Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! and its characters, technologies, