Slowly but surely, he cuts away at the backlog. Another one from...September

And here's part B, half of the actual story.  Comments are very much
desired.

And thus they shall be given.

Far, far out beyond Pluto, it searched, automated systems
searching

'searched' 'searching' too redundant. Get rid of one or chainge to 'seeking'
or another word.

But not this one.  Earth was not listed on most galactic
charts for the same reason Beinville, Louisiana is not listed on
most maps.  There's nothing there of interest and no one in their
right mind would want to go there, so why bother?

Well, the strange space pod wanted to.  It had a delivery
to make.

I can imagine what's inside.

Preposterously low-tech cryogenic equipment (because any
scientist worth his cesium uses insta-stasis fields now) began
the laborious process of thawing the pod's single occupant.

Ah, so this is an Encino Man fusion, eh? :)

Despite the general low technological level, the rocklike
space pod was remarkably efficient.

Things with less complicated systems tend to last longer than those with
more and many.

Nearly the entire rear portion of the space pod detached
from the whole with a burst of stored energy.  Then, antiquated
tracking systems came online and targeted the newer spaceship,
sending the newly made irregular missile flying toward it even as
the rest continued to plummet toward the Earth.

Interesting method of defence.

Isn't deep brain structure command-response imprinting
wonderful?

I find it useful.

Ryoko looked interested.  "Hey, that sounds like fun.

Yeah. That's what she says now, but wait until the run into a problem.

Ryoko shrugged.  "Not necessarily.  Had I been in that pod
I would have shot at a GP vessel, too.  They'd never catch me on
an uninhabited planet, as long as I could make it to it."

But this planet isn't uninhabited.

"My point exactly," Ayeka deadpanned, almost back to her
old self.  "There could be someone like you on board."

Her name, Minagi. :)

"Well," Ryoko said in a matter of fact tone, "We were
walking along and enjoying the scenery, and Sasami happened to
notice an old bird nest in one of the trees."  She smiled,
enjoying the growing look of fear on Ayeka's face.  "I just _had_
to fly up there and look, and wouldn't you know it?"

Oh?

 she said,

reaching behind her head to extricate something hidden in her
hair.  "I found just the most beautiful pretty blue feather lying
there in that nest," she continued, pulling out a large light
blue wing feather and waving it in a mesmerizing pattern.  "I
said to myself, 'You know, Ryoko, I bet Ayeka would just love
that feather.  I should bring it back and give it to her as a
gift.'  And I did.  Do you want your present now, Ayeka-chan?"

Hmm? Not sure what she's getting at here.

"Oh, but I insist," Ryoko insisted.

Hmm. Feather represents role reversing?

Ayeka ran like she'd never ran before, although not in the
usual sense.

Heh. Wouldn't mind being caught then.

Despite her initial burst of speed that had given her some
headway, Ayeka was a terrible runner.  She was clumsy.  Three
times she had nearly fallen, and that was on flat ground.

Got to hate the way the grass claws at your feet.

didn't watch where she was going.  Despite knowing full well what
happens to people who look back in the movies, she kept her head
turned as she ran, trying to keep Ryoko in sight.

Heh.

  And her choice

of running apparel was terrible as well, as a bright yellow and
green flower print kimono isn't the loosest garment in the world.
She had already discarded her obi to the wind and threw the
kimono open as best she could, trying to give her tightly wrapped
legs more space to move.

That could prove a mistake in the long run.

Then, as Ayeka tried to regain her breath, Ryoko straddled
her thighs and sat, grabbing both of her slender wrists in one
vice like hand and stretching forward to pin them down above
Ayeka's head.  Then she used her power to increase her relative
weight, making doubly sure the princess wouldn't escape.

Heh. Never considered she could increase her density.

"Laughing a bit early now, aren't we?" Ryoko murmured as
she watched the princess giggle beneath her.   "I haven't even
_began_ yet."

'begun' I think.

Ayeka snorted delicately.  "You would, you little sex
kitten."

"Mrrroww."

Ayeka shivered ever so slightly.

Heh.

