, I programmed the computer to beam us over as soon as we were in range." The young captain held the pistol with both hands, pointing it at his demented doppelganger. "All right, you! Get away from my first officer, or…urk!" Suddenly Tenchi clutched his stomach, dropped his phaser pistol and staggered backwards.
"Tenchi!" Ryoko whispered to him. "What's wrong?"
"The painkillers are wearing off," he hissed through clenched teeth. When he had first revealed himself to his grief-stricken crew, the bridge officers had mistaken him for the imposter and attacked him. Doctor Yosho had given him some painkillers so that he could function, but had apparently been hesitant to give him too big of a dose. Now one by one, each bruise, ache, cut, and scrape became an unrelenting source of white-hot agony. "Ow! Ooh! Eee! Uh!" He spasmed and thrashed as each one of his injuries attacked him with resumed vigor.
"Captain!" Ayeka gasped.
"No!" Zero had recovered from his shock. He seized Ayeka and backed away towards the viewscreen. "I am Captain Tenchi!" he shouted melodramatically. "The one! The only! I deny you! Ayeka loves me, do you hear? Me, not you!"
Captain Tenchi clutched the captain's chair for support and took a painful breath. His efforts to speak made his voice loud at first and then quiet as his strength failed him. His words were alternately fast and slow. Still, he had to get his message across. "WOULD the real… Captain… Tenchi… set-his-ship-on-self-destruct? Would the GENUINE captain… put his own feelings before the lives…" He drew a ragged breath and "OF… HIS… CREW?" His next words were almost a hoarse whisper. "Look at Ayeka… She's terrified…" His voice sounded strange as he focused his will. "How could a man who professes to love her do this to her? Ayeka… You know that I would never do anything to harm you, don't you?"
"Yes, James," Ayeka answered meekly.
Tenchi's voice was the eerie calm of a man who has accepted his own death. "How can you say that you are James Tenchi when you are willing to harm that which is most important to you to get your way?" A spasm of pain caused his voice to wobble, but he pressed onwards. "If you LOVE HER…let her go." The captain discovered that he could maintain a calm, level tone if he spoke quietly. "She deserves her own life, with us, or without us."
"Don't take her away from me," Zero pleaded through Tenchi's teary eyes. "She's mine… I won't let you have her. She belongs to me…"
Tenchi shook his head. "She doesn't belong to anyone," he gently corrected. "She's a free spirit. Her own woman. She has to be free to fly… Free to grow… Free to succeed or fail on her own… It's not right to cage such beauty only to see it wither… She has to live her own life, and none of us has the right to stop her."
Zero gazed passionately at Ayeka's face, and then hugged her, crying bitterly. "I'm sorry! So sorry, Ayeka! I didn't mean it! Can you ever forgive me?"
As if in a trance, Ayeka looked at Tenchi for guidance, and saw him nod. She cleared her throat to find her voice. "W-why y-yes… I forgive you, Tenchi. I could never stay mad at you…" She hugged Zero back and caressed his Tenchi-like hair. "I'm sorry I was so mean earlier. You know what I can be like…"
Now that Tenchi was alive again and had given her something to do, Ayeka's self-assurance was returning. This was her place, at Tenchi's side, being his well-manicured right hand, his partner, his sidekick, the woman behind the successful man. Now that he had returned and trusted her to participate in her own rescue, she had the confidence to forgive herself and throw herself into her role.
"It's okay, Tenchi," she cooed in Zero's ear. "Everything is going to be all right. I have to go now, but I'll be right back, okay?"
Zero choked trying to speak, and in the end nodded as he released her from his grasp.
Ayeka had to force herself not to run away, and instead took slow, deliberate steps as she walked away from the defeated android.
Tenchi stared into the eyes of his demented duplicate. He could tell that with each step Ayeka took, the emotional turmoil in Zero was growing. It was unlikely that she would reach the turbolift before he changed his mind. Tenchi made a decision. "Washu, Ryoko," he said softly. "Now."
