Continued from previous message

    "Perhaps *I* can help?"
    The woman turned and saw the Commander and nearly screamed.
    He put a fur-lined hand over her mouth and whispered.  "Shhh."
    She stifled her cry and nodded so he moved his hand away.
    "While I distract them," the Commander told her, handing her a Galaxy
Police teleport cube, "you get to Naoki and get him out of there."
    "I don't know how to use this!" the woman handed it back.  "Tell you
what, I'll create the distraction while *you* rescue Naoki."

    The white haired man who had been speaking with Hirimi earlier,
cleared his throat and they both spun around.
    "You'll have to find someone to rescue you, first."  He smiled.
    The Commander recognized him instantly.
    "Kagato!"  He snarled.
    "What brings you here Commander?"  Kagato sneered.  "These two
are no doubt with some Freaks' Rights group.  But *you're* with the
Galaxy Police, so I ask you, again, what are you here for?"
    The Commander snapped an electronic cuff to Kagato's wrist and the
other cuff to a link on the Commander's sleeve.  Then, he kicked in the
door to Hirimi's "office" and ran in, dragging Kagato with him.
    "The game is up!"  He called out.  "Your little plot is done."

    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."

                        -page 8-

                        =Operative A=
                           "Caged!"

    "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.

                        * * * * *

    Hirimi stared at the nearly empty room and then turned an angry glare
on Nagaka.  "You deformed idiot!" he shouted at the deformed and depraved
midget.  "If you weren't my son, I would kill you."
    Hirimi learned, as the knife that had been hiding in Nagaka's sleeve
plunged into him, that Nagaka did not share his view on the subject.

                        -page 9-
                        =Operative A=
                           "Caged!"


    Washuu and the Commander navigated the many halls within Soja until
they arrived in the lab.  Naoki was tied to cross on the wall, various
machines plugged into him.  Kagato was keeping him alive, but not healing
him.  The man wanted to study the Operative and then discard him when the
studying was finished.

    Washuu realized the Operative would die if he was unplugged, so she
quickly threw together a generator and rewired the life-support systems
into it.  Then, once she had all of them connected, she began to disconnect
them from Soja.

    While Washuu worked on the life-support systems, the Commander made
short work of Naoki's bonds.  He draped the rodentine form over his shoulder
for lack of a stretcher.  Washuu activated a device on her wrist and returned
both herself, and her two Galaxy Police companions, to 1996.

    By the time the Commander got back to Headquarters, those few Galaxy
Police officers and operatives who had returned during his absence had
managed to get the medical facilities up and running again.

    "Commander," one of them said as he rushed down the corridor, carrying
Naoki with Washuu running alongside him holding the power generator for
all the gear that was attached to him.  "thank the stars you're all right."
    "Lieutenant, tell them to prep sickbay for emergency surgery!" the
Commander told him.
    The Lieutenant noded and ran on ahead to the small staff know that a
wounded operative was being brought in.

    The Commander ran into sickbay, carrying Naoki in his arms like
a wounded child.
    "Over here," one of the doctors called to him as they converged on
an examining table.
    The Commander placed the Operative on the table.
    The doctor turned to his staff.  "Get me an IV drip antiobiotic
salution, sutures and surgical scissors.
    The doctor took the stitches out of Naoki's muzzle, then with extra
care and precision, they cut the skin at the edge of the wound so it would
fuse together once it healed and, after washing out the infection, sewed
it back up with the greatest of care and bandaged the wound with a
sterile dressing.
    After the dressing was applied, they carried him into another room
and lowered him, gently into a tub.  Carefully, using the greatest of care,
they bathed him, thoroughly, scrubbing him down and shampooing his hair
and fur with skill and compassion.  After he'd been properly rinsed off
and the shampoo was completely gone, they lowered him into a flea-dip and
kept him there for a full half hour before lifting him out and laying him
on a table where they dried him with soft towels and carefully combed out

                            -page 10-
                        =Operative A=
                           "Caged!"

his fur until it looked almost as good as new.  The bald patches were still
there, of course, but the doctors were confident that, with the fleas gone,
they'd grow back in.
    That evening, one of the doctors returned with a new cybernetic arm
for Naoki.  They brought the still-unconscious Operative into surgery and
carefully removed the remainder of the original prosthesis, then using the
greatest skill and care, they attached the new one.

Continued to next message

 * SLMR 2.1a * "I will pay you back!!"  ...Lady Achika to Kain