Disclaimer
Tenchi and all associated characters are the property of AIC and Pioneer LDC. I don't own any rights to them. Any other characters are property of their respective copyright holders, not me.
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Royal Quest
Chapter 3
Caught
*****
In space, no one can hear you scream. And screaming was exactly what Ryoko felt like doing at the moment. The two intrepid rescuers had pursued Ayeka's kidnapper for the better part of a month, often just missing him at this planet or that spacestation. It seemed that he was taking them on a guided tour of the Faquab Hegemony as he bounced back and forth between its borders. Occasionally Ay-ohki would sense Ayeka and they would be off in a new direction. More often Nagi, or Ryoko, got the information they needed from some seedy character in a spaceport. Their quarry led them around like a dog on a leash and Ryoko, not to mention Nagi, grew more and more frustrated. This had led to a couple of somewhat violent confrontations with persons one or the other had felt were withholding information. Fortunately no one had been seriously hurt, or at least not seriously enough to spend more than a few days hospitalized.
Just now though, they were once again closing in on their objective. For the past few hours Ken-ohki had been able to keep the other ship just within range of his scanners.
"He's got to be running out of places to go," mumbled Nagi as Ken-ohki executed yet another course change, the third one in the last two hours.
Ryoko rubbed her tired eyes with the palms of her hands and sighed. "He's up to something, I just don't know what. This can't go on much longer." She sagged back in the contour chair Nagi's ship had extruded for her. "Tenchi's probably beside himself, worrying about us."
*****
Tenchi looked up from the field he was working in and checked the position of the sun. It was almost lunchtime. He wondered what Sasami, no Tsunami, would fix for him today. He set his hoe down and went over to sit in the shade of some trees that skirted the edge of the field. He'd take a short rest before lunch, that way he'd enjoy it all the more. As he sat down on the soft grass, he wondered just where his wives were, if they were all right and if Ryoko had even caught up to the kidnapper yet. He knew that when she did, there was nothing that would save him from her wrath, except possibly Nagi or Ayeka herself. That was one of the reasons that Washu had insisted that the bounty hunter accompany Ryoko, as a sort of governor for the pirate. They'd be all right though, he knew it deep down inside. But if anything were to happen… Washu be damned, he was going to go after the culprits himself and nothing was going to get in his way. Nothing.
He hadn't even realized that he'd dozed off, but a slight rustle in the underbrush made him open his eyes and sit up. It must be Sasami… Tsunami, Tsunami, he reminded himself again, with lunch. He and the younger princess had had many talks over the noon meal lately. Sometimes about Ayeka and Ryoko but mostly about how much she'd grown and what might be expected of her now. She now understood why her actions that night might be considered wrong and Tenchi explained to her about growing up and needing to suppress the urges it brought. She'd giggled at this and asked him if that had been a problem for him. This had made him laugh uproariously and he told the young princess that she now understood what he'd been going through before he married.
But it wasn't Tsunami bringing his lunch to him today; it was Mai, his father's girlfriend. Ever since Ryoko had left to rescue Ayeka, the woman had been spending more time at the Masaki home, ostensibly to help with the kids but Tenchi suspected she had other reasons as well, such as spending more time with Noboyuki and the family.
The slender, well-built woman with graying purple hair handed him his lunchbox. "Here you go Tenchi. Sasami's sorry she couldn't bring it herself, but she was helping Washu with an experiment and couldn't get away. Don't worry about the kids though, your grandfather's got them up at the shrine until nap time."
Tenchi nodded and gratefully accepted the box, patting the ground next to him. "Won't you join me? Tsunami always makes plenty for two."
The woman brushed some loose leaves away and sat down. "Sasami, Tsunami… I just can't get used to the change in her."
Tenchi nodded in agreement as he carefully opened the box. "Yeah, it's hard. She can't really understand it either. What were you like when you went through that stage?"
The woman frowned. "I… I never went through that. Or if I did, I don't remember it. I grew up in a very controlled environment."
Tenchi eyed her quizzically. "Can I ask you a question? And get a straight answer?"