Suddenly, Ryoko appeared in her red catsuit between Zero and Ayeka and put her arms around the purple-haired Juraian.
"No!" Zero cried reaching out in vain as both Ryoko and Ayeka vanished. "NO!" He screamed as he clutched both sides of his head with his hands and crouched like an animal. He stared at Tenchi with a look that could be best described as murderous. "You! You took her away from me! I'll kill you! Then I will be the only Tenchi!"
Washu rolled out of the turbolift door with her phaser carbine in her arms. She shot a high-energy beam of light that knocked the android off his feet. Ayeka and Ryoko entered silently behind the little redhead to witness cerulean forks of lightning arc across the thrashing body of the screaming Zero. "Aaaah! Aaaaah!" Then the robot became quiet and extended a hand uselessly in the first officer's direction. "Ayeka…" The android became still, aside of a few spasms and twitches.
Tenchi let out a breath he had been holding. He stumbled over to collapse in the command chair. "Sit-rep," he gasped.
"The android has denied everyone but you voice access to the computer, Captain," Ayeka replied in a quiet voice.
"It also gassed the bridge and engineering," Washu added.
"Right," he nodded painfully. "Take us out of warp. Computer," he announced. "This is Captain Tenchi. Cancel all emergency security protocols. Restore voice activation to all authorized personnel. Disengage security protocol zero one three six five and restore normal atmospheric conditions to all decks."
A whirring and clicking erupted from the science console and then the computer spoke. "Voice authorization verified. Emergency security protocols canceled. Voice activation restored to all authorized personnel. Security protocol zero one three six five disengaged. Restoring normal atmospheric conditions to all decks."
"Phew," Washu let out a breath she had been holding, and then she walked over to examine Zero. "This is a fascinating piece of technology. A positronic net that mimics the human brain! The entire robot is composed of little nanites that combine together to create the whole. It's basically one hive mind composed of billions of robots too small to be seen by the naked eye."
"Ay…Ayeka," Zero murmured. "I…I'm s-sorry."
"Poor thing," Ayeka closed her eyes to keep the tears from coming out. "This poor twisted heap of metal was willing to defy its creator because it was in love with me. Now that it's incapacitated, I can't help but feel sorry for it somehow."
"Can you fix it?" Ryoko asked from the helm station.
"I don't know," Washu replied.
"Ayeka, I wish I really was Captain Tenchi…" the android feebly mumbled as the snaps and pops electronic shorts emitted from its body. "Captain Tenchi, please take care of her…"
"Don't worry, Captain," Washu's voice was gentle. "Everything is going to be fine."
"I-I'm not the captain," Zero said miserably.
"Oh yes you are," Washu said to the malfunctioning android. "Doctor Clay used the transporter beam to split you into two beings. One held Tenchi's command ability, the other his kind, gentle nature. He brainwashed the gentle one to do his bidding. Once we put both of you back in the transporter beam, everything will be back to normal. Then you can tell Ayeka how you feel."
Adrenaline shot through Tenchi's system, reviving him somewhat. "What?" the boy exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"
"Liar," Ryoko snorted to the brainy redhead.
"The choice is of course, up to you, Cap'n," Washu's green eyes seemed to pierce Tenchi's soul.
Tenchi looked down at the stricken android that looked so much like him. It smiled up to Ayeka gratefully, and Ayeka smiled weakly back down to Zero. That could so easily be himself lying there…
With one fluid motion, Tenchi pulled out the tiny 'hand phaser' that he had hidden on his person earlier. Flicking a dial on the concealable phaser unit that was as small as a turn of the millennium cell phone, the young captain then pressed the trigger button. A beam of bluish white light erupted out of the little gun, enveloping Zero in a blinding flash of glowing color. When the glow faded, there was no trace of the android left.
"Are you crazy?" Tenchi shook his fist at his science officer. "That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard! What's wrong with you anyway?"
Ryoko started laughing.
Next: Cling On to Freedom