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MASAKI TALES Vol. V - QUEST...
Author: Daferge
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Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! is a copyright AIC/Pioneer Ltd...
All respective characters are property of their original owners...
All original characters and ideas are property of the author...
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Chapter 11... The waiting - part 2...
( the Tavern near the Jurai Spaceport... )
Lady Kyo Komachi Tennan leaned over and spoke softly...
" What are you doing with - spooks?... "
THIS got a reaction from all three of the men sitting across from her...
A smile from her ex-space pirate acquaintance and wide eyes from the GP and Juraian military officers...
It was the GP officer who recovered first...
" How?... Where?... "
Lady Kyo Komachi smiled and eyed the GP officer...
" An acquaintance of mine sent her grandfather a collection of entertainment crystals dealing with general law enforcement... A number involved dealing with 'pirates'... Others with the Law and with military people... But a few involved governmental officials... "
Her friend smiled...
" I always wondered where those strange pirate 'films' came from... Wouldn't get me on such a small craft as those, firing chunks of metal at each other... No force field, AIs or laser pistols... Better a quick death from a hull breach in space than slowly drowning in - water!... And being hung up to just rot away to bones?... Almost makes Raiders seem human... "
He saw Kyo give him 'THAT' look...
" I said ALMOST... "
What ex-space pirate captain Kyo Komachi thought of Raiders couldn't even be repeated in mixed Pirate company...
She'd lost her family and many friends to Raiders...
It was why she'd become a pirate...
But she noted the two officers looking at her and sighed...
" Among the government stuff were films dealing with the secret side of government... Spying and such... These agents didn't wish to be seen, like ghost and were called Spooks... "
She smiled at the GP officer...
" I understand two names are quite popular... An agent named James Bond and a Detective by the name of John McClane... Thou I hear the Grand Marshal likes some French Police Inspector by the name of Clouseau?... "
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( Deep within Avalon... )
Usually Washu didn't pay attention to those working around her unless they got within a certain distance...
But she did notice a young female acting oddly across the room...
She seem to be having difficulty moving among the others near her...
It was as if something was affecting her concentration and her ability to move about...
Suddenly she stopped and started looking around...
Washu watched and smiled...
When the girl's eyes made contact with Washu's she froze...
It's alright, my dear!...
The girl's eyes widened and Washu sensed panic...
You're under my protection...
There was now confusion on her face and Washu had to smile...
Please remain calm and turn to the person on your right...
Turning the young girl found a young boy standing there smiling at her...
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Startled, the young girl stared at him as he turned and moved his right arm out slightly from his body...
It's ok, my dear... Take his arm...
There was something about the boy that calmed her and she took his arm,,,
Now he will escort you over here to me so we can 'talk'...
Slowly, carefully, the two made it across the room to where Washu was...
As they came to a stop, the boy took the young girl's hand and bowing slightly, kissed the back of it...
After bowing to Washu, the young boy headed off into the surrounding people...
As the young girl looked in the direction the boy had disappeared, Washu smiled and ran her fingers over her keyboard...
Suddenly it was quiet and the young girl turned to stare at Washu...
I enclosed us in a force field that not only keeps out the sounds surrounding us, but the thoughts of those nearby too...
The girl touched her head...
It was true, all the 'noise' that had clouded her head since they awoke her was gone...
She rubbed a tear from her eye as she smiled at the red-haired female...
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Running her fingers across the keyboard again, a hole appear near her and Washu reached in, pulling out a small box...
The young girl stared at the hole, the box and at the female sitting on a floating seat...
You've been asleep a very long time, much has changed, a lot for the better, but not all...
The male who had awaken her had 'said' or thought the same before hurrying off to help revive another person...
The 'noise' of others had lead her through the darkened hallways, the goggles she'd been given had helped too...
The huge 'noise' coming from this area had brought her here, but then the huge amount of raw thoughts was more than she could bare...
She was unable to get any one's attention and had to concentrate really hard to keep from being knocked out...
Come here... These will help...
Washu held up the open box with a number of odd items showing...
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She pointed to two small items...
These are ear plugs that filter sounds allowing you to hear and understand regular speech, they can also translate most know dialects, they can be removed if need be...
She then pointed to an odd shaped tube...
This contains a tiny device that will act like this force field and block out all the waves of unwanted thoughts assaulting you...
The young girls eyes widened...
It will be inserted under the skin at the base of your skull, where the energy from your nervous system will power it...
The young girl nodded her head...
This contains two more devices that will be placed within each ear, under the skin, to help the main device...
She nodded her head again...
Unless you're hit by lightning, these should last a life time...
Washu noted an odd look in the young girl's eyes...
Rest assured that what I can put under your skin I can remove...
A smile appeared on the young girls lips...
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A short time later...
Washu smiled at the young girl...
