Previously in Apex AZ:
The third Super Saiyan emerged as Sasami, the most unlikely of people. Still, she is a Super Saiyan, and that could come in handy for what is coming. Wreckage from a crashed spaceship was found on a remote planet, and was discovered to be from another galaxy. Tenchi was seriously worried by this, and he had every reason to be. He knew almost certainly what it was. But surely he could have used his foresight or something? Maybe he didn't just to make it more interesting.
Apex AZ, Part II – Attack of the Drones
After ten minutes of walking, they emerged into a long narrow clearing. The trees around were burned, and the ground in the clearing was blackened. At one end was billowing smoke.
"Over there then," Tenchi said, walking towards the smoke. The others followed.
As they reached the smoke, they saw something large and metallic. It was the crashed craft. It was perhaps a hundred metres across, and looked like it used to be cubical.
"A cube ship?" Washu wondered. "That's an interesting design."
Tenchi looked around, and spotted some forms on the ground nearby. He walked over to one. It was humanoid, lying face down. It was covered in a metal-like material. The right arm was artificial, and had some kind of instrument instead of a hand. The head was bald, and a couple of large wires came out of the back of it, down to the middle of the back. Tenchi turned it over. More of the same kind of body was on the front, but the face was different. A large metal patch covered the right eye, the main bit of which was a socket for something. On the ground where the head had been was a small vaguely round bit of metal. Tenchi picked it up and looked at it. It was a smooth transparent bit of material, like rubber, partially encased by metal. The metal casing fit into the socket on the eye, so that the rubber-like material faced outwards. It was an artificial eye.
Tenchi dropped the body and stepped back, looking around for other bodies. He counted seven. "Three," he said.
"What's that?" Aki asked, walking up to him. "What have you found?"
"Three are still active," Tenchi said. "They're around here somewhere. Help me find them."
There was no need to. The three missing beings emerged from different areas of the nearby trees. They walked slowly, looking round as they went. All the implanted technology was active and flashing on their bodies. The artificial eye had electric-like green or blue lines spreading from the centre of the rubber-like lens to the edge. It also glowed a faint blue. A thin red beam of light emerged from the side of their artificial eyes, which moved over everything the beings looked at.
"We are the Borg," the three said in unison. "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. We will add your distinctiveness to our own."
"Damn!" Tenchi shouted, leaping back from them. The others quickly gathered together, as the three so-called Borg advanced on them. Tenchi moved away from the others and yelled. A bright flash of light emerged from him, and when it disappeared, Tenchi was a Super Saiyan 3. "Aki, power up!" Tenchi ordered. "You too, Sasami!"
Sasami and Aki did what they were told. It seemed Tenchi knew what was going on, and they might as well listen to him. Aki quickly became a Hyper Saiyan, while Sasami's hair rose to the occasion and she became a Super Saiyan.
Tenchi formed a powerful energy blast in his hands and threw it at one of the Borg. The thing was disintegrated. He formed another blast and threw it at the second one. It hit, and caused no damage.
"Fuck," Tenchi exclaimed. "They've adapted. You two, use your most powerful attacks, but don't get near them. Destroy them. Leave nothing."
Aki and Sasami nodded and formed their separate energy attacks. Aki threw his at one Borg, while Sasami attacked the other one. Both Borg were destroyed.
Tenchi sighed in relief as he looked round, satisfying himself that there was no more threat. He turned to the others. "Get back," he said. "I'm going to destroy all this."
The others ran or flew back as fast as they could. They knew Tenchi was being serious, so there was no use doubting his orders.
Tenchi rose up into the air, forming a large Masenko blast. "Take this!" he shouted. "Masenko Blast!" He threw the attack at the crashed ship. It impacted and expanded in a large pure energy explosion, which engulfed the whole of the craft, as well as some of the area around it. Once the explosion had faded, all that was left was a crater. Tenchi lowered to the ground, satisfied that it was all gone, and powered down. His long hair rested down his back, moving slightly in the breeze. He turned to the others.
"We have big problems," he said.
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"It's the Borg," Tenchi said. "Biomechanical drones, linked together and controlled by a collective mind. They reside in a nearby galaxy, but obviously they've started exploring more. They have extremely advanced technology, far much more so than this galaxy. Some of the things they have, even Washu would struggle to understand or think of."
"Are they a threat?" Ayeka asked. "They did just crash on a planet. Besides, you destroyed them easily enough."
"Another main feature of the Borg," Tenchi continued, "is their ability to quickly adapt to any kind of attack made against them. Since our energies are different, we were each able to destroy a drone. I would have done it myself, but they had adapted to my energy wave. I would have done no more damage."
"So how do you know all this?" Ryoko asked. "It's not as though you've been to that galaxy, have you?"
