Disclaimer: Moldiver and Tenchi are owned by Pioneer Animation. No
money is being made from this and no such intent should be inferred.
George: "But wouldn't that end up changing the future in which case my
knowledge is no longer any good?"
...
Megaman: "Ask me if I care."
George: "Oh all right, you talked me into it."
-Bob and George, Jan 5th, 2002
www.bobandgeorge.com
**************
Hiroshi Amagi was not a man who was normally at a loss for words. But
at the moment, all he could do was nod as Jun spilled out the entire
story of Moldiver as she knew it.
He had long known that Moldiver had been using his pusedo-molecule
theory as the basis for her armor, and therefore had to be one of his
students or had ties to one. He hid a smile as the beginnings of a plan
came to him. There were other ways then brute force.
"Jun," he said quietly, laying his hand over hers. "You should be proud
of Mirai, look at all the good she's done."
"THAT'S NOT GOOD!" Jun shouted, coming to her feet. "We are a society,
a society has laws and people to enforce the laws. They are police
officers and hold that right because that is what they are the best at.
Mirai is a Chemist. That is her gift, and her destiny. She is not a
vigilante! She breaks the law every time she puts that . . . that thing
on!"
Amagi kept his expression neutral. Jun was on the border of hysteria.
"But in doing so," he said, choosing his words carefully. Jun's buttons
were frightfully easy to press if you knew how. "She's become a hero to
the city." He picked a flyer off the desk. "The upcoming Moldiver
appreciation day, for example."
"Appreciation..." Jun began pacing back and forth. "How can they
appreciate her? Lazy . . . can't handle her money . . . ungrateful..."
She spun to stare at him. Her eyes were wild and she was twitching.
"Twenty years, Hiroshi! Twenty years of my life to give her everything
she needs. EVERYTHING! And she repays my sacrifice by..." Jun was
practically foaming at the mouth.
"By not making a contribution to better society and instead holding the
status quo." Amagi finished.
"Yes!" Jun shouted. Amagi smiled. Jun's eyes were completely blank of
any rational thought and a trickle of drool rolled down one side of her
mouth. She might as well be hypnotized considering how susceptible to
suggestion she was at the moment.
"It's not your fault, Jun, it's society's." Amagi said. "Our government
is weak, weak and helpless, weighed down by meaningless beauracrcy and
frivolous spending." He sighed. "Not like it was when the Emperor held
power..." Amagi was too young to remember the days when the Emperor was
in power, but his father had told him stories and he had read his
grandfather's journal along with other records. With modern technology,
and historical perspective, he could avoid making the same few mistakes
that the Emperor had made and create a glorious technological utopia.
"Oh yes," Jun agreed feverently.
"Japan needs a new Emperor, a strong emperor who is not afraid of the
masses."
"Definitely."
"Jun, sit down and tell me. Do you think I would be a good Emperor?"
"The best ever," Jun said, sitting down and staring blankly at the
painting Amagi kept hung on the wall behind his desk. Getting up, Amagi
walked around the desk to stand next to her.
"Jun," he said softly, stroking the side of her neck in a way he knew
drove her wild and was pleased to see a soft shudder travel through
her. "Would you like to help me become Emperor?"
"My life is yours, my lord."
"That's Emperor Machinegal."
"Yes, Emperor Machinegal."
Reaching across the desk, Amagi touched a button and almost immeditly,
Isabelle came in. "Yes, Sir?"
"Isabelle, Jun here has agreed to become the seventh Superdoll. Take
her down to the lab and see to the proper enhancements and..." he
looked meaningfully at the blank look on Jun's face. "Some conditioning
as well."
"Very good, Sir," Isabelle said and helped Jun to her feet.
As the door closed behind them, Amagi walked over to his office window.
'You talked big on Mars, Ms Ozora,' he thought to himself, rubbing his
chest where Moldiver's knuckles had touched him when she'd held him
against the roof support. 'But I wonder, how eager will you be to get
to me when you'll have to kill your own mother to do it?'
************************
Mirai slid off of Karou to nestle in the crook of his arm. Both were
breathing heavily and they were both soaked with sweat, and other
fluids. She caught sight of the chrono on the wall. Non stop for six
hours. She now fully understood the phrase "The spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak." Her body ached everywhere and her muscles cried out
for some rest. And yet, part of her wanted to keep going.
