Note to readers:  This is my first effort at TMFF.  Like any aspiring
fic writer, I'm desperate for commentary of any sort.  Please, please,
please (did I mention 'please?') send any feedback to 
Hospitaller@msn.com and let me know what's good... and what's other
than good! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Disclaimer:
     The majority of characters featured in this story are the property
of AIC and/or Pioneer.  To those two corporate entities, I give the 
assurance that I am making NO money off of their characters, and am 
using them in an entirely recreational (and personal) way.  Some 
characters and themes featured in this story are presented by the 
honorable Mister Hitoshi Okuda in his Manga.  I offer the same 
assurances to Mister Hitoshi Okuda, as well as my deep and 
heartfelt thanks for his work.

Notes:
     This story was originally written using Microsoft Word (TM) 2000
with all the bells and whistles.  Frankly, I find the story much more
readable (and easier on the eyes) when viewed using this program.
I recognize, however, that not everyone has Word.  To that end, I've
used the following conventions: 1) Internal monologue was originally
italicized.  In the text version of this story, internal monologue
is offset with asterisks. 2) Emphasis and proper titles (such as ship
names) were also originally italicized.  In the text version, emphasis
or title is indicated by all caps.  So please, don't think that every
time you see all caps that a character is yelling.  I'll use 
exclamation points for volume.  Caps are for emphasis. Another point:
This fic is almost entirely themed off of Mister Okuda's Manga.  IF YOU
HAVEN'T READ THE MANGA, YOU PROBABLY WON'T UNDERSTAND THIS FIC.  My 
recommendation to any avid Tenchi fan is to GO BUY THE MANGA.  NOW.  DO
NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT 200 DOLLARS.  GO BUY THEM.  NOW.  They are
absolutely outstanding in every way, and will give you hours of reading
pleasure at a relatively low price-per-book.
     Finally, this fic chapter contains adult themes and strong language.
If it were a movie, I'd rate it PG-13.  So please, let's keep the 
children out of the theatre... and sorry, if you're waiting fot the even
HIGHER rated stuff, that comes in later parts. *heh*

Now... let the fic begin! 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Publisher's note:
     The following dramatized history has been printed with the express
consent of both the Juraian Ministry of State Security and the Juraian
Fleet Intelligence Directorate.  All documents relevant to the events
herein described have been recently declassified based on article
46-5.3 of the Juraian Freedom of Information Act.  No classified
material or matters pertinent to Juraian State or Operational
Security are contained in this document.
          -Uesugi Tomoda, Chief of Hardcopy Publishing, JURAI 
MONITOR/PRESS.

Chapter 1 Jurai-Romulask Border, April 23rd of R.Y. 732
 1230 Karentes Time

     Border patrol is, at its best, boring.  Any military, law 
enforcement, or intelligence type will be more than happy to tell you
exactly HOW boring if you buy them a round or two down at the Royal
Tree Bar and Grill on Yousho Street.  A few among them, however,
have seen border patrol in another light.  These unlucky souls, some
of them with the scars to prove it, can tell you about border patrol
at its worst.  They'll also tell you that when things are going 
seriously wrong, it's anything BUT boring.
     So all in all, though Lieutenant Kaje Ch'Ka of the Juraian Naval
Intelligence Directorate was feeling very, very bored on this border
run, he wasn't about to complain.  He was quite fond of things being
quiet whenever he drew patrol duty.  It made for far fewer 
opportunities for things to get out of hand- and just about anything
could be defined as 'out of hand' for the one-man patrol craft he was
flying.  So all in all, uneventful was precisely what he wanted.  He 
passed the time by fiddling with his sub-space link, trying to pick up
a music station out of Romulask space.  He had always thought Juraian
music to be much too staid, and one of the few benies of border duty
was that one had the chance to catch a few hours of some good 
old-fashioned head-banging stuff from the Romulask stations....
     The link suddenly flared to life, but not with music.  A male 
voice slightly distorted by static filled his headphones. "Ram one-one,
center." Kaje twitched his jaw, activating his helmet's throat mike.  
     "Center, Ram one-one, go."
     "Half hour comms check.  Anything up?"  
     Kaje snorted, then keyed his mike.  "Hell no.  Can't even get a 
decent link station today."
     The voice on the other end of the link laughed.  "Kaje, you dope,
you're supposed to be gathering signals intelligence, not link 
surfing." 
      Kaje double twitched his jaw, sending out two short bursts of 
link static- military radio shorthand for "I acknowledge."  
     The voice laughed again.  "Don't get short with me, man.  I'm just
messin' with ya.  Anyhow, I've got something for you to do..." Kaje 
groaned off mike at this. "Comms say they've picked up a lot of 
Romulask chatter about a pirate attack over in box yankee three.  
Probably nothing, but it's close enough..."
     "It's close enough that I ought to head over there and see if 
anything heads toward the border" interrupted Kaje.  "I'm on it.  
Anything else?"
     "Not a thing.  See you at the O-club later.  Center out."
     Shaking his head in disgust (why couldn't the Romulask handle
their OWN pirate problems?) Kaje throttled up and headed for the border
area known as box yankee three.  He hoped to Tsunami that this whole
thing went away quietly...
     Fifteen minutes later, as he approached the area, those hopes were
dashed.  Kaje twitched his jaw. "Center, Ram one-one."
     "Ram, go."
     "Multiple maneuvering contacts, bullseye 340 mark 14 range 42.  
Looks like an intercept, I can make out at least three groups.  Do we 
have any over-the-border sensors up in this area?"  
     Center's voice, which had been so laugh-prone in the previous
conversation, sounded very serious now.  "Affirmative, switching."
     There was a burst of static, then a female voice came over the 
link.  "Ram one-one, this is Hawkeye, how do you read?"
     "Five by five, Hawkeye.  I have your signal secure and synched.
Snapshot?"
     There was a short pause, then the link crackled with Hawkeye's
reply.  "Snapshot, two groups in range, 25k sep, bullseye 338 mark 13,
range 30, tracking nose-on.  Probable Romulask based on drive 
emissions.  Looks like they're chasing a single at 338 mark 15 range
25, tracking nose on.  That one's bogey."  
     Kaje did some quick mental math, and wasn't happy with what he 
came up with.  "Dammit, that means they're going to penetrate the 
border really damn soon!"
     There was a slight pause.  Kaje could imagine the recon controller
grimacing; one wasn't supposed to swear on the link... "Affirm, Ram 
one- one.  Estimate lead group will penetrate the border in five 
minutes."
     "Son of a... do we have any other elements in range?"
     "Negative, Ram.  You're it for now.  They're scrambling a warship
from Karentes IV, but it won't be in a position to make an intercept
for at least twenty five minutes."  
     Kaje cast his eyes heavenward- or coreward, or whatever it was...
     "Great Yousho, I'm a spook, not a fighter pilot!"  Kaje paused.
"What're my rules-of-engagement here?"
     "Get positive ID on any border violators, hail, and escort to 
nearest base.  Do not fire unless fired upon or contact is positively
ID'd as hostile."
     "Well at least that's standard."  Kaje heaved a mighty sigh.  
"Okay, Ram's on intercept.  Wish me luck."  Two bursts of static came
over the link from Hawkeye, and then silence filled the cockpit.  
     *Well, okay... thought Kaje.  The lead bubba's likely to be the 
pirate.  The trailing bubbas will prove that theory if they break off
once the lead is over the border.  They won't conduct a pursuit into
our space...*  Kaje reached down and adjusted his radar screen's
scale to show both the pursuing and fleeing contacts.  As he watched,
the lead blip crossed the border... and the trailing ones halted.
*Yep.  I hate it when I'm right.  Okay, now for the fun part.*   Kaje
bumped his throttles forward and pointed his nose on an intercept
vector to the border violator.  As he did so, he fiddled with a control
on his display, changing his readout from radar to enhanced visual.
He then thumbed a switch on the throttle to bring up a communications
overlay on the inside of his helmet visor.  He selected "hail 
designated contact" from the overlay, then twitched his jaw once.  
     "Unidentified ship at grid 413-74-67, this is Juraian vessel 'Ram
one-one.'  You have crossed into Juraian space without the appropriate
transponder codes.  Identify yourself immediately, over."   He didn't
really expect a response.  If this was a pirate, it would either run or
fight, not talk.  He flicked his eyes down to the visual display to see
what the ID computer had come up with.
     His eyebrows shot up.  The computer had a 100% ID match, even 
without a transponder.  And the ID... but it couldn't be.  Here?  Now?
The computer HAD to be wrong!
     The link crackled to life.  "Ram one-one, I'm sorry, I wasn't
paying much attention to the border markers.  My mistake."  
     Kaje cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and re-keyed the 
microphone. "I say again, please identify."
     "Oh!  I'm sorry.  This is the HINASE."  At that moment, the two 
ships' communications computers finally synched up for a visual 
connection.  A small window opened in one corner of Kaje's visor.  The
face in it had golden eyes, shockingly light blue hair, and a scar on 
each cheek.  "And I am NOT Ryouko, before you even say it!  My name is
Minagi."
     Kaje killed the comm link.  He was silent for a few seconds,
then cursed softly.  It took him a few moments to compose himself.
Then he re-activated the link and instructed that HINASE lay alongside
and prepare to be tractored.

Chapter 2 Juraian Fleet Base Karentes, April 23rd of R.Y. 732 
1500 Karentes Time

     The debriefing room of J.F.B. Karentes was an amphitheater-like
structure that sat between the boughs of the giant Royal Tree at the 
base's heart.  The room had originally been designed to hold upwards
of 200 people in relative comfort, and was equipped with the latest
in holo and audio technology.  Every nuance of a mission could be 
replayed here, scrutinized, and dissected for all to see.  
     At the moment, "all" meant the Karentes base commander and Kaje
Ch'ka.
     Kaje had been hustled into the debriefing room directly from the
flight line- something he had entirely expected.  He'd landed a live
one here; a real, living, breathing space pirate.... who just happened
to be a known close associate of the Juraian First and Second 
Princesses.  Not to mention a friend of Crown Prince Tenchi; oh no, 
never mind THAT!
     At the moment, the debriefing room's central holo and surrounding
speakers were portraying the mission's last moments.  HINASE gracefully
glided into the base's landing bay, followed by Kaje's ridiculously
small signals collector ship...
     The holo went out.
     "Damn fine job, Kaje."  The base commander was a tall, thin, and
entirely grey-haired man who nonetheless looked like he could have been
an infantryman without much trouble.  "Damn fine job.  No small feat,
bringing in a Class III Independent Ship with just a snub-noser."
     "Thank you sir."
     "You ran the intercept in pretty good form, too.  Don't see many
spooks with a head for that sort of thing around here.  You used to be
in fighters, didn't you?"
     "Not exactly, sir.  I did an operational tour with the 38th Strike
as their squadron intel officer.  I picked up a few things," replied
Kaje.  He was slightly worried by the inquiry.  Senior commanders
generally only asked such things if they were going to ask you to do 
something.
     "I'll say you did!  I wish we would have had spooks like you 
around back when I was in the Strike wings!  Woulda been a helluva
lot better for all concerned!"  Kaje was seriously worried now.  The 
base commander had just praised him twice in less than two minutes.
He hadn't heard that many kind words out of the man in the two years
he'd served so far at Karentes.  He was being set up for something...
he was dead sure of it.  "So where did you go after that tour?" 
     Kaje stiffled a groan.  Now he knew EXACTLY where this was going.
"Sir, I was sent out to the boonies near the Galactic rim.  Did HUMINT
as a Galaxy Police liaison."  HUMINT stood for "human intelligence."
That was the polite way of saying, "spying."
     "And if I recall correctly," the base commander replied, "you did
most of your work in the anti-terrorism division?"
     "Yes sir."  No doubt about it now.
     "And wasn't it you who did the threat assessment on Ryouko after
her statute of limitations expired?"  Threat assessments were 
comprehensive dossiers put together on known criminal and terrorist
threats to Jurai.  They required months of close study of their 
subjects... often very close study...
     "Yes sir."
     "Followed her around the Galactic rim for almost 9 months, didn't
you?  Including," the base commander's voice was full of barely- 
suppressed mirth now, "3 months as her next door neighbor?"
     "Sir, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that I slept with
her.  None.  I don't see why-" The base commander cut him off.
     "Boy, I'd be more impressed with you if you HAD."  The older man
guffawed.  "Now that would have been a coup!  Juraian intelligence
officer beds the most famous pirate in the galaxy... you would have 
been more famous than that James Bond fellow that Lord Tenchi's so fond
of!"
     "Sir, I don't think it would have been appropriate-" The base 
commander cut him off again.
     "Son, quit interrupting me.  And anyhow, that's neither here nor
there.  Point is, you did a long term close-surveillance
on her... so close that people still to this day think you must have
taken her to bed at night.  So you KNOW Ryouko, maybe better than 
anybody... unless those rumors about her and Lord Tenchi are true."
     "Yes sir.  My service record still lists me as the subject matter
expert on Ryouko.  Not much point anymore though.  Her record's been
expunged and she's been downgraded to an "'unlikely' threat."  Kaje was
starting to grow hopeful.  The commander hadn't mentioned Minagi yet...
maybe he had been wrong, and he really WASN'T being railroaded...
     "True.  But you did a corollary assessment on her daughter,
or sister, or whatever she is, as part of that work, did you not?"
     *DAMN.*  "Yes sir,"
     "And as a result, you are also the official subject matter expert
on Minagi, are you not?"
     "Yes sir."
     "Let me be blunt, son.  She pirated a Romulask government
courier.  The Roms have already officially inquired about extradition." 
 Kaje's eyes widened.  "You mean in the two hours since we've had her
in custody-"
     "Yep.  That quick."  The commander didn't look very mirthful
now.  He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace back and
forth as he spoke.  "I don't know what she stole from them, and I 
frankly don't care.  I've never liked the Roms anyway.  But whatever
it was, they're hopping mad about it."  He stopped and turned toward
Kaje. "As you know, Miss Minagi is a close associate of the Royal 
family."
     "Yes sir."
     "If we hand her over, we're admitting that we think she did 
something unlawful.  Fleet HQ has already advised me that we will NOT
do anything that would reflect poorly on the Royals.  So we CANNOT
imply that we believe one of their associates did something wrong.
In my mind, that leaves me with only one option."  
     *Here it comes*, thought Kaje...
     "I want her out of here, now.  I'm going to report that we found
no evidence of wrongdoing and released her after a warning about the 
border violation- BEFORE we heard about the extradition request."
     "Yes sir."  Kaje was impressed; the commander was thinking like
an intelligence officer.  Most fighter jocks were about as subtle as a 
kick in the head.  Kaje was still waiting for the other shoe to drop,
though....
     "And you are going to go with her."
     *THUMP.  There's the other shoe.*  "Sir, I don't-"
     "You have no choice in the matter.  You are the acknowledged
expert on this pirate.  You are also a potential leak.  You brought
her in.  If you're here, you might be a target for the Roms.  You will
take her, her ship, and whatever she stole- and I do NOT ever want to 
know what it is- far, far away from here.  You will keep her away from
any parties who might take an undue interest in this little incident.
You will use your supposed expertise to ensure that she stays out of 
trouble.  In short, you will ensure that she lies very, VERY low until
we can get an official policy decision on this matter from the Royal
Family.  Do you understand?"  
     Kaje thought, very quickly, to see if he could come up with any 
objections that the commander would listen to.
     Nothing came to mind.
     "Yes sir."
     "Excellent!"  The commander whirled and strode briskly toward
the exit, still barking instructions as he went.   "Miss Minagi is 
under guard on the hangar bay.  You will meet her there in half an 
hour.  You will explain the situation to her, board the HINASE, and get
the hell out of here post-haste.  And Kaje," the commander stopped
in the amphitheatre doorway, an unexpected sparkle in his eyes, "do see
if you can get laid this time, will you?"  With that the base commander
chuckled loudly, turned, and disappeared in into the hallway beyond.
     "Fighter jocks," snorted Kaje.  He shook his head.  Five hundred
years of gender sensitivity training, and they STILL talked like that.
     *Normally*, Kaje thought, *I'd be perfectly happy with orders
like these.  It's not every day that your commander tells you to 
disappear with a drop-dead gorgeous woman for a few months.  But Great
Yousho!  Why did it have to be Minagi?*
     One of the reasons the Ryouko rumor popped up so persistently
around Kaje was that one of his old roommates had once found a picture
of a golden-eyed, cyan haired woman in his locker during a deployment.
Having absolutely no sense of privacy, that roommate had immediately
told all of his friends that he had proof positive that Kaje had a 
"thing" for the galaxy's most notorious space pirate.  
     Kaje had never worked very hard to dispel that rumor, because
it covered the truth rather well.  Kaje hadn't had a fling with Ryouko
during his close surveillance work.  But he sure as hell HAD developed
a powerful infatuation... with Minagi.
     There were a hundred reasons, some of them obvious- she was 
undeniably beautiful, and like most military types Kaje found lethality
attractive.  Minagi was LETHAL in spades.  Other reasons, like those
behind any crush or infatuation, were barely defined, illogical,
or even nonsensical...
     But whatever the reasons, he had it bad, and he knew it.  He'd 
never been so happy in his entire life as when the corollary 
surveillance on Minagi had ended.  3 months of forcing himself to be 
objective, to analyze, to summarize... all while his glands had been
trying to reach up through his throat and throttle his brain.
     And now his commander had told him to keep her out of trouble
for a few months.
     He wouldn't be STUDYING her this time.  He'd be WITH her.  And in
a situation that absolutely demanded that he be alert, detached,
and on guard.
     *This*, he thought, *is going to make the surveillance assignment
look like a Startica festival.*
     The best part was that he knew Minagi was NOT going to be happy
with the idea of being "kept out of trouble."   It was going to be a 
lot of work convincing her to go along with the plan in the first 
place- something the commander had conveniently forgotten to explain
how to do.  After all, Minagi could snap him like a twig if she so 
chose.  He couldn't coerce her.  So he somehow had to convince her, 
then spend the entire time keeping one eye on her, and one eye looking
for trouble from other sources.
     All while trying to not act like a damn school kid with a crush.
     *I must have done something really dreadful in a previous life.*
     Kaje sighed and headed for his quarters.  He supposed he might
as well get packed for a long trip.

