The woman and her son ran over to the Operative and crouched down
by him.  The woman tried to find some sign of life left in the Operative,
but the creature's body lie still and cool, and she could find no sign of
life.  A tear fell from her eyes as she looked up at the Commander.
    "Commander," she said, "he's..."
    The Commander scanned the Operative and looked up at her.  "No, he's not.
His body is advanced shock and its cooled due to extremely low blood pressure,
but if I can get him back to headquarters in time, we can pull him through
with only mild hibernation sickness."
    "What do you care about this freak for, Commander?" Kagato sneered,
"Surely you have more important things to worry about."
    "Operative Naoki is *not* a freak, no matter what the people who did
this think!"
    Kagato blinked in surprised.  "That's Naoki?! You're joking, right?!
Surely that isn't *really* Operative Naoki, the bravest and most cunning of
all the Operatives in the Galaxy Police?!"
    Kagato peered closely and saw that this was, indeed, Operative Naoki.
    "We have to get him home right away." The Commander told the woman.
    "You might find that more difficult than you imagine."  Kagato laughed
as he grabbed Naoki's inert form and vanished, taking the Operative with him.

    The Commander swatted Hirimi, leaving a gash in the man's cheek, then
stormed out of the room with the woman and her son bringing up the rear.
    "That's it?! You're just giving up?"
    "There's nothing we can do."  the Commander told the woman, sadly.
"It'll take forever to find Naoki and by the time we do..."
    "At least you can retrieve the body and give it a decent burial."
    "We have no idea where he went."  the Commander told her.
    "I know where he is."

    The Commander and his two earthly companions turned to face Miss Washuu.
    "Who?!" the woman gasped.
    "Wow! The boy gasped.  Are you an alien?"
    "Sure am!" Washuu laughed.  "Hello, my name is Washuu.  Please call me
little Washuu."
    Washuu turned to the Commander.  "Your Operative is on the Soja." she
told him.  "Fortunately he's too valuable to be stuck into the reverse
world, so we should be able to rescue him."
    "What are we waiting for?!" The Commander demanded.  "Surely..."
    "We can't go when Kagato is on the Soja," Washuu explained.
    "I am going to throw him in jail."
    Despite Kagato's evil and her own desire to see him imprisoned, Washuu
could not permit this.  If Kagato were locked away, he would not be destroyed
by Tenchi in the future and she would remain locked away, trapped in the
reverse world where Kagato had put her.
    "If he's on Soja," Washuu explained, "then he'll control all that ship's
power.  You won't be able to take him, and Naoki could be damaged further."
    "If we wait too long, Naoki will die."  The Commander argued.
    "We won't have to wait long." Washuu said, handing him a newspaper
clipping about a museum exhibit that had just opened up.


 * SLMR 2.1a * "He's the one!!! He's been spying on us!!!"  ... Ryoko