" Ready?... "
The young girl nodded her head and smiled as Washu hit a key on her keyboard...
The outside noise resumed and the young girl's eyes widened...
The only 'sound' was that coming though her ears and even that was so soft, not roaring...
It was then that she saw the young male returning...
" I'd like to introduce you to some one... "
The young girl smiled and nodded her head...
They both watched as Tenchi made his way across the room...
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( Jurai royal palace... )
Emperor Azusa found himself smiling...
In the past he would have been in a deep, dark mood...
Recent history was repeating it's self...
Some time back, word was received that his youngest daughter, Sasami had been attacked while visiting a distant world...
It seem that a group of men working for a rival kingdom were reported behind it...
By the time word had gotten to them, it was all over and Sasami was reported safe...
However, an emergency meeting was called of the highest members of the government to discuss it...
As Emperor he had to sit and watch the debate...
The safety of the princess was discussed and even actions against the rival kingdom were being suggested...
As usual, it was a long boring meeting and little seem to be getting done...
It had been in the middle of all this that a very unexpected visitor showed up...
Washu Hakubi...
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No one saw her enter the highly secured room, she seem to just step from the corner of the room and up to the table...
But the room went silent when they discovered the infamous red-haired female was there...
Not saying a word, as she opened a small hole in mid air and retrieved something wrapped in a black cloth...
Every eye in the room was on her as she closed the hole and held the object over the table...
Holding the cloth she rolled the object within out, onto the table...
Eyes widened and jaws dropped as what appeared to be a male human head rolled down the table...
It stopped, halfway down, coming to rest on it's neck...
It's eyes were open, but it's mouth was shut...
" Snake eyes... "
Washu had a smile that even sent chills up Azusa's spine...
" An uninvited guest... A thug hired by nameless faces and well paid to do the job... "
Eyes moved from the head to Washu and back again...
" Scans of the brains provided some interesting data, but those doing the hiring seem to have been quite careful to remain in the shadows... "
Her eyes moves about the room, observing every one and thing...
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Later, he discovered that it hadn't been just for show...
There was (as she said ) ' method to her madness!... '...
It seem that Washu had made note of each member's reaction, the scanners she'd brought with her had recorded ever thing, breathing, heartbeat, sweat, eye movements, every thing...
Especially Azusa's reaction, it would be the control for judging the others reactions...
Washu had caught them off guard and the shock caused them to react without thinking...
In a sense it was as if she'd give every one in the room a short lie detector test and they were none the wiser...
It would still be a while before she got any results back...
Perhaps they would get a peek at some of the true faces behind those painted mask all high born Juraians wore...
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Having let the head do it's thing, she'd walked to a spot near it and dropped the black cloth over it...
Then, wearing rubber gloves, she wrapped the cloth back around the head...
Having secured it, she lifted it and held it out, at arm's reach, as if not wanting it near her...
She then opened another small hole in mid air and tossed the mass into it, as she would garbage into the trash can...
There were easier ways of doing it, but this was the most dramatic...
Taking off the gloves, she then tossed them into the hole before snapping her finger, closing the hole...
She hide a smile as the sound of her snapping finger had caused many of those watching to jump...
" Princess Sasami wishes to reassure every one that she and her host are perfectly alright... "
She saw Azusa ever so slightly nod his head, getting the message for him and the Queens...
" Thus is the fate of all enemies of the Royal family... "
With a wicked smile on her face, she disappeared, leaving behind a silent room...
Smiling, Azusa believed that history would repeat it's self and his younger daughter would be safe, but it still upset him that all he could do was wait and watch...
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( A Juraian Heavy Cruiser... )
The Juraian experimental Heavy cruiser Light of Jurai had been assigned to the Deep Space Force...
To assist the DSF's patrol cruisers ( usually ex-pirate craft ) against Raiders and others things...
The smaller craft acting as bait to attract pirate ships and even Raiders...
Then the heavily armed cruiser and escort would drop out of sub-space and clean up...
So far it had been working pretty well...
They had destroyed half a dozen Raiders and captured a number of Space Pirates...
In the case of the pirates, only one had refused to surrender, it's crew wanted for murder and other violent crimes...
The Light of Jurai had stood off and watched as Captain Touda and his crew of ex-pirates took pleasure in dealing with them...
The crew had know many of their victims...
No quarter was asked or given...
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Later DNA samples were collected for IDs...
Of the others, most, after processing were taken into the DSF on a trial basis, a couple went to jail for a year or so, their ship confiscated by the DSF...
Usually patrolling local sectors, the Light, was in sub-space headed towards a near-by, but still distant system, answering a distress signal from the task force assigned there...
The ship's first officer ( or number one ) had been handed the report that had been relayed by non-standard means due to problems with direct contact with the system...
Upon reading the report, the captain crushed the reader before ordering general quarters...
