Chapter One

A screen came to life and the words 'Systems Check Complete, Rebooting Main Programs' scrolled across it as a young man awoke. 'All Protocols Now Online, Standing By For Orders.'
What the heck happened to me? Am I dead? No, I can't be; these systems wouldn't be coming on line if I was dead. I guess the implant experiment actually worked then! This is great!
 Taking a look a his surroundings, he found that he was not in his lab that was only a small distance away from his home. He was in some kind of hallway that was connecting two modules of what his sensor scans were reading as separate pockets of subspace. Where the heck am I?
 Getting up, he checked the new implant and everything seemed to be in order, but the only thing that puzzled him was that as trapped in subspace. There was no explanation for that, and he was sure that he hadn't been that far along in his research to create such a thing anyway. If he had of been, he would have been in the middle of constructing a working warp drive.
When I wrote this stuff, it seemed so much easier to create it. Selecting a direction, he headed out toward what his sensors told him was a passage that would take him out of subspace and back into normal space. He just hoped that he was able to find his way back home. His family would be worried sick if he was away for too long. Come to think of it, how long was I out?
 Coming to another entrance to a module, he looked inside to find that it was dark and empty. When he stepped in, something seemed to scan the room, but nothing happened that would alert anyone to his presence. Looking back at the implant he realized for the first time that his phase-cloak was activated, but how the heck could that happen? He was sure that he had not even touched the controls for that system during the experiment and he sure as heck didn't do it when he woke up.
These mysteries were put aside by his rational mind for later puttering over, but for now he had to get himself out of here so that he could find out what was going on. The only things that were going good for the moment were the stealth systems, including the cloaking device embedded in the implant.
His sensor sweep got his attention and he finally found away out of the subspace pocket that he had been wondering around for the past ten minutes. Approaching the coordinates and, he found himself in another room that seemed to overlook the entire area that had woken up in. At the front of this area there was some kind of computer terminal, but it made him think that there was some child working in here because of the screensaver it was running. He thought that the crabs were kind of annoying and turned away from the screen to see that the door was hidden.
Walking up to it, he placed his hand on where the door was supposed to be and a wooden door appeared before him, materializing out of nothing. Shrugging, he reached for the doorknob, twisted it, and opened the door.
Stepping through the doorway, he found himself in exiting the closet that was under a set of stairs. Funny place to put a pocket of subspace, he thought, and where am I, anyway?
 Looking around a little more he found that the stairwell was leading up out of the living room and that there was a doorway leading to a kitchen off that. It looked like a very nice home, but he still didn't understand why he was here.
An alarm began to sound in his head and he turned to his implant's display and activated his iris displays. Sighing in relief as they activated, he then turned cold seeing as thought the power for his cloaking systems was being depleted quickly. He would have to make a quick getaway from this house before they drained the power supply completely. Once out, he could then shut them down to allow them to recharge.
Going to the door, he walked through it, not worry about opening it, and his multi-phasic cloaking field allowed him to pass though it, just as it was designed to do. Taking a last look at the inside of the house though the glass door, he turned toward the forest and broke into a run as his cloaking system lost power and began to feed off of his own human body. Not noticing this happening, he quickly tired out and then finally collapsed on the ground a few hundred meters into the woods. The last thing he remembered seeing was the ground rushing up to meet him.

Tenchi appeared at the top of the stairs and came down to notice that the broom-closet door was wide open. He'd been awakened in his sleep when he heard it open and now he tensed up, thinking that something was wrong. Not seeing Washu anywhere, lead him to believe that someone had entered the lab, and he cautiously proceeded inside.
Closing the door behind him, he then went to where he knew Washu would be and went to her bedside. "Washu, wake up," he said, shaking the scientist gently.
"Tenchi?" she asked, opening her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Someone's down here," he said. "Can you run a scan?"
Washu, alert immediately with the thought that someone was in her lab without permission. She led Tenchi out to the main room where anyone would walk into when they walked though the door of the broom closet and sat down on one of her floating pillows. She summoned one for Tenchi as she began her scans and came up with some rather odd readings. Her video monitors had picked up the door materializing and opening as if someone was there on this side of it and had walked back into the house, but here was no indication that anyone was there otherwise.