For some time, they lay there, basking in the warmth of the afterglow
until finally, Mirai's stomach made it's needs known.
Not bothering with a robe, Mirai slid out of bed and walked over to the
"kitchen" To her surprise, she found one button labeled "Sushi"
Pressing it, the hole glowed and there was a plate of sushi, complete
with chopsticks. Grinning with delight, she removed the plate and
pressed the button again. Taking both plates, she went back to the bed
and set one plate on Karou's chest.
"Eat up," she said with a grin. "You've been a busy boy."
The next few minutes passed with no sound save that of eating.
"Karou?"
"Yes?"
"How did you get mixed up in this war anyway?"
Karou sighed. "Several things. You know how the Dimension Jump Drive
works, right?"
"Sort of. Hiroshi tried to explain it to me once. Something about
Gravity and a Fifth Dimension?"
"Okay, we exist in four basic dimensions, right?"
Mirai nodded. "Yep. Height, width, depth and time."
"Right. And relativity won't let us move across interstellar distances
in a reasonable amount of time without seriously breaking the laws of
physics, so we have to go around it." He looked up at the ceiling. "I
think they said it was Einstein who theorized that gravity wasn't a
force that bound the universe together, but rather depressions in the
fabric of space time. The more mass the object generating gravity has,
the greater the depression. Make sense?" Mirai nodded. "Now, Amagi
speculated that those depressions extend down into another dimension, a
fifth dimension where relativity and time don't apply. He called it
'Fifthspace'. Since stars are one of the most massive objects in the
universe, it stands to reason that their effect on this fifth dimension
would be noticeable, and measurable because no two stars are exactly
alike. If you can calculate the star's effect, you could use Fifthspace
to move from the gravity of one star to another with the depressions
acting as doorways. That was the theory, anyway, and why the mission
was given only a ten percent chance of success."
"And Amagi miscalculated when he programmed the Sakigake?"
"No. Remember how the catapult was destroyed and the Sakigake's
underside was damaged?"
Mirai's face darkened. "Yeah."
"It knocked out some relays which screwed up the sensors that measured
the depression's effects. I basically overshot Sirius B and wound up
seven thousand light years away..."
*********************
Three years ago...
Karou Misaki fumbled with the catches to his helmet and yanked it off
as his pre-launch meal decorated the floor of the Sakigake's cockpit.
Groaning, he reached for the nausea pills the doctors had supplied him
with. They had warned him that Fifthspace might be an assault on the
senses, but no one had said anything about nausea.
"Whoever heard of a test pilot getting nauseous?" he said to himself as
the pills took effect, quieting his stomach down. Turning his attention
to the ship, he found several abnormalities in the Sakigake's systems
and set the auto-repair system to fixing those, as well as cleaning up
the mess in the cockpit. With that underway, he looked out the window.
His jaw dropped.
Not too far away, two ships were exchanging fire. The architecture was
unlike anything he had seen and on some level, he knew that they had
not been built by human hands. He flipped on his exterior cameras,
hoping to get as much of the battle as he could.
And it was a battle. The larger of the two ships was a dull gray in
color, it's hull pitted and pockmarked. There were signs that the hull
had been repaired many times and that none of those repairs had been
professionally done.
The other ship bore a bright gold symbol on it's side. It was bright
red, and there was no sign of damage on it's hull. Flares of light
flashed between them, the gray ship lurching each time it was hit,
while the red ship seemed to be shrugging off the gray ship's attacks
with almost contemptuous ease as it moved closer. More flares of light
stabbed out from the red ship, which Misaki realized was missile fire,
backed by energy weapons. Almost desperately, the gray ship loosed
missiles of it's own, but again, the red ship ignored them, closing for
the kill. His fascination getting the better of him, Misaki eased his
throttle forward, moving the Sakigake closer to the battle.
*********************
"I was stupid," Misaki said. He stood up and paced. "I forgot the first
rule of flight school. Keep your mind on the craft and what's going on
around you. It was a stray missile, the collision alarm was my only
warning. It was a glancing blow, but it blew a relay, the Sakigake's
thrusters went into overdrive and I shot forward. The last thing I
remember seeing is the gray ship going up in a giant fireball, the
shockwave made the ship buck and I hit my head and blacked out..."
