yellow blouse and purple shoulder guards told her side kick.
"Come on Lina, what could be easier all we have to do is find this writer and
make him put a disclaimer in the front of... uh what was it again?"
"Fanatical Friction?"
"That's it HOHOHohohoho HOHOHOhohoho..."
"Why me?"
Ever After
Chapter 6: Welcome Home Tenchi!
"The local space is distorting again." The main hologram
changed showing stars
move slightly in a mild rippling effect. In the bottom right
hand corner of the hologram
the coordinates and magnification were displayed to try to give some
reference points for
the humans.
"Any other ships in the area reporting the same phenomenon."
Konaka asked,
keeping a closer eye on the enemy fleet then some sensor ghost.
"None of my siblings have noted any changes in the surrounding
space." She
paused for a second. "They are also out of our scanner range.
They might not be able to
pick up the phenomenon that is likely localized in out space."
"Are you detecting the increase of radiation as well?"
Mia typed something on
her pad. She looked worn out to him. Which meant that he
had to look worse, for three
days they had both been awake waiting for an attack that hadn't come.
This was one of the first times since he had bonded with the
Gilvilyko that
Konaka wished for a bigger crew. Resignedly he swallowed another
stim tab that was
guaranteed to keep him awake for four hours. Though it would
have to be the last one.
Gilvilyko would relieve him of command in moments if she felt he was
unfit or
endangering himself and he knew she was watching for mistakes.
"Mia, why don't you go get some sleep. I can handle this."
She stubbornly
looked at him for a second, then yawned and grinned sheepishly.
"I guess your right." She said tugging herself out of the
chair. Giving her a kiss
he sat down in the seat she had vacated checking the new sensor data
on the radiation
before the door she had exit through shut. The Gilvilyko formed
her holographic body
floating translucent in the room. "You should get some sleep
too captain."
"Not now, I'll trade places with Mia in four hours." He
said trying to focus his
eyes on the sensor screen. It blurred for a second and then gradually
came into focus the
readings though hadn't changed just an increase in background radiation
where ever the
spatial distortion was.
"We had to use both probes trying to scan the system."
He remembered having
said the exact same thing not two hours ago. She stared at him
hard, the skin on her
holographic brow wrinkling in concentration. "Don't look at me
that way. I couldn't go
to sleep for another four hours anyway."
The hologram eyes unfocused for a second. "I am reading
a large surge of
radiation around the area of one of the spatial distortions."
The main view screen's
picture rapidly moved sending stars flying across the screen until
they settled onto a
space of pure blackness. Konaka strained his eyes trying to focus
on it. As colors began
to wash out of that space heading towards the ultra violet. A
gap appeared in the colors
and then another revealing a black ship barely visible on the sea of
stars. But completely
visible to radar. The size of a destroyer it would have been
more then a match for the
Gilvilyko if it wasn't for the fact that it was expelling plasma.
"Get us away from it." The Captain yelled arming weapons.
"Contact the other
ships tell them that the enemy is able to hide some how."
"Trying." Her face lost all expression as the ship used
all of her powers to
contact her siblings. The room became heavy as the compensators
were over used as she
applied maximum thrust away from the disabled ship not trusting that
its weapons were
as disabled as its drive. Her scared face changed once again
a combination of fear and
sadness he had never seen before. "I can't reach my siblings,
their not there." Konaka
stared at her afraid he would see the hologram cry. "One of the
distortions is
approaching us. I don't have enough acceleration yet to avoid."
Her face had gone
neutral "I am preparing to fire." The enemy ship began
to decloak rippling colors until it
was a solid black on black space. At only ten times the size
of the Gilvilyko the battle
was a forgone conclusion. It wasn't even worth waking his wife
for.
"Drop the buoy." He ordered. That would be his last
order he would ever give.
Konaka stared at the other ship as they approached he noted with half
his mind that
Gilvilyko was accelerating towards the other ship firing with all her
weapons not that
they making an impact. Cut off from the other ships and Tsunami,
her one Light Hawk
Wing failed to deploy.
The console in front of him went black as shipboard systems cut
out. The
holograms followed suit. Running towards the wall locker
where his suit was stored he
wasn't braced for the impact that shook the ship sending him flying
through the air until
he hit wood at the end of his trajectory. Automatic sap dispensers
began to fill the room
as the air was sucked into space by micro fractures in the hall.
Konaka's sight blurred again but this time from blood and sap
sealant crawling he
headed once again towards the closet containing his suit. Wiping
his eyes clear. Internal
gravity died allowing the sap to form into bubbles and speed towards
the holes in seconds
his ears stopped popping as the air pressure regained consistency in
the ship. Pushing
forward with his feet he sailed across the final distance hitting the
storage locker hard.