"This is very strange," she said, activating sensors that were located in the house. There were no readings there other than the ones that she suspected would be there in the first place. No life-signs other than the ones that were supposed to be there, but there was something odd that she did detect.
"What is that?" Tenchi asked, after she had pulled up the specific sensor data.
Staring at the readings and scratching her chin she looked it over. "It seems as though something phased through the door and to the outside," she said. "Beyond that I have no sensor readings."
"Did you check the ones outside the house?"
"Nope, but I'm calling them up now," she said, her fingers already flying over the holographic keyboard. "There! There's something phasing in and out of this physical plain two hundred and ninety three meters into the woods. I can't get anything more specific than that."
Nodding, Tenchi rose from the pillow that he had sat down on and it floated away to where it had been stored before. "Get Ryoko, we may need her. Also, wake the Ayeka, we may need her abilities as well."
"Right," she said, jumping up out of her seat as well. "I'll get them up, and you go see what you can find out on your own. Whatever it is out there, it's not moving."
Running out through the door, Tenchi proceeded outside and increased his pace a little as he got into the open. He could see that someone had been running along the path that led up to the temple and began following the path himself. It wasn't long before he heard Ryoko teleport beside him and he smiled as he looked over to find her in her battle suit.
The trail of light footprints ended and headed off into the woods up ahead. Slowing his pace to a slow walk, he reached for his sword and Ryoko formed her energy sword as well, letting the light from it guide them through the low vegetation. They'd only walked a few meters off the path when they found a body lying on the ground at the base of a tree that was appearing, and the disappearing every few seconds.
"What is happening to that guy?" Ryoko asked, looking at Tenchi and seeing that he had tucked his sword away where he kept it between his clothing and the sash that he tied around his waist.
"I don't think he will be any threat to us, Ryoko," Tenchi told her, nodding at her sword. She let it fade and he then took a step toward the body that was still shifting into a phased state and then back again. It wasn't disappearing now and he suspected that whatever was causing it to happen was running low on energy, or had somehow been damaged. Looking more closely, he could see some kind of control console that was mounted on his wrist and was pulsing.
"This doesn't look good," Tenchi said, from his kneeled position looking at the device. "If I'm reading this right, and I hope I'm not, this tells me that there is a countdown to self-destruct running."
"Self-destruct!" he heard Princess Ayeka exclaim from behind them. "We have to get out of here!"
"It's already too late," Ryoko said, examining the device for herself. "It'll level this place for about a mile in every direction if it explodes."
Washu walked out of the bushes carrying a small machine in her hands that she used to scan the control panel on the young man's arm. "You do realize who this is, do you not Tenchi?" she asked.
For the first time since he arrived on the scene, he actually took a good look at the body of the young man and gasped at what he had just realized. "This is the one that you brought back with your new machine, Washu. But, I thought he was dead!"
"Apparently, Mihoshi must have done something to reanimate him, but this still doesn't explain all the hardware this boy has implanted throughout his body."
"What!" Ayeka exclaimed, jumping back. "You mean this strange control panel is not just a wrist-mounted computer?"
"Nope!" Washu said, calling up her holo-terminal and typing a series of commands into it. "And its self-destruct sequence has been disabled. It's actually the control device for all the technology that has been imbedded throughout his body. However, there are indications here that there is a lot more to the control interfacing systems than just this one implant alone. Although, it does seem to be the source of all the other technology that has fused with his body."
As Ryoko scooped up the body in her arms, having been told to do so by Tenchi, Washu explained that there were going to be a lot of things that would have to be explained by the young man himself. As soon as the self-destruct sequence had been cancelled, the technology that was in his body began producing a dampening field that had killed her scanner's ability to get any more information.
Walking back toward the house, Tenchi followed Washu closely as he began to interrogate her as to how Mihoshi had been able to bring him back to life. That, the scientist didn't have an answer for since, after her discussion about not bringing corpses into his house, she had decided to change the programming. It was impossible for her machine to revive any subject on its own without a certain program being installed, and she had the disk it was saved on locked up. All Mihoshi had done was activate the purge sequence, and then whatever happened must have been the result of the technology that was fused throughout the body.
Another thing that she told Tenchi she was concerned about was the fact that before her scanner had been blocked; she noticed that some of that technology was still forming. Other parts of it were regenerating as if it had been damaged prior to them finding him in the woods. The power source was built into the control panel and it was very weak, but still producing enough power that it was sustaining everything in a very low setting.
Upon entering the house, Tenchi asked Ryoko to set the young man down on the couch and Ayeka to get a few blankets that he could be covered with. Washu went back to her lab, to return a few moments later with another scanning device which she then used to asses his medical condition.
Apart from the apparent weakness of his body from having been revived so quickly and then putting physical strain on himself, he seemed to be fine. There were some things that she found that had been repaired within the last few minutes, which she determined was another function of the technology he had. A few moments after finding this out though, this scanner fell to the same fate as the last one and she gave up on finding anything out until he awoke.
"Well, I think we should all just get some sleep," Tenchi told them. "Washu, is there any way we can tell when he gets up other than watching him all night?"
"I'm not so sure that any of my technology would be able to keep him here," Washu answered him. "But, there are things I can place around the room that would tell me if he tried to leave."
"Good, do that for us," he said, turning toward the stairs. "Then get some sleep yourself, we'll see each other in the morning. Hopefully by then, this guy will be awake to tell us something we can use to figure out what happened."
As everyone went to bed, they failed to notice the light on the implant fading and then the device flickering out of existence entirely. On the screen, just before it disappeared, were the words 'Regeneration Cycle Complete, Beginning Charge Cycle.'

Sasami awoke to the sounds of the birds chirping as the sun rose. Sitting up in her futon and stretching, she looked over at her older sister to find that there was a concerned look on her face as she slept. Wondering what had happened in her sister's sleep, she quickly made the decision that she should let her wake up on her own and not have the others bother her. If she slept a bit later that usual, she would bring breakfast up to her herself.
Getting dressed, she stepped out of the room as quietly as possible and then proceeded down the stairs to begin her cooking duties. On the couch, she could see that someone was asleep, so she went in and began making tea as the first thing, thinking that Tenchi had fallen asleep on the couch when he had come down to get ready to go to school. It was a strange thing, to think that Tenchi would not get a good night's sleep, and even stranger to think that Ayeka would be in the same condition. Something had happened during the night and she was concerned as to what it could be . . . .
The young princess blushed as she thought about it. Surely, Ryoko would have made a fuss if the elder princess had tried anything like that and there would have been huge explosions that would have woke everyone. Giggling at the thought of another jealous fight between the two, she poured a cup of tea for Tenchi and brought it into the living room where she knelt down and placed her hand on Tenchi's shoulder.
"Tenchi," she said, shaking his shoulder gently to try to wake him. "I've made you some tea, it's time to get up."
"Uggg," a groggy voice came in response. "Jennifer? Go away, can't you see I'm sleeping?"
Gasping, Sasami jumped back in surprise, the teacup shattering on the floor when she did and bringing the strange man out of his sleep. As he sat up and held his head, he looked around with the one eye that was not covered by his hand.
"Where the heck am I?" he asked, focusing on her and getting an evil look in his eye. "And who are you?"
"I'm Sasami," she chocked out, looking at him with a fearful look in her eye. "I didn't know that we had a guest. Who are you?"
"I'm Brian Fergason," he answered, tossing the blanket off of himself and standing to his full height. "Where is this place? I remember getting out of here last night. How did I end up back here?" Looking around the room, he then looked back at the girl and saw the look of fear on her face. Kneeling down so that the two were at eye level, he reached up and patted her head. "I'm not going to hurt you, don't be afraid. I just don't know what's going on, or where I am. I'm sorry if I scarred you."
She calmed down and looked up at him as if she had been looking at him for the first time. He was not from around here, that was something she was sure of, but she seemed to recognize him. As she thought about it, she remembered where she had seen him. "You're the young man from America that Washu brought here with her machine. I know what's going on now." With a smile on her face she led him into the kitchen where she told him to take a seat. "The others aren't up now, but I'm sure we will be able to help you when they do get up. For now though, I should explain to you that I think that Washu brought you back from the dead."
"Dead?" he asked, his face turning a shade lighter than what it had been a few seconds ago. "You mean, I died?"