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In a need for greatest speed, the usual escort ships could be left behind, but the DSF cruiser could be 'clamped' to the Light's belly, inside it's shields...
This would create a larger mass, but allow the slower cruiser to come along...
When number one managed to find the captain, he was dealing with the chief engineer about speed...
The chief had once bragged that he could get at-least 115% from the new engines if given the chance...
The captain was going to give him his chance to prove it...
A bottle of Seniwa Rum ( rare in Juraian space ) for each % above maximum he managed AND still got them there, in one piece...
When she finally cornered him, she demanded to know what was the matter, why the hurry?...
He told her that the task force commander was his younger brother...
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( The tree-ship Amelia... )
My Lady?...
Galaxy Police Detective Kiyone Tanaka set down the papers she was looking at...
" Yes?... "
She was getting much better at reacting to a sudden sound of a voice in her ear...
I estimate that contact will accrue in just less than a hour...
Kiyone nodded, no more putting off the conflict with the Raider ships...
" Inform all commands that they should go to yellow alert and go to full Red alert about 20 minutes before estimated contact... As discussed, Princess Sasami will be the one to give the final Go order... Continue to observe the Raiders advance and report any changes at once... Also Report any changes among our defensive units too... "
Yes, my Lady...
Kiyone sighed, the waiting was over...
Every thing that could be done, had been done...
She smiled, perhaps she could slip down to the kitchen for a quick snack...
At any rate, Sasami would be at her side, with Ryo-Ohki, to give the final attack command...
A last minute moral burst to the crews, a member of the Royal family leading them, how could they lose?...
They would have to move from beneath the planet's waters, up into a low orbit behind the planet, there Ken-Ohki would launch and join them in his ship form...
At Sasami's command the trap will be sprung and in the confusion, Ken-Ohki, the Amelia and the Yukinojo would make micro-jumps to bring them to a spot behind the Raiders...
Then, with the Raiders caught between the two forces, it would only be a matter of cleaning up...
Kiyone was an experienced Galaxy Police officer, she was well aware how easily things could go wrong...
What was it that Lord Yosho had once said?...
Plan well, do your best and keep your fingers crossed for luck...
She sighed, they were going to need a great deal of luck...
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( Beneath the ocean... )
It considered it's situation...
Trapped deep beneath the planet's water, the pressures at such depths were penning it to the floor of the trench it now found it's self within...
For time beyond measure the heat from the depths within this planet had kept it alive...
In recent times the amount of heat had increased and it had slowly been able to recover, slowly getting stronger...
As it's power grew, so had it's senses...
And upon the surface of this world tiny flames had begun to appear, most nothing more than tiny glowing embers, but every once and a while a brighter flame would appear...
And some times those flames gathered other smaller flames around it and they become a much larger flame...
But as in the past the larger flame would only burned for a short time before it would go out...
And all that was left behind were the tiny embers, until the next flame...
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And recently a small flame had appeared, hardly noticeable, but then this flame continued to slowly get larger and brighter...
Then another flame suddenly appeared, of equal brightness as the first...
And then another flame had joined it and another...
Then there had been that large flame that had appeared and tried to absorb all the other smaller flames, but in the end only the original flame remained...
But oddly the other flames around it began to burn brighter also, on their own...
And although it could easily out glow the others it only burned as bright as they did...
And there was an odd taste to that flame, as if this was not the first time it had tasted it...
But there was also had a bad taste to it that it wanted to spit out but just couldn't...
Soon, all would become clear...
Very soon...
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( Deep within Avalon... )
Washu stood next to a very unusual female and she decided she wanted her to meet Tenchi...
As he came to a stop before them, she turned to the young female...
" Leela... This is my son-in-law, Tenchi... "
( She had found that it best not to mention his full name, it caused less confusion with those awaking after their very long sleep... )
The girl nodded her head...
" Tenchi, this is Leela... She has just joined us and I believe she will be of help... "
As he had been approaching Washu had updated him about the new comer...
Tenchi smiled and bowed his head...
" Leela... It is a pleasure to meet you and have you with us... "
Taking her hand again something strange happen, there was a sort of buzzing in Tenchi's ear for just a moment...
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Ahhh!... That was strange!...
Looking up Tenchi saw Leela staring straight at him, a sort of wild look in her eyes...
WHO ARE YOU?...
Tenchi noticed Washu's raised eyebrow...
Did you hear that Washu?...
Smiling, Washu nodded her head...
Yes I did!...
The girl turned to stare at Washu...
HOW?...
Another voice joined in, it was Ayeka's...
And just who is this person?...
The girl looked around for another person...
WHERE?...
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Sighing, Washu stepped closer and took the girl's other hand...
It seems we have a true pure telepath with us...
A flash of images passed quickly as the girl tried to get away...
It was Washu who broke the silence, speaking out loud, calmly...