One of Ryoko's eyebrows raised.  "My...  My.  You know, I'm
glad you finally got rid of that bug up your ass.    You've been
too damned moody this morning."  Ayeka really was kind of cute,
pinned to the ground as she was.  Her hair was in a disarray y,

drop 'a' and stray 'y'

flared out around and underneath her head, and Ryoko could see
several twigs and leaves that had gotten bound up in the dark
silky mass.

"Sorry," Ayeka apologized, thinking similar thoughts,
staring up at the violently innocent

Interesting choice of words.

pirate whom she had fought

with most of her life.  (Those eyes, those eyes were it,) Ayeka
thought.  Everything about Ryoko could be read through her
beautiful, soulful eyes.  Then she shivered again as she realized
that those selfsame eyes were looking down into her flared
kimono, and she wasn't wearing a bra thanks to the tenderness the
leather outfit she had worn caused.

Sounds awkward, but uncertain of how you would change it.

(She's not wearing a bra,) Ryoko thought, having just
noticed that.

drop 'that' not really needed.

The tableau held for several long moments, neither girl
quite sure what to do or say.

"I'm going to jump your horny bones' would probably work. :)

"As I was saying," she said very definitely, daring the
pirate to comment.  "We may have been a little rash earlier in
deciding to go back to separate beds."  Ayeka was actually
stretching a point there.  As a matter of fact, she had
forcefully acted demure and tucked the cyan-haired woman in her
own bed, then gone to take a cold bath, brush her teeth
furiously, and curl up on the couch, all the while insisting that
they should share Tenchi's loneliness and sleep separately.

Heh. I could have told them that wouldn't last.

Ryoko nodded seriously.  "You have no idea.  Why, sometimes
inconsiderate people walk by and dump ice water on me in my
sleep."

Heh.

"Or," Ryoko said, cocking her head sideways at the
princess.  "Say 'I submit to your will, most powerful and feared
space pirate Ryoko.' and we can skip your punishment and go back
in to wait for Tenchi.  Deal?"

Ayeka visibly considered it; all that was missing was one
finger on her lips as she looked upwards and to one side.  Then
she focused back on her capturer.  "Nah, I don't like that deal.
Tell you what, you let me up, bow, apologize for getting your
mistress all dirty, and I'll be extra lenient the next time
you're naughty."

That should get things started.

Ryoko loved it.  She would occasionally switch sides and
tickle the other arm because it was funny when Ayeka started
throwing her head from side to side and screaming her name.

Heh. Just like a cat, all right.

"Ryoko!  ReeooKOO!  dOn't doOO THAT!  PLEASE!"

Nice touch in placing the emphasis here and there.

Ryoko stuck the feather in her mouth and brought her free
hand up to grasp Ayeka's wrists as well, releasing them with her
other hand to give her arm a break.  Then she started pulling at
the opening of Ayeka's kimono, freeing it more and giving herself
a wider access to the inside.

"Ah, Ryoko?" Ayeka asked, once again raising her head.
"What are you doing?"

I would think that was pretty evident at this point.

bore intensely into Ryoko's.  "Ryoko, I really don't like this."

"Fine." Ryoko said curtly, jerking the feather out of her
mouth with her left hand and preparing to get up.

"...but I want you to do it anyway."

Heh.

Ayeka stared at her in disbelief for a second, then yelled
angrily. "WILL YOU FIGURE IT OUT ALREADY?!  It's a part of the
damned game!"

Ryouko: Can I bitch slap you as part of the game too?

Ayeka: I'd rather you didn't.

One of the less widely known tidbits of information about
Juraians was that they were almost universally ticklish, and
Ayeka was not one of the few exceptions.

She screamed, she begged, and when her breath ran out, she
arched her back and slammed it into the ground over and over as
Ryoko's very naughty hand disappeared under her kimono and
emerged minus the feather.

naughty, all right

She fought to raise her head again, desperately attempting
to bite Ryoko's left forearm when it got too close to her face,
but she noticed Ryoko's hand, all but the first two fingers
curled into a ball, do a line dance across her belly like the one
they had saw on Earth TV.  That was weird enough, but when Ryoko
started using her fingers to do high kicks and humming "Da da
daaa da, da da dada ta," as an accompanyment, neither of them
could take it any longer and they both burst into laughter.