*********************
"Shena koon da Mihoshiandanay?"
It was, Misaki would realize later, the voice which woke him up. It was
a loud, authoritative, the voice of someone used to being obeyed.
"Su Mai Tyran, Kunaesodoh." The second voice was soft, submissive to
the other one.
"Ooo gon mak da, Boonhafe! Shena koon dena koeing hah?"
"Nuh...Un...Ooo gee flinna twad oos swoo Ooo bymed dena pulot abad
buhfoo da kraysd mockin husterod."
The first voice made a noise that sounded like a cross between cursing
and a tired sigh. "Ooo mun, SHENU KUME DA KOFRUNUH?! KAK DAT
NAKKAKYAGAMISHOU?!"
"Ooo dan cnow! Ooo dan cnow! Koon gus peer unta owwhuh!"
The first voice took several deep breaths. "Dood yun ut luse cun dena
kewter buhfoo dena kraysed?"
"Unnn...gu?"
"Sheaye mu Ooo tonate? Nakow, mak oim spuh." There was sound of a
cabinet opening and then closing. "GU! GOOT DAT SHON! KAN TRE SHON! KAN
TRE SHON! Suess kan mod shon kand yunill droit oim."
"Tenow, Kunaesodoh."
As the first voice began muttering something that sounded like a mantra
recitation, Misaki felt cold metal press against his skin. There was a
slight prinprick and it seemed like every nerve in his body suddenly
sat up and riverdanced. Involuntarily, Misaki convulsed, smacking his
head on something hard. Groaning, he opened his eyes. He was lying on a
shelf, a thin pad was beneath him. Next to the bed stood two women. One
was tall, athletically slender. Her teal-green hair hung over her right
shoulder, and her eyes were cold and hard. Her skin was peach, and her
eyes blue. The other was blond, with chocolate brown skin. Her blue
eyes were practically devoid of anything resembling cohesive thought,
and as their eyes met, she gave him a cheerful wave. They both were
dressed in dark blue uniforms that left little to the imagination with
their form-fitting tightness. The green haired woman had a loop of gold
braid around one shoulder, and her jacket was covered with several
colored rectangles.
"Ut luse oimis unise..." The green haired woman said to herself and
then met his eyes. "My name is Kiyone. This," she said in perfect,
unaccented Japanese as she indicated the blond. "Is Mihoshi." She
showed him an insignia that matched the one on the red ship. "We're
detectives with Galaxy Police. Mind telling us who you are and how a
race of simians that thinks cold fusion is science fiction managed to
get this far coreward?"
"You speak--?'" Misaki said.
"I spent ten years on that backwater mudball you call a planet," Kiyone
snapped. "You're damn right I speak your language. Now answer the
question."
"My name is Karou Misaki. I'm the test pilot for the Dimension Jump
Project. Where am I?"
"You're onboard our ship, the Yagami," Mihoshi put in.
"Ship?" Misaki asked and then jerked upright as his memory came roaring
back, slamming his head on the overhang. "What about my ship?"
"Destroyed," Kiyone replied. "Smashed into an asteroid."
"I see," Misaki said quietly. "What happens to me now?"
Kiyone was about to reply when there was a beeping noise. "Dondon
Scree, tunnoir; dena Tsunami kume haitning oos," said a third voice.
"Denits Efares Kisayekamonitana."
Kiyone let out a sigh. "Oos'na nock dena boon kan odge. Mihoshiandanay.
Sept na doon smye sho wa...gahs." With that, she left.
Misaki stared after her and then looked at Mihoshi, who was holding a
rectangular cardboard box. "How about a game?" she asked, showing him
the box.
*********************
"Checkers?" Mirai asked, and then started laughing, nearly falling off
the bed. "She wanted to play checkers?"
Misaki let out a chuckle. "It is kind of funny, looking back. It was
weird though, I wasn't expecting her to be as good at it as she was."
Mirai finally managed to sit up, gasping for breath and looked at his
face. "She beat you, didn't she?"
"Never even made it across the board," Misaki said ruefully, sending
Mirai into fresh peals of laughter.
"Sorry," she said a few minutes later, wiping tears from her eyes. "I
just..." She giggled and finally got herself under control. "So what
happened then?"
"Well, I challenged Mihoshi to a two out of three but while she was
setting up the board, Kiyone came back and informed me that I was being
transferred off their ship. Then there was a flash of light and I was
elsewhere..."
