Space Again

The attack came suddenly, just as Ayeka and Sasami had entered the orbital area of Earth. A large red ship with the Galaxy Police insignia had appeared out of nowhere and ordered the princesses to pull over. Their names were apparently Detectives Mihoshi and Kiyone and they clearly meant business. When the princesses failed to comply they opened fire. Ayeka and Sasami found themselves on the floor of the bridge wondering what happened.

On their ship—the Yagami—Kiyone and Mihoshi felt that they had the upper hand. They had aimed for the obvious engines on Ryu-Oh and seemingly incapacitated the ship. Kiyone was especially pleased because Mihoshi, known for being rather silly and foolish although a good detective, was all business. They had just received the order from their superiors regarding the necessary capture of Princesses Ayeka and Sasami who have defected from the Juraian Empire. Sure, it was sudden, but they both felt that obeying orders was most important—even when you are unsure why things are suddenly thrust on you. They slowly pulled closer towards Ryu-Oh expecting a fairly easy capture.

Inside Ryu-Oh Ayeka had regained her wits just as she heard the sound of that other ship docking with them. Obviously, they were expecting to capture Ayeka and her younger sister. Isimplycannotletthishappen,Ayeka thought,IamaroyalprincessofJuraiandIwillnothavethesesortofcomplications!

Sasami was as scared as she had been back on Jurai. She wondered why her and her sister could not go in peace. They had already seen enough carnage, why was trouble following them? She jumped as she heard a slight chiming type noise as a beam of blueish-red light suddenly appeared on the bridge with her and her sister.

Kiyone had decided to go it alone, just in case there was trouble. She felt Mihoshi was at least reliable enough to call for help if they needed it. Kiyone also felt that they wouldn't likely need it and shimmered onto Ryu-Oh's bridge brimming with confidence. How wrong she was.

Ayeka quickly told Sasami to back away from Kiyone with a slight tilting of her head. Sasami obeyed readily and watched the seen with her big pink eyes. As Kiyone grabbed her gun in her holster Ayeka shouted, "Azaka! Kamidake! Defend your princesses! Ryu-Oh, auxiliary engines online and change course back towards the fourth planet!" The ship responded immediately as two large—logs by the look of them—beings appeared next to either princess. Azaka was posted near Ayeka while Kamidake appeared next to Sasami.

Kiyone barely had time to register a look of surprise as all this happened and immediately lost her balance as Ryu-Oh peeled off pulling Yagami with it. She did not fall, but she had lost her advantage as she noticed that the two logs, Azaka and Kamidake, had opened up revealing several blasters.

Over on Yagami, Mihoshi fell flat on her face as the ship suddenly turned getting pulled along. She heard some cracking and realized that the docking grid was wearing thin. It wasn't designed to withstand such an onslaught. Suddenly she heard an even louder crack as the grid fell completely apart, stranding her partner on Ryu-Oh. The further away that ship got, Mihoshi knew the likelihood of getting Kiyone back was minimal. Unfortunately, the transporters worked best at close range. If they needed to beam to a planet, they would have to get well into the atmosphere. So, the more space between Kiyone and Yagami made it possible that her molecules would never be recovered from an emergency transport.

Kiyone had her hands up in surrender, her holster and gun strewn on the floor as she looked back and forth between the princesses who wore very different expressions. Sasami looked scared, like a girl her age should be, while her sister had the fierce look of a survivor who would be willing to do anything to ensure their safety. Thisisnotgoingasplanned, Kiyone thought, it'sactuallyadownrightdisaster. She was worried because she had also heard the docking grid break away. Ryu-Oh was carrying her quite quickly from safety.

To Kiyone's surprise and fear, Ayeka suddenly ordered Ryu-Oh to turn around and intercept Yagami me. This caused Kiyone to cry out, "What are you doing? We are just trying to do our jobs! We haven't tried to kill you."

To this thought Ayeka cast a haughty and pained laugh as she said, "You think that I will hesitate to kill both of you if it means the safety of Sasami and I? You attacked us, and you turning us over will only end in our death. I doubt you're very aware of that, as foolish as your organization is. You have no idea what you are doing, and I feel it more necessary to nip this in the bud."

"Ryu-Oh, fire up weapons!"

"NO!" screamed both Kiyone and—to both her and Ayeka's surprise—Sasami. "Ayeka, what is the matter with you?" she added.

This almost stopped Ayeka from doing what she knew she needed to do, but she felt there was no way to avoid. Of course Sasami wouldn't understand, she had never seen her sister behave in this manner and did not understand what survival meant for them as things were. "Ryu-Oh, fire!" Ayeka raged.