Mai flinched. "Sure, I guess."
"Are you human?" he asked, no emotion at all in his voice.
Mai's face went blank then took on a hurt expression. "Yes Tenchi. I'm as human as you. But if you're asking if I'm from here, then no, I'm as alien as Ayeka or Sasami. Possibly more so."
Tenchi nodded and offered her the box. He'd suspected as much for quite a while. He knew Ryoko did also, ever since they'd first met her a few years before, during Ayeka's pregnancy.
"That doesn't bother you?" the woman asked, ignoring the proffered lunch.
"Should it?" Tenchi replied, offering the box again. "Look at me, I'm married to an alien princess and a biological android space pirate."
Mai nodded. "I see. So something like this won't shock you." Mai concentrated and her right hand began to glow with a dim bluish light. The glow quickly faded and Tenchi grinned at her until she finally smiled back and began poking about in the lunchbox looking for something tasty. "Someday I'll have to tell you my story," she said, picking up a slice of dried fish. "But it still hurts to much, even after all these years. And I really do love your father, Tenchi. I really do."
"I know you do," the young man said. "And he'd be lost without you too."
The two ate in silence for a few moments, each lost in their own thoughts.
"You really miss them, don't you?" Mai asked, startling Tenchi out of his reverie.
"Wha…? Oh, yes I do. I've never had both of them gone at the same time for this long before." Tenchi looked up at the blue sky as strands of clouds floated past. "When I was in the Juraian military for those few months, even though they weren't with me, I always knew where they were and that they were safe." He shook his head sadly. "But now… Well, Mihoshi tries to keep track, but all she gets are second-hand reports."
"Can't Washu track them?" the woman wondered. "She claims to be a goddess."
Tenchi snorted with suppressed laughter. "Oh she is, but she doesn't much like being reminded of it. I don't think she's the all-knowing type of deity anyway, although she likes to pretend sometimes. She's been caught off guard more than once."
Mai raised an eyebrow. "Not omniscient, huh? But she could still…"
"I suppose she could, if she wanted to," Tenchi agreed with a shrug. "She seems to have great faith in Ryoko's abilities though."
"And you don't?" Mai asked.
Tenchi began picking up the meal scraps and putting them back in the box. "I do. But Ryoko can be hotheaded, that's why Washu brought Nagi through. Although the more I think about it, the more I'm not sure it was such a good idea. Nagi and Ryoko are too much alike; Nagi just has a bit more experience in these matters. And Ayeka…" Tenchi bowed his head.
The older woman reached out and squeezed the young man's shoulder in sympathy. "They'll be back Tenchi. And soon. I can feel it."
*****
Yesterday, ship's time, they'd actually gotten close enough to the kidnapper's vessel to get a glimpse of its dark shape. But it seemed that no matter how fast Nagi pushed Ken-ohki, the small scout ship was always just a tiny bit faster. Frustrated, Ryoko had left Nagi in the cabbit's control room and threw herself into the comfortable bunk that Ken-ohki had provided for her. Ay-ohki and Ryo-ohki curled up together at her feet but neither of them had managed to do more than fitfully doze. Ryoko had stared gloomily to the plain ceiling of her cabin, missing Tenchi and wondering how Ayeka was faring at the hands of her captor. She assumed the princess was all right since Ay-ohki hadn't indicated anything else. Her eyes drifted shut and she managed to get a few hours of uneasy rest.
A softly buzzing alarm woke Ryoko from her troubled sleep. The ex-pirate, instantly awake as always, levitated out of her bed and teleported to Ken-ohki's control cabin. Nagi was sitting hunched over in the command chair, staring at a map on one of the many screens the cabbit was displaying. The hunter pointed a slender finger at a glowing dot on the screen. "He's headed for that small moon." Ryoko opened her mouth to respond then quickly closed it again knowing anything she said would be cliché. The bounty hunter smacked her fist into the palm of her hand. "We've got him."