*********************
It was a little disorienting to be seated one moment and on his feet
the next and it took a moment for Misaki to orient himself. When he
looked up, he found he was standing in an unfurnished room. To his
left, a giant window framed the stars and he could make out the red
ship with the gold symbol. That, he realized, must be the Yagami. As
though to confirm his thought, the ship's engines fired, it wheeled
about and rocketed off.
"As bleak as she is, the detective is a fine pilot," said a woman's
voice behind him. Whirling, Misaki found himself facing a young lady.
Her large eyes were red, and her skin pale. Her hair had been styled in
a widow's peak, and she wore a purple kimono, with her hands tucked
inside the sleeves. Behind her, stood a bearded man with red hair. He
wore a what appeared to a gi under a wide shouldered vest. In his hands
was a twisted wooden staff topped with a red orb that matched the color
of his hair and beard. He wore a neutral expression and his eyes had
the cold, alert light to them that was the mark of the bodyguard. Both
would have passed as human at first glance until you looked closer.
There was something to their features, body language and movements that
was definitively alien. "I am First Empress Ayeka of the Juraian
Empire." She bowed slightly to him. "I am honored to meet you, Captain
Misaki." Like Kiyone, she spoke without an accent.
"The honor is mine," Misaki said, returning the bow.
"No, it is ours. We had despaired that your race would ever make it
beyond the confines of your star system." It was the second time humans
had been insulted since he had woken up and Misaki felt his fist
clench. Ayeka inclined her head. "Forgive me, Captain, I misspoke. The
ties between Jurai and Sol are closer then you might think, but our own
traditions forbade us from making open contact with Terrans until you
have a method of traveling interstellar that did not involve traveling
sub-light. Your race's lively history has held you back . . . until
now" She smiled broadly. "It has been a long wait, Captain, but your
presence here proves that Terrans are ready to take the next step
forward and claim your space in the interstellar realm."
Misaki's hand unclenched. It was a very pretty speech, but he was still
suspicious. Still, he felt obligated to put his best foot forward.
"Thank you, Empress."
"Please, she said, "come with me. My husband is most eager to meet
you." She tilted her head. "But not in that suit, I think." A creature
that looked vaguely like a half-man, half canine entered. "Kanna un
kluthes," she said to it. "Mas doan sheia toun day nock mabastaut." The
creature nodded and withdrew. "This way, Captain," Ayeka said,
gesturing for him to follow her.
She led him through a short hallway. The floor, ceilings, and walls
seemed to be made of translucent crystal. Vines of some kind marked the
seams between walls, floor and the ceiling. The air smelled sweet and
he could faint background noises. Birds chirping, the wind blowing
through leaves. He paused as he realized that water was flowing behind
the walls, the sound melding perfectly with the other background noises
to soothe and relax without decreasing alertness.
After a few minutes, Ayeka paused before a door. "In here, Captain.
You'll be able to refresh and relax. I'll return in one of your hours."
The door slid open and Ayeka turned and walked back down the corridor.
A green, scale covered hand grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. The
hand belonged to a creature that stood upright like a human, but had a
face that was a cross between a warthog and a frog. It looked him up
and down.
"Yer the Terran are yeh?" It asked gruffly. "Well get yerself out of
that getup."
"Er..." Misaki said. His suit was amazingly flexible, but he needed
help getting in and out of it.
The creature stared at him for a moment. "Strapped in are yeh?" It
asked. "No worries." It came back over to him and peered at the suit.
"How's this work then?" Misaki opened his mouth to answer when the
creature made a noise that sounded like a curse. "Aw, bollocks," it
snapped and tapped a sequence on the wall control panel. There was a
flash of light, and Misaki suddenly found himself, naked as the day
he'd been born, standing next to his suit and watching as it crumpled
to the floor. "Can't believe any space-farin race worth it's salt don't
least have a force shield fer suits 'stead of big bulky thing like
that."
"Uh . . ." Misaki tried again, but the creature was clearly on it's own
tangent.
"Well best you be bathin then." With that, Misaki found himself grabbed
by the arm and tossed into a massive tub. Training took over as his
hand touched a rocky bottom and he used his feet to launch himself back
to the surface.