Heh. Nice touch.

They lay like that for several moments, sharing the moment.

Two 'moment's close together. 'seconds' might work for the second.

"I must say, that is one of the silliest punishments I've
ever had to endure," commented the princess.  "You certainly make
things interesting in the oddest ways, Ryoko.  Have you no sense
of propriety?"

"Nope," Ryoko said grinning.  "Not a one."

This is true.

Ryoko sighed and closed her eyes, hugging back.  It was
hard to wait, but having a friend helped.

"This isn't what it looks like," Ayeka said finally.

Mostly not, anyway.

"Well, Hell!" Ryoko replied, deliberately loud enough for
her words to reach Katsuhito's ears.  "What does he expect,
telling Tenchi not to sleep with us any more until after
marriage?  That we'd just wait patiently?"  She watched with glee
as the elderly man stumbled in mid-step, then hurried inside.

Heh. He does fluster easily.

Ayeka turned a vacant, goofy grin on the pirate.  "Yes?"

Ryoko screamed her anger at the heavens.

Heh.

Kiyone nodded seriously.  "We'll have Yagami tow it back up
before we search it, but we need to do a careful sweep of the
area to find whoever rode here in it.  Or whatever.  That's not a
pod design I'm familiar with.  Yagami is running a search in the
database, but we've got no matches so far.  We'll have to look
inside and out to find out where it came from and who owns it."

Sounds rather grim.

Murky water was no hindrance to Yagami's sensors, and they
scanned and probed, bringing up a 3d

Think it's '3-D'

schematic of the antiquated

vessel on screen.  Suddenly, the water around the pod started to
bubble and steam, drawing both of their attentions to the screen.

The water boiled away in an instant, leaving the scorched
earth to bake and fuse as the pod glowed white, melting to an
inert lump of base materials in a matter of a few seconds.

Not bad. Handy to have a self-destruct function.

Mihoshi frowned at the screen and keyboard, furrowing her
brow and squinching up her face in a fair, if unintentional,
parody of the 'thoughtful' face she saw other people use.  Given
that she usually had an open expression, she looked much like she
had bitten into something sour.  "I wonder..." she said to
herself, tapping keys to the tune of a song she had heard earlier
that day.

Oh dear, this will be either very good, or very bad.

"Like those in the equipment locker," Mihoshi replied,
listening absently.

"-And capture field generators-"

"There's one under my bed," Mihoshi supplied helpfully,
although she hoped her partner wouldn't ask why.

Heh. I don't think I want to know either.

"Found it!" chirped her partner happily.

Heh.

Like temperature extremes, both hot and cold.  And chemical
irritants, such as industrial strength ammonia-based cleaners.
Which was why both she and Mihoshi had taken them out of the
ship, down to their apartments, and worn them every day to work
during their brief stint at a fast-food place where they were
either being splattered by grease, freezing in the refrigerator,
or wiping at their watery eyes as they scrubbed everything in
sight.

Heh. I could have used one of those too in my resteraunt work.

Dammit, Mihoshi was the one that was supposed to pull this
kind of stunt, not her!

"Ano, Kiyone?" Mihoshi asked again.  "Why are you hitting
your head on the control panel?"

It makes her feel better.

"Oh, the television wasn't working when I turned it on,"
Sasami replied, baffled.  She didn't have much experience when it
came to malfunctioning devices; Jurian technology having long
since advanced past the random malfunction stage.

Only intentional malfunctions then, eh?

  Even the earth

equipment she'd been around thus far had worked perfectly.

Katsuhito didn't know a coaxial cable from a power cord,
his expertise being with spiritual matters and such, but when
Sasami looked up at him with big, innocent eyes and asked him why
the TV wasn't working, he had little choice.

Few would.

The television itself seemed to be okay in that it would
display picture, white static fuzz, anyway, and it also had the
accompanying his of audio static.  She stuck a handy tape into
the VCR, which also worked, and the movie started playing
accordingly.  But whenever she tried to get an earth channel, all
she got was static.

Perhaps they've been cut off from the rest of the planet.

ears."  She walked over and scooped the cabbit up, depositing her
on top of the TV.  "Now, we're waiting for a call from Kiyone an'
Mihoshi, so I want you to keep an ear cocked for that, but Sasami
wants to watch some earth TV, too.  Think you could decode the
signals?"

Heh. They really are 'Rabbit ears.' :)

"Yup!  She's a cabbit, after all," Ryoko said as if that
explained everything.  "She receives almost every form of signal
there is, continuously, and figuring out how to send it to the TV
shouldn't be a problem for her at all.  It wouldn't surprise me
at all to learn that she watches soap operas non-stop."

"Miyah!  Miyah!" she replied enthusiastically, and Ryoko
facefaulted.

Heh.

One of the great mysteries of life, and one of the most
important ones asked since the invention of electronic broadcast
units throughout the universe, is why everyone in the immediate
vicinity of someone attempting to adjust the reception on a
receiver feels that it is simply impossible for anyone else to do
it properly without their constant input.

Too true.

"No, really.  I won't even move.  Do it again," Ayeka
dared.

"But I'm-YEARRG!"

Ayeka dropped her fighting stance for the one she was in
when Ryoko had slapped her, bringing her hand back from where she
had pinched and twisted Ryoko's left nipple.

Ouch.

Ayeka sat down heavily.  That wasn't a slap, that had been
a punch that caught her full on the mouth.  She shook her head to
clear away the cobwebs and raised one hand to her throbbing lip
and sore jaw, using only one hand to assist her rise to her feet.
Her finger came away bloody, a fact she duly noted when she held
it back to check.  She brought it back to her mouth and licked it
removing all traces of blood.  Then, much to Ryoko's horror, she
smiled at the pirate, an unholy light coming to her eyes.

This could be bad.

Kiyone gave her equipment a final check.  They only had the
one capture field generator, a fat cylinder about three feet long
and a foot thick with two extensible handles and a diamond shaped
bulge on the end of the 'barrel', so she had grabbed it herself,
hooking its carrying strap over her shoulder.  Complimenting that
was her standard issue GP handblaster and control cube, making
her one of the best armed people on the Earth.  If she couldn't
have armor, she could have weapons.  She did have some
protection, however,

She was on the pill. :)

Mihoshi had already been suited up, and she also had her
gun, but it took her nearly twenty minutes to properly configure
the portable life form scanner to distinguish between the suspect
and the alien flora and fauna.  Unfortunately, the portable unit
didn't have the sophistication of Yagami's instruments and she
had to do it all by hand.  It was good thing that Mihoshi
excelled at mindless repetitive tasks.

Hehehehe.

Mihoshi turned to her partner, the tears instantly drying
on her face.  "Oh, I'm recording a desperate plea for help to
send to Ryo-Ohki in case we get in trouble and need backup.  It's
set to send if we don't check back to Yagami once every hour."

Hehehehehe. I love it. That's just perfect.

"No change-uh oh.  Change.  BIG change!  Fast!" she
exclaimed, clipping the line to her belt and letting go so she
could draw her own blaster in her hand.

"Running to us or away?!

It's always toward you.

A twelve-foot streak of pale white and dark green rocketed
up through the limbs, sending wood splinters flying.

Fast and dangerous. Impressive.

Two shots spanged

spanged?

Which no longer offered support, severed as it was by the
being jumping from her perch to the line over Mihoshi's head.
Kiyone fell head first toward the bank of the river below, but
first she had a few dozen limbs to go through.

They should slow her decent, at least.

The bright yellow bolt streaked by the monster at a shallow
angle, far outpacing it in the race to the airlock.  Mihoshi's
shot severed the safety line at the airlock, smashing several
electronic panels in the process.

But it can't get in now.

About that time Kiyone hit her second limb, accidentally
biting deep into her tongue as she flailed to catch herself.
Unfortunately, she was hampered severely by the bulky CFG and
slid by painfully, on to the next.  She soon lost both count and
consciousness, never even noticing when an errant limb snagged
the strap on the CFG and left it dangling as she bounced to the
ground.