"I'm sorry," she said, hanging her head a little. "You're family must have been sad."
"Weird," he said. "I guess this thing really works." With that, a device materialized on his wrist that he began typing at with the opposite hand. Sasami seemed to stare at it as he confirmed what she had said, but after he was finished he recloaked it. "I'm still not sure where I am though."
Blinking back to reality, the princess turned back to the counter to chop up some vegetables and explained a little more to him. Telling him that he was in Japan surprised him a bit and then he seemed to calm down as she told him that they were not going to harm him. Although, it still didn't make any sense as to how he understood her Japanese until he told her that the implant she had seen earlier translated everything he heard and said. This made it possible for him to understand what people were saying in other language and made them think that he was speaking in theirs.
Before long, Sasami heard a few footsteps come down the stairs and then a shocked gasp, followed by the sound of those footsteps running. Ryoko appeared at the doorway a few seconds later.
"Sasami! Have you seen the . . ." she started in a raised voice, but upon seeing who she was asking about, she just stopped talking and stared at the young man sitting at the table. "It's about time you woke up. Who are you?"
"He's Brian," Sasami answered, turning around with a wooden spoon in her hand as Ryo-Oki decided that Ryoko was a good enough distraction to steal some carrots. After receiving a light tap on the head, the cabbit jumped toward the newcomer and landed on his shoulder, getting a light pat on the head from him.
"And what are you doing?" he asked, looking at the strange creature. "What's all the excitement about trying to steal carrots anyway? For that matter, what are you?"
"Meow!" it seemed to purr, and the jumped off his shoulder to then hop out of the room.
"That's Ryo-Oki," Sasami told him, putting the spoon in the sink and picking her knife back up. "Ryoko, could you please wake the others. I believe they have some things to explain and then I think our guest might have more to tell us."

While Sasami waited for their breakfast to finish cooking, they all gathered in the kitchen to find out what was going on. Brian was introduced to everyone and then told about what had happened in the lab that had ended up with him being here. He told them that he had been working on an experiment himself and something must have happened back home that put him in a state that would have looked like he was dead.
Thanking them for pulling him out of his grave, he explained the implant was designed to enhance certain aspects of his body and it made it possible to use the technology it implanted telepathically. Some things would take time to develop further, but the whole process would only take a few days. After that, he would be able to use a whole new range of abilities that that technology would give him access to.
As Sasami went back to stirring pots, Brian was shocked to find out about the origins of the Masaki family. To say the least, he took it rather well considering the fact that most of them were aliens. Ryoko was a bit hesitant to tell him about her origins, but once she did, he understood why it would be a burden to her.
"So, let me get this straight," Brian said, standing from his seat at the table. "You are all here because of something that happened seven hundred years ago?"
"Yes," Tenchi answered. "My grandfather pursued Ryoko here and locked her up in the cave up by the shrine. I let her out, but when I did, it sent off some sort of signal into space and that's when Ayeka and Sasami showed up. Later on, the others just sort of wound up here as well."
Sitting back down, and slumping into the chair, Brian decided that this was a lot of information. "So, then this thing really is made from alien technology."
"What do you mean?" Ayeka asked, looking at his crestfallen face.
"I designed this thing when I came across a pile of junk in the woods outside my home. It was twisted and broken, but I managed to learn a lot from it and eventually I decided that it was time to make something out of it. The alloy that the junk was comprised of was used to make the armor and casings of the machines, but the circuitry could only be partially recovered." He took a drink of the coffee that Sasami had prepared for him and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes that was threatening to return. "The only thing that I know of, is that whatever data I had pulled out of the databanks of the debris that wasn't destroyed, was that it was made by 'Andronians,' whoever they are."
Washu gasped at this and turned to the others who she knew had heard her. She made the decision to give them what little information she knew about them at that time. "Centuries before I was borne, there was a race that went by that name. They were destroyed in a war between their kind and another race called the Zarconians. No one has heard about them for at least a millennia." She looked at the young man and continued her explanation. "It would also explain why anything that I scan your body with is determined to be a threat and the frequency gets jammed. The Andronians were very protective about their technology and didn't want it to fall into the hands of anyone other than members of their own race."
"Why is that, Washu?" Tenchi asked.
