As always, C&C is encouraged, but don't wory about spelling, beyond if I am
spelling a character's name wrong.  It's nice to be writing something that
doesn't have to be proof read, and I intend to enjoy it to it's fullest!
(news letters can be a real pain in the arse)

Don't forget that the characters portrayed in this story don't belong to me,
or you, so don't go printing this stuff and selling it.  If you do, you will
be subject to the trial of "tooth, hair, and hangnail".  (If anybody
remembers what fan parody this is from, they HAVE to write me)

You can send your C&C directly to me at "jasonruff@mindspring.com"

On with the show:





"Here ya go, Ryo-Ohki."  Sasami said, holding out a carrot to the little
cabbit who sat on the kitchen counter.  She was wearing her favorite cooking
apron, with a huge orange carrot printed on the front.

Ryo-Ohki lept up and grabbed the carrot, anxiously devouring it, making loud
cruching soulds.  Sasami laughed as she stirred the soup she was cooking for
dinner.  "It sure takes a lot of carrots to feed a space ship, doesn't it
Washu."

Washu was sitting at the kitchen tabel, eating a sandwitch, and typing on
her computer.  "It sure does." She said, only half listening.  

Washu hadn't been able to leave her work for long, but at least she was
getting something to eat out here.  Her last scans, showed that the sword
had great potential.  She had discovered that the sword had the proporties
of a focal point for power, a staggering amount of power.  What it could do
with such power was still a mystery, but she had some ideas.  The only thing
she couldn't unravel, was what purpose the temporal energy matrix served.

The time link had definitely been added to the weapon after it's initial
creation.  Removing it was a tempting prospect, but so far she had no idea
of how, without destroying the blade itself, and while the frustration of
the last twenty four hours made that prospect tempting, she hated leaving a
scientific mystery unsolved. 

No, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that the only way to
understand what the sword could do, was to provide it with some sort of
power source.  But she still hadn't decided on what kind of powersource to
use.  There was always the posibility that any source she chose, would prove
incompatable.  What she needed, was something that was easily adaptable to
the sword's characteristics.  

A light brushing of fur against her hand, brough Washu out of her thinking.
Absently, she scratched under Ryo-Ohki's little chin.  (what an interesting
creature you turned out to be) she thought to herself.  

Washu had only just created Ryo-Ohki, when Kagato had imprisoned her,
stealing Ryo-Ohki, and Ryoko before they were even made concious.  She had
not been there to raise and train them, the way she would have liked.  It
wasn't until Mihoshi unwittingly freed Washu many years later, that she got
to see how her creations had turned out.

Creating the two of them had been quite a chore in and of itself.  The
entire process had taken almost a week for Ryoko, especialy since it was
Washu's first attempt, and she had used one of her own egg cells for the
basis of the organism's creation.  Ryo-Ohki had been much simpler.  Her
nature was mineral, and thus, more forgiving within the procedure, that and
the fact that Washu had already been sucsessful with Ryoko.  

Suddenly, Washu was struck with an idea.  (If it worked for Ryo-ohki, why
not the sword?) she thought.  (After all, I promised the Jurai that I
wouldn't make anymore ships.  I didn't say anything about weapons)

Getting up, she said.  "Thank you little one." Patting Ryo-ohki's head, "You
just gave me a wonderful idea."  Then, she de materialised her computer, and
headed back into her lab.




        *       *       *



Pug, Tomas, and Nakor stepped out of the cave, and into the mid day sun.
They all took a moment to observe their suroundings.  The cave was in a
small outcroping of rock on the side of a hill.  A forest covered most of
the hill, and stretched on for many miles in all directions.  

To one side, a large range of snowcovered mountains rose over the landscape.
They were many miles away, but could still be seen over the nearby hills and
valleys.  Under the mountains, on the next hill over, was a small, simple
shrine.  Stone steps lead down the side of the hill from the shine, winding
all the way to the bottom.  At the base of the hill, near the steps, rested
a very large house, with a large clearing for a yard, and there was a large
lake nearby with a small dock, but no boat.

"The house is new."  Pug ovserved.  "It seems the young priest built his
family house.  Apparently, he did quite well for himself."

"I seem to recall something about the priesthood being a simple life, of few
worldly posessions." Tomas commented.

"That seems to be the custom on most worlds, save where the church is a
political power."  Pug said.  "But he was starting a family, and there could
be another generation of grandchildren living there as well."

Nakor stepped on ahead of the other two.  "We can talk about it all day, or
we can go and meet this priest, and ask him ourselves." and with that, the
little man was off down the side of the hill, towards the house.

Laughing, Pug and Tomas followed.

The walk down the hill was very pleasant.  The Path through the forest was
more or less free of obsticles.  The sun was directly overhead, but a soft
breeze form the direction of the lake, kept everyone cool.  (I definitely
need to get out, and away from my stidies more often) Pug thought to himself.

"Tomas" he said as they approached the house.  "It may be wise of you to
wait here in the woods while we check the house.  I don't think Nakor and I
will stand out too much in our robes, since we are asking to see the priest,
but you could be quite a curiosity to most of the people on this world."

Tomas nodded, and slowed his pace, stopping just at the edge of the woods,
slightly off the trail.  Nakor and Pug, continued on towards the house.