Chapter 3 Juraian Fleet Base Karentes, Hangar Bay, 
April 23rd of R.Y. 732 
1530 Karentes Time

     It's not every day that a Juraian Fleet Base plays host to a 
galactic celebrity.  Fleet base life tends to be either overwhelmingly
boring or overwhelmingly stressful, dependent on whether or not 
someone's trying to kill you at any given time.  Juraian military
supremacy was relatively unchallenged, so boredom tended to be 
prevalent.
     VERY prevalent.
     So needless to say, the sudden appearance of a beautiful,
notorious, and highly controversial space pirate in the Karentes
hangar bay created quite a stir.  Minagi found herself surrounded
by guards as she alternately paced or hovered over the hangar bay floor
outside of HINASE's access hatch- and was utterly confounded by the 
fact that those guards weren't paying her a bit of attention.  Not to 
say that they weren't alert.  It's just that they were rather busy 
holding off a crowd of a hundred or so mechanics, aircrew, and ordnance
men- all of whom wanted to catch a glimpse of the infamous Minagi.
     "Ma'am," pleaded the sergeant of the guard for the fifth time,
"would you PLEASE go back inside the ship?"
     Minagi simply shook her head.  She thought she was being very 
cooperative just by agreeing to be "arrested."  She'd be damned if she
made it any easier than that.  It was only because she knew, and LIKED,
several of the younger members of the Juraian Royal Family that she'd
not strenuously resisted being taken into custody.
     Truth be told, Minagi was getting quite fed up with the Juraian
military, and Juraians in general.  She was constantly being mistaken
for her "sister," Ryouko- a mistake which usually resulted in either
a fight or a panic, depending on the nature of the Juraian or Juraians
she met.  Of course, she WAS a space pirate.  In her more honest 
moments, she admitted that there was some justification to her 
notoriety.  But she'd always gone out of her way to prey only on the 
corrupt.  If she'd been aware of the concept, she'd have considered
herself a vigilante more than a space pirate.     
     To her chagrin, all of that seemed not to matter in the slightest.
Very few got past the fact that she looked like her "sister."  And if 
they did... they still didn't see what she wanted them to see.
     It wasn't so bad when she was with the Masakis, or Aeka, or best
of all, little Sasami.  They all seemed to accept her for who she was-
something that amazed her, considering that the first time she'd met 
them, she'd tried to kill Tenchi.  Despite that first encounter,
and those that had followed, they all treated her as a member of an 
extended family.  She was especially close to Sasami, and considered
the little Princess something of a much younger sibling.  Minagi had a 
huge soft spot in her heart for the innocent, and Sasami was the 
closest thing to real innocence that she'd ever known.  
      Minagi even liked Ryouko, though she'd never tell her.  She 
resented the hell out of her some days, especially when the more 
infamous pirate's past crimes caused her trouble.  But Minagi had seen
enough of her sister's more noble side to know that no matter how much
she might protest to the contrary, she wasn't the monster she'd been
portrayed as.  Minagi was also eternally thankful that Ryouko had 
knocked the stuffing out of her in their first encounter- thereby
preventing her from killing Tenchi.
      In her darker moments, it was only the knowledge that these 
people loved her that kept her from utterly giving up on the galaxy
at large.  Generally speaking, those darker moments always focused
on one thing- her father's death.  She'd been mercifully unconscious
when Yakage died, and had no memory of his final dissolution.
Despite that, she'd been devastated by his passing.  For eons, her 
father/creator had been the guiding hand of her life, the voice that
gave her purpose and meaning.  When he'd died, she had lost the only
focus she'd ever had.  Minagi had become a space pirate in an attempt
to create a new focus.  She knew her own impulsive nature lent itself
to creative violence; she also knew that life or death struggle tended
to leave little time for introspection.  So she'd thrown herself into
the art of buccaneering, hoping to find solace on the way.  It had been
a good plan.  Or so it had seemed at the time.  The problem, she 
increasingly realized, was that it wasn't working...
     She suddenly became aware that someone was calling her name.  She
looked up and around, a bit annoyed at having her reverie interrupted,
and was surprised to see that the crowd that had surrounded her was 
gone.  A shortish, broad-chested man with blonde hair was the only 
person in immediate view.  He wore the uniform of a Juraian officer,
and was carrying a suitcase.
     "Miss Minagi?" he repeated.
     "Where'd everybody go?" she queried.  She wasn't used to things
going on around her without her noticing, and was feeling a little
unbalanced.
     "I ordered the guards to disperse the crowd and posted them at the
hangar bay entry-way."  The officer fished an ID card out of his breast
pocket and quickly flashed it toward her.  "I'm Lieutenant Ch'Ka, 
Juraian Fleet."
     "Oh.  Aren't you the one who picked me up at the border?"  She 
ignored the ID, concentrating on the man.  He was definitely nervous
about something.  She could smell the low-level adrenaline reaction
in the man's body, and his eyes- *grey eyes, don't see those often*-
seemed to want to look anywhere but at her.
     "Yes, I-" She cut him off.
     "Listen, I know I wasn't supposed to cross the border without
permission.  Can't I just pay a fine or something and get out of here?"
As long as he was nervous, she supposed, she might as well try to push
him a little.  She might actually get out of here without having to 
shoot her way out.
     She saw his eyes harden.  *Nope*, she thought, *guess not.*
     "Miss Minagi, You will not have to pay any fine at all."  Her jaw
nearly dropped.  What was this guy so worked up about, if he was just
here to let her go?  "You WILL, on the other hand, have to listen to 
what I have to say."
     "Okay, I'm listening."
     "I'll be blunt.  You raided a Romulask government ship.  They're
screaming for your head on a platter.  We don't want to give it to 
them."
     "Great!  I'll be on my way then-"
     "Miss Minagi, I am NOT finished."  The man paused.  She could 
sense him steeling himself.  *Okay, now comes the part I'm not going
to like...*  "We've got to get you out of here immediately, so we can
claim that we released you before we heard about the Romulask 
extradition request.  The problem is that once it's no longer plausible
that we haven't heard, we'll have to look for you."
     "What?" Minagi's head was spinning.  Were they going to let her 
go, just to try to catch her again?
     "The initial release will give the impression that we don't 
believe you did anything unlawful," explained Kaje, "but to avoid a 
diplomatic incident, we'll have to search for you once the Roumlask
request is formally recorded.  To avoid a messy situation, we don't
want to find you.  Moreover, we don't want anyone who might report
back to the Romulasks to find you.  So we need to keep an unofficial
eye on you for a while, to ensure that you're not found."  
     Minagi was distinctly unhappy now.  This was getting way too 
cloak-and-dagger for her liking.  She'd always considered herself
a straightforward person.  This whole bit about 
hiding-but-we-want-to-know- 
where-you-are-so-we-can-make-sure-you-stay-hidden
business seemed like something out of a bad spy holo.  She fought down
her urge to knock the man into unconsciousness and simply blast HINASE
out of the hangar.  "Why don't you just let me go, and make sure not to
look wherever it is I'm going?"
     "Because then we'd have to tell a lot of people where not to look-
and then word would get back to the Romulasks that we were double-
dealing.  And that would be a Bad Thing.  The best way to solve the 
problem while still keeping things quiet is to have someone who knows
how to avoid Juraian surveillance escort you."  
     Minagi's jaw DID drop this time.  They were assigning her a 
BABYSITTER?  "Listen up, mister, and listen good.  I am NOT letting
one of you military types ride shotgun on me!  I go where I want, when
I want to, and without some brass hat hovering over me!"  The man held
up his hand.  Minagi stopped, her fists balled at her sides.
     "Three points.  A, if you leave here and we catch you, it will put
the Jurai Royal family in the very difficult position of either 
extraditing you or risking serious scandal.  B, if the Romulasks
catch you, they will probably kill you."  He paused, then gave her a 
hard stare.  "Either A or B would very much upset Princess Sasami."
     *Dammit!* thought Minagi.  *This son of a bitch knows how to push
my buttons.* The image of Sasami's name strewn all over the holo news
assaulted her imagination.  She could see the headlines now... 
"PRINCESS RISKS WAR TO SAVE SPACE PIRATE FRIEND!  JURAIAN PUBLIC 
OUTRAGED!"  She wanted to pound this Lieutenant into the hangar bay 
floor for even making her think of such a thing, but he was right,
even as much as she hated it.  And anyways, she'd knew she'd hate 
herself later for killing a man who was just doing his job.
     She returned his stare. "And what, LIEUTENANT, was the third 
point?"
     "Point C is that I am not a brass hat.  And I don't hover."
     "Am I to understand that YOU are my babysitter?"  Minagi gave the
man an appraising look.  It suddenly made a lot of sense why he was 
carrying a suitcase- and why he had been so nervous.  He'd come down
here knowing he'd have to talk her into this crazy scheme.  If he knew
her well enough to make that Sasami jab, he also knew her well enough
to know she wouldn't like the idea.  And then, after he'd angered
her with that little bit of emotional blackmail, he was going to have
to be the one to be her keeper?  *Damn*, she thought, *this guy's 
either crazy or very brave.*  She was a little impressed, despite
herself.
     "I'm not sure I like that term, but yes, that's the gist of it."
The man hefted his suitcase. "I can't use a separate ship to go with
you, that'd draw too much attention."
     "Great.  Not only are you full of fun ideas, you're a freeloader,
too."  Minagi suppressed a laugh as the Lieutenant's face fell.
     "Miss Minagi, I find it very strange that a space pirate should
call a fleet officer a free loader."  Minagi could see the TAKE THAT!
in his eyes.
     "Hey, I leech off of the scum of the universe.  You leech of off
the backs of the taxpayers.  Who's the real pirate here?"  *Take that
yourself, navy-boy!*  The man seemed about ready to fire a retort,
but then visibly stopped himself.  Minagi felt strangely disappointed.
     "Miss Minagi, we can discuss the point further at a later time.
For now, can we PLEASE leave?"  
     Minagi sighed.  "If you insist, Mister Lieutenant."  She turned
and floated through HINASE's access hatch.  Behind her, she heard the
man's footsteps as he followed.  "What was your name again?"
     "Kaje Ch'Ka."
     "Right."  Minagi headed for the bridge, wondering what she was 
getting herself into.  She also wondered about one other thing- this
guy had clearly had this thing planned out, and he'd carried off his 
plan.  So why could she still hear his heart beating?

Chapter 4 Royal Science Academy Sub-Campus on Ontos III, 
April 23rd of R.Y. 732 
2300 Ontos Time

     The Royal Science Academy, contrary to popular belief, is not a 
single school, or even a collection of co-located schools.  It has 
branch campuses and research facilities scattered throughout the known
universe.  There is, in fact, even a branch campus in Romulask space-
tucked away on the rather remote world of Ontos III.
     Romulasks are generally a far more "festive" lot than Juraians,
and this showed in their choice of campus facilities.  Set into the 
back end of the student's union was what Juraians euphemistically
called a "gentlemen's club."  The Romulasks simply called it a strip
bar.  On this particular night, the bar was doing a brisk business.
Exams were fast approaching, and student and faculty alike felt the 
need to blow off some stress- or at least to forget it for a while.
As one wit once noted, "it's hard to worry about your grades when 
you're drunk, stoned, and have a pair of tits in your face."
     At first look, the bar appeared to be like any other such 
establishment on any other world, a perception that was one hundred
percent accurate.  A pair of humanoid female dancers were gyrating
to the thumping tune of the latest in Romulask style rock and roll,
competing for the privilege of having folded bills of currency stuffed
into their nearly non- existent G-strings.  Strobe lights flared in 
time with the music, creating a multi-point backlit effect that 
accentuated the dancer's curves- and increased the size of the tips.
Between the dancers and the consumption of their over-priced drinks,
most of the patrons were happily unaware of anything but their own 
hormones.
     The club was an espionage agent's dream, and a counterintelligence
officer's nightmare.  The strobing lights and a thick haze of 
inhalant-drug residue prevented the reading of lips.  The thumping
music and cheering patrons eliminated the possibility of eavesdropping.
The crowd and the dark made visual identification of any particular
face next to impossible.  It was a haven for shady dealing- precisely
why five men gathered in a back corner booth had chosen the club as 
their meeting place.
     A casual glance at the five would have shown two sub-groups.
The three men crammed into the left side of the booth appeared both 
angry and nervous at the same time.  All three were middle aged, and 
dressed in toned down versions of the Royal Science Academy's faculty
uniform- which made them no different from half of the rest of the 
bar's occupants.  The only thing that set them apart was their obvious
agitation.  Their eyes darted about as they clenched their fists and 
spoke vehemently to their counterparts on the opposite side of the 
table. The trio's conversational partners, by contrast, acted far more
like typical clubbers.  They seemed to be torn between ogling the 
dancers, downing their drinks, and participating in their discussion.
Each was youngish, athletic looking, and dressed in the preppy casual
attire favored by many Romulask students.  Occasionally, one of them
would nudge the other in the ribs and point out a particularly
physics-defying bit of gymnastic skill by one of the strippers.
     Suddenly, the leftmost of the middle-aged men slammed his drink
down on the table and leaned in close to the student-looking
pair.  "Damnit, are you two listening to me?" he grated out between
clenched teeth.  "The Juraians DON'T have her, nor do they know where
she is!"  One of the two students turned away from the runway and 
answered.  "Calm down.  Even assuming their story about releasing
her prior to receiving the extradition request is true- and I don't
believe it for a second- they can't have found the data she stole from
us.  If they had, they'd have declared war by now."  
     The student's calm appeared only to enrage the faculty member
even more.  "Fine.  Let's say they don't have it-" 
     The student cut him off.  "They DON'T have it.  I assure you of 
that."
     "Alright, so they DON'T have it.  That means SHE has it.  If she
every decrypts it, or worse yet, if the Juraian story about her release
is true and they recapture her and confiscate it, we're all dead!"  
     The student who had been speaking drained his glass as the 
professor finished.  "Anyone for another round?"  To all three faculty
types' astonishment, he rose and ambled off toward the bar, pausing
to stuff a twenty in one of the dancers' G-strings on his way.  
     The other student cleared his throat.  "Gentlemen, please calm 
down.  You're going to draw attention to us."  The three faculty 
members angrily sulked back in their seats.  The remaining student
continued. "That's better.  Now, as my colleague has pointed out 
already, it's plain that the Juraians don't have the data disk.  It's
logical to assume that in their haste to release her, they failed to 
impound her cargo.  It's also safe to assume that she still has the 
disk, and is somewhere in Juraian space right now, probably having
been told to lay low until the Juraian government can smooth over the
loss of our courier."  
     The center faculty member suddenly spoke up.  "Just whose idea was
it to transmit this damn thing on an official courier, anyway?"  
     The student briefly looked annoyed, then regained his composure.
"I assure you, vice-director, that mistake will not be repeated.
Now, if I may continue," he fixed the vice-director with a withering
stare, "it would seem that what we need to do is get our disk back."  
     The vice director blanched under the stare, but managed to stammer
out his reply.  "I, um, that is to say, my colleagues and I, feel that
more needs to be done than simply recovering the disk."  
     The student looked surprised.  "Excuse me?"
     Buoyed by the surprised look in the student's eyes, the vice 
director continued more forcefully now.  "There is no way of verifying
that she doesn't know anything.  Furthermore, there is no way you can
assure me that retrieving the disk from her won't arouse her 
suspicions- or the Juraians'.  She must be eliminated.  Immediately."
     The student had gone from surprised to livid.  "Vice Director!
The more complicated we make this operation, the greater the chance
of failure!  Furthermore, eliminating Minagi so soon after her raid on
our courier is so obvious, even a blind mongoloid could link it back
to the Romulask government!"
     The vice director smiled a predatory grin. "I don't give a damn.
You and your spy boys can figure out a way to make it- what's that term
you use?  Oh yes... 'plausibly deniable.'  But if she doesn't die, my 
colleagues and I are out.  And before you even THINK about threatening
me, remember that if you have far more to lose than I do.  The Academy
doesn't execute its wayward members.  The Romulask government,
on the other hand..."
     The student, actually a special agent in the Romulask Intelligence
Service, felt the cold truth of that statement like an icicle in his 
gut.  His agency would disavow all knowledge of this operation,
and have him executed as a rogue agent.  He took a moment to compose
himself before replying. "Alright, Vice Director.  I will pass the 
necessary instructions."  The agent sighed inwardly.  *Serves me right,
he thought, for forgetting that though these Royal Science guys may be
geeks, they're still SMART geeks...*  "I will have it noted that you 
insist upon this over my objections."
     "Fine, fine."  The director waved his hand dismissively.
"Now, call your partner back over here.  I'd like to discuss the final
preparations to move against the Princesses..."