*****
Ayeka took a deep breath as the silver glow of the stasis field flickered and faded once again, instant on, instant off. She had absolutely no feel for how much time she'd spent in stasis; it might have been just a few minutes… or a few hundred years. "Why do you keep doing this?" she called to her unseen captor. There was no reply this time. She felt the restraints release and she sat up. Whatever was blocking the Jurai power was still in place and as long as she was wearing the headband she couldn't use her other power either. She reached up to remove it but found that some sort of capture field limited the range of movement of her arms.
The door to her compartment slid silently open and the lights dimmed. Outside the hatch she could barely make out what seemed to be some sort of office. At last, she thought. Maybe I'll finally find out what's going on. She stood up and stumbled out of the compartment on wobbly legs.
*****
Nagi landed Ken-ohki near what appeared to be an entrance to an underground facility, not far from where their quarry had finally gone to ground. The scoutship was nowhere to be seen and Nagi assumed that it had entered the facility somehow. The two would have to walk to the entrance since it was obvious to them they weren't going to be allowed in wherever the other ship had gone. The readings on the external instruments showed that the atmosphere was breathable, if thin. Not that it would have mattered to Ryoko or the cabbits if it had been a poisonous gas or even vacuum, but Nagi was, for all intents and purposes, human and needed to breathe. And if she could do so without the need for a suit or environmental field, then so much the better.
As the two approached the portal a pedestal extended itself from the ground, the glowing outline of a handprint clearly visible in the bright light. Nagi used some sort of scanning device on it but got no readings. Ryoko, never one to approach a problem cautiously, placed her hand in the outline and the hatch slid silently open. Nagi and Ryoko stood and looked at each other for a moment.
"Don't you find it odd that your palm print opened the hatch?" Nagi asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ryoko just shrugged. "A bit, but stranger things have happened." She phased into her battlesuit and levitated a few inches. "Let's go." The ex-pirate moved through the opening.
*****
Ryoko floated through the seemingly endless maze of dim passages as Nagi strode along beside her. Ryo-ohki and Ay-ohki rode along on Ryoko's shoulders, the white cabbit's whiskers twitching excitedly as he sought out his master. Ken-ohki bounced along behind them, occasionally stopping to poke a curious nose into interesting looking dark places, then scurrying to catch up.
"My scanner doesn't detect any electrical or mechanical activity," said Nagi, pointing a small device in various directions as she moved along. "Just this weak glow from the ceiling panels."
"I can't feel anything either," replied the ex-pirate as she readjusted her enhanced senses yet again. She wrinkled her nose as a sour odor impinged upon her nostrils. "Smells like something died down here though, a long time ago. Or maybe we're getting close and it's just Ayeka's socks."
"Are you sure she's down here?" the bounty hunter asked with a chuckle. "We should have picked something up by now."
By way of answer Ryoko pointed to Ay-ohki who was becoming extremely agitated. Nagi nodded in understanding. The group paused at a cross corridor until Ay-ohki's questing muzzle indicated a left turn. "Are you sure?" Ryoko asked him, giving the cabbit a quick scritch between the ears as she eyed the dimly lit passage with suspicion. He miya'd agreement. Ryoko shrugged. "All right then, we go that way." Ryo-ohki poked her in the ear with a paw. "What?" the pirate admonished as she batted the appendage away.
"Miya," replied the brown cabbit.
"Oh, you want a scratch too? Now's not the time for this you little twit. Besides, you're just dead weight on this trip."
"Miya!" the cabbit disagreed, reminding her partner of the data Washu had uploaded into her memory.
Ryoko sighed in exasperation and Nagi chuckled as the cyan haired one scratched her companion under the chin. "There, happy?" The cabbit purred with pleasure. "Can we go now?" Ryo-ohki closed her eyes. Whatever Ryoko decided was fine with her. "Great, I'm glad you approve," said the pirate wryly. She floated off down the left hand passage, Nagi following a few paces behind.
Neither of the women noticed the slight movement of a tile under Nagi's boot as they moved off. The small procession had progressed about a hundred meters down the new path when Ryoko suddenly let out a curse and hit the floor with a thud. The two cabbits tumbled off their perches and ended up a few meters further along passage. Ken-ohki rushed past his master and Ryoko to see if they were all right.