"I haven't, but I don't need to," Tenchi said. "My evolutions increased my knowledge immensely. I gained knowledge of them when I first evolved, but I didn't consider them a threat, until now. But we don't have time to talk. The Borg are coming. Washu, I need your computer."
"Sure," Washu said, puzzled. "But I thought the Borg already came. And why didn't I know about them?"
"That was a scout ship, with a crew of ten. The main ship is slower, but it's much bigger, with many more drones. And you didn't know about them because you never knew you could know about them. Even the goddesses don't know everything. All they know is from their own experience, and yours never included them. Now, excuse me."
Tenchi stood up from the couch in the Masaki house and headed for Washu's lab. Washu and the others followed him. As they entered, they found Tenchi had evolved to his second form, the completely robotic form. He sat down at the computer console and poised his hands. Each of his fingers split into three separate bits of metal, which began tapping unbelievably fast at the control panels in front of him.
As many screens popped up, each with different bits of information Tenchi was inputting, Tenchi spoke. "I must compile my knowledge of the Borg," he said. "Please do not disturb me. I do not require rest or food in this form. I can continue forever like this. Do not worry about me."
"Tenchi, are you sure you aren't overdoing this?" Aki asked. He got no reply.
Tenchi continued inserting data faster than ten expert humans could. Since he was robotic in this form, his mental lag time was infinitesimal, and he could concentrate on a hundred different things perfectly at once. He didn't show any signs of moving for a long while.
After a short time, the others left, leaving Tenchi behind to compile information. Tenchi worked quickly and efficiently, inputting megabytes of data every minute. This soon added up.
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Unwilling as they were, the others left Tenchi to work overnight. The next day Tenchi continued his relentless tapping, starting and ending large files simultaneously. He had compiled several gigabytes of information, including several video files, sounds and schematics, text and other information. But still he wasn't finished.
Sasami entered that afternoon. She stood a distance from Tenchi, watching his progress. It was too fast for even her to see, as by the time she had focussed on one screen it had disappeared, a new one taking its place. His fingers moved extremely fast.
"Tenchi, how long are you going to be?" Sasami asked. No reply. "Do you want to go for a walk for a while?" Nothing. "Is there anything you want to do?" Silence. "Okay," Sasami said quietly. "I'll just go now. Sorry for disturbing you."
The rapid tapping of Tenchi's fingers increased tempo for a few seconds, before slowing down and stopping. Sasami turned round just before she went out, and saw Tenchi, back in his human form, standing and looking at her.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I've been too busy lately. Let's go for that walk."
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Nine months after Tenchi had first become God, he and Sasami were walking through the forest near home. For the first time in a while, Tenchi looked at Sasami, admiring her looks. She was now twelve. She had matured fairly quickly, but her appearance hadn't changed much. If anything, she was even cuter now.
Tenchi walked alongside her, holding her hand. He had been busy thinking about the things that had happened over the past few months, all beginning with the reappearance of... Well, he didn't need to go into that again. The good thing was that he was all right now, and so was everyone else. For the moment, anyway. He pushed away all these thoughts and walked on, enjoying life in general.
Sasami stopped, causing Tenchi to turn and face her.
"Tenchi, do you like me?" the young girl asked.
"That's a silly question, Sasami," Tench replied. "Of course I like you. In fact, I like you a lot more than that. I love you, actually."
"That's not what I mean, Tenchi," Sasami said. "Do you really love me?"
"Sasami, what's all this about?"
"Well, I remember you saying that you knew your true choice. It isn't me, is it?" she said, fully expecting it not to be.
"Why don't you think so?"
"It's just the way you've been acting," Sasami said. "Sure, you've been really nice to me, and you always make me laugh, but I don't think you really love me. Do you?"
"Well..."
"You don't," Sasami finished for him. "That's alright. I know I'm just a girl, and the others are all grown-ups. You should choose one of them, instead of me."
"Sasami, are you upset?" Tenchi asked.
Sasami shook her head. "Nope. As long as you're still around, I'm happy. And I'm also happy for whoever you did choose."
Tenchi sensed Sasami's mind. He couldn't detect any relevant amount of sadness. She wasn't lying when she said she didn't mind.
"Sasami, you know that just because you're a girl doesn't mean I don't care for you as much as any of the others," Tenchi said. "But you're very mature for your age. You're also incredibly perceptive. The others haven't begun to figure out my true choice yet, yet you know it isn't you."
"So who is it?"
"I can't say," Tenchi said, leaning against a tree. "I know what girls are like. You'll just tell everyone."
"No I won't," Sasami said defiantly. "I promise I won't tell anyone else, not even Ryo-Ohki."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Okay then. But only because I trust you." Tenchi leaned down and whispered something into Sasami's ear. Sasami pulled away in surprise.
"Really? Is that the truth?" she exclaimed.
"Really. Now remember, I don't want you to tell anyone."
