A Thousand Mile Journey. Chapter Two: Hana yori dango.* Princess Sasami placed the plate of teriyaki trout before Tenchi and said, "Tenchi, me and Mihoshi have to tell you something." Tenchi smiled, "Sure Sasami, what is it?" He opened a napkin and placed it on his lap as he prepared to enjoy his dinner. Ryo-Ohki meowed and happily picked up her bowl full of carrots. She was in her toddler form, wearing her carrot bib. Nobuyuki and Katsuhito both looked up from their plates, as Mihoshi knelt by Sasami, her own hands folded in her lap. The princess, with Mihoshi's help, had covered the table with a feast. Everything from simple rice balls to tofu steaks and even three types of miso soups. "Well," said Sasami, looking a tad embarrassed, "We have to leave. We need to help Washu find out where Rift and its ship came from." "Oh?" Tenchi picked up a knife and fork as he asked, "Did Washu ask you to help?" "Well, no," replied Sasami, "Lady Ryoko and my sister asked us to. They believe we would have more of a chance to trace one of the components. One of the power plants of the ship seem to have been smuggled out of the Galaxy Academy." She served Tenchi some tea, taking great care to keep her sleeves clear. "I don't see what that has to do with you two," said Tenchi as he sliced into one of the pieces of trout. "The Galaxy Academy is funded by the Galactic Union and Jurai. We believe both the Jurai House and the Galaxy Police would wish to investigate the theft of equipment from the Academy. Mihoshi could contact her grandfather and I could talk to my father as while as the Supreme Council." Katsuhito sat up and asked, "Won't that be dangerous?" Mihoshi smiled, "Oh, no. We plan to go first to the Galaxy Police Branch Office. My report can be transmitted right to Galaxy Police and the Marshal from the rendezvous ship using the inter-space hotline. Then we can go to the Branch Office and there I'm sure they will send ships to escort us to the planet Jurai." Tenchi swallowed a piece of trout and said, "If it's not dangerous, I don't see anything wrong with it. We will miss your cooking." Both Katsuhito and Nobuyuki chuckled. "Ohhh, I'll miss you all! WAAAAaaa!" Mihoshi covered her face, tears pouring down her cheeks. Princess Sasami giggled, "We shouldn't be gone THAT long. I have left some meals already made in the kitchen for you. In most cases all you have to do is warm them or add water." "When are you going?" asked Tenchi, as he forked another piece of trout. "Right after dinner. Mihoshi had the ship repaired and everything. It's waiting outside!" Mihoshi nodded, "Once we link my patrol ship to orbiting rendezvous ship, and after I send off the report, we can go right into subspace. You need not worry about us at all." "You really planned for everything," stated Nobuyuki, very impressed. First Fleet Commander Tally stood in the busy command center of his flagship as all around him officers and technicians prepared both the ship and the rest of the task force for the universal space jump. Computers units and communication equipment hummed and buzzed about him as the thousand or more ships slowly formed into a defensive sphere. There was no telling how the task force would be greeted in Universe 345 and it had to be ready. The larger cruisers and dreadnoughts took up the outer layers, while the troop transports and smaller gun ships assembled within it. "Sir. We will be ready to fold space in half a cycle." Tally nodded silently. 'Soon we will launch another assault. But not against D3's headquarters. No, this time against a new target. Colonial Planet 0-315. Oh great spirits have mercy on our souls for what we are about to do.' Outside the dark flagship the fleets continued to collect. Dark, ruthless shapes given birth out of some kid's nightmare. Deformed hammerhead sharks and mutant squids which had mated would have made offspring with more beauty then the ships that now answered the call from Haven High Command. Inside the flagship the First Fleet Commander continued to ponder a future which might end up as ugly as the ships he controlled. Washu looked again. "Well, that is interesting." Washu had spent days trying to find a clue about who had sent Rift after her and it had become useless. The computer units, weapon systems, power sources and even the hull plates itself could all be traced to planets who were either part of the Galactic Union or dealt with the Union as trade partners. But Washu was not willing to give up. She needed to know. Curiosity was as much part of her character as being a genius was. In fact she might say it was an important part OF being a genius. So she had started to analysis everything, from the wires used in the instrument panels to the mechanisms used in the airlocks. Soon she was diving deep into the programming languages used and the types of memory systems within the ship's reinforced inner chambers. The floor of her lab was soon covered in parts and pieces mixed with blue prints and flow charts. She would walk back and forth, grabbing up a fuse here, a motherboard