"What happened?" asked Nagi, helping the slightly dinged Ryoko to her feet.
Ryoko brushed some dust off her battlesuit and grunted. "I don't know. Suddenly I couldn't fly anymore." She tried to levitate but her feet remained firmly planted. "Something's very odd…" Next she tried to teleport but nothing happened. "Very, very odd…" Her fist clenched as she willed a plasma ball to form. There was a tiny puff of smoke then nothing. "Nagi, I think we're in trouble…"
The bounty hunter pulled her energy pistol out. As is cleared the holster she noticed that the power indicator light wasn't lit. "Whatever it is, it's suppressing my weapons too."
"We're in trouble," Ryoko muttered. Nagi growled and pulled a slender blade from her boot. Whatever was affecting their power sources wouldn't bother good old-fashioned steel.
The walls and ceiling around them began to glow with a bluish light. Ryoko's inhuman hearing heard the vibration before her body felt it. "Stunner!" she cried. "Nagi, run!" She whirled just in time to see the other woman crumple to the ground, knife clattering on the floor tiles. Ryoko took a step and fell to her knees; the last thing that passed through the ex-pirate's mind as unconsciousness claimed her was "Damn, I screwed up again".
The three cabbits, sitting just outside of the trap area, watched as the two girls fell to the floor. Unable to reach them without being caught themselves, Ay-ohki made a decision. "Rowrn," he said to his mate.
Ryo-ohki mulled this over for a moment. "Miyowr," she finally agreed. They both looked at Ken-ohki.
The buff colored cabbit appeared to shrug. "Chowr," he said.
The three turned and scampered off in search of the one person they felt could possibly rescue the rescuers.
*****
The door closed behind Ayeka and she stood quietly in the dim light allowing her eyes to adjust to the gloom. "Come in my dear Princess, have a seat." The voice came from a shadowed figure she could just make out at the far end of the room. It was not the voice of her captor. Ayeka made her way across the carpeted floor, her stride becoming surer with each step. She reached a dark lump that stood in her way and a quick touch confirmed it was a cushioned chair. She sat. A dim yellow light snapped on above the other person and the princess could see that whoever it was, was seated behind some sort of desk or console. Unfortunately he was facing away from her and still mostly in shadow so she couldn't get a good look at him.
"I suppose you're wondering why you're here?" the figure asked in a slightly high-pitched voice.
"The thought had crossed my mind," she replied. There was something… something happening just beyond the reach of her senses, not quite entirely blocked by whatever was holding her power in check. The man rotated to face her, breaking her concentration. He was grossly fat, the dim yellow light glinting off his hairless head. He smiled at the princess, revealing a row of pointed teeth that marked him as not-quite Juraian or Human.
Ayeka looked at the fat man seated before her. He looked vaguely familiar but she just couldn't place him, much like the voice of her unseen captor. All he needed was a white feline in his lap, she thought, and he'd be the perfect stereotype of a Terran bad guy. Tearing her gaze away for a moment, she looked around the room and in the semi-darkness could spot no one but him. She focused her attention back on the lone figure surrounded by the dim light. "So, you're the one behind all of this? What are your reasons for having me brought here?"
The man chuckled, not a pleasant sound at all. "Always royalty; always making demands. Surely it must be obvious to the future Empress of Jurai."
Ayeka snorted. "There are many possible reasons. Ransom? My husband is not a rich man."
The man shook his head. "No, I suppose not. But your father certainly is. And just how much do you estimate he would pay to get you back, hmm? But that's irrelevant; I'm not after money, at least not from your family. Do you have any idea where you are?"
The princess gestured expansively. "Not on Earth, obviously. Or Jurai. But I suppose it really doesn't matter."
"Oh, but it does my dear princess, it does," the fat man replied with a gleam in his eye. "You're on a secure moon deep in the Faquab Hegemony."
Ayeka stared at him blankly.
Ayeka's "host" had expected more of a reaction from her. The man leaned forward and put both elbows on the desk. He looked the princess in the eye trying to judge her emotions. "Come on Princess. The Faquab Hegemony. Surely you know about them."