" You have nothing to worry about, my dear... Pure Telepaths are no longer feared and hunted down these days... You are quite safe... "
Leela wasn't sure if it was Washu's words or the way that the male was stroking her hand that helped to calm her down...
Smiling, Washu spoke again, this time she did it through the link she had with Tenchi and the others...
Can you hear me dear?...
A surprised Leela nodded her head...
Washu smiled...
" Interesting... Very Interesting... "
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NO EXPERIMENTING...
Washu turned to see a determined look in Tenchi's eyes...
Of course not... But we will need to get together with her to see exactly how she has managed to join our little band and to what extent...
Leela had a confused look on her face...
Are you ALL telepaths?...
Washu chuckled...
No my dear, some time ago I devised a way for several very special people to be able contact each other without the need of an external device, like a comm-unit, privately...
Leela stared at her...
Sort of like you, but over a much greater distance... In fact, Ayeka, the one who is not here, is at this moment in my lab on our home world, several thousand light years away...
Leela's jaw dropped...
Ayeka's chuckling voice broke the tension...
She didn't even consider bringing Mihoshi or Ryoko up...
Come, Come, Ms Washu... You'll have the poor girl thinking you're some kind of goddess or something...
Washu smiled at that...
You're quite right my dear...
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Turning to the young girl, Washu managed to get her attention...
It seems that some how you have been able to tap into that link and have become a part of it...
She pointed to her holding Tenchi's hand...
I believe that your mental talent allowed this, but only when you make direct contact of one of the group...
She smiled at Leela...
I shall need to study this when we get a chance, with your help, to see if we can prevent it reoccurring with some unwanted guest...
This was suppose to be a "private" royal line...
Although this shows a problem in the system, I believe we can put it to good use... Only time will tell...
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Washu saw Merlin approaching from across the room, she had summoned him...
She wanted the young female some where safe, until she had time to study the problem closer...
" Ah... Merlin... We have a new house guest... Would you be so kind as to escort her there?... "
Merlin smiled, he always enjoyed visiting their home world, even if he did had to wear dark shades outside...
Washu turned to Leela...
Merlin is going to take you on a short trip to a place very far from here, please trust him, he knows the way well and will protect you...
Taking Merlin's arm, Leela was able to get a warm, friendly aura...
Yes she would be OK...
Smiling, he led her across the room and towards the doorway to other places...
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( Washu's Lab... )
Princess Ayeka sighed as she stroked the status chamber with her fellow wife in it...
" We have a new house guest coming and here you are asleep... As usual... "
A tear formed, but she quickly brushed it away...
She thought she heard Ryoko moan, but realized it was just a sleeping Minagi, Ryoko's cloned step-sister...
Ayeka smiled, those two were as different as night and day, but she knew she wouldn't have Ryoko any other way...
She looked at the digital clock that was sitting on Washu's desk...
It seem that her little chat with her mother had lasted over several hours...
Where had the time gone...
With Ryoko asleep and all the girl gone with Sasami, Ayeka was, at the moment, the Lady-of-the-house...
If only the man-of-the-house were here!...
In the back of her head, she heard Tenchi chuckle...
Was that some kind of hint, oh, Lady-of-the-house?...
No matter how far apart their lives took them, they would always be there for each other, even Ryoko and Mihoshi...
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She smiled...
No hinting about it, oh man-of-the-house!...
She could almost see Tenchi smile...
She could also hear Washu chuckle...
She now had the life and the man she had always dreamed about, a dream she had very much feared would never happen...
Looking down, she just couldn't resist temptation...
Bending down, she whispered softly in Minagi's ear...
" Minagi, sweety... Time to get up so you can go to school... "
A sleepy Minagi rolled over, mumbling...
" 5 more minutes mommy... "
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Ayeka smiled, Minagi was watching the same soaps that she and the other girls always watched...
" Minagi... There's an officer from the Galaxy Police here to see you... "
Her eyes wide open, Minagi was sitting up and looking around...
" It wasn't me... I didn't do it... What?... Where?... "
Looking around, the only other person in the room was a smiling Princess Ayeka...
" Sorry, sleepyhead... But it seems we have new guest coming and we need a guest room to be prepare... "
Minagi didn't mind the teasing, after all those years living alone on her star ship, it was good to be around others, and to have a very real family...
" Yes, mom... "
Smiling Ayeka leaned closer and kissed her on the forehead...
A startled Minagi looked Ayeka in the eye, who chuckled...
" That was from your mother... "
She then tapped her head...
Smiling Minagi bowed and then disappeared, headed to the main house...
Ayeka sighed, for the thousandth time she quietly wished she could do that...
Turning she headed to the lab door and the main house...
There was so much to be done...
But she smiled, she couldn't be happier...
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To be continued...
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Please feel free to comment and review for any errors...
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