there, glaring at them, demanding that they fit. She spent hours in front of the glowing screens of the outdated CPUs, searching page after page of inventory, looking for that alien piece of the puzzle. "Mihoshi, is everything ready?" asked Princess Sasami from her seat in the cabin. "Yes," replied Mihoshi as she and Tukinojo did last minute checks on the ship. Below them the blue lake seemed to be calm and silent, not realizing it was about to be hit by the backlash of a spaceship exiting the Earth's atmosphere. When finally Mihoshi threw the last switch (while giving the ship a good kick) and the engines kicked in, the ship flashed up into the sky with a roar. Tenchi, Ryo-Ohki in cabbit form, Katsuhito and Nobuyuki all watched as the ship slowly turned into a tiny glowing star and then disappeared totally. "Well," said Katsuhito as he tried to dry out his soaked robe, "they might of launched from someplace drier." "True," said Nobuyuki as he tried to get the water out of his ears. "Should a ship MAKE a grinding noise like that right before taking off?" asked Tenchi Ryo-Ohki as he picked up the poor, water soaked cabbit. "Meow?" What Washu finally found within the damaged memory units was nothing alien. In fact the file staring back at her was a Jurai file about Dr. Clay. Most of it were sections from Mihoshi's Galaxy Police report, but the attachment was from a Galaxy Academy Physician. "Memory loss? Dr. Octopus Head can't remember a period of two weeks in his life." Washu frowned and looked up from the computer screen, glancing at the wreckage that was piled about her. Her lab looked like a yard sale or a junk yard now that she had retrieved the remains of the spaceship from the dark side of the moon. "So, somebody erased his memory about dealing with me and the others." Washu leaned back and thought, 'Where did the Jurai get a copy? And how did Rift get their copy of the report?' Washu could not help but laugh and say out loud, "How many people are spying on each other?" The small redhead frowned up at the ceiling, leaning back in her floating cushion. On the computer screen tiny crabs had appeared, dancing back and forth as she stared off into space. She started to play with her own red hair, pulling on the long strands, twisting them. "Not enough data. Too many unknowns. But it has to be the work of somebody outside the Union. Interesting." Before she could continue to think out loud, she heard a rumble. 'Oops, forgot to go to dinner.' "What do you mean, they're gone?" asked Washu, as she looked about the living room. Tenchi smiled, looking up from the news program he was watching. "They've left to help you. They plan to try to trace or figure out how that power plant came from the Academy. They launched only about ten minutes ago. But don't worry, they left lots of food for us to...something wrong?" Washu seemed to be shaking, her hands in fists, her face turning red. Suddenly she stomped her left foot and shouted, "Those fools! If they do that, whoever sent Rift and the ship will be on to us. They'll know that WE know!" Tenchi frowned and asked, "They would know we know what?" "That there are spies among us!" Tenchi stood up and jerked about, trying to see all corners of the room, "There are? Where?" Washu sighed and smacked her forehead, "In the Galaxy Academy and maybe even within the Galactic Union. How else do you think that equipment got onto the alien ship? They might end up walking right into a trap!" She ran over to the windows, searching the night sky, as if she could wave Sasami and Mihoshi back down. "I have to warn them!" "But how?" asked Tenchi. 'And why call it an alien ship if all the stuff was made by races within the galaxy. I mean, they're alien to me, but not to Washu. Damn, now I'm confusing myself!' Washu did not bother to answer as she was already heading towards the stairs in the front hall. 'If I can put together a short distance teleport device before they get into subspace I could be able to reach them in time!' Tenchi sighed, "Wait for me." "Sir," stated an officer looking up from one of the engineering stations, "ready for jump." First Fleet Commander Tally nodded and turned to the main viewing screen. The fleet waited for his command, the final word which would send it screaming into the timeless void of nothingness, into Universe 345. "NOW!" Within a thousand ships, within a million energy systems, power was being shaped, pulled and twisted. Space and time and reality itself started to break down. Motes of energy and spots of nothing twirled about the fleet as it slowly dived into nonentity. In Universe 345, the Galaxy Police rendezvous ship was in orbit about the planet the humans called Saturn, within what was designated a Special Protection Area. A rendezvous ship is a powerful device, designed to increase the patrol ship's power and range by linking with it. So when the space about it turned from black to white and Saturn itself seemed to become distorted as ships seemed to come out of nowhere, it was neither surprised nor alarmed. It had not the brains to send off