Sasami fidgeted for a second. "But I have to tell someone," she burst out.
"No you don't. I'll tell them, when I'm ready. Don't ruin the surprise for them."
Sasami was conflicted for a moment, and then sighed. "Okay, Tenchi. I promise I won't tell another living being."
"Good girl. Come on then. Let's keep going."
They walked on, hand in hand again.
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All too soon, the walk was over, and Tenchi was back at work. He continued to work for another day, before emerging from the lab, carrying a small box. The box had four large spikes sticking up from one side. It was a holographic projector. Inside it was information about the Borg.
Tenchi quickly jumped everyone to the planet Jurai with his companions, straight into the throne room, where he knew the Emperor would be. The Emperor, along with his two wives, was indeed there. In fact, they were in the middle of a seemingly important meeting with the leading officials of the Galaxy Police. It understandably angered everyone when Tenchi and the others popped in without warning, right in the middle of the others.
"What in your name are you doing here?" the Emperor announced angrily at Tenchi. "This is an important and private meeting."
"Sod your meeting," Tenchi replied, rather more bluntly than he normally was. "We've got a much bigger problem than whatever you were talking about."
"What are you talking about?" Funaho asked.
Tenchi moved to the middle of the room and put down the holographic projector where everyone could see it. "This is our problem," he said, turning it on.
A holographic image of a Borg drone appeared, floating above the displayer. It rotated slowly, and then image changed to show one of the Borg ships, a large cube-shaped vessel. It was facing another vessel, much smaller than it was, obviously alien in construction. Sound began to come out of the built-in speakers, or rather hundreds of voices. "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. You will comply." The Borg ship then fired weapons at the other ship, crippling it fairly quickly. It shot a type of energy beam over the entire ship, which pulled it towards and into an opening in the cube. The image changed again, showing a similar cube, but surrounded by hundreds of different alien vessels. "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." All the ships started firing at the cube at once, but no apparent damage was caused. The cube fired many energy weapons at the nearby ships, destroying most of them and seriously damaging the others. Tenchi deactivated the projector.
"This is the Borg," he said. "Biomechanical drones, controlled by a collective consciousness. They possess thousands of cube ships in their galaxy, and they use them to conquer and assimilate other races. They turn them into Borg. They are relentless, virtually unstoppable, and they're coming here."
"Where did you get all that from?" an official asked. "Surely you didn't record it?"
"I compiled the data from what I know," Tenchi replied. "Trust me; it's real. You must understand. I think we have about a month before they arrive."
"How many?" the Emperor asked.
"One cube," Tenchi said. "A thousand drones."
"Just one ship?" an official asked. "What's the trouble? Our fleet should be able to take care of one ship, right? We'll be fine."
"You'll be dead!" Tenchi shouted angrily. "Don't underestimate the Borg. They are pretty much perfect in terms of everything you can think of. Once the Borg decide to assimilate or destroy you, that's what happens."
"But what can we do?" Funaho asked. "If they truly are unstoppable, what makes you think we have a chance?"
"I didn't say that," Tenchi replied. "It is very possible we have no chance, but we must try. From what I know, Washu and I can construct a weapon to use against them. They're slightly more vulnerable to spiritual attacks that conventional energy weapons. That's why I came here. I came to tell you all that we need every last Jurai treeship out there, ready for their arrival. They stand a bit better chance than the rest of doing some damage."
"What about reinforcements?" Misaki asked. "Are any more going to come?"
"No," Tenchi said. "One cube is sufficient to assimilate a galaxy, or at least dominate it."
"But what about that ship that crashed?" Washu asked. "Presumably that's Borg, but it got destroyed by a meteor shower."
"It is Borg," Tenchi agreed. "However, it was only a scout ship, with ten drones aboard. Even so, if it had landed on a populated planet, instead of crashing on a remote one, it could have posed a serious threat to that planet."
"But surely they have some weakness?" the Emperor asked. "Something we can use against them?"
Tenchi shook his head. "Unless we can persuade them to fly into a black hole, which we can't, there's nothing we can do. I do have some ideas of how we can improve our chances, but nothing major. But in the meantime, you need to start gathering every ship you can, so we can modify it for battle."
"We have about six hundred ready now," the Marshall of the GXP said, "and a thousand more on patrol."
"You weren't listening," Tenchi said, the frustration clearly sounding in his voice. "I said we need every ship. Every single space vessel must be there."
"Wow," Mihoshi said. "That bad, huh?"
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It was that bad. Washu and Tenchi had retreated to her laboratory to analyse the data and come up with ideas, while the others returned to the Masaki main room, where they sat, thinking about the imminent danger.
"It's not looking good, guys," Aki said.
"Of course it's not good," Ryoko snapped. "These aliens are coming to kill us, or assimilate us, whatever that means."