The doors emergency battery still worked allowing him access.
Calming himself, he
tried to remembered his zero G training. Three minutes later
he was breathing bottled air
and grabbing the pulse rifle. The ship safety had been disengaged
when they had lost
power and it glowed a comforting yellow. On safe but ready to
fire at full power once he
changed the selector switch. *I hope Mia's alive.* Ran
through his head as he walked
up to the main trunk and central core of what had been his little
ship. The boots on his
feet acting like Velcro on the wooden surface.
He stood in front of the sign naming his ship behind it sat the
heart wood, the soul
of his ship. Reaching out he pushed his gloved hands through
the wood which parted for
him. His fingers tingled as they passed through the Jurian power
that surrounded the
heartwood Konaka closed his hands and pulled, slowly drawing his ships
soul and central
memory center. Blackness and rot engulfed the rest of the trunk
spreading to the floor as
the ship slowly started to self self-destruct. For the first
time in his life he got to see the
real Gilvilyko. Brown and unspectacular was its first appearance
but when he moved it
into the light its core shone like quarts capturing and reflecting
the light in a hundred
directions.
He noted a small electronics device made of plastic and metal
attached to the side
of the wood. It blinked at him expectantly. An inconsistency
compared to the rest of the
wooden ship. He stuffed the wood into a special bag attached
to the suit and hurried
towards the crew quarters trying to stay ahead of the rot that was
overtaking his ship.
*She must have disabled some of their weapons with the ramming
or we would
all be dead by now.* He told himself as his boots made a soft
tearing sound each time he
took a step through the dead quiet ship.
He finally found Mia in their quarters a bloody gash on the side
of her head
collecting blood in little bubbles all across the room. She had
her suit already on except
for the helmet. Grabbing up a pillow he made a crude bandage
and stuck the helmet on
her head sealing it. The ship suddenly jerked throwing him across
the room along with
everything else that wasn't fastened down. *Calm, stay calm,
it will take the rot at least
another three minutes before it eats through the power core stabilizers.*
Grabbing his
wife he kicked off the wall on a course towards an escape pod grateful
for the zero g
making her easy to carry. One of the two escape pods on the Gilvilyko
was directly
across from the bridge. Made out of metal and plastic it was
an enigma compared to the
wooden structure of the ship designed to prevent the self-destruct
that engulfed his ship
from destroying it as well. The hatch to the escape pod open
and blinking green at the
first loss of pressure in the ship.
It was sterile to him all bright shiny metal padded with plastic
foam and eight
shock chairs. It's kind were mass produced and fitted onto every
ship the number of pods
increased with the size of the crew. Hurriedly strapping Mia
and then himself down into
a chair he punched through the safety glass listening to the audible
clang as metal
slammed against metal closing the door.
"Tsunami, help us." He whispered as the gravity suddenly
went from zero to
three G pressing him into the seat as the little pod used all its fuel
except for a two
second emergency burst and the directional thrusters. He could
see the Gilvilyko from
his position a small gray speck dwarfed by the huge black ship it had
impacted into. The
wood holding the core finally rotted away leaving the micro singularity
with out any
force fields. The singularity began to eat first his ship and
then inexhaustibly the enemy
ship in a matter of seconds both ship were gone as if they had never
existed. The only
sign of their last position a singularity and a life pod just escaping
its gravity well. That
and the three ships appearing in their path.
***
Waking early, Sasami had started on the feast that would be dinner.
Mixing and
stirring, boiling and simmering, she was creating a masterful blend
of Earth foods and
Jurain from the limited stores that the messenger ships brought her
every month.
Ryo-Ohki, in matured fur form, helping her with the slicing and
dicing. Being
two extra hands when needed and a friend to talk to about gossip and
whatever else came
to her attention.
The Bebrean was the last thing to be finished and the first thing
she had started
on. A wild beast, a cross between a beaver and a rabbit, but
about three times as big the
preparations and proper cooking rendered it into a delicacy of unimaginable
flavor. She
hoped that Tenchi would enjoy it. This being to her knowledge
the first time he had
eaten Jurain food since the victory festival. She blocked the
thought folding it and tightly
placing it back in the portion of her mind where it belonged.
She gazed proudly at the spread. Everything that could
remain at room
temperature neatly put in its place. The rest in the refrigerator
or warming on the stove
or oven.
Ryo-Ohki had wandered off by then disappearing with a bag of
baby carrots her
favorite delicacy, and was playing with the CD player looking for a
song. Whichever one
that was for she kept skipping tracks and CDs scanning for something
Sasami would
have rather just turned on the radio, but that hadn't worked right
for months in the
Masaki home. Something to do with one of Washu's experiments.