Chapter 5 Lake Adjacent to the Masaki Residence, 
April 24th of R.Y. 732
1400 Tokyo Time

     Had Tenchi been there to see it, he would have been flabbergasted.
Aeka, Ryouko, and Sasami had been sitting on the dock, within ten feet
of each other, for almost two hours now...
     Peacefully.
     The look of pride and triumph on Sasami's face was worthy of an 
athlete that had just won gold.  This expedition had been her idea,
and the little princess was almost beside herself at its success.
It had all started just after the usual mid-morning argument (variant
number seven hundred and fifty six) between Ryouko and Aeka.  (For 
those who don't know, that would be the "small" argument.  It ran 
something like this:
     R: Hey Aeka, You're in luck.  I hear that Tenchi takes a lot of 
pleasure in the small comforts of life.
     A: I hesitate to ask, Ryouko, but why does that mean I'm in luck?
     R: Well, with your chest, it's lucky for you that he appreciates
small things!
     A: Funny, I was just thinking that with your brain, it's lucky
for you that he appreciates small things...
     R: Why you....
     A: Bring it on, devil woman!  (Cue fireworks))
     Sasami had been dutifully cleaning up the argument's aftermath
when she had overheard Noboyuki complaining to Youshou that he never
had time to go fishing anymore.
     She had been puzzled; and being Sasami, she had immediately
started asking questions.  "Father, Grandfather, why would you fish?
You get your food from the market!"
     They had both laughed.  Noboyuki had left for work, but Youshou
had sat her down and explained the concept.  As was the tendency
of priests throughout the universe, he had started by asking a 
question. 
     "Sasami, do you understand meditation?"
     "Oh, yes Grandfather!  Meditation helps you to clear your mind and
focuses the Chi.  It's very important!  Mother always said that being
able to meditate is very important for Princesses, so that we can make
good decisions and keep calm when things get disordered."
     Yousho smiled.  "Your mother is absolutely correct.  Meditation
is important in many ways.  Warriors use it to help themselves
focus on their art.  Statesmen use it to reach objectivity before 
making decisions.  I myself meditate daily to help keep my equilibrium
and to approach spiritual harmony."
     Sasami was nearly hopping on one foot by this point.  "You have
something to say, Sasami-chan?" Asked Yousho with a smile.
     "Grandfather, I already know all these things!  But what has that
got to do with FISHING?"
     Yousho chuckled.  "Sasami-chan, it seems that you could do with
a little meditation yourself.  It improves the patience."
     Sasami was immediately contrite.  Her face fell.  "I'm sorry,
grandfather," she said.  "But I just don't understand!"
     "There will be many things in life you will not understand,
Sasami."   Yousho paused for a moment, then continued.  "Some people
fish for food.  To them, fishing is labor.  If they do not do it, they
will not eat.  For others, fishing is not labor.  They may eat the 
fish, but their survival is not dependent on it.  For these people,
fishing is a chance to focus the mind on a single point.  They forget
about all other things in life, and focus solely on the present."
Yousho glanced down at Sasami.  Noting that she was still listening,
he continued.  "Fishing as, Father and I practice it, is a very slow
thing.  Very little happens for a very long time.  As time passes,
the inactivity forces a shift in focus.  The focus shifts from the act-
the fact of our fishing, to the self- the person doing the fishing.
Now do you understand?"
     Sasami looked uncertain, but ventured a guess. "So when you fish,
you end up meditating?"
     "Exactly!  Not everyone has the mental discipline to simply drop
all their cares and turn their focus inward.  By fishing, we place 
ourselves in a natural setting, close ALMOST everything out of our 
minds, then simply let the mind wander until it finds its own 
reflection!"
     Sasami was impressed.  She hadn't heard Grandfather speak this 
much on any subject since she had known him- well, except for those
late night conversations with Washuu about the nature of the Universe,
but she didn't understand much of those.  This, she understood.
Better yet, it gave her an idea...
     "Grandfather," she asked, "can I fish?"
     Yousho thought about it briefly.  "I don't see why not.  Father
hasn't the time these days, and I've fallen out of the habit, so 
there's gear and tackle available.  It's in the closet upstairs.
Ask Washuu or Tenchi to help you with it, though.  You're a little
young to be handling those barbed hooks."  Yousho stood.  "I must get
back to the shrine, I've stayed here too long already."
     Sasami stood.  "Thank you, Grandfather!"  She escorted him to the
door, then slid it closed and ran back into the house.
     Sasami was in every way her mother's daughter.  Just like her 
mother, she fully exploited her ability to be sweet and outgoing.
Also just like her mother, she could be shockingly devious at the same
time she was being disarmingly cute.  The fishing conversation
had fired her imagination... and she knew she had just the right 
combination of kawaii and underhandedness to carry it off.
     It had not, in point of fact, been easy.  Ryouko didn't understand
why she couldn't just lob an energy blast into the lake and collect
the dead fish; Aeka had asserted with regal finality that fishing
was just not something that Princesses DID.  Sasami had been forced
to play her trump card to get them to go along with it: she had 
threatened to make them eat their own cooking for a week.
     It had started off rocky, as she knew it would.  The two women
had fired repeated barbs at each other through the first hour, even as
they both maintained (with perfect certainty) that each would be the 
first to catch a fish.  Ryouko had been especially hard to manage.
Her attention span in no way lent itself to such a tranquil activity
as sitting quietly on a dock, pole in hand.  Sasami had prevailed,
despite the trials, by applying her knowledge of the two women to her
tactics.  Ryouko required the guilt- trip method.  Summoning up every
reserve of cuteness she possessed, Sasami would plead, "Just do it for
a little longer?  For ME?"  Ryouko would subside into grumbling,
but she stayed put.
     Aeka required a wholly different tack.  While it was plain that
she actually enjoyed the quiet beauty of the lake (despite the "base"
activity she was partaking in), Ryouko's occasional insults agitated
her enough that the senior princess tried to leave more than once.  
Each time she started to rise, Sasami would lean over and whisper
into her ear "Don't MAKE me tell Tenchi that you've been trying to 
sneak a peek at him when he changes for sword practice," and Aeka would
quickly sit back down, a scarlet blush on her face.
     As the first hour wore on, Sasami found that she had to work less
and less to keep the pair calm, and by the time the second hour was 
halfway through, she found that she had to say nothing at all.  It was
a gorgeous day, not too hot, not too cold, with a slight breeze flowing
down into the vale from the mountains.  The quiet trill of faraway
birdsong carried down from the forest, providing a subdued musical
accompaniment to the canvas of the surrounding hills.  The wind created
patterns of ripples on the lake that seemed to chase each other in some
chaos-theory ballet, and while the fish seemed to be unimpressed
with the girls' efforts, each had long since ceased to care.  Each was
absorbed in their own thoughts- precisely as Sasami had intended
they be.
     On the her side of the dock, Aeka found herself staring at the 
bobbing float-mark of her line, nearly mesmerized by the rhythmic,
easy motion.  *To just drift*, she thought, *to just float along...
I never get to do that.  It's such a beautiful day... it's really very
nice to just sit here and enjoy it for a while.*
     *Though I can't stop thinking that the laundry still hasn't been
done.  Of course, if that lazy Ryouko would do her chores in a timely
fashion, it would be done by now and I wouldn't have to worry about
it.  We are guests in Lord Tenchi's house after all...*
     Aeka closed her eyes and sighed.  *I need to stop worrying so 
much.  It's going to give me wrinkles.*  
     Aeka had a mental image of herself as a wrinkled old hag.  She 
shuddered.  *I can't have that happen.  I must stay beautiful for Lord
Tenchi...*
      *I hate to admit it, but that devil-woman may be right.  I'm too
high-strung for my own good.*
     *Of course, it's hard to be relaxed... the weight of an empire
sits on my shoulders.  But does it have to be that way all the time?
Surely, there must be time in life to just drift a little.  Brother
Yousho is always saying that there's a certain inevitability
to the Universe.  Maybe there's something to just letting things 
happen...*
     She heaved a sigh. *No... there are some things that are too 
important to just let happen.  The Kingdom, for one... Tenchi, for 
another.*
     She drifted into non-thought for a few seconds, her mind stilled
as she watched the bobbing cork and listened to birdsong.  She 
reconsidered.  *Maybe that's not right, either.  Mother has always
said that the Kingdom is the people... that if the Royal family went
away, the Kingdom would still be there.  We're just the caretakers.
And that makes sense; we're not omniscient.  Every little thing across
the light years of Jurai space doesn't... can't.... depend on us.*
     *But that's not true... everything in the Kingdom does really
depend on us, at least indirectly.  We control the direction of the 
entire Kingdom.  If we misjudge, wars may ravage us.  If we lose honor,
our Kingdom's honor is diminished.  If we shirk our obligations,
how can we ask the people to perform theirs?*
     *But what about Lord Yousho?  He left... for good... and the 
Kingdom continues.  He's even revered as a hero.*
     *And what about myself?  I've not married. I was told that the 
Kingdom depended on my making a politically expedient marriage...
and yet the Kingdom continues...*
     *I'm missing something.*
     Aeka reached up and adjusted her headband.  A lone cloud briefly
scudded across the sun's face, throwing a shadow over the dock.  A 
brief chill shook her, then quickly passed as the cloud moved on and 
the sun's rays returned.  Aeka looked up.
     *Thank goodness, it was just a cloud.  I was afraid Mihoshi and 
Yagami were blocking the sun on their way down to crashing into the 
lake again.*  She shook her head.  *It's too much for me to comprehend
how that woman survives.*
     She shook her head once to clear it of the terrifying vision of 
Yagami hurtling down from the heavens.  *Just as Yagami plummets
with Mihoshi at the helm*, thought Aeka, *Jurai would fall if a fool
or madman were at the helm of the ship of state.  Though in Yagami's
case, it's amazing that Youkinoujou even lets her fly that thing.  Left
to itself, the ship would be fine...*
     Aeka's eyes widened in sudden epiphany as the metaphor struck
home.
     *Jurai is just like Yagami*, she mused.  *A powerful thing that
can stand on its own.  With a poor helmsman, the Kingdom, like Yagami,
suffers.  With an expert helmsman, Jurai, like a space cruiser, is much
stronger...*
     *But either way, the Kingdom would run itself without a pilot.
The Head of State, like a human pilot at the wheel of a self-aware
ship, simply makes things better... or worse.*
     *So what does that mean?*
     *It means I'm not quite as important as I thought I was.  She 
giggled slightly. But really, it means that there are a lot of things
happening that are beyond my control.  No matter how hard I try, the 
Kingdom is going to run itself without me... or any other Royal.*
     *So what does that mean?*
     *It means I'm starting to ask the same question repeatedly.
Am I getting as bad as Mihoshi?*  She smiled at herself, amused at her
own question.
     *Seriously though... it stands to reason... that if I can't 
control everything... then the Kingdom doesn't really depend on me, at
least not day-to day.  I know I must be a role model... but do the 
people of Jurai ask that I be perfect?  Surely not... then I'd be a 
goddess.  I know they don't expect that.  Mother's said time and time
again that if I do my best, then the people will know.*
     *Come to think of it, she's also fond of saying that if you try to
do everything, you end up doing nothing.*
     *Maybe I've been trying to do everything...*
     *So would the Kingdom end if I relaxed a little?*  She considered
it.  *There was a time in the past when I would have said yes.  But if
the example Mihoshi and Yagami have shown me is correct... and I think
it is... *
     *Then probably not... no, certainly not.*
     *I really should learn to relax a little more.*
     Aeka realized with a sudden sense of incredulity that she might
have learned a very important lesson... from Mihoshi.
     *I'll have to remember to be a little easier on that girl.  She 
may be on to something.*  
     *But what about Tenchi?
     *That's different*, she told herself.
     *How is it different?*
     *Devil-woman over there makes it different.  She's like a black
hole.  If you just "relax" concerning matters with Tenchi, she may pull
him in to her event horizon... or worse yet, into that ridiculously
over-sized chest of hers.*
     Aeka thought for a moment, then shook her head, angry at her own
assumption.
     *Fear is making me a fool.  Lord Tenchi isn't a piece of flotsam
that will go to whomever can draw him in.  Think about it!  Tenchi
is his own person.  He can't be won or lost by anything I might do- or
that Ryouko might do.  He must make his own decision.*
     Aeka paused for a moment, turning over her last thought in her 
mind.  Such a matter-of-fact pronouncement of Tenchi's independence,
even mentally, took her aback.  The implications were nearly mind 
numbing.  This fierce struggle she'd been engaged in with Ryouko for so
long... meant precisely NOTHING.  It was a game neither of them could
win, because the prize would decide for himself whom he went to.
     *Is that right?  Is it really so far beyond my control?*  She 
thought about how Tenchi usually reacted to her when she tried to charm
him.  More often that not, he seemed to enjoy it... but he had never
moved beyond 'enjoying' and on to 'reciprocating.'  Worse yet, whenever
she moved to actively counter Ryouko's efforts to snare him, it only
seemed to push him away from both her AND the space pirate.
     *All my efforts to this point have accomplished nothing.  And that
makes sense.  If Lord Tenchi isn't ready, or willing, then nothing
I do will force him to be.  He's too much his own man for me to sway
him.  Influence perhaps... but not convince.*  As she thought this,
another question came to her.  What would happen, if in a moment of 
weakness, he did allow himself to be convinced?  Before he'd really
thought it through and decided for himself?  What would happen when his
moment of weakness had passed?
     *If somehow I did draw him to me by my own efforts*, she thought,
*rather than letting him come on his own... what would happen the day
I couldn't put forth the effort to keep him?*
     *If I win him through struggle, then I must keep him through
struggle... and that would be hell.  Wondering every day if today would
be the day I just couldn't try hard enough...*
     *I couldn't do it.  Not that way.*
     *But how?*
     Her mind gnawed at that question for a bit.  A light breeze 
stirred her hair, distracting her enough that she noticed her senses
