I wasn't happy with the epilouge in it's first incarnation, so I went back
and rewrote it. I think it flows better. Also, there will be a sequel. I
don't have a title yet, but it will be written entirely in first person,
that's all I'll say at this point.
C&C welcome,
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Keep/5268/Fanfic/fanfic.html
Agreeable Komodo
He who bought it, supplied it.
Just say yes to prophylactics.
"Sexual harassment in this area will not be reported.
However, it will be graded."
-Sign on a door
***************
One week later.
"Ayeka, I want you to take Ryoko and a few others and do some investigating
for me."
"Investigating?" Ayeka asked. Tenchi nodded as he carefully pulled weeds from
the small, but flourishing carrot garden.
"I've been receiving pleas from a small conglomerate in the Semul system.
Apparently there's something strange going on at the southeast end of the
smaller continent. Apparently, they've been asking for help for several years
now but nobody wants to help as their former president made a few bad
judgment calls." Ayeka nodded as she recalled the events in question, and in
the back of her mind wryly noted that Tenchi was mastering the art of
understatement.
The "few bad judgment calls" had forced an emergency mobilization of relief
forces against an unparalleled ecological disaster only to discover in the
aftermath that a single misplaced valve and a few minutes work could have
saved billions of creds and several million lives.
Criticism had been loud, long and focused entirely on Semul since they were
the ones who had called for the relief and it had been their valve. Their
credit rating with banks had been slashed, they were driven out of almost all
alliances and were otherwise reviled and despised. Juraian were one of the
few races who, if they didn't turn them away, they didn't exactly welcome
Semuls with open arms either.
"But why me?"
"Grandfather's idea," Tenchi said as he stood up. "He thinks, and I agree,
that Semul has suffered enough. It's time to end several decades of
unessacary hardship for innocent people before it becomes a reality for the
rest of the Galaxy."
"Tenchi, you can't fix everything that's wrong in the Galaxy."
"No," he said grimly as he finished and stood. "But nobody's going to be able
to say I didn't try." Ayeka inclined her head in acknowledgment.
"You mentioned 'others'."
"Yes," Tenchi replied as he went to a small table at the edge of the Garden.
"You are aware of the relationships between the Emperor and the Knights of
Jurai?"
"Of course," Ayeka replied. The Knights were the Emperor's personal gaurd and
the Empire's final line of defense, even if that meant turning on the Emperor
himself to save it. One hundred thousand warriors, each imbued with a small
amount of the Royal Family's power. However, they were a separate entity and
recruitment and other internal matters was entirely up to them. "What about
them?"
"Apparently, somebody in their headquarters noticed that Kiyone was
instrumental in saving my life two major incidents while I was growing up,"
Tenchi said wryly. Ayeka nodded. One of those incidents had been when the
space pirate Kain had gone back in time and attempted to kill Achika,
Tenchi's mother, before Tenchi had ever been born. The other was when his
Grandfather's lover Haruna, who had come with him when he pursued Ryoko to
Earth, had kidnapped him. Haruna's physical body had been unable to withstand
the long journey, but her spirit had and she had attempted to exact the
happiness she had never gotten to experience from Tenchi. Neither experience
had been very pleasant for the young man and he didn't speak about them much.
"And?" She prompted.
"And they offered her a space among the Knights." Ayeka frowned at this.
Knights were usually trained from birth by a seasoned Knight, forming a
personal bond with their surrogate mother or father and then generally taking
over the position held by their parent. Rare was it for an adult to be
offered a place and even rarer for a non-Juraian. "I'm glad for her, but what
does all this mean?"
"What it means, Ayeka, is that since she is too old to form any sort of bond,
and since she must have a Teacher, they've chosen you."
"Me?" Ayeka gasped. She did have the experience to train, and it wasn't like
she and Kiyone were complete strangers. Which, she reflected ruefully as she
and Tenchi began walking back towards the door that led back into the Palace,
Azaka and Kamidake, the two Knights who were with the Emperor at all times,
falling into step three paces behind them, was probably the idea behind the
Preceptor putting them together. "Very well. Who else?"
"Ryo-Oki. According to Sasami, she seems to have gotten the idea that it's
her responsibility to keep you two out of trouble, and Washu."
"Washu?"
"Mmm-Hm," Tenchi replied. Apparently she was listening in on the terminals
and decided that playing secret agent might be fun."
"Oh dear," Ayeka sighed. Having been on the receiving end of Washu's idea of
"fun" several times, she was less then thrilled at the thought of having the
diminutive, pink-haired scientist anywhere nearby. "Anyone else?"
"I'm not sure yet, I'm still having trouble locating the proper person. They
have to be adaptable and a decent pilot. They also have to have little or no
family ties."
"A pilot?"
"I'm giving you a ship. A high-speed, high security freighter. It's more then
large enough for six people and has plenty of range. Washu is there now,
setting up." Ayeka nodded, her mind already creating and filing away plans
for the upcoming mission. "Ayeka," Tenchi said, his voice quiet.
"Yes?"
He turned to face her and laid a hand on each of her shoulders. "Remember,
your first priority is the Semul. The investigation of those occurrences is
secondary."
"Of course," Ayeka said with a small smile. "My memory is impeccable."
"I remember," Tenchi said with a smile and both laughed.
***************
High Imperial CourtShip
Judge Anskane Tor, presiding.
Three months later.
Judge Tor looked down at the screen on his desk and sighed. The thumbnail
sketch of the synopsis of the case it was his sworn duty to preside over took
up at least twenty pages and that wasn't counting the documentation of the
circumstantial evidence. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at the large
screen which dominated one corner of the room. At present, the screen was
showing a star and the planets of a minor solar system some ways off the
trade routes.
Returning his attention to the prosecution table, he adressed the woman in
formal robes standing at it's edge.
"Lady Ayeka," he began. "Was it really nessacary to produce this entire Solar
System as evidence?"