"Assimilation means we get turned into one of those drones we saw on that planet," Aki said. "And that's not what I meant. I know what Tenchi's thinking, because I can read his mind. He's absolutely terrified, guys. He's never been this scared of anything before."
"Do you think we can help?" Ayeka asked.
"Possibly," Aki replied. "From what I know from reading Tenchi's mind, Jurai treeships, or even kameya-meyas or anything like that, will be effective against them."
"Oh," Ayeka said. "My Ryu-Oh was destroyed. I guess I can't help."
"Sure you can, Ayeka," Sasami said. "You can help lead the attack when it comes. Aki and I can go into space and use our energy to weaken them, and you can finish them off."
"But didn't Tenchi say they were perfect?" Ryoko said. "That's not saying much if they can be destroyed that easily."
"I'm taking that since they come from another galaxy, they've never met a Super Saiyan," Aki said. "We'll show them resistance isn't futile."
"What does futile mean?" Sasami asked.
"Futile means it's pointless, or useless," Ayeka replied. "The Borg say that there's no use trying to fight back."
"I'm glad one of us asked that," Mihoshi said.
"But even so," Aki said, moving the conversation on, "I don't really think there's ultimately anything we can do. I guess it's up to Tenchi and Washu to come up with something to defeat them."
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As they were speaking, Tenchi, again in his second evolutionary form, was busy talking with Washu, as well as coming up with conceptual designs for things to help them.
"It says here that the Borg vessels use deflector shields at a frequency of 76.295 kilodems," Washu said, reading the information on the screen in front of her. "That's an incredible amount of energy, just for defences. Is there any way we can disable them, so we do direct damage to the ship?"
"Not unless we produce an anti-rem field at the exact same frequency," Tenchi replied. "No ship can generate a field that high, certainly not one big enough to encompass another ship. I guess we can't use that."
"How about their adaptation ability?" Washu asked. "Can't we shut that down?"
"No," Tenchi sighed. He didn't need to sigh, as he didn't breathe in that form, but he did so for effect. "The ability is built in to every part of the ship, and every drone. We'd need to disable a whole lot of systems to open just one part for attacking."
"But what about an energy surge? One that can knock out all the systems at once?"
"It's possible," Tenchi said. "We could do something like that. But we'd need a huge electromagnetic wave, and there's no ship capable of doing that at all."
"Then the regeneration commands," Washu said, moving on to the next item. "Apparently they need to regenerate for two hours every day, to replenish their energy supply. The ship will go into an minimum activity cycle, which is when we could attack."
"No use, for three reasons," Tenchi said. "One: they will certainly not start regenerating during the battle. Two: the command pathways have an equal safety protocol to every other system, which can only be accessed from a console on the ship itself, anyway. And three: it's true that while they're regenerating, they won't fire at us, but they would repair damage faster than we could create it. I think that idea's a dead end."
"Do you have any ideas?" Washu asked, looking over at his consoles. She looked at the schematics on a screen. "What's that?"
"It's a device to attach to an weapon system," Tenchi replied. "It's called an infinity modulator, or I-Mod. The idea came from the Star Trek game Elite Force. It will reprocess each shot it fires with a random different frequency. That way, the Borg can't adapt to it."
"Good idea," Washu said. "Anything else?"
"Not really," Tenchi admitted. "Nothing that can help us. I was thinking maybe we could construct some kind of giant energy cannon, but that turned out to be useless."
"Why?"
"It would have taken several years to construct," Tenchi said. "Another few months to calibrate it, and there's nowhere for the cannon to draw energy from."
Washu thought for a moment. "Maybe it could work."
"What?" Tenchi asked. "I've been over it. It's a useless idea."
"Not the energy cannon thing," Washu said. "I mean converting it into an electromagnetic pulse generator, that can knock out all the Borg systems."
"But it would still take ages to construct," Tenchi said.
"Not a problem," Washu replied, a smile on her face. "I've got a special part of the lab we can use. It's absolutely huge, and it's in a different dimension. I can control the time period of it, so a day outside would be about seven months inside."
Tenchi tapped away quickly at the computer and looked up. "That could work," he said. He turned around and faced Washu. "That really could work."
"Great!" Washu said. "I'll prepare it for construction, while you can design the thing."
"Sure," Tenchi said, a smile appearing on his metallic face. "I'll give it a try."
"No try," Washu said. "It's do, or do not. There is no try."
Tenchi just looked at her.
"Star Wars, right?" the scientist said. "Good films, by the way. Oh, lighten up, will you?"
In the next episode of Apex AZ:
The OB gunship Resistance, as it will be called, is under construction. Another thought strikes Tenchi, which forces him to choose a radical course of action. He decides to go off with a dark singularity bomb to pay the Borg a little visit. But before that, Trinity is asked to help, and the reason for Tsunami's appearance is revealed.
All this and more in the next episode of Apex AZ: "Victory Under Construction".