again...
     And again, she saw the float-mark bobbing in the ripples.  She had
explored one analogy today already... why not another?
     *Is that it?  Just drift and let the ripples carry me where they
may... and let him come to me?  If I am myself... no more, and no 
less... and I don't concern myself with what others do... including
Ryouko... and he comes to me, then it was meant to be.*
     *But what if he doesn't?*  The thought terrified her.  She'd 
invested so many of her hopes and dreams for her future into the idea
that Tenchi would always be there.  As she sat there, trying to imagine
what she would do without him, she realized she didn't have a clue.
     *But that's my own fault*, she realized.  *I've fixed all my hopes
for happiness on him.  That's not fair to him, or to myself.  I'm 
responsible for my own happiness.  And in any event... would it be 
worse to lose him, or worse to have him, but always fear his leaving?*
     *Definitely the latter.  I've seen what that fear has done to 
Father... he's always been afraid that mother and Lady Funahou are with
him just because he's King.  And I've watched him grow bitter and hard
with that fear.*
     *So losing Tenchi would be awful... but having him for the wrong
reasons would be worse.*
     *So what do I do?*
     Aeka took one hand off her rod and massaged her left temple.
She was starting to develop a headache.  In all the time she'd been on
Earth, she'd almost always concentrated on the HOW of her pursuit
of Tenchi.  She'd very rarely stopped and pondered the WHY.  Now that
she had given that subject some thought, the whole world seemed to have
been stood on its head.  The First Princess of Jurai had come up 
against a problem that she had no answer for.
     *Maybe, since there's more than one person in this equation,
it's impossible for me to answer that question by myself.  Goodness,
I'm starting to sound like Washuu now.*
     *Even still, that may be the only answer... that there is no 
answer.*
     There was a buzzing by her ear as a gnat performed an unauthorized
transit of her personal airspace.  She looked up, startled...
and was struck by the beauty of the day.  The light breeze, the 
birdsong, the verdant hills, the rippling lake...
     She thought back to her musings about the nature of her 
relationship to the Juraian state, and smiled.
     *What was it I decided?  Oh yes... 'I really should learn to relax
a little more.'  After all, it's wonderful here.  Perhaps I can't 
predict the future concerning Lord Tenchi... but I can at least listen
to my own advice.  I think I'll just let things be for now, and enjoy
this beautiful day.*
     *And what about Lord Tenchi?*  Some Type-A part of her just 
wouldn't let the question go.
     *Either he comes to me or he doesn't.  Either way, neither chasing
him... nor worrying about it... is going to bring him any closer.*
     *So,* she asked herself, *does that mean I stop spending so much
time arguing with Ryouko?*
     *No... some pleasures aren't worth giving up.*  She smiled and 
enjoyed the mental image of bopping Ryouko in the head with her mallet.
Ending her internal ponderings with that happy thought, she focused
her eyes on the lake, and let her mind go as she watched the rhythmic
bobbing of the float-mark.
     Scant feet away, Ryouko was growing frustrated- though she 
certainly didn't look it.  Her entire body seemed languid, and her 
half- lidded eyes would have indicated to a casual observer that she 
was either bored or half-asleep.  A casual observer would have been 
wrong, of course.  Despite her impulsive nature, Ryouko could be very
focused and deliberate when she chose to be.  At the moment, she was 
leveraging that focus into a predator's stillness while waiting for her
prey- in this case, fish.  Ryouko had fished before, of course...
but never in quite such a conventional manner.  Ryouko's preferred
fishing method was to float over the lake and instant-barbecue
the occasional jumping fish with a lightning bolt.  That technique
tended to be much more fun than this rod-and-reel business...
and produced much quicker results, to boot.
     Despite the differences between her previous experience and her 
current activity, she still knew that one truth applied in both cases-
fish spooked easily.  Knowing this, she kept her body still despite
her rising anger.  She allowed herself one indulgence only- her "tail"
swished silently back and forth behind her as a means to release her 
agitation.  
     What agitated the galaxy's formerly most-wanted criminal this fine
day was what she could hear going on a scant few feet beneath her.  She
could HEAR the fish swimming around beneath the dock.  Her predator's
senses told her that she could just reach out and take one... but as 
the past hour and a half had proven, no matter how hard she wished
it, they wouldn't bite on their own.
     *Just like Tenchi*, she thought.
     *Everything in my life I've ever wanted, I've just reached out and
taken, or at least tried to.  And so I've tried with Tenchi.  And I've
tried, and I've tried, and I've tried...*
     *It's all Aeka's fault, damn her.  Every time I get close, she 
bops me in the head with that damn oversized mallet.*
     She fumed for a moment, feeling her wrath rising... then it 
abruptly deflated.  A forlorn look crossed her face.
     *No, that's not true.  Admit it.  I've been alone with him more
than once.  I've saved his life, he's saved mine.  We've traveled
across half the galaxy...*
     *And he's never even kissed me.*
     She was baffled.  *He's risked his neck for me time and again,
she mused.  And I know I wasn't imagining it when I saw the look in his
eye when he held me... I mean Zero... I mean me, dammit... on Doctor
Clay's ship.  It was like he was losing someone he loved.*
     *And I know he's attracted to me.  I can smell the pheromones
he puts out whenever he sees me. They're eighty percent lust and twenty
percent fight-or-flight... so if the boy's head was all brainstem,
we'd be fucking like minks by now.*
     *So what gives?  Why is it that every time I reach for him, he 
stops me?  And why won't he reach for me????*
     Ryouko growled sub-vocally.  It was the same question she'd asked
herself time and again, and as always, it did nothing to improve her 
mood.  A few hundred yards away, napping in a sunbeam, Ryo-oh-ki
stirred uneasily in her sleep.  Ryouko's displeasure was giving the 
cabbit nightmares.  This was a particularly bad one- the poor creature
was dreaming that it transformed into a huge pink robotic 
rabbit-sumo-wrestler when it got angry.  Worse yet, all the cabbit's
friends were suddenly poorly animated!  The horror...
     Meanwhile, Ryouko tried to force her mind into a more tactical
mode.  *Calm down, Ryouko!  Think!  Treat it like a bank vault you 
can't get into... there's always a solution.  You just have to ask the
right questions...*  She took a deep breath and reset her thinking.
Though she'd never admit it to anyone, Ryouko had learned quite a lot
from Kagato over the course of her involuntary service to the evil 
genius.  His mind had dominated hers, true; but something of his 
scientific method had rubbed off on her as a result of the psychic
contact.  One thing she had learned was a problem-solving
method called "funneling."  Whenever Kagato had prepared to assault
an objective, he had begun his analysis at the macro-level...
then "funneled" his reasoning down until the entirety of his intellect
was concentrated on the key vulnerability that would enable him to 
defeat his enemies.  Ryouko called it the "big-to-small" method.
     *Okay, let's go big-to-small.  Big picture, what do I want?*
     *That's easy.  I want Tenchi.*
     *Okay... now more specifically...?*
     *I want Tenchi to love me.*
     *So that sets a condition on things.  I can't just take him.  He's
got to want me as much as I want him.*
     *Okay.  So that eliminates the direct approach.  But I knew that
already...*
     *Concentrate!!!*
     *Sorry... so how do I get Tenchi to love me?*
     *What tactical data do I have?  When has he responded to me the 
most?*  The pirate's mind flashed through all of the dealings she'd
had with Tenchi.  From their first fight at his school when he'd cut 
off her hand, then apologized... to his cry of "don't hurt her, 
Grandpa!" even as she had tried to kill both him and Yousho... to his
stalwart attack on Kagato as she was helpless on Souja's deck plates...
to when he held her in his arms on Doctor Clay's ship... and through
travels across the galaxy since...
     *Too much data.  I need a single, salient example to put it all 
into context.  I need to filter the data with a more specific 
question...* She narrowed her focus further.  
     *What has been the single most intense and prolonged period of 
positive interaction between Tenchi and myself?*  The answer didn't
take her long.  
     *The best week we ever had together was the week I'd lost my 
powers because of that damn Mihoshi and her fear of cockroaches.
For a week, I was just another Earthling, and for that week Tenchi
and I were as close as we've ever been.  Even Yousho was trying to hook
us up, things were working so well.  But as soon as I got my powers
back... Tenchi backed off again.*
     *Okay... now, I need to examine all of the other things I thought
of in the light of that week.*  She tried to put it all into a 
coherent, simple formula.  What was the similarity between all of those
moments she so treasured?  What united those instances... and set them
apart from the times when Tenchi couldn't... or wouldn't... let down
his guard? She tuned out the fish, and the breeze, and the warmth of 
the sun.  All of her focus turned toward that one question.
     She could only come up with one thing: power, or the lack thereof.
When she had power... nothing.  When she didn't... sparks flew.  When
she was in control... nothing.  When she was in need or in trouble...
sparks flew.
     *That's it!*  She nearly fell of the dock with the realization.
Beneath her, spooked fish scattered in all directions.  *All the times
he's been close to me have been when I've needed him.  But whenever
I've tried to force the issue, he's backed off.*       She thought
about that for a bit.
     *So he responds to my need...  but doesn't respond to my want.*
     *I've seen it with Aeka, too... the harder she tries, the more he
backs off.  But the minute she's in trouble... he's there.*
     *Okay... so it's a given that he doesn't respond well to being
chased.  His loss, but okay.*
     *And, come to think of it, he's been known to chase a little 
himself.  I've told him off a few times, and he always comes and finds
me.  He definitely doesn't want me to leave...*
     *Okay.  So he's attracted to me.  He doesn't want me to leave.
He responds when I'm in need...*
     *Sounds like all the elements of a good, healthy romance to me...
so there's hope.*
     She paused for a moment and stretched.  Now that she had 
established a line of thought, she had time for her senses again.  The
sun felt incredibly good, and the breeze was just right.
     *Maybe I've been reading too much into his gentle nature.*  It 
wasn't in Ryouko's nature to admit mistakes, but the more she 
considered this possibility, the more she realized that she might have
misjudged Tenchi's character.  *I've always kind of assumed that 
because he was gentle, he would be the quarry, and I'd have to hunt 
him.  But now that I think about it, he hates being pursued.  And he 
does a pretty damn good job of tackling problems when he has to.  Maybe
I should be more of a problem, perhaps he'd tackle me...*
     Ryouko laughed at her own joke.  *Okay*, she thought, *enough
kidding around.  So let's start from the assumption that he's a nice
kid, but he's not the meek type I thought he was.*
     *So much the better.  I've never liked meek much anyway.  Gentle,
yes.  Meek?  Meek is for prey animals.*
     *But it also means I gotta back off some.  He's not running from
me because he's afraid of me.  If he were afraid, he'd never have shown
me what affection he has.  He's running from me because he wants to 
make his own decisions, on his own terms... and I keep trying to force
him.  And since he's not meek, he won't be forced.*
     Ryouko was elated.  Now here was a premise she could base action
on.  The bank vault might have a way in after all.
     *So, what can I do?*
     *Flirt? Yes.  A little, anyway.  It needs to be less serious,
though, so he doesn't think I'm trying to whisk him off before he's 
ready.  That's fine.  I think he'd like me a little more playful.*
Her mind started to wander off, exploring all the delicious ways that
she could "play"...
     *Get serious, girl!  Don't let up now!*
     *Okay... so where was I?  Oh yes... so flirting's okay...*
     *How about chasing him?  Probably not.  If I did, he'd have to 
very clearly understand that I was just doing it for fun.*
     *Fighting with Aeka... now there's a problem.  If we're fighting
over him, he'll see that as a fight to control him.*
     *But she can get just so damn intolerable!*
     *Wait, that's okay.  I can fight with her.  It just can't be over
Tenchi.*  She smiled in relief.  She had briefly thought that she was
going to have to give up her favorite recreational activity.  There
were few things she enjoyed more than hurling the occasional blast at 
the Juraian Princess.
     *So what's the fundamental truth here?*
     *I guess it's to be honest with him without pressuring him.  
Though now I have to figure out how to do that.  I've never been one 
for the soft sell.  But I've got some good ideas, I think.*
     *This is going to take some work... but it's work that's within
the realm of possibility.*
     *Speaking of 'realm of possibility'... I bet Tenchi and Aeka would
freak if they knew it were possible I could be this analytical
about something like this.  Thank goodness Sasami's the only one who 
knows I can think this way... and I made her promise not to tell.*
     *Anyhow, I'll think about this some more later.  This day's just
too nice to ignore any longer.*  Feeling much better than she had a few
minutes previously, Ryouko leaned back, tucked her rod under the crook
of her arm, and began to close her eyes...
     *What was that?*  A distinctly artificial glint had briefly 
flashed from near the rim of the vale on the far side of the lake.  
Ryouko squinted, trying to see what it was.
     In a treetop nearly a mile away, the object of Ryouko's scrutiny
was sitting on a bough... and was in a near panic.  A humanoid figure
wearing light-splatter woodland camouflage and a mid-grade stealth
suit snapped his binoculars down, cursing the sunlight that had 
reflected off their lenses.  He whispered urgently into a 
collar-mounted boom mike.   
     "Control, this is two-four.  I've been spotted.  Get me out of 
here!"  Moments later, the air around him shimmered... and he was gone.
Half a second later, Ryouko materialized inches away from where the man
had been perched.  She looked around quizzically, but saw nothing.
She was confused- she could SMELL an unfamiliar scent here... but there
was no one in sight.
     *Hmmmmm...* she thought, *something's going on here...*  The space
pirate searched for a few more moments, but found no trace of whoever
had been there.  Reluctantly, she turned and floated back toward the 
dock on the other side of the lake, throwing the occasional glance
back toward the treetop as she went.  She would have searched a little
more thoroughly, but she was already trying to think of a way to 
explain to Sasami why she had suddenly abandoned the dock...