Mihoshi was clumsy and a bit inept at times, but that was more to ditzy moments. The fact is, she was just as able to handle herself in a ship under-fire as Kiyone was. She noticed that Ryu-Oh was heading towards her and firing up weapons. She turned Yagami around with a command and then told the ship to engage in evasive maneuvers.

Ryu-Oh fired, but missed Yagami as the ship suddenly righted it self and moved out of range. Yagami was turning around and preparing to return fire. Suddenly space was filled with laser fire as Ayeka and Mihoshi faced off. Both ships were rocked by direct hits and the determined combatants refused to let up.

However, as things went on, Ryu-Oh's power began to overwhelm Yagami. Mihoshi was concerned and decided on a desperate plan that would hopefully save their lives. She remembered some of the vulnerable spots on a Juraian ship and chose to direct Yagami to ram into Ryu-Oh.

Ayeka and everyone on the bridge had little time to react as Yagami changed direction and suddenly ran into the back of the ship. Everyone on both ships were rocked to the ground getting bruised and battered. The moment of both ships began to carry them back toward Earth, soon getting them pulled in by the planets massive gravity. The ships began to plummet towards Earth, heading straight towards Tokyo.

Mihoshi's plan was slowly falling apart and the damage to Ryu-Oh may have been irreparable. They continued to plummet though both ships functioned well enough to apply the emergency break. They were slowing down, but things weren't looking good. If something wasn't done soon, they would all die in the wreckage of their vessels.

Mihoshi opened up a a channel of communication and said, "Okay, everyone! We have one chance to survive this. Yagami has transporters and at this distance I can lock on everyone on your vessel. I can transport us to the planet's surface!" Hopefully,onlandshe added in her head.

Incensed Ayeka shouted, "Just what do you take me for a fool? How can we trust you when you attacked—" Before she could finish Sasami screamed out, "Ayeka, we have no choice! Do it detective!" Mihoshi's fingers worked quickly across the keyboard. Ayeka just barely had time to send a scornful look at her little sister before they all shimmered out of existence.

Apparently Mihoshi's calculations were a little off and they all reassembled just near the shore, though definitely in the water. They splashed down and surfaced just in time to see their ships hitting the the water around the Tokyo Bridge, sending steam and water flying everywhere. The fews cars out at that hour swerved and honked their horns, trying to recover. It was amazing that no one crashed. The princesses and Galaxy Police officers were starting to swim towards the shore huffing and puffing with their adrenaline keeping them afloat.

They pulled themselves up on the retaining wall and collapsed in a heap. Still breathing heavily, with their arms outstretched. They were stranded, all of them knew that now. Ayeka and Sasami were mildly okay because they had at least gotten to Japan. Part of their journey was over.

On Kiyone and Mihoshi's part, they had no way of contacting their superiors though they were sure that their disappearance would be looked into eventually. However, with the bureaucracy at Galaxy Police HQ, they were not sure when it would become priority. Essentially, they were stuck with the only "friends" they had on this planet. "Friends" that they viewed as criminals because of their assignment. Though Kiyone was having serious doubts about the danger regarding Sasami. She seemed to be a sweet girl, not very criminal-like at all. Her sister, on the other hand, came across as more hardened, though still in a confusing manner. She was a princess, after all, how criminal could she be? There simply wasn't enough information.

The frenemies all looked at each other. They all had come to the same conclusions Kiyone had in regards to whom they had to trust, and neither was happy. Only Sasami really had any hope for the situation. She felt that, if they got to know each other, the detectives wouldn't think them criminals anymore. Sasami always had hope, no matter how sad things got.

"Are you alright?" said a male voice behind them. Startled they all turned their heads around quickly and took in a young man with dark hair and eyes that Ayeka somehow felt were familiar. She wondered why they had that feeling, perhaps it was the color. It looked like the Royal Teardrop, such a sad flower Yosho had told her. She still felt they were quite beautiful.

With the boy were to strange women, one with green hair, and one with pink hair and about a head shorter than the green haired woman. Somehow the green haired woman's eyes had a familiar look about them, they were hard and yellow. Ayeka felt very strange about all this, but didn't let on that to these strangers.

It was Kiyone who answered, "Yes, we are fine—thank goodness. We have been having er..." Whatsortoftransportdotheyhavehere,she thought, whatwasinthefileaboutthisplanet!

Mihoshi finished Kiyone's thought, "Car trouble?"

"Yes! That's it," said Kiyone sheepishly knowing full well that they were all still soaked. She wondered if the story would hold up. With raised eyebrows the young man said, "You drove your car into the waterfront?" He seemed to be checking them out, trying to figure out what sort of people they were. He continued, "Do you guys need help getting anywhere?"

The crash victims all looked at each other, and then nodded towards the young man. "Well, my name is Tenchi, and these are Ryoko and Washu." the intriguing young man said.