He shook his head to clear his eyes and then spat out the water he had
swallowed. At least, he was fairly sure it was water. It did leave his
mouth with a minty fresh taste that wasn't altogether unpleasant and--
he stiffened as something brushed his leg.
In front of him, the water rippled and he watched as a tentacle, it's
tip shaped like a-
"Oh, God," he whispered as it sprayed him with a foamy white stuff.
****
Ayeka's timing was impeccable. As the warthog creature finished
dressing him in a series of layered robes, the door slid open.
"Captain?" she asked, seeing the shell-shocked look on his face.
"I . . . thing . . . bath . . . clean . . ."
"Curious," Ayeka said. "Tenchi had that same reaction the first time he
encountered the bath beast. How odd."
"Bath beast?" Misaki asked, recovering his wits as the warthog creature
slapped him on the back ("Yer all set, mate") and walked away.
"Yes. This way please. The bath beast is a creature from a minor ocean
world a few hundred light years out from Galactic Core. Its tentacles
secret a substance that it uses to stun its prey prior to consumption.
The substance also makes an excellent soap and shampoo and the creature
can be trained to bathe a person. It seems to derive enjoyment from
doing so, though we can't be sure. I understand its thought process is
quite alien."
"Ah . . . Misaki said.
"Here we are." Ayeka said as she stopped before a set of ornate doors.
Stationed on either side was a wooden log floating upright. One was
marked with a blue symbol under a blue disc and the other the same,
only in red and the symbol was different.
"First Empress Ayeka and Captain Karou Misaki wish leave to see the
Emperor." Ayeka said in formal tones.
"You are granted leave," the red log said and the doors slid open,
revealing a short hallway and slid shut as soon as they had entered.
Misaki wondered what sort of society made a woman beg leave to see her
own husband.
"We Juraians are a very formal people," Ayeka said, as though she'd
read his mind. "The Emperor is, by definition all powerful and to enter
his presence without permission violates tradition and ancient law.
Tenchi despises such things, Ryoko ignores them entirely . . . " She
trailed off. "We are much as Japan was in feudal times," she said as
they reached the other end of the hallway.
The doors slid open an instant before they would have bumped into them,
revealing a sumptuous room filled with furniture. What Misaki guessed
were sculptures lined the walls underneath paintings.
"Whee!" A woman's voice shouted as a nude woman faded into view. Misaki
glimpsed spiky green hair and golden eyes before she grabbed Ayeka in a
bear hug. "You ran out on us before we finished," the woman said in a
hurt voice.
"I . . . put some clothes on, Ryoko!"
"That's not what you were saying an hour and a half ago," Ryoko
replied, causing Ayeka to turn bright red. Only then did Ryoko look at
Misaki. "What's this? Ayeka, bringing in someone else? Aren't Tenchi
and I enough for you?" If it was possible, Ayeka turned an even
brighter shade of red at that and Ryoko laughed. She stepped back --
no, flew and a striped dress over a yellow turtleneck manifested over
her nakedness. She crossed her legs and sat there in mid-air.
"You . . ." Ayeka snarled out from between clenched teeth.
At that moment, another set of doors opened a young man stepped
through. He was slightly shorter then Misaki's own six four, tall and
skinny with long hair and dark eyes. He wore jeans and an old t-shirt.
Misaki stared. He knew this man. He had seen him in the pictures his
Grandfather had ---
* * * *
"Wait," Mirai said. "You recognized the Emperor?"
Misaki nodded. "Grandpa Tarou spent a lot of time at Tenchi's house
when he was a boy. He grew up on Earth, you see, and --"
An alarm began to wail and Misaki dove for the headboard and slapped it
with his hand. "Misaki. Go."
"Killthain attack," said a disembodied voice. "Currently held off by
system defense, Tsunami moving to intercept. Two slipped through,
assaulted Habitat Quadrant Four. More then one thousand dead and body
count rising. Pursue and Destroy."
Grim-faced, Misaki took his mol-unit from his robes and looked over to
see Mirai taking out hers.
"Mirai, you don't ---"
"I let you go once," Mirai said, cutting him off in a tone of voice
that brooked no argument. "Never again."
Misaki wondered why the hell that made him aroused as they raised the
Mol-units into the air.
"METAMORFORCE!"
-Steve "Komodo" T.
http://www.geocities.com/studio_pc_hub/
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