Chapter 6 Hinase's Secondary Berthing Area, 
April 27th of R.Y. 732 
0330 Ship's Clock Time

     Kaje sat cross-legged on his futon, his face and upper body eerily
silhouetted by the holographic display that provided the compartment's
only illumination.  He stared intently as tinny clashes, clangs, and 
cries drifted up from the device's speakers...
     "Hah!  I've got you now.  Group three, close ranks and charge!"
In response to his directive, the holographic images of almost two 
hundred miniature No-Dachi armed samurai burst forth from a simulated
treeline.  A chorus of tiny battle cries echoed through the compartment
as the swordsmen crashed into a file of archers...
     The holographic display went blank.  A moment later, a soft light
emanated from the overhead, illuminating the room.  "You win, 
Lieutenant."  A small orb of about six-inch diameter floated down from
the ceiling and hovered over the display.  "Without my Archers, I'd 
have had nothing to break up your spearmen.  My cavalry would have been
useless."
     "I guess beating me the last six times in a row made you over-
confident."  Kaje smiled.  He glanced around the compartment.
The space was about six meters by six meters square, with the overhead
about 3 meters up.  The bulkheads and deck were mostly bare metal.
In one corner was the futon he now sat on.  In the other was a small
environmental control unit and a workstation.  In the center was the 
now- deactivated holo unit.  *Reminds me of a fleet destroyer*,
he thought, *only roomier...*
     The orb spoke.  "Nonsense.  It was a shrewd maneuver.  You do seem
to have a talent for the ambush."
     "I'm a spy, HINASE.  If it's not underhanded, I'm not good at it."
Kaje grinned.  "So, want to go for another game?"  Kaje had been aboard
the ship for four days now as it had traveled further and further
spinward, away from Karentes and the ever expanding "search" being 
mounted for Minagi.  In that time, he'd come to truly like the little
orb that performed most of the ship's interaction functions.  He had 
always thought that HINASE had been the ship's name, but he had found
that in fact the ship had no name at all.  The name actually belonged
to the orb.  Minagi used the name when asked about the ship because
the orb was her favorite amongst the ship's various control entities.
     HINASE reminded Kaje of a cross between a supercomputer
and a puppy dog- blindingly intelligent, but unflaggingly friendly.
The orb had approached him after the dinner meal last evening and asked
him if it could provide anything.  Kaje, who was midway through a book
he'd picked up on his last assignment titled "A Military History of 
Feudal Japan," had asked if HINASE knew anything about samurai.
     The little globe had quickly dialed up a holographic simulation
and had asked, in an oddly Speak-And-Spell sounding voice, a 
question....
     "SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?"
     Fourteen matches later, Kaje was convinced that HINASE not only
knew a thing or two about samurai, but would have made an excellent
Shogun of sixteenth century Japan.  One thing bothered him, though;
he was unsure why the little floating ball kept making references
to "NORAD" and "global thermonuclear war"...
     "Sir, are you aware that we are due to make planet fall on Oceana
in seven hours?  Surely you need some rest?"  
     Kaje could almost see the concern on HINASE's surface... despite
the fact that it had no features whatsoever.  "Actually, I'm fine.  I 
didn't wake up until well after noon."  He stretched, and noted as he 
did so the popping sounds coming from his knees.  "I think I do need
to get up and take a walk, though.  Sitting here letting you thump me 
for hours on end has made me pretty stiff."
     As Kaje stood, HINASE wafted back a few feet to make room.  "Do 
you require anything else?  I can get you a relaxant for that 
stiffness.  It's much more efficient than walking."
     Kaje laughed.  "No thanks.  Maybe when I come back.  Same 
protocols apply; find me the instant anything shows up on the ship's
sensors.  Otherwise, I don't need a thing."
     The ball-shaped entity hovered for a moment as Kaje took off his
Juraian Fleet Academy robe and put on a pair of gym shorts and a shirt.
As the intelligence officer slipped on his sandals, the globe spoke.
"Sir, do you mind if I accompany you?  Miss Minagi is asleep, and I'm
not quite ready to go to standby mode for the night yet myself."
     "Sure, you can fly wing on me."
     "Sir?"
     Kaje chuckled.  "Fighter slang, HINASE.  Means that you can 
walk... errrrr, float next to me."  Kaje was amused.  The past four 
days away from the Fleet had served as a startling demonstration
to him of just how much military mannerisms had taken over his speech
and behavior.  For the first two days, he'd had to re-phrase almost
everything he'd said.  Since then, HINASE had picked up most of the 
terms, though he still occasionally confused the little entity.  With
Minagi, on the other hand, he'd had to simply re-learn how to speak
civilian.
     Not that they'd talked all that much.
     The space pirate had been at meals, and on the bridge when they'd
had to evade the occasional contact... but other than that, she'd kept
to herself since the voyage began.  Which suited Kaje just fine.  She
had made it pretty clear just after the voyage began that she liked
neither being told where she could or couldn't go nor having someone
besides her make decisions about her ship.  Kaje had been forced to 
pull out the Sasami card again, and it had clearly upset her.
     And though he didn't show it, it didn't sit very well with Kaje,
either.  On a survival level, it wasn't very smart angering someone
who could kill you faster than you could blink... 
     *And it's never fun telling a beautiful woman something she 
doesn't like.*  Kaje shrugged off the thought.  *Oh well.  Better to 
piss her off early, rather than get my hopes up and have 'em crushed
later.*
     Kaje stepped out of his stateroom and into the corridor with the
hovering ball in tow.  The ship's interior was softly lit for "night"
to help regulate the passengers' circadian rhythms.  The bulkheads,
deck, and overhead were all painted a uniform blue-grey that made Kaje
feel as if though he were aboard a warship- which, in a manner of 
speaking, he was.  He'd seen the armament panel his first day aboard.
The ship possessed a rather impressive ability to cause mayhem.
     On a whim, he turned left and proceeded toward the bridge.  The 
bridge's viewports possessed the best field of view of any area on the
ship, and Kaje had developed a habit early in his space faring career
of stargazing whenever possible.  Additionally, he wanted to check the
ship's instruments himself.  He trusted HINASE and the other control
entities completely... but he hadn't made it through eight years in 
Fleet Intelligence by making assumptions.
     "Sir," asked HINASE, "may I ask a question?"
     Kaje turned his head to check that the little ball was still 
following him, then replied without breaking stride.  "Sure, what's
up?"
     "I must admit, I've been doing some snooping. I-"
     Kaje stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.  "Excuse me?"
Kaje had been around secrets his entire career; he himself possessed
not a small number.  He was therefore quite averse to the idea of 
anyone around him doing any "snooping"... unless, of course, they were
doing it at his behest...
     "I've been searching the Jurai Fleet database for information
on you.  I was concerned for Miss Minagi's safety, after all, and I 
wanted to be sure..."
     Kaje relaxed considerably.  It was perfectly in keeping with 
HINASE's personality to perform a check on him.  The little globe was,
after all, Minagi's most faithful companion.  "Yeah?  Find anything
interesting?"  The intelligence officer was curious; he'd never run a 
check on HIMSELF, and was unsure of what someone who did would find.
     "Yes sir.  I found out that you authored the threat assessment
on Miss Minagi."
     Kaje stood very still for a moment.  "HINASE, that threat 
assessment is classified."
     The little ball sweat-dropped.  "Uh, yes sir..."
     "Please tell me RIGHT NOW how you came by that information,
before I have to DO something."  Kaje narrowed his eyes and gave the 
floating orb his best menacing glare.  He didn't know if a control
entity could be intimidated, but he was sure going to try...
     "Sir, the main unit entity of this ship is cleared for information
through SECRET by the First Princess of Jurai."  Kaje said nothing
for a long moment.  "Are you alright sir?  You don't look well.  Did I 
say something wrong?"  The ball hovered closer, seemingly looking
him over anxiously.
     Kaje's mind was reeling.  *Great Yousho, he thought.  If the 
public ever found out that the Royals had granted a clearance to a 
known space pirate, there'd be a hue and cry you could hear all the way
to Andromeda...*  "I'm just a bit surprised, HINASE.  Please, do 
continue."
     The control entity sounded definitely relieved.  "Thank you, sir.
As I was saying, when I found that you had authored the assessment,
I of course downloaded it immediately.  I found it impressively
thorough, if a bit narrowly-focused."
     "Uh, thanks, I think."
     "Don't mistake me, sir.  It was an excellent assessment.
I was just a bit depressed by its tone.  It seemed to only consider
Miss Minagi in light of her capability to do damage.  It addressed
very little of her character or potential for personal growth.  It was
rather... stark."
     Kaje laughed.  The orb, startled, rapidly hovered back a few feet.
"Of course it was stark, my naïve little friend.  It was a THREAT 
assessment.  You know, a purely military look at the contrary young
lady in question.  I wasn't doing a biography."
     "Oh!  I knew that, sir... I just thought it was a shame, given
that the author was obviously so... INTERESTED... in his subject 
matter."
     Kaje's eyebrows shot up.  He could have sworn that he'd just heard
a computer try to be subtle.  And if he had heard correctly...
well then, what did THAT mean?  Only one way to find out... "HINASE,
could you please explain that last remark?  You have my undivided
attention."
     HINASE's voice changed to an almost scholarly monotone.  "Sir,
my analysis of the article in question indicated a ninety-three
percent probability that the author had more than a passing interest
in his subject.  Comparison with other threat assessments, including
others written by the same author, showed a greater level of personal
attention to the subject's reasoning and emotional state- more interest
in the WHY rather than in the HOW.  Such analysis is rare in military
writing, and its presence in this case seems to demonstrate that the 
author had become personally interested in the subject as a being,
rather than as a threat."  The miniature globe resumed normal 
conversational tone as it continued.  "Furthermore, the reaction
you showed to the statement of my thesis and my observation of you 
since you have come aboard raise the probability to ninety-seven
percent."  The floating ball almost sounded smug.
     Kaje mentally cursed himself.  *You broke the first rule of 
espionage, you idiot!  Never assume that just because someone seems
friendly that they're not a spy.  HINASE's just done what any good 
intelligence officer would have done... and you let it do it more 
easily by treating it like your long-lost buddy for the past three 
days.*  Kaje was at a loss.  The control entity was entirely Minagi's
creature.  He could only believe that what it knew, Minagi knew.  And
though it was incongruous, the intelligence officer was like any 
grade-schooler with a crush- he was unreasoningly afraid of having
his affection revealed to its object.  He rationalized his fear by 
telling himself it would make dealings with Minagi far more awkward,
and that it would increase the difficulty of his mission... but that
was all it was- rationalization.  "Uh, HINASE..."
     The hovering sphere cut him off.  "Don't worry, sir.  I haven't
told her."
     Kaje's mind exploded like a manual transmission that had just gone
from fourth to first while doing sixty miles an hour.  "You 
HAVEN'T?!?!"
     "No sir."  The little globe seemed to shake with silent laughter.  
     "My observations of you over the past four days, as well as your
service history, indicates that you're a decent chap.  And Miss Minagi
has been very much alone since Master Yakage died..."
     Kaje's mental transmission now went from first to reverse while
still doing at least forty.  He stammered uselessly for a moment or two
as his brain and his vocal cords desperately fought to remember how 
they'd used to cooperate.  HINASE floated patiently until he finally
managed speech... "HINASE."
     "Yes sir?"
     "This is getting way too damn weird.  ARE YOU TRYING TO SET ME UP
WITH MINAGI?"
     "Oh, no sir!"  The little ball sounded scandalized.  "I'd never
presume to be so forward!  It's not my place to interfere with Miss 
Minagi's social life."  HINASE paused for a moment.  "I believe what
I'm trying to say, sir, is that I'd approve of the idea.  In concept."
     Kaje sighed and began to collect his scattered wits.  "HINASE,
you're going to be the death of me."  He shook his head and turned
to resume his walk toward the bridge.
     "That's odd, sir," replied the ball. "Miss Minagi tells me that
all the time..."

     A few minutes later, Kaje and HINASE stepped onto the ship's 
bridge.  The space was entirely dark except for the multitude of 
pinpoint light sources presented by the various displays, lights,
and gauges that adorned the floor-to-ceiling consoles and 
instrumentation.  The effect was a bit eerie- the dozens of tiny lights
seemed to be floating in a surrounding sea of blackness.  It was like
a city lit up at night.  *Or like a star field,* thought Kaje.  *Though
that illusion will only last so long as the viewport shutters are 
closed...*  "Shutters open," he spoke.  No sooner had the words left
his lips than the viewport shields began to silently slide apart. The
array of stars the opening shutters revealed was breathtaking.
Their light lit the bridge like the brightest planetglow.  The spinward
sector of Jurai space, while not nearly so star-filled as the coreward
or even anti-spinward sectors, still contained millions and millions
of stars visible to the naked eye.  Kaje stared in awe at the 
brilliance of the star field.  *If anyone ever wondered if God loved
his creation,* thought Kaje, *they'd come to a quick certainty if they
ever saw the stars from the bridge of a ship...*
     Suddenly, from directly above him, came the sound of someone
clearing his or her throat.  Kaje looked up- and nearly yelped with 
fright as he caught sight of a pair of cat-like predator's eyes two 
feet above his face.  Instinctively, he jumped back three feet while
trying to crouch down and away from the perceived threat.  
Unfortunately, he lacked the agility to complete the maneuver and fell
unceremoniously on his ass.
     Minagi began to laugh uncontrollably.  Kaje stared in silent (and
slightly embarrassed) frustration as the space pirate held her sides
and laughed until her ribs were sore.  "Gods, I love it!  It's that 
look of dawning realization that I live for," she gasped in between
gales of mirth.
     Kaje did his best to keep a scowl on his face- after all, he'd 
been quite thoroughly ambushed, and then turned into an object of 
laughter; neither was something he was especially fond of.  For that
matter, he'd bruised his tailbone.  Despite that, he found himself
struggling after a few moments to maintain his stern look.  Something
in Minagi's laughter was utterly infectious.  She was floating two 
meters above him, tucked into a little ball, holding her knees and 
giggling like a schoolgirl... *Ah, what the hell.  I probably did look
pretty funny. I about jumped out of my damn skin.*   His scowl broke
down and he started to chuckle.  "Okay, okay, enough!  You got me.  Now
cut the laugh-act, you're gonna run out of air or break a rib or 
something."
     Minagi's laughter had by now subsided enough that she could speak
normally.  "I'm sorry, LIEUTENANT," she said.  "Did I bruise that 
military ego of yours?"
     "It's not my ego that's bruised, it's my ass."
     That set Minagi laughing again.  Kaje spent the next minute 
tapping his foot and glaring at her until she could speak again.  "I'm
sorry about that.  But it was so FUNNY.  You should have seen 
yourself."
     "I'm sure."  Kaje sighed.  "You know, you could pretend to be a 
LITTLE concerned about the fact that I just about broke my damn fool
neck."
     Minagi snorted derisively.  "Don't worry, I would have caught
you if you'd been about to get really hurt.  You may be a pain in the
neck, but that doesn't mean I want you bleeding all over my bridge."
She reached down and brushed a speck of lint off of her bodysuit.
     "Um.... thanks.  I think."
     "Don't mention it."  Minagi smiled wryly.
     "Out of curiosity, what made you decide to ambush me?  And how did
you know I was coming up here?"
     Minagi floated down from her high hover and touched down lightly
on the deck.  "I didn't know you were coming up here.  I was up here
myself, checking over the systems, when I heard you coming up the 
passageway.  I turned out the lights and hid above the door.  Did you
know that nobody EVER checks above themselves when coming into a room?"
     Kaje almost said that yes, he did know that, but decided to play
dumb.  "No, I never thought of that."  In fact he'd been taught that
in HUMINT school almost a decade ago, but he'd just look even more 
silly if he revealed that he'd known that little bit of information
and been ambushed anyway.
     "Yep.  That's a fact," said Minagi.  "So I went up to the ceiling
and waited for you to come in.  By the way, you made a LOT of noise
coming down the corridor.  I thought spies were supposed to be sneaky
or something."
     "Only when I'm on duty.  And anyways, I haven't been in the field
for years.  These days I'm mostly just an analyst."  The thought 
suddenly occurred to Kaje that this was the first semi-normal
conversation that he'd had with Minagi since coming aboard.
     "Oh?  So this isn't 'on duty'?"  Minagi asked.  *Gotcha!*
     "Touche.  I guess I am on duty.  So my only excuse is that I'm 
getting careless in my old age."
     "Old age?  How old are you, a thousand?  Maybe fifteen hundred?  
You're not nobility, so you can't be THAT much older than you look."  
Minagi looked him up and down.  "I'd say you're not a day over 
fourteen hundred and fifty."
     "Thirteen hundred and seventy three, if you must know," replied 
Kaje.  "Though I feel a hell of a lot older most days."  He looked 
out the bridge viewport at the stars beyond.  "Fleet service will age 
you.  Mentally, I mean. I watched two of my best friends, fighter 
pilots in my first squadron, die because of an intelligence failure.  
Because I didn't know something about a new enemy weapons system 
that I should have known.  I think I've felt old ever since."
     There was a deafening silence for several long seconds.  Kaje 
continued to stare out the viewport, but in his mind's eye he was 
seeing two of his friends' fighters dissolving into atoms as the 
Romulask beam weapon touched them...
     He was startled out of his reverie by a hand on his shoulder.
He turned, and saw Minagi standing next to him with a worried 
expression on her face.  "I'm sorry," she said quietly.  "I didn't
mean to remind you of anything hurtful."  As Kaje watched, her worried
look changed to one of sorrow.  "I know what it's like to have someone
close to you die."
     *Damn.  That's right, Yakage.  Time to change the subject...*  
      Kaje cleared his throat.  "Don't worry about it.  It's part of 
the job.  I knew going in that I was doing something that people's
lives depended on.  I just didn't know I wouldn't get it right every
time."  Kaje paused for a moment.  "And anyway, what's with the 
concern?  I thought you were mad at me."
     Minagi quickly withdrew her hand from his shoulder.  "I am.  I'm
still not happy with this whole babysitting business.  I don't need a 
minder."
     Internally, Kaje was happy to see the sorrow leave Minagi's
face- but he was also mentally slapping himself silly. *Damnit, man.
You were connecting there for a second.  Why'd you have to go and make
her back off?*
     *Because I'm too fraggin' nice for my own fraggin' good, that's
why*  Kaje sighed.  "I'm sorry.  I've already told you all the reasons
why.  If those won't satisfy you, then there's nothing else I can say."
     Minagi gave him a hard stare for several seconds.  Then, to Kaje's
shock, her gaze softened.  "I'm sorry.  I know you're just following
orders.  I'm just not used to this."  She sat down heavily in the 
bridge command chair, crossed her legs, put her hands behind her head,
and cast her eyes toward the ceiling.  "I've gotten used to going where
I want to, when I wanted to.  Having someone else tell me what to do 
just kind of grates on me."  Her eyes refocused on Kaje.  "HINASE
tells me that you've been doing your best to be unobtrusive,
and I appreciate it."
     Kaje sweatdropped and gave the little orb a sidelong glance.
HINASE floated smugly by the bridge access hatchway.  *Not trying to 
set me up with her, eh?* thought Kaje.  He laughed nervously.  "Uh, 
don't give me too much credit.  It was mostly self preservation.
I've got too much survival instinct to get in the way of a powerful
space pirate after I've pissed her off."
     Minagi's face clouded.  "Speaking of pissing me off, do me a 
favor.  Stop trying to use Sasami to make me do what you want, okay?"
     Kaje heard the implied threat in her voice and decided that quick
compliance was in order.  "Sure thing.  I'm sorry about that, but –"
     Minagi interrupted.  "Come to think of it, how do you know about
how I feel about Sasami, anyway?"
     *Oh shit,* thought Kaje.  "Well..." he paused, trying to think
of an acceptable way of phrasing it.  "You're a space pirate, right?"
Minagi nodded.  "It just so happens that there's an intelligence
officer assigned to each space pirate, to study them in case the 
Juraian Fleet ever has to fight them."  Minagi scowled, and Kaje moved
quickly to prevent the angry protest he knew she was about to make.
"I know, I know," he said.  "You have no intention of ever attacking
Jurai.  But the military is the military.  Anything that is able to 
hurt us, we study.  Even if it's never going to."  Reassured that she
hadn't been singled out for scrutiny, Minagi's wrath subsided.  Kaje,
relieved, continued.  "Anyhow, a few years ago I was the officer 
assigned to study you.  I did some research, wrote a few boring 
reports, then got re-assigned.  It was no big deal."  Kaje was very 
careful to avoid mentioning the three months he'd spent spying on her.
He figured she really didn't need to know- and that it was better for
his health if she didn't.
     By the doorway, HINASE spoke.  "Yes, and for about three months-"
Kaje quickly glanced at Minagi to make sure she wasn't looking, then
tossed one of his sandals at the floating ball.  The throw was 
accurate, and HINASE suddenly found itself thrust backwards into the 
corridor, propelled by a flying sandal.
     Minagi, lost in thought, hadn't noticed the toss.  Her face was 
unreadable.  "I see," she said.  "That explains why they sent you with
me.  I wondered why they'd yank you out of your job and send you out 
here.  Though it was a helluva coincidence that you're the one who met
me at the border."  Kaje nodded.  He'd thought the same thing himself.
"So," she asked, "are you studying me now?"
     Kaje thought carefully before replying.  "Yes.  But not like I did
back then.  That was a professional matter.  Now, I'm just learning.
Same way I do with anyone I meet.  I may not be very stealthy, but I'm
still an intelligence officer.  I live and breathe it.  Part of that
is always trying to learn as much as I can about everything- and 
everyone- around me."
     Minagi looked at him.  Kaje found himself staring into her eyes.
He'd always been absolutely fascinated by her eyes, as well as  
Ryouko's.  The large, deep golden eyes the two space pirates shared
had a distinctively feline quality about them.  That quality, while
sometimes frightening, was also incredibly attractive...
     Minagi spoke.  "So, you're studying me because you've been so 
brainwashed by your job that you can't help it?"  As she waited for 
Kaje's reply, she caught a whiff of several conflicting scents.  
*Adrenalin, sweat... fear?  No, not quite fear...* she studied his body
language.  *He's nervous again.  He's really trying to answer this 
question just right...  why?  What's so important about what I think
of the answer?*  She sniffed imperceptibly.  *Pheromones again.  What
in hell is this kid thinking?*  She halted her analysis as Kaje finally
replied.
     "No," he said slowly, "that's not really right, either.  You're
a new person to me.  I mean, I know I've studied you in the past, but
back then you were a subject, an abstract concept to be analyzed.
Now I'm sitting on your ship, on your bridge, having a conversation
with you.  We're the only two people on this ship.  If I'm going to 
breathe the same air you are, it's in my best interest to know as much
about you as I can, right?"  Kaje turned from her, ostensibly looking
at the stars.  In reality, he found that she was easier to talk to when
he wasn't looking at her.  The combination of her eyes and her curves
made it rather hard to concentrate.  For that matter, the form-fitting
bodysuit she was wearing definitely WASN'T helping.  "I mean, I don't
want you to feel like I'm studying you.  I'd... I'd prefer to think
of it as just trying to get to know you better."
     Minagi laughed.  "Well, well.  So, Mister Military wants to be 
friends, eh?"
     Kaje laughed nervously.  "It'd sure as hell make the trip go a lot
smoother.  Either that, or I keep avoiding you for the rest of the 
voyage."
     "That's gonna be hard to do, since it's not that big a ship."
Minagi grinned.  "Okay, I'm officially not mad at you.  Just don't ask
me to be happy about having you 'keeping me out of trouble,' okay?"
     "That's fair."  Kaje turned around and faced her.  "And anyway,
who knows?  I know some spots on Oceana where we could get into plenty
of trouble."
     Minagi laughed.  "I'll believe it when I see it."  She looked
down.  "Hey... what happened to your other sandal?"
     "Oh, nothing...."


Chapter 7 Sienna Beach, Oceana, May 11th of R.Y. 732 
1730 Local Time

     "Ya know, maybe this 'under escort' stuff isn't all that bad after
all," said Minagi.
     It was day fourteen of her stay on Oceana, and she was starting
to try to think of excuses to stay longer.  At the moment, she was 
lounging facedown on a towel in front of a beachside cabana, wearing
a brand new red bikini and sipping a Mai-Tai.  HINASE hovered next to 
her.  The little ball was wearing, of all things, an oversized sun hat
that obscured two- thirds of its surface.
     "Yes ma'am," replied HINASE.  "I find it quite pleasant here."
Pleasant was an understatement.  Oceana was a climate-controlled
resort world that had been designed to cater to beach lovers from 
across the galaxy.   Every day was a balmy 30 degrees, and every night
was a mild 24.  Once a week, a cloud or two would appear in the sky,
just for variety.  The sand was white, the water was a crystalline
blue-green, the drinks were cheap, and the clubs didn't have cover 
charges.  The breeze never left, but never exceeded a gentle caress,
and the gulls never, EVER decided to use you- or your car- as an 
impromptu toilet.  All in all, it was a paradise.
     "Me too," replied the space pirate.  "Spy-boy earns himself an 'A'
for knowing good places to hide out."  She sighed happily and 
stretched.  "It's too bad I don't tan.  I think I'd look good with one.
Especially with this hair color."  She reached up and ran her hand 
through her hair.  She now wore it straight, shoulder length...
and jet black. Minagi, at Kaje's behest, had completely redone her 
hairstyle and color before making planet fall.  They'd nearly had a 
fight over it.  She'd always regarded her hair as the most important
part of her signature look- which was precisely why Kaje had insisted
that she change it.  In the end, she'd relented... but only after Kaje
had promised to put her up in a five-star hotel on the waterfront
once they made planet fall.  When she later discovered that the hotel
suite he'd chosen was a Juraian Intelligence Directorate "safe house"
that he hadn't paid a dime for, she'd been mildly angry at having been
duped... but by then she'd grown to like her new look, and so she let
Kaje off with only a mild elbow in the ribs.
     In fact, Minagi credited the new hairstyle with providing her no 
end of amusement.  The male population of Oceana seemed to be 
absolutely smitten with her.  It was a phenomenon that she'd not 
encountered previously- so, in her mind, it had to be the hair.  In 
point of fact, the majority of the drooling onlookers were usually
staring at her body... but Minagi had no concept of her own beauty,
so she missed that point entirely.
     Most amusing to her of all was the way Kaje had been reacting
to her.  She'd caught him surreptitiously staring at her more than once
since planet fall.  Whenever she'd called him out on it, he'd stammered
something feeble-sounding about "protective surveillance."
She found it hilarious.  She'd been correlating his pheromone and 
adrenaline spikes with theses instances, and had found that they 
matched far too closely to be coincidence.  So Mr. Military was finding
her attractive... and was too embarrassed to admit it.
     Armed with this information, she'd taken to teasing him.  Every
night she insisted that she go out and hit the town.  Kaje, who most
nights obviously would have preferred to remain at the safe house,
refused to let her go alone, so they went as a couple.  Minagi had 
noticed that she seemed to get the best reaction out of the Lieutenant
whenever she wore a sheer, strapless, mid-thigh cut black dress she'd
bought on their second day on Oceana, so that was her uniform of 
choice.  Once out amongst the Oceana clubs, her main object was having
fun for its own sake... but she never missed a chance to stick the 
occasional virtual dagger in the intelligence officer's psyche.  
     She'd spent several nights sitting in various local bars, letting
admiring (and hopeful) young men buy her drinks until closing.  The 
first night she'd done this, she'd noticed something strange.  The bar
she was in at the time happened to have free lollipops at the counter.
She'd taken one, unwrapped it, and had just begun to lick the sugar
off of it... and suddenly she'd found every man in the establishment
either staring at her or elbowing each other out of the way to buy her
a drink.  Minagi didn't know why it worked, but it worked; the next 
night, as an experiment, she'd tried the same thing and gotten the same
results.  Now, whenever the line of drink buyers seemed to falter,
out came the lollipop. The best part was that the mysterious effect
seemed to work on Kaje, too.  He refused to sit near her while she 
"held court," as he'd called it, claiming that if she wanted to trawl
for a date, it was none of his business.  She knew he kept an eye on 
her, though, usually from a booth in a relatively dark corner.  
Whenever she brought out the lollipop, she focused her senses on him...
and was maliciously satisfied with the reactions she detected.  There
was a clear-as-day lust spike... and better still, the faintest tinge
of anger.  At first, she'd thought that the intelligence officer was 
angry with himself for reacting to her... but then she'd noticed that
his adrenaline and muttered sub-vocalizations spiked whenever one of 
the barflies became particularly chatty with her.  To her astonishment
, she had realized that the man was JEALOUS.  Mildly so... or he was 
controlling himself extremely well... but she was sure of it.  She 
hadn't mentioned her discovery to him.  She was sure he'd have passed
off his anger as concern for her safety or some other such nonsense.
     It occurred to her, once, to wonder at her behavior.  She'd never
done anything quite like this before in her life.  Her existence,
to this point, had been very Spartan.  In many ways, she'd been a child
of Bushido, and had carried on her creator's warrior ways after his 
passing.  She trained, she practiced her combat techniques, she raided
ships, she fought off the occasional capture attempt... her only vice
to speak of was one she'd been introduced to by Washuu: watching
Earth-produced samurai movies.  Even this activity in many ways made
her even more warrior-like.  Socially speaking, by contrast, she was 
the anything but the bold warrior.  She was prone to blushing when paid
too much attention, and while she'd always considered herself the 
friendly sort, she was more comfortable with a small circle of close
friends such as the Masakis or the Juraian Princesses rather than with
a large group of people she knew less well.  Flirting had definitely
not been in her repertoire.  Yet she was clearly very good at it...
and was finding it to be enormous fun.  The 'good' part she could 
explain relatively easily.  She'd been taught at a very early age the
advantages inherent in mentally unsettling one's opponent, and the 
point had been driven home- sometimes painfully- time and time again.
This business was just a refinement of that tried and true principle.
She'd found something her 'opponents' couldn't (or wouldn't) ignore,
and she'd taken advantage of it.  The 'fun' part stymied her a bit 
more.  She supposed that she'd been enjoying all the attention because
it was a novelty to her.  She was quite aware that she'd led a somewhat
narrow existence to this point, and was still in the process of 
gathering new experiences and deciding which ones she liked.  As for 
how much she relished Kaje's reaction in particular, she passed it off
as a sop to her competitive streak. Here was a game she was clearly
better at than he.  She wasn't sure that this answer entirely explained
things, but she had none better, so she satisfied herself with what she
had.
     In any event, by closing time each night the poor lad was clearly
strung out, and Minagi was happily smug.  She'd more than had her 
revenge for his little ruse to get her to change her hair, not to 
mention the rather annoying restrictions he'd placed on both her 
ability to fly and her penchant for violence.
     The days tended to be much more placid than the nights.  Minagi
divided her time between shopping and sunning herself (and 
correspondingly being drooled over by male passersby) or just generally
exploring.  In any case, HINASE usually accompanied her.  Kaje, for his
part, had escorted her closely during the daylight hours for the first
several days.  Once he seemed relatively confident that she'd resigned
herself to being well behaved while the sun shone, this ceased.  For 
the past week he'd taken a jog on the beach every morning (usually
before Minagi woke up) and then disappeared into his room at the suite.
He claimed that he was "working out their next move," but Minagi 
suspected that he actually spent much of each day sleeping off the 
previous night's sleep deficit.  He'd also assured her that he was 
keeping tabs on her during the days, though by what mechanism Minagi
was unsure.
     Minagi checked her watch.  "Hey, HINASE," she said, "are you ready
to go?  I wanted to watch the sunset from the balcony.  Intel man keeps
telling me the view is to die for."
     "Yes ma'am.  It's most impressive."  The little ball, sun hat and
all, hovered closer.  "Shall I call the attendant to take your drink?"
     "Nah, I'll take it with me."  Minagi started to get up, then 
stopped herself as she remembered to snap the back of her bikini top 
back together.  She'd noticed that the style on Oceana was to sunbathe
topless, but despite her newfound flirtatiousness she wasn't quite 
ready for that kind of exposure yet.  She compromised by unsnapping
her top whenever she sunbathed face down.
     Having completed the reassembly of her swimsuit, Minagi pushed
herself into a standing position.  She picked up her drink and headed
toward the nearest stairway access to the boardwalk, leaving the towel
for one of the omnipresent attendants to pick up.  HINASE hovered
dutifully in her wake.
     Meanwhile, back at the suite, Kaje had his laptop out.  Contrary
to Minagi's suspicion, he really was trying to plot their next move.
In truth, he had meant for Oceana to be a short stop to soothe Minagi's
nerves while he put together a coherent evasion strategy.  While Minagi
certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, his planning had hit a brick
wall.  He'd been tracking the moves of the Juraian search for Miangi
through the news media.  Whoever was running it was casting a very 
comprehensive net, and he'd been unable to come up with a safe path 
through the search parties and monitoring stations and into safer 
space.  To date, he'd been reduced to keeping tabs on the situation
and hoping for a break he could exploit.  In any event, the search
hadn't come to Oceana just yet, so he could afford to be patient.
And If he were very lucky, the Juraian Royals would make a favorable
policy decision concerning Minagi's extradition sometime soon.  That
would make the whole question moot.
     *Yeah right,* thought Kaje.  *And my grandmother will be the next
Queen of Jurai.*  Kaje was a cynic concerning all matters operational
or political, and this involved both.  He was therefore doubly 
pessimistic on this point.
     Kaje deactivated the laptop, having seen what he expected to see:
there was no evidence of any gap in the search coverage.  He shook his
head in frustration.  He was about to take a bottle out of the bedside
mini-bar when his watch began beeping stridently.
     "Damn, she's moving."  He twisted the watch face, bringing up a 
small holographic display.  A single red dot displayed against a green
city map appeared to be moving up from the oceanfront and toward the 
hotel.  
     "Well, looks like it's time for another edition of 'Minagi puts
our hero through hell.'  What fun."  Kaje sighed and slumped his 
shoulders.  He'd come to dread the evening outings.  Minagi, either
through a revelation from HINASE or through her own observations,
had clearly figured out that he found her attractive, and had taken
to using that weapon against him with a vengeance.  Their nightly
forays into the club sector inevitably left him an emotional wreck by 
morning.  Perhaps the worst part of it was that Kaje hadn't this 
coming.  He'd have expected something like this out of Ryouko, but not
Minagi.
     *Maybe it's in the genes,* he mused.  *It would make sense.  
They're both mostly products of Washuu's DNA, and all the gods know 
that SHE certainly enjoys making trouble...*  He checked his watch 
again.  She'd be in the suite in about five minutes at her current
pace.  He grinned.  *At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that
it's annoying the hell out of her right now that she can't just fly up
here.*  Taking some solace from that thought, he headed toward the 
shower to prepare for what he was certain would be another evening
of torture.
     

     Several hours later, Kaje was finding himself to be quite happily
wrong.
     When Minagi had come into the suite, Kaje had been in the shower.
When he'd emerged from his room half an hour later, dressed and shaven,
he'd discovered her on the balcony staring in rapt wonder as the sun 
sank slowly behind the cliffs a few miles to the west of the hotel.
The view from the thirtieth floor was breathtaking.  A pair of two 
hundred meter high waterfalls flowed over the cliffs and into the sea,
and as the sun set behind them it produced a prismatic effect that 
threw a multitude of rainbows onto the dancing wave tops in the cove
below.  He'd stood silently behind Minagi for fifteen minutes, not 
wanting to break the moment.  Kaje had seen the Oceana sun set behind
those cliffs for the first time five years ago, and he remembered
how awe inspiring the sight had been.  It was the kind of event that
words would only tarnish.
     As the last rays of the sun had faded, extinguishing the rainbows
and giving way to the first stars of the evening, Minagi had turned
and faced him.  Seeing his evening attire, she'd slowly shaken her 
head.  "You know," she had said, "I don't feel like hitting the clubs
tonight.  Not after that.  It just kind of drains you, seeing something
that beautiful.  Especially since it just fades away..."  Kaje had 
nodded understandingly (and, he'd hoped, concealed his relief in the 
process) and asked if perhaps instead she would like to go out for 
dinner.
     A small sparkle had appeared in her eyes at the question.  "Why,
my good spy.  Are you asking me out?" she'd asked with a smile.
     "Why, my good space pirate.  Don't flatter yourself.  I'm simply
hungry, and I know some restaurants in the old quarter that put the 
room service here to shame," had been his roguish reply.
     Minagi's eyebrows had gone up at that.  She'd thought the room 
service had been absolutely to die for.  Now, sitting at an oceanview
table in Skoparpi's, she was very happily admitting that she was wrong.
     "Lieutenant, as much as it pains me to give you credit for 
something, you do know your food.  This has got to be the best meal 
I've ever eaten."
     Kaje looked across the table at her.  He himself had eaten very
little of his meal.  He knew he could blame the company for that.  The
combination of candlelight, low cut dress, and Minagi's enthusiastic
happiness with the food and her surroundings were combining to make it
difficult for him to concentrate on anything but his dinner companion.
"I'm glad you like it.  Believe it or not, I was introduced to this 
place by a fighter pilot.  Sigmund, the XO, and some of my fellow 
junior officers and I took this place over one night back in '65.  I'm
eternally in Sig's debt for dragging us to the place."
     Minagi laughed a bit.  "Sigmund?  That's a strange name."
     Kaje had to think for a moment.  "Name?  Oh!  No, that's not his
name.  That's his callsign."
     Minagi looked curious now.  "Callsign?  What's that?"
     "Nobody in the fighter squadrons calls anybody by their real name.
It's an old tradition.  When you first come into the squadron, the 
officers that are already there get together and give you a callsign.
Then that's what they call you for the rest of your life.  Usually
it's just a play on your name.  Sigmund, for example.  His real last
name is Sigavaraash.  The squadron decided that his real name was just
too damn hard to pronounce, so they renamed him Sigmund.  Other folks
aren't so lucky.  If you do something stupid or silly, they'll give you
a callsign to remind you of the dumb thing you did, so you won't do it
again."
     "Oh?"  She gave him that slightly predatory grin that always made
the hair on the back of his neck stand up.  "And what's your callsign?"
     Kaje blushed furiously.  "Uh, it's 'Wayward.'"
     "How come?"
     "Uh... well.... My first flight with the squadron, I kinda managed
to get a little lost..."
     Minagi burst out laughing.  "Oh gods!  I think I know what I'm 
going to call you from now on."
     Kaje sweatdropped.  "Okay, but if you do, be ready for me to throw
the occasional 'sir' into our conversations.  I'll feel like I'm back
with the Fleet."  Kaje smiled sardonically.  "Though knowing you, you'd
find that funny too."
     "You know, I probably would."  Minagi winked and changed the 
subject.  "So anyway, I'm thinking you deserve a little something
for this wonderful dinner.  I've got something back aboard the ship 
that I think you should try."
     "Oh?  It's a long trip back to the spaceport."  Kaje didn't know
quite what to make of Minagi's suggestion.  He had no idea what she 
might be talking about, and that worried him enough that he was 
somewhat impolitely unenthused at her offer.
     "No problem.  I can call HINASE and have it have one of the ship's
work units bring it to the suite."
     "Uh...." Kaje tried, but couldn't think of a subtle way of 
deflecting Minagi's generosity.  "Um, okay."
     Minagi had smiled a thoroughly non-predatory smile.  "Relax.
It's no big deal, really."
     As she spoke, Kaje caught a glint of the candlelight in her golden
eyes.  Somehow, it brought to mind the image of a wolf staring down a 
group of campers, with their campfire reflecting off its eyes as it 
attacked.  *Uh oh,* he thought.  *What have I gotten myself into?*
      

     After a sumptuous dessert and a rather astounding bill (paid for
courtesy of the Juraian taxpayers... thank goodness for expense 
accounts!), Kaje hailed a hovertaxi and the pair made an uneventful
trip home.  Kaje, for his part, was tired.  He'd slept very little
over the course of the past two weeks, and was looking forward to 
turning in without closing down every bar in the city as per the usual
schedule.  He held his fatigue at bay, however.  He still didn't know
what Minagi had ordered up from the ship, and all her treatment
of him since planet fall did little to allay his fears.
     Minagi, on the other hand, wasn't tired in the least.  It had been
a beautiful day, followed by a stunning sunset and a fabulous meal.
All in all, she was feeling very good about the universe in general.
A perfect time, she thought, to break out the little package she'd 
pirated from a rather vicious smuggler a few months back...
     They reached the entrance to their suite without incident.
Kaje fished the keycard out of his pocket and warily opened the door.
To his immense relief, nothing untoward sprang forth to greet him.
     Minagi seeing his hesitation, laughed, planted both her hands on 
his back, and shoved him unelegantly through the doorway.  "Go on 
through, you dope.  Don't you trust me?"
     In point of fact, he didn't, but he held his tongue.  The lights
came on as he entered the room.  He looked around quickly, searching
for something different than the norm, and found it on the kitchen
table.  A small worker droid (it couldn't have been any bigger than 
HINASE) sat on the table, its antigravs shut off.  It seemed to be 
holding a small vial in its single manipulator claw.  Kaje leaned in 
close to examine the vial, making sure to keep his face away from the
stopper end.  He didn't want anything corrosive (or worse) exploding
all over his face.  He trusted that Minagi wouldn't deliberately
try to hurt him, but he thought her fully capable of underestimating
his ability to resist damage.
     In the meantime, Minagi retreated directly to her room and shut
the door.  While Kaje examined the vial in his most careful field-agent
fashion, the space pirate quickly shucked off her dress and donned
a rather simple white shirt and a pair of red sweatpants.  Finishing
off her ensemble with a comfortable pair of slippers, she opened the 
door and stepped back into the main living area.  "You know, I really
wish you'd let me fly.  It was a perfect night for it- hey, haven't
you opened that thing yet?"
     Kaje turned from his scrutiny of the vial.  "Okay, so color me 
skittish.  What is it?"
     Minagi looked distinctly hurt at this remark, which surprised
Kaje considerably.  He'd assumed this was all part of the games she'd
been playing for the past week.  He began to consider the idea that he
may have been wrong.  When she spoke, he was certain of it.  Her voice
lacked any hint of the playfulness that had marked her previous 
attempts to get under his skin.  "Kaje, I'm just trying to be nice,
okay?  I know I've been jerking your chain ever since we got here.  You
were really nice to me today, between clueing me in on the sunset and
then taking me to dinner, and I feel kinda bad about the way I've been
treating you.  I'm just trying to give you something nice back."
     *Holy shit, she actually used my name.  I don't think I've ever
heard her use it before.*  Kaje was flabbergasted- and incredibly
contrite.  "Minagi, I'm really sorry.  Sometimes I just get a little
paranoid, you know?  It's a job thing.  Really, I swear it.  I didn't
mean it personally at all."  To demonstrate his sincerity, Kaje reached
over and popped the vial out of the little bot's claw.  He held it up 
to eye level.  There seemed to be an inscription on it, but his tired
eyes couldn't quite focus enough to make out the words.  "Minagi,
you're going to have to tell me what this is.  My damn eyes are 
bothering me too much to read the label."
     "Open it," was all she said in reply.
     Shrugging, Kaje gave the stopper a twist.  It came off easily.
A second or so later an acrid odor assailed his nostrils.  His eyes 
widened.  "Is this what I think it is?" he asked incredulously.
     The surprise must have shown on his face, because Minagi was 
clearly elated at his reaction.  She nodded vigorously.  "You like it?"
     "Where in hell did you get a vial of Ambrosiada?  Never mind, I 
don't want to know."  Kaje put his nose over the vial and inhaled
delicately.  His head began to swim almost immediately.
     Ambrosiada is the common name for a certain dessert liquor 
produced on Sirius IV (and nowhere else in the known galaxy).  The 
potent alcoholic mix is widely regarded as the pinnacle of adult 
beverage development.  A single drop on the tongue, depending on the 
taster's metabolism and upon what part of the tongue it is placed,
can taste like fresh citrus, a peppery Merlot, a drop of purest dew,
or a tart plum sauce... sometimes, all at the same time.  It induces
a kind of sensory overload through the taste buds that usually leaves
the taster with the satisfaction that would normally come from eating
a gourmet meal accompanied by the finest wines and desserts.  It is 
very highly sought after by epicures throughout the galaxy- and, of 
course, is also heinously expensive.
     Ambrosiada, for all its qualities, has one overwhelming
drawback- that single drop on the tongue would also knock most men into
next week.  The liquid possessed a potency undreamt of by the most 
twisted of chemical warfare engineers.  Because of this, it was sold
only in small vials- and usually mixed with either wine or fruit punch,
usually in a ratio of one drop per serving.
     "Minagi," stammered Kaje, "this is fantastic!  This is the best
stuff this side of Andromeda. I-"  Kaje suddenly stopped, and he 
frowned slightly.  "Uh... are you sure you want to drink this now?  I 
mean, it's not a special occasion or anything.  I'd hate to just down
the stuff when you could use it later..."
     "I had a good day," Minagi replied simply.  "Isn't that reason
enough?"
     *Well hell,* thought Kaje, *there's no refuting that logic.*
"Okay, sounds good to me."  Kaje laughed and shook his head.  "This
is just too much.  Hold on, let me get the wine and some glasses."
     "Don't worry about it.  I'll set up," replied Minagi.  She 
gestured at Kaje's attire.  "You go ahead and get changed.  You're
still in your going out clothes, and it's making me feel underdressed."  
     Kaje glanced down at himself, then over at Minagi.  She had a 
point.  His slacks and blazer didn't exactly match her t-shirt and 
sweats.  Then he did a double take at Minagi's shirt.  He was quite
happy to notice it was probably about two sizes too small...  *For the
love of Jurai, man,* he chastised himself.  *if you're going to stare
at her chest, at least wait until you're drunk and have an excuse.*
He snapped his eyes back up to the plane of the horizontal.  "Sounds
good to me.  I'll be back in a sec."  With that, he beat a hasty 
retreat to his room, closing the door behind him.
     Minagi waited until the door closed, then began laughing.  She'd
caught his momentary fixation on her chest.  She looked down at 
herself.  *It's funny,* she mused.  *for years I resented  these.  They
always got in the way whenever I tried to use my sword from an offhand
side grip.  Couldn't tuck my sword in close enough to my body.  Now 
suddenly I'm glad I have them.*  She shrugged off the thought.  Had she
considered it further, the implications might have startled her.  At 
the moment, she didn't consider it further, so the implications
instead had to content themselves with rattling around inside her head,
waiting for some future opportunity to wreak havoc.  In the meantime,
Minagi went about the business of preparing the drinks.  She'd gleaned
quite a bit about the proper preparation of Ambrosiada from Sasami,
who had apparently learned about the stuff while growing up amongst the
court parties and functions on Jurai.  While she had found the 
conversations boring at the time, she was glad she'd had them.  
Otherwise, she wouldn't have known what the vial was when she 
pirated it.
     Minagi found a pair of appropriately sized long-stemmed
glasses and a decanter in the suite's kitchen.  She selected a good 
bottle of Zinfandel from the wine cabinet (she'd discovered during
her stay on Oceana that she favored Chardonnay, but Sasami had told her
quite specifically that Zinfandel or Merlot worked better with 
Ambrosiada) and decanted bout half the bottle.  Leaving the stopper
off to let the tannin in the wine breathe, she uncorked the Ambrosiada
vial and put one small drop into each glass.  "Always put the 
Ambrosiada in the glass, not the decanter" Sasami had amonished
her.  "That way each person can control how much they drink.  And 
always put the Ambrosiada into an empty glass.  If you put the wine in
first, the Ambosiada will just float on top of it."
     Minagi turned to pour the wine, then paused.  She knew that she 
had an incredible capacity to consume alcohol and be relatively
unaffected by it; her body's natural defensive mechanisms metabolized
the stuff and isolated it like the toxin it in fact was.  She'd never
had Ambrosiada, but it was her understanding that half the fun of its
consumption was in the rather pleasant muziness that set in after a few
mouthfuls of properly diluted liquid.  It seemed to her that if she 
drank a normal portion she'd never achieve that effect at all.  She did
some quick mental math: *I know that I can drink most Juraians under
the table... hmmm... most of them seem to get tipsy at about glass six
or seven.  I usually can go for about twenty or thirty before I even
feel it.  So figure a four-to-one ratio...*
     Minagi picked up the Ambrosiada vial, unstoppered it again, and 
poured three more drops into her glass.  *There, that's better.*
Just then, Kaje returned.  Minagi glanced over, then promptly rolled
her eyes.  Kaje was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a t-shirt.
Both had a Juraian eagle emblazoned on them, which wasn't too odd.  The
odd part was that the eagle was wearing headphones and a pair of 
sunglasses.  Below each garment's illustrated bird was a logo:  "In the
gods we trust... all others, we monitor.  Juraian Fleet Intelligence."
     Kaje noticed Minagi's eye-roll.  "What?"
     Minagi couldn't help but laugh.  "I thought you guys were supposed
to be covert or something.  I can't believe you have your own line of 
work-out gear! And the eagle just looks so cute with those sunglasses!"
Her laughter intensified as the incongruity of a military intelligence
officer wearing something 'cute' struck her.  Kaje's face reddened
to a bright crimson.
     "Oh, for crying out loud.  They're the PT clothes I was issued
back when I was at the Shinobi Dojo on Jurai.  Do you want me to change
them?"
     "No, that's alright.  I think they're cute."  She giggled.  "Come
sit down before the Ambrosiada I poured evaporates."
     Kaje, reminded that there was drinking to be done, stifled his 
retort and sat down at the table.  "Yes ma'am."
     Minagi quirked an eyebrow at him.  "You're beginning to sound like
HINASE."  
     "Just pour."
     Minagi laughed.  "Yes sir, mister Lieutenant, sir.  How much?"
     "Full glass.  I need that stuff as watered down as possible."
     "Full glass it is."  She carefully filled Kaje's glass from the 
decanter, then allowed him to fill hers.  "So what shall we toast to?"
     "Hell, I'm required by intel geek rule number four hundred and 
thirty seven to always toast 'those that have gone before us.'"  He 
grinned to show that he was kidding.  "Why don't you come up with one?"
     "Okay."  Minagi thought for a moment, then raised her glass.  "To
having fun," she declared.
     Kaje nodded, and clinked his glass off hers.  "To having fun."


     About an hour later, the bottle of Zinfandel lay empty on the 
table along with one of its twin brothers.  The vial of Abrosiada
was in Kaje's pocket for safekeeping.  As for Kaje... he was crouching
behind the sofa.  Kaje was mildy drunk, and he knew it.  Normally,
this wouldn't have been a problem.  Kaje handled his liquor fairly
well, and since making himself quite sick binge-drinking with some 
fighter pilots a few years back had developed a very solid notion of 
his own limitations.  In fact, the thing currently worrying Kaje didn't
have anything to do with his level of sobriety.  What it did have to do
with was Minagi's state of sobriety.
     Minagi, to put it politely, was plastered.
     Worse yet, she was energetically plastered.  Comatose or sick Kaje
could have handled.  Energetic he had no counter for, especially
in his current state.
     He'd watched with increasing alarm as Minagi had downed the 
Zinfandel almost three times faster than he.  He'd have been even more
alarmed had he noticed that in each one of her glasses, Minagi was 
dropping four increasingly generous drabs of Ambrosiada.
     The effect hadn't taken hold gradually, so Kaje hadn't had any 
warning.  After about fourty-five minutes, Minagi's overworked
toxin defenses had thrown their hands in the air and called it a night.
In the fifteen minutes since, Minagi's behavior had undergone a 
remarkable transformation.  She had begun recounting some of her more
hair-raising battles as a space pirate, which was fine in and of 
itself.  The part that wasn't fine (and coincidentally had Kaje 
crouching behind the sofa) was that she'd whipped her sword into 
existence and was demonstrating her fighting moves by slashing it 
around the room.  The last slash had sent him tumbling back over the 
sofa with the scent of ozone in his nostrils.
     Minagi continued her account, complete with fighting moves.  She
seemed oblivious to Kaje's predicament.  "And then he pulled a shuriken
out of his belt and whipped it at me!  So I ducked-" (Minagi threw 
herself into a crouch), "rolled-" (she rolled forward, her sword making
scorch marks in the carpet as she went), "and came over the top with
a slash that split him like a ripe melon!"  As she began to demonstrate
the attack, Kaje's panicked mind realized that his head was squarely
in the middle of her target area.  The image of a squashed tomato ran
through his brain... "Minagi!  For crying out loud, CUT IT OUT!!!!!!"
     Startled by his cry, Minagi brought her sword cut to an abrupt
halt.  Unfortunately, the termination of the slash without a 
followthrough for balance completely upset her already tenuous grasp
on the vertical, and she tumbled head over heels over the sofa and 
landed squarely on top of Kaje.
     There was a momentary tangle of confused limbs (her sword, 
thankfully, had extinguished itself sometime before she'd landed)
and curses.  Kaje's drunken mind was suddenly reminded of a game of 
Twister he'd once played at a women's college party that had gone 
SERIOUSLY awry...
     The image was too much.  He burst out laughing.
     "What?  What's so funny?" asked Minagi.  She was utterly lost.
Kaje caught his breath and began to try to explain, but then he caught
sight of the look of total confusion on her face.  He promptly exploded
into a near-screaming fit of laughter that would have put a Hyena to 
shame.
     More certain than any of the laws of quantum physics is the law 
that a drunk finds laughter to be contagious.  Minagi tried to be 
angry.  She assumed that she was the object of Kaje's laughter,
and she didn't know why, and she didn't like it, but his mirth was just
too much for her.  She started chuckling, then soon was laughing,
and after a very brief span both of them were rolling on the floor 
clutching their sides and gasping for breath as tears streamed out of 
their eyes.  Had anyone walked into the room at that moment, they would
have assumed that the Oceana looney bin had re-located to a five star
hotel.  
     In a matter of minutes chronic lack of oxygen forced Kaje into an
exhausted silence.  He rolled onto his back and put his hands behind
his head, content to stare at the ceiling as he listened to Minagi's
laughter subside into the occasional giggle.  Now that he wasn't 
laughing himself, he found that he very much enjoyed listening to 
Minagi's mirth.  She had a clear, sparkling laugh that lifted his 
spirit and put him very much at ease.
     At length, Minagi too was silent.  She was pleasantly exhausted,
and the combination of exertion and alcohol left her with a cottony,
floating feeling that made her feel quite good.  She put her arms 
straight out above her head, arched her back, and luxuriated in a long,
thorough, sensual stretch that terminated in a deep sigh.
     Kaje happened to catch the maneuver out of the corner of his eye,
and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull at the sight.  He'd always
found something blatantly arousing in the stretch of a beautiful
woman.  Whether it was the seductiveness of the motion itself, or a 
sympathetic reaction to the obvious pleasure the action gave its 
initiator, he didn't know.  At the moment, he wasn't devoting too many
brain cells to figuring it out, either.  The fact that it was Minagi
doing the stretching, and doing so less than two feet away, only made
the problem worse.  His alcohol- addled mind found itself totally
occupied with drinking in the vision, which left his mouth free to 
express its own opinion without the usual restraint...
     "Oh my GODS."  He shook his head in wonder.  "That's just bloody
wrong.  I mean, that just hurts."
     Minagi heard his remarks and turned her head.  When she did so, 
she saw Kaje with his head propped up on his arm, unabashedly
staring.  She'd been about to ask him what he had meant by what he 
said, but upon meeting his intense gaze she found that all she could
do was blush and avert her eyes.
     When she let her eyes come back up from looking at the floor a few
seconds later, she found that Kaje was still staring.  Her blush 
deepened.  "Wh- what?" she stammered.  "What are you looking at?"
     "You," replied Kaje.  A second later, he realized what he'd just
said and winced.  *Well,* he thought, *I guess they're not kidding
when they say 'en vino, veritas...'*
     Minagi would have blushed even more deeply if it were possible.
As it was, every blood vessel in her face was already wide open, and 
her pounding heart was doing its level best to supply them with enough
blood to light her face up like a traffic signal.  What made Minagi's
embarrassment all the more acute was that she was also confused.
She'd understood for a fair while now that Kaje thought her attractive.
Apparently, if Oceana was any kind of fair sample, a lot of men did.
She'd thought at first that perhaps it had been her newly acquired
hair style, but from the way Kaje's eyes were running over her at the
moment, she was fairly certain that it was more than that.  
     She was at a loss.  Her early life had been that of a warrior
in training, and her more recent experience was that of a space pirate.
Between those two occupations, she'd had neither the time nor the 
opportunity for a suitor.  The upshot was that she'd never been told
that she was beautiful, and truly didn't understand her own 
attractiveness. Minagi being Minagi, her curiosity soon overcame
her embarrassment.  She stared back into Kaje's and asked "Why?" with
all the determination she could muster.
     Kaje, had he not been drunk, would have assumed she was teasing
him again.  His sober mind wouldn't have accepted the preposterous
notion that a woman he found so attractive might not realize her own 
beauty.  Luckily for him, he was quite intoxicated, and had to limit
his brain cell usage to answering the question at hand rather than 
over- thinking the matter in his usual style.
     He wanted his response to be an eloquent recitation of Minagi's
attractive features, both physical and emotional.  He wanted to use 
descriptive imagery, poigniant metaphors, and powerful superlatives.
He wanted to write a sonnet and set it to the music of a master 
composer...  
     "Um... because you're really, really beautiful," was what came 
out.  
     *D'oh!!!!! I fucking well blew that one!!!!*   
     Had he been able, he would have slapped himself senseless.
As it was, he just stared helplessly at the floor, cursing the day God
had decided that he would be born with the power of speech.
     Minagi, however, was flustered quite enough by the direct answer
she'd been given.  Sasami had told her once that it was impolite
to reject a compliment outright; that much she remembered.  But in her
semi- stuporous and now highly self-conscious state, she couldn't
quite remember what the little princess had told her about compliments
she simply couldn't understand.  In the end, she settled for a 
compromise between bewilderment and acceptance.  "Thank you, though
I don't understand why you think so."
     Kaje jumped at the chance to redeem himself for his earlier verbal
thuggery.  "Minagi, what's to understand?  You're a beautiful woman."
*Dammit, I can't think of how to follow that up!  Gods, where's my damn
brain?  THINK!*
     To his immense relief, Minagi came to his rescue by accepting
his rather feeble offering.  "Okay.  Thank you," she replied meekly.
"I'm glad you think so."  The manifest confusion on her face slowly
cleared, giving way to something else which Kaje couldn't identify.
"You know... I'm new to all this.  I know I've been a terrible bitch
to you for the past little while.  I figured out right after we made
planet fall that you were attracted to me, and I've been playing it to
the hilt, trying to make you squirm."
     Kaje had figured all of this out already, of course.  Minagi's
devastating displays of innuendo over the past week had been far too 
effective to have been innocent.  Even so, her open admission took him
aback.  "I figured as much," he replied, "but I didn't know what to do
about it.  It was so unlike you... and so damned EFFECTIVE..."
     Minagi smiled, and this time Kaje identified her look easily.
The predatory grin was back.  "Oh?  I turned you on that much, eh?"
     *Oh shit.  I shouldn't have said THAT*  Kaje realized too late 
that while she had been her 'old self' a few seconds ago, there was 
still far too much alcohol in her system to count on her being anything
even CLOSE to tame...
     Minagi rolled over onto her side, and then onto her stomach-
and the direction of her roll took her TOWARD Kaje.   The result was 
that she ended up with right half of her body on top of the right half
of his.  Kaje could feel the warmth of her skin flood into him like a 
wind off of a hot desert.  She hooked her right leg under his, planting
her knee against the floor between his legs as she did so... and making
it utterly impossible for him to move out from underneath her.  She 
looked down into his eyes.
     It was quite possibly the single most devastating thing she could
have done.  Kaje was transfixed in the stare like a mouse before a 
hungry cat.  Part of Kaje's brain was screaming that Minagi did NOT do
this kind of thing, that he should be VERY worried, and that now would
be an excellent time to run away and try to figure things out.  The 
other, much louder, and alcohol aided-and-abetted part of his brain
was screaming that a) He had an attractive woman on top of him, b) He 
had an attractive woman on top oh him, and c) just GO with it, you 
MORON!
     He looked up into her eyes and found that there was no decision
to make.  "Minagi, I-"
     She put a finger on his lips, cutting him off.  "My turn."  She 
slowly traced her fingertip from his lips down his chin and across
the hollow of his throat.
     Kaje shivered involuntarily and swallowed very hard.  "You like
that?" she asked.
     Kaje could only nod.  "How about this?"  She leaned close to the
side of his head and blew gently into his ear.  As she did so, she 
traced her fingertip softly down from his neck and scraped it over the
material of his t-shirt over his chest.
     Kaje's shiver intensified to an outright quiver.  Again, he could
only nod.
     Minagi didn't stop her finger's travels at his chest, but 
continued down across his stomach.  Reaching the line of his 
sweatpants, she stopped... then slid her hand under the waistband.
     Kaje nearly choked.  "How about that?" she asked.  "Oh, never 
mind.  I think I know the answer.  It wouldn't move like that if you 
didn't like it."  Kaje blushed a deep crimson and said nothing.  He was
at a complete loss.  At this point, he didn't particularly CARE that
he was at a complete loss, but it nonetheless prevented him from doing
much in the way of coherent thinking...
     Minagi abruptly withdrew her hand and rolled off him and onto her
back.  She sighed deeply.  "You know," she said, with a note of sadness
in her voice, "I think I could keep going.  I just don't know if I 
should.  And if I did, frankly, I'm not sure what I'd do!"  She shook
her head.  "Do you know what it's like trying to make love when you 
knowledge base comes from women's magazines?!?!?"  She emitted a soft,
frustrated growl and sat up.
     Kaje, in spite of himself, chuckled at that.  *Good Lord of Jurai,
I'm going to have a case of blueballs in about 15 minutes...*
"I'm sure there are young women all over the galaxy who've asked 
themselves the same question."  Then the rest of what Minagi had said
hit him.  "Minagi... did you just say you wanted to make love to me?"
     "Yes... no... I don't know.  I really don't know.  In the name of
all the hells, I've known you for what, not quite three weeks?  I'm 
getting ahead of myself, I have to be..."
     "Yeah, you probably are.  For that matter, you're even more drunk
than I am.  Now probably isn't the time to make a decision like this."
*And that goes for me too, dammit...  Gods, I wish I were just a little
more drunk right now!!!!!!!!!!!*
     "Kaje?"
     "Yeah?"
     "Then why don't you decide?  Do you want to make love to me?"
     *Oh FUCK....*  "Yes."
     She looked directly into his eyes.  "You can if you want to," she
whispered.
     Kaje sat for a moment, struggling with himself... and to his own
surprise, somehow, restraint won.  "Minagi... you're drunk... I'm 
drunk... this is too big a thing to act on right now.  Like you said
yourself, you've only known me for three weeks.  Tomorrow you may 
decide you hate me, and then you'd be in a bind... no, I'd be in a 
bind, because you'd probably kill me in a fit of regretful rage."  He 
smiled to show he was joking.  "Sleep it off.  We'll talk about it 
tomorrow."  He put his head in his hands.  Inside, Kaje's glands were
now screaming like wounded animals.
     Minagi visibly relaxed.  "Okay.  But don't say I never offered
you anything."  She winked, then tried to stand, but found her legs too
unsteady to complete the maneuver.  She sat heavily back down on the 
floor.  "On second thought, I'll just stay right here."
     Kaje stood with slightly less difficulty and staggered off toward
his room.  He needed to take a shower... and, to be graphic, needed
to masturbate before his testicles exploded in protest at what he was
turning down.  Just as he reached his doorway, Minagi spoke.  "Kaje?"
     He turned.  "Yes Minagi?"
     "One other thing... can you explain the why the lollipop thing
turned all the guys on so much?"
     Kaje told her.  Minagi looked at him deadpan and replied, "and 
they think I'd do that on a FIRST DATE?"
     Kaje facefaulted.

Chapter 8 Romulask Counterintelligence Headquarters, 
May 12th of R.Y. 732 
0330 Romulask Time

     Deep in the heart of Romulask Counterintel HQ, a comm console
operator turned to his supervisor.  "Sir, teams one and two both report
that they are in position.  Final reconnaissance will begin in two 
hours."
     "Excellent.  Send them preparatory code bravo."
     "Yes sir."
     The supervisor turned to one of his junior officers.  "Contact
the Directorate immediately.  Inform them that the attacks on Minagi
and the Princesses will be launched within twenty-four hours."
     "Yes sir!"  The young man hurried from the room.
     The supervisor turned back toward his own console.  "And may 
heaven have mercy on Romulask if Jurai ever finds out..."



END PART I.