Well, at least that saved her ass.

A series of sharp cracks and moans above brought her back
to reality.  "Oooh...  My head..." she complained, rubbing the
back of her skull with one free hand as she looked around.  The
first thing she noticed was the complete lack of items in her
hands.  That was cool, no cause for alarm yet.  The next thing
she noticed was the large alien monster straddling the limb she
dangled from, an expression of pure agony on its twisted, inhuman
features.  This was rather more cause for alarm.

I should say so.

"Well, I, uh, didn't mean to make you fall, you see," she
said, poking her fingers together and glancing down.  "But, uh,
as a Galaxy Policeperson I couldn't just let you steal our ship,
but then again you might not have been going to _steal_ it, but
anyway I'm very very sorry to have made you fall like that..."

*huff* it huffed, a

That's what I thought it was doing

lthough what it was trying to convey

misdemeanor according to GP regulation number 638766-7625
section...  Nine, I think."  She leveled an accusing glare at it.
"That paint job is practically new, you nearly smudged it!"

It blinked.

"Oh, yeah, and you are also charged with entering the
restricted area of the Earth system, an off limits 'natural
evolution' preserve

Isn't it nice how a whole planet can be labeled a 'preserve'? ^_^

Mihoshi looked down.  Naught but empty air and a few thin
bundles of leaves separated her from the rapids below.  She
looked back up, eyes wide and frightened.  "Okay, why don't we
just forget about the assault charges?"

*snip*

Mihoshi jerked downward, sliding about a foot as she
franticly grabbed at all the coils within reach.  "Waah!"

Heh

"Punishable by, by..."

*snip*

"Byyiee..."

Hehehehe.

Part of the reason for that was that it had stopped to chew
curiously on the CFG and eat a luckless tree sloth, but her
passage was no less swift for all that.

Heh

Blood pounded in her ears and the throbbing lump on her
head, and occasionally she was forced to crash headlong through
tangles of brush and vines, but Kiyone's instincts were true.
She laid several false trails, doubling back repeatedly, running
backwards, splashing through the numerous small streams; every
trick she knew of to throw off her pursuer


Several miles back, the huge hexapod burped out a tuft of
sloth fur and settled back comfortably against a mossy tree trunk
for a siesta.  Out of the prison for only a day and it had
already had to drive off an assault.  If it was going to deal
effectively with the various threats it had already encountered,
a nap was probably a good idea.

Heh. I like this beastie already.

A sudden memory flashed in her mind: Two young women with
dirt smears all over them, wrestling with a sink drainpipe.

Her heart sunk as the hopelessness of the situation sank
in.

'sunk' and 'sank' close together. I'd throw a different verb in there.

Everything had gone wrong for her from the start.
Forgetting her uniform, that was a rookie mistake.  Kiyone had
long since thought she had moved on to the veteran's mistakes;
apparently she was in some sort of transition stage.

One way of looking at it.

Kiyone brightened.  "Well, I guess it's not all bad," she
said aloud, and was startled when a flock of birds burst from
cover a few yards away.  Realizing what she had said and why, her
mood darkened once more.

Heh. How cruel

It was almost definitely too good to be true, anyway.

Probably.

Kiyone was startled at the diversity.  It was one thing to
see the listings on the scanners, a whole other to experience it
firsthand.  By contrast, even the wildest of the planets she had
been on were about as biologically diverse as a large garden.  Of
course, Earth _had_ been set aside as a 'Natural Evolution
Preserve'.  It was supposed to have diversity such as this.

Didn't know that. Interesting.

Of course, it being a busy jungle, with lots of other
animals living out their day-to-day lives beneath and in its
canopy, it was inevitable that she would run into another such
struggle running concurrently.

"YEEK YEEK!"

"AHHH!  GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"ROWL!"

"YEEK!"

"AHHH!"

Nice touch.

Sasami shook her head.  "They got into a _fight_.  No
powers."

Hmm. Definitely a bad sign.