When they arived at the door, Pug reached his hand out, and knocked on the
wooden frame.  Nakor was buisy looking at the construction of the house's
front, obviously facinated with the alien design.  

"Have you ever seen glass windows like that before?" He asked, pointing to
the long line of large windows across the second and third floors of the
house.  Very few windows on Midkemia, their homeworld, had any kind of glass
at all, and certainly not in sheets that large

Before Pug could respone, the door opened.  Inside stood a little girl, no
more than ten or eleven years old.  For all intents and purposes she looked
normal, save for her hair, which was a light bluish green, and tied up in
two long tails, one on either side of her head.  Both stood up, and out to
the side, falling slightly back behind the girl, almost to the floor.  

"Hello."  She said, "What can I do for you?"

Pug started to speak, but Nakor jumped ahead of him.  "Hello little girl" he
said with a warm smile.  "Does the priest in that shrine up on the hill live
here?"

"Oh no, grandpa lives in his little house next to the shrine"  She answered.
"Are you friends of his?"

"We've met once before,"  Pug said.  "and since we were passing through this
way, I decided it would be nice to drop by and say hello.  Are you his
grandaughter?"

"Well, sort of." Sasami answered, shyly.  "He should be up there right now.
Will you be staying until dinner?"

At the mention of food, Nakor's eyes lit up.  

"I don't realy know." Pug said.  "I hadn't made any plans either way."

"Well then, I'll  make sure to cook a big dinner, just in case."  Replied
Sasami.  "Oh, and my name is Sasami.  What's yours?"

"I am called Pug." Pug answered.  "And this is my friend Nakor."

"Pleased to meet you."  Nakor said.

"It's nice to meet you too." Sasami returned politely.  "I'm sory to be
rude, but I have to get back to cooking dinner now.  I hope you can stay and
eat."

"I'll do my best" Nakor said excitedly.  

"Farewell, Sasami." Finished Pug, and with that the two of them started
around the house towards the stone steps that lead to the shrind.  

"Goodbye!"  Waved Sasami from the door as she closed it.

Once She was back inside, Tomas came out of the woods, and joined the other
two.  When he reached them, he noticed Pug was wearing the most peculiar
expression on his face.  

"What's got you looking so concerned."  He asked, half joking, half
concerned himself.

"Nakor," Pug asked  "Did you feel it too?"

The little man nodded.  "How could I have missed it."

"What?" Tomas asked again.  "What did you sense?"

Pug looked to Nakor first, who indicated that Pug should go ahead and
explain.  "That little girl practicaly radiated power.  It hit me like a
wave when she first came to the door."  Smiling slightly, "I half expected a
dragon to be waiting on the other side, the sesation was so powerful."

Nakor shook his head in agreement.  "I felt it too.  That little girl is
definitely powerful."  He raised his eyebrows as he continued, "What's
confusing, is that I couldn't see any signs of an illusion.  When you've
studied people as long as I have, you learn to pick up on things, and
everything about the way she talked, and acted, indicated that she was
nothing more than a  well mannered little girl."  He shruged his shoulders.
"I don't know what to make of her, but I think she does not wish us harm in
any way."

"That's good"  Tomas said, somewhat in relief.  "We definitely don't need to
make any enemies on this quest."  He had learned long ago, that anything
that caused Pug apprehension, was worth worrying about, and Pug was
definitely shaken by what he sensed form her.

Reaching the steps, the three proceded up the side of the hill.  Behind
them, hiding behind the house, a small, furry creature watched them begin
their climb, then cautiously began following them, tiny hops carrying it
across the yard, and up the side of the hill, one step at a time.


        *       *       *


Washu was working with renewed enthusiasm.  A broad grin was spread across
her face, and the ocational, quiet, maniacal laugh escaped her lips, barely
audible over the sounds of her lab equipnemt.

The key to the problem had been right there, right in front of her.  She had
already finished scolding herself for not thinking of it sooner.  It truly
was, briliantly simple.

The sword was something that she could not understand.  She had no way of
knowing how to control it's power.  There was, however, one thing she could
easily do, and that was turn it into something that she could control.

Washu sat in front of a large isolation chamber.  The controls were situated
directly under the "glass" front wall, where she could workk while she
viewed the procedure, yet still be protected from the many dangerous energy
discharges that were sure to accompany such an experament.  She had
performed this procedure two times perviously, and both times had proven
successful.  

In the isolation chamber sat a metal table.  On one side, was the sword that
had been the subject of her study for the twenty four straight hours .  On
the other side, sat a small water tank, only about five gallons.  

Inside that tank, floated a small tan object, the shape of a slightly
flattened ball.  Ocationaly, it would move, floating up and down in the
small tank, and ocationaly turning itself around inside the confines of the
small space.  Two small black eyes stared blankly out of the tank, quietly
taking in the surroundings.  
Washu checked her instruments one last time.  Everything appeared to be in
order.  All three protective fields were operating perfectly.  The primary
power grid was fully functional, and the secondary grid was on standby.
Emergency blast containment systems one, two, and three were fully charged,
and operating on their own power, seperate from the main system.  

"Here we go!"  She said outloud.  "Let's see what that sword can do, once I
bind it with one of my Masses!"  And with that, she disengaged the
secondary, and then the primary electronic safeties for the tank's lid......


        *       *       *


                                Tetsuo Ruxpin

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