Ayeka leaned back in her chair and smiled, it was not the response the man had hoped to see. "Indeed," she said. "But why should that bother me? Jurai isn't on friendly terms with them but they wouldn't stoop so low as to hold a member of Juraian royalty hostage. It would be an act of war."
Her questioner raised an almost non-existent eyebrow. "Correct. But I never said they knew about your abduction, now did I?"
Ayeka's eyes widened as realization hit her. "You're trying to start an interstellar war? And I suppose that while the fighting goes on, your organization plays off of both sides."
The other person chuckled evilly. "Heh, heh, heh. You're very sharp, as befits a future politician; I can see you understand now. But I mean you no real harm, you're too valuable, so I might as well make you comfortable." He snapped his fingers and Ayeka could suddenly move her arms more than just a few inches. She tentatively reached up and touched the circlet on her head.
The fat man saw the gesture and nodded in affirmation. "You may take it off if you wish, this entire installation is covered by a dampener so your Jurai power won't work anywhere within it."
She noticed that he didn't mention her other power and she hoped it wasn't intentional. From the way he'd dismissed the headband, either he didn't know or didn't believe; and that might just be his first, and last, mistake. Ayeka tore the device from her head and tossed it away as if it was burning her. It hit the floor with a soft rasp and rolled away. As the circlet disappeared into the darkness she felt a spark start to grow within her, but it was still too weak to use.
The other chuckled at her apparent relief. "Now princess, if you will allow one of my associates to show you to your quarters?" A door slid open behind her and a large, muscular woman stepped through. She gestured for Ayeka to follow. The man behind the desk stood up, it didn't make him all that much taller. "We are not uncivilized out here in the middle of nowhere, I think you'll find your rooms to your liking." The princess stood and bowed formally to her jailer, then did as she was bid. Her time would come. Soon. Even as she left the room she felt her anger and fear feeding the ember within her.
*****
To be continued
*****
Author's Notes
It's been a while since I've updated and I'm sorry, I have no real excuse (actually I do but it won't fly with this crew). I'll try to be quicker with the next part.
In the part where Ryoko said that Tenchi was beside himself I had envisioned the female Tenchi putting in an appearance. But it was not to be, I couldn't work it into the plot; and besides, I wanted a bit of a teaser there for another fic I'm planning.
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Review Responses
Smack54 – Aside from the little cameos and teasers, Tenchi's pretty much out of this story. And it's not Ryoko our erstwhile kidnapper has to worry about now.
Dennisud – I was going to bring Naga back for this one (I still might), but as of right now I don't really need her for anything. Well, actually I do, she's the only one who has one of Thundergod's little pets handy and I promised him they'd make an appearance here.
Wharpt – Misaki and Funaho eh? Not a bad idea, I like using them (if you hadn't noticed in my other stories).
Nutzoide – The Keiko bit's just another teaser and has no real relevance to this story. There may be a character or two from a different series making a guest appearance, perhaps Naga the Serpent and friend. Ka'dithy won't be in this but you're right, she's too good a character to let drop. I'll be doing a bit of setup in this for a later fic with her in it. If you hadn't noticed, Ministry Agent used the t'Dnal in a passing reference in Lock, Stock and Three Soja Gems.
Alighthawk – Better late than… well you know. You need to write faster; even I'm beating you now.
Blackbird – I forgive you. The Ayeka story will get a second "chapter", but it'll be about Sasami. Sorry to hear about your story, I know how discouraging it is when you lose a goodly amount of work like that.
Priest – I should hope it fits; it's all one long continuous story (with rather large time gaps). We don't see you around much anymore so it's nice to hear from you again.
To the person who's anonymous review I removed – Usually I don't do that (in fact this is a first), but yours was really inane. Perhaps if you'd tell me why it was bad, and which other fic you also thought was so horrible, I can improve my writing. I don't mind bad comments and reviews as long as they're constructive. Just putting (and I quote) "anther bad one" (sic) doesn't tell me much. Try again.
*****
BobR
4/30/2003