The clock over the sink finally struck two. Tenchi's train
should be arriving any
minute, Noboyuki had already gone down to the train station to pick
the three up so that
gave her... every thing was right on time she would start serving at
three. And probably
continue eating the feast for days to come.
***
The emperor of Jurai proudly sat on the royal chair as his command
group
efficiently handled everything. He was bored but not about to
show any emotions to his
subjects.
The main hologram tank some twenty feet by thirty feet tall displayed
the fleet he
was spearheading. Over a thousand Jurain ships, an equal number
of GP Cruisers and
destroyers, plus 50 of the huge Tigeran dreadnoughts and their escorts
one day out from
the Farreach system.
One of the admirals approached him bowing efficiently.
"Emperor we've lost
comms with one of the scout ships at the Farreach system."
*So they are finally making their move. Its about time.*
"Inform the fleet. We'll retake Farreach as soon as we
get their and have one of
the other scouts carefully check out the last known area of that ship."
He tapped his
fingers impatiently gazing at a bright blue dot on the holotank that
showed the secondary
command ship his wives were on. The majority of the Jurain court
was on one ship or
another out here. Whenever Jurain went to war every able body
man and woman who
had a space tree bonded with them went as well. It forestalled
revolutions and such.
Who wanted to win a war and lose on the home front?
The fleet moved steadily on. Leaving a hyper trail wake
that could be tracked by
the most primitive of scanners and those that watched were not primitive.
***
"Tenchi!" Sasami let out a squeal and tackled the young
man. Hugging him in a
tight squeeze happy to see him again. Tenchi fondly returned
the hug carefully moving
the two of them out of the door so that Aeka and Ryoko could enter.
She finally
disengaged the hug only to be replaced by Ryo-Ohki and then Yosho.
Smiling, Sasami, headed back to the kitchen checking one last
time on the
Bebrean as Ryoko, Aeka, and Tenchi took their bags up to their rooms.
***
"Thank you Sasami, that was delicious." Yosho settled back
sipping his tea.
"It was great." Aeka added.
"I can't believe your related, you only got a C in culinary arts."
Ryoko taunted
Aeka good naturally.
"Compared to you, who hasn't completed one class she signed up
for that didn't
have Tenchi in it."
"That's because I have my priorities straight little princess."
Ryoko smiled at her.
"You two knock it off." Tenchi yelled fondly only to suddenly
be squished in
between them as each one leaned against him.
"Tenchi," both crooned in unison. Causing him to
sigh and everyone at the table
to burst out laughing, except for the two new officers.
"I miss those days." Yosho sipped on his tea.
"We had some fun then didn't we, Tenchi?" Ryoko asked.
"That was a long time ago. Some things change you can't
stop them."
"Entropy." Washu inserted.
"Intro what?" The blond police officer asked.
"Everything changes and dies." Kiyone told her partner.
"That's kind of sad. We should be happy. Their only
going to be here for a
couple of days."
"Miya!"
"So what are we doing tomorrow?" Kiyone adjusted her headband.
"I promised the girls we would go on a picnic and Aeka wanted
to visit Funaho."
"A picnic that's a great idea, Tenchi." Sasami giggled,
as Noboyuki rose from the
table only to return with two bottles of warmed saki that Sasami had
put on the stove half
an hour ago on low heat knowing they would be wanted when the meal
was finished.
He passed glasses out to everyone but Sasami and Ryo-Ohki.
The Tigeran feeling
like a third wheel all night with his partner accepted the cup with
a look of mystification
only to have it filled by Yosho. He took one sniff and drank
the cup empty holding it out
for a refill. Mitsuki allowed hers to be filled took a small
sip so as not to offend her hosts
and then put the cup down continuing to drink Sasami's tea.
*To each their own tastes.* Yosho thought observing everything
over his cup.
Noticing Tenchi joining in with the rest of them. *And sometimes
taste changes.*
***
"Here are the operation orders." The major accepted the
papers and walked away
to brief his men for the upcoming operation.
He reached into his pockets and pulled out another cigarette
and light it up in the
non-smoking building. It was done. Tomorrow he could assure
Earth's future or destroy
it. Their was no looking back their never really was in his job.
***
"Tenchi.... soon..." A voice called out, startling Tenchi
awake in his dark empty
room.
***
Sasami awoke to the sounds of birds chirping. Sunlight poured
through the
curtains giving a tantalizing view or what was going to be a gorgeous,
perfect day.
Nothing could go wrong in such beauty. Nothing at all...
***
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