"It is what started the war between them and the Zarconians. I don't have much more information other than that, but apparently they had been a dying race and the Andronians decided that they would help them with an exchange of technology and resources. Once that was done, the Zarconians flourished, and then attacked them with their own technology."
"That's not exactly where I thought that this technology would come from," Brian said, hanging his head. "But, it does give me some of the answered to questions I have been asking myself lately. I now wonder if allowing this thing to activate was such a good idea."
"Whatever the case may be," Washu told him. "I think that it is imperative to contact a member of your family and inform them that you are safe and very much alive."
"No," Brian snapped. "They think that I am dead. I'm not sure that that is such a good idea right now. Brian Fergason is not even my real name."
"Oh?" Ryoko asked, looking at him with a sinister look on her face. "And what would it be then?"
"Doesn't matter now," he said. "The person I used to be is dead, remember?"
Scratching her chin a bit, Washu then looked at him with a serious look on her face. "So, what do you plan on doing then?"
"I have some things that I wish to do," he said, looking at Ryoko and smiling a bit. "I'm sure that a former space pirate would be interested in a thrill or two, for old times sake."
"What would you have in mind?"

Walking to school, Tenchi wiped his brow of the sweat that had started to trail on his forehead. It had surely been an interesting morning, but he was concerned as to what Brian and Ryoko had taken a walk outside of the house to talk about. It had apparently been something that Ryoko had, indeed, been interested in, and that's what worried him the most. Whatever they were planning, was not something that was going to be any good and there was more to this person that he had been letting on.
There were strange things that had been said at the breakfast table, and then there had been moments where he just seemed to space out and no one could get an answer out of him. It was as if he had been talking to someone telepathically, but Washu had informed him before he left that she couldn't detect any telepathic communications. It was a little frustrating to think that they could be in danger, but he was also thinking that it would be rude to not let him stay long enough until he figured things out.
Afterall, he had allowed all the girls to stay and then they had all decided that it would be best if they just remained there. He had plenty of space there, and none of them were too much trouble for him to handle, although there was Ryoko and Ayeka's fights over him that seemed to tick him off from time to time.
Whatever was about to happen, there was sure to be more problems down the road and there was not going to be any time for them to recover if they weren't ready for it. Deciding that it would be best to treat Brian with the same hospitality that he had treated everyone too so far, he continued on his way. Everything would play out and they would find out all they needed to know about him when the time came.

High above the Pacific Ocean, a small plane was soaring toward Japan with a soul passenger. This young girl held a photo in her hand and she had been looking at it ever since she had woken up. There was a big hole that she had to get away from back home, and the first thing she was going to do was find her boyfriend. But, first, she wanted to visit Japan. There was something about it that was just calling her there, and she knew that after she figured out what that was she could head for the Netherlands and spend the rest of her time there. Whether or not she returned home to her family was not her concern.
"Tai," she cried as she held the picture of her friend in her hand. He was in his graduation gown and had been smiling as he stood beside his family. She sobbed, knowing that she'd never see him again. "Why did you have to die on me? I always thought that you were indestructible."
"Miss?" the co-pilot asked, turning around to face her. "I've been informed that all of your expenses have been taken care of. We have been authorized to refund your money."
"What?" she asked, looking up from the photo and tucking it back into her purse. "Who did this?"
"Someone going by the initials BAF, but nothing more," he said.
"Did they do this themselves?"
"No, apparently it was done through a computer network. But, it turns out that it's legit and has been authorized by the proper authorities. This person seems to know you, to have their computers looking out for you."
"Interesting," she said. "How much longer before we land?"
"We'll have to land and refuel in about an hour. From there it will take another two for the hop from Hawaii to Japan."
"Thank you," she said, and then leaned back in her seat. It had been a long time since she had gotten some sleep. Closing her eyes, she thought about who could be the one behind paying for her plane tickets and then covering her stay in another country all at the same time. It was weird, but she would figure it all out once she got done with whatever Japan had for her.

Well, that's the first chapter up after my introduction. I hope that this answered a few questions and I hope that it caused you to ask a few more! With any luck, the next chapter should do the same thing. Who is this new character? Why is drawing her to Japan? And who forked over the cash to cover her expenses? Find out, in chapter two!