Mihoshi's face popped up on a white screen, eyes wide and
full of fear.  "Ryoko!  Ayeka!  We've got a situation here!
Neither I nor Kiyone can reach the ship, and we need backup now!"

I knew this was going to happen.

"Ryo-Ohki!  Get off there and let's go!" Ryoko barked.

"I'm coming to!"

too

Finally, late that night, weary and worried, they called
off the search until the next day.  Ryo-Ohki flew back to Japan,
and Tenchi grimly looked forward to hurrying off to school as
soon as he got back.

They aren't going to stick around and keep looking? That's uncharacteristic.

Farther down below, the leopard crouched patiently on the
smallest limb that would support it and stared up hungrily at the
two tender morsels that should have been its supper, occasionally
licking its tail where it had been bitten, either by the monkey
or the human it wasn't sure.

Heh. Nice touch.

  Every now and then it would twitch

its ears when the carpet of mosquitoes that covered them became
too much to bear.

The monkey hung onto the top of the thin branch with three
limbs, cradling its arm where it had been scratched, either by
the leopard or the human, and responded to the glare by throwing
its own excrement at the one whom it suspected was responsible.
It, too, scratched at bug bites in its fur.

Heh. Evil.

"Hey!  Knock it off you little bastard!" Kiyone protested,

knew it.

The three branches were green and flexible, swaying
whenever she or the monkey moved, and they sprouted from a single
junction a few feet up from the leopard.  Suddenly, she hit upon
the perfect solution to her dilemma.

Committing suicide?

The bark was smooth and difficult to grip under the best of
circumstances, and as tired as she was, not to mention in the dim
light, it wasn't the best of circumstances.  Despite her best
efforts, her fingers and toes slipped around just a little,
sending her on a gentle, arching course over to the third limb;
the one with the monkey.

Heh

"Yeek!" it protested, startled by her strange antics.

"Yeek!" she agreed, feeling several small shivers in the
wood that indicated some of the fibers had separated.  After a
few sickening moments of swaying back and forth violently, the
motion slowed, as did her heart rate.  Chuckling nervously, she
gave a wry grin to the monkey, now only about three feet away.
"So," she began, mostly just to talk.  "Hang around here much?"

A blob of something foul struck her just under the left eye

Heheheehe.

The little simian braced itself with both its legs and its
tail, grabbing her branch with both hands.  Then, using all the
strength in its wiry frame, it pulled hard.

"Nono!" Kiyone protested.  "Bad monk-"

*CRACK*

Heh. Should have seen it coming.

"EEP!  YEEK EEK EEK!"  The monkey scrambled around, trying
to evade the deadly accurate blows.  Finding its way up blocked
by a rapid series of snaps, it quickly climbed down the tree,
which was the plan all along.

Kiyone just snickered, finally getting some of her own
back.  Although she didn't mention it often, she was known as the
Queen back when she was just another trainee in the Galaxy Police
boot camp showers.  Even the toughened graduates who regularly
hazed the recruits gave her a wide berth.

Heh. Nice touch.

Finally managing to get on the proper branch above the
monkey, she lost little more time in bending it over to the other
one.  The bra went around both and was tied off in a triple
secure knot that she doubted even the damned monkey could untie
or bite through.  Now she had a secure frame to work with, formed
by the arch of the two branches.

Unfortunately, she still didn't have enough material.  So
the skirt was added to the supply of cloth her shirt provided.

Of course.

large knot, and she didn't even want to think about what she was
going to feel like in the morning, but after hours of running
through the woods, climbing trees, and holding on for dear life,
it felt like heaven.

Then it started raining.

Who said it never rains in heaven? ^_^

Miles away, nestled in a hollow on the ground, protected by
the tough, insulated material of her uniform and a small bottle
of GP insect repellant, Mihoshi slept like a baby.

As Kiyone would say, 'There ain't no justice.'

Heh. Very nice. Good to see Kiyone and Mihoshi back in this thing. Nice
interaction between them and good way to introduce a decent badguy in here.
The run through the jungle was amusing and intense at the same time. Prose
flowed well and was a delight to read. Hope to see more soon.

D.B. Sommer





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