a warning or even the paranoia to defend itself. As the nearest ships opened their gun ports and aimed their weapons at the tiny ship all it could do was record what was about to happen on computers which would not be in existence within a few seconds anyway. Mistress. Yes? They're back. Entry detected, but its near Earth. What do we do my Lady? Nothing D3. Let us see if they will do some of my work for me. Yes, my Lady. "Detective Mihoshi." Mihoshi and Sasami looked up from where they were on the floor of the patrol ship's small cabin, snacking on cookies and watching cartoons. "What Tukinojo?" asked Mihoshi as she got up, brushing crumbs off her uniform. "Are we there already?" "I have not only lost contact with the rendezvous ship," stated Tukinojo, as the lens focused on her from its clam-like head, "but my sensors now show a large fleet of unknown ships bearing on us from its last location." "A large fleet? How big?" "989 capital size ships and counting," remarked the ship's computer. "WHAT!" shouted Sasami in horror. "Calm down," whimpered Mihoshi, "it has to be a mistake. Nobody has that many ships in the area." "Nobody has that many ships in known space," observed Tukinojo. "Get us out of her. Back to Earth! NOW!" "Sir, second ship spotted. Also Galaxy Police in nature." Tally examined the viewing screen as the smaller ship changed direction, making a 180 degree loop and started to head back towards the inner planets. "I see. Did the first give off any warnings?" "None we could detect," remarked the officer on watch. "It was not manned. We believe it was what we would call a booster unit." "I see. Ask the carrier 'Fury' to launch all fighters." Tally placed his hands behind his back and added, "I want that ship dead." "Yes, sir." "Smaller ships have broken off from the main group and are closing fast," stated Tukinojo calmly. "AAHHHH!" replied Mihoshi as she kicked the floor plates, trying to get the ship to go faster. The fighters were nothing but huge engines pushing powerful energy weapons, guided by pilots trained from birth. They came out of the carrier, maneuvering between the larger ships like angry wasps, yet totally under control of their pilots. As the ten fighters closed onto their target, pulling ahead of the rest of the group, the patrol ship suddenly seemed to spin out of control, heading right into a local field of rocks and asteroids. "Follow," commanded the head pilot as he gave chase. His name was Kaki and he happened to be one of the best pilot within the fighter wing of the task force. "Get away from me!" shouted Mihoshi as she tried to dodge and twist about the tumbling boulders outside the cockpit. "Mihoshi, what are you doing?" screamed Sasami as she held on for her life. "Damn, what a pilot," commented Kaki as he almost smacked into one of the larger rocks, barely skimming its surface. It took all his skill and his luck just to keep on the target's tail. One of his men was not as lucky, the fighter exploding with a silent flash of light. "Damn," said Kaki as he leveled out his fighter, trying to get a lock onto the enemy. "One down," reported Tukinojo, as the patrol ship seemed to dodge between two large ice boulders. Kaki's middle finger gently pushed down on the trigger in his right control glove and twin particle cannons of his high speed fighter spat out blue flumes of death. His jet-black eyes narrowed as he waited for the enemy's deletion. "Oh my, oh my!" whimpered Mihoshi as she took the ship into a dive, the blue lines of particles missing by meters, slamming into a somewhat large asteroid. The explosion forced many of the fighters to break off, twisting here and there to dodge the flaming shock wave. The fighters soon regrouped and started sweeping over the field of shifting rocks and scorched boulders. Their sensors moved about the darkness like fingers searching muddy waters. "Keep looking," demanded Kaki's voice over the fighters' headsets. 'A ship that big can't hide for long,' Kaki thought as he adjusted his scanner. "This will help hide us," stated Mihoshi as she tried to steer the ship behind a large rock. The ship's engines roared even louder and the red patrol ship went leaping upwards, as Mihoshi shouted, "It's not my fault!" The patrol ship launched itself straight up out of cover, right into the formation, the police craft's weapons blazing. Three fighters exploded and the rest were so startled by the enemy's appearance, that two slammed into each other. "Oh no!" cried Mihoshi and she quickly sank the ship back into the darkness and safety of the tumbling space debris. "Enough of this," growled Kaki as he opened a channel to the flagship. ' This ends now.' "Sir, the fighter leader is requesting that the capital ships fire on the target." "What?" asked Tally. "But if we do that we might hit some of our own men! Without a proper lock on the target we'll have to open fire on that whole section of space." "Sir, the fighter leader seems to think that would be worth it." The officer placed a hand onto his headset and glanced over at the First Fleet Commander, "there also seems to be a lot of cursing on the fighter channels lately." "Ready the main batteries for all out broadside." "Yes, Sir." Suddenly a tiny alarm went off on one of the scanner screens. Tally's eyes grew wide and he shouted, "WAIT!" "Gee, Washu, it is sure great to see you!" happily cried Sasami as she hugged the redhead who had just stepped out of a glowing doorway that had formed in the cockpit. "I would be here sooner but for all the running about you folks seem to be doing." Washu glanced at the controls as Tenchi pointed towards the viewing screen and said, "What the heck are you guys doing flying about so close to those?" Outside the ship was asteroids and rocks, clouds of dust and pebbles, which swam about, hitting each other and bouncing into new directions. Beyond the rocks and clouds of ice were... "Oh my GOD! Those ships are huge!" Tenchi was in his Jurai battle costume, headband, tiger marks on the face and all. As he stared at the ships and played with the ring on his finger, he thought, 'I wish I could call up the light hawk wings right now. I don't think anything else is going to save us!' Even as he watched a couple of smaller ships passed nearby, engines red hot as they seemed to head towards the approaching ships. "Oh Miss Washu! Lord Tenchi! You have to help us!" babbled Mihoshi, as she kept pushing buttons and dodging the ship about. "Those ships destroyed the other ship and then launched fighters on us and the fighters fired on us-" "Excuse me," said Tukinojo, "but fluctuations within the unknown ships suggest they are preparing to fire on this area of space. In fact, they have been ready to do so for 4.5 seconds." "Shouldn't we escape now?" asked Sasami as she pointed towards the glowing portal. "What do you mean?" asked Washu as she pushed Mihoshi to one side and started to type into the controls. "You mean they are holding their fire?" commented Tenchi as he watched Washu at work. "Sir, the computers are right." "So Washu is now on board?" "Yes, sir. But how? No other ship was detected. But the life sensors clearly show her DNA is now on that Police patrol ship. Do you wish us to fire?" The gunners looked up from their stations, waiting. Tally was silent for a moment. 'She IS what we came here to get. Yet, if she is truly the factor which holds back the invasion of this space she is very powerful. We should test that.' "All ships, prepare to fire." "Tenchi," stated Washu as she turned away from the computer, "they're going to fire. You have to protect us long enough for me and the others to get through the portal." "What?" Tenchi yelped. "You won't have much choice. Now, listen..." The thousand ships pointed their weapons and fired. The weapons used were powered by equipment designed after a million years of war and grief. Rivers of energy formed together, flowing into a solid wall of light that plowed into the broken remains of a planet long since dead and turned it into nothing. A crippled fighter which was not yet out of the way also became nothing, like a fly falling into a torch flame. Yet, in the center of it all a bubble of life stood against the flow and refused to give up. The ship was no longer. Only Tenchi, the light wings glowing about him like a bird protecting itself from the cold, stood against the wall of fire. His costume had changed, brighter, whiter, with tiny glowing wings on his forehead. Three fans of light glowing over his closed eyes. Next to him was the portal. It floated next to him, waiting to take him, like the others, back to Earth. Timing was everything. "Sir-" "I see it." Tally was leaning over one of the gunner's shoulders, reading the results himself. "Any remains?" ` "None organic." The officer on watch glanced over at Tally and continued, "She and the others escaped. Sir, is THAT Tenchi?" "Yes," Tally frowned and hit one of his hands onto the edge of the data screen. 'Washu has escaped.' He jerked his head up and said, "Prepare another broadside." "Yes, sir. Prepare all batteries for another go." Tenchi sensed the next wall of energy and swiftly flew into the portal, the light wings folded tight about him. He had to complete the transportation before the portal in space was destroyed or there might be problems on the other end. His timing was a tad off. "Yes!" said Washu as she grabbed the falling Tenchi. "He must be...OH MY GOD!" "What?" asked Mihoshi and Sasami. They stood next to the portal, both hugging each other in the joy of living for another day. They both turned, saw Tenchi and said, "Oh my GOD!" "What?" asked Tenchi as he got to his feet, saw his reflection in the nearest computer screen and fainted. "Hey! Why is Tenchi a girl?" asked Mihoshi. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------- Tenchi Muyo! and related characters was made by and is still owned by AIC and Pioneer. Tally and the Haven Task Group are owned by me and in no way are related to the Zentraedi (though I did listen to the Robotech Perfect Soundtrack Album while making the scenes with the ships in it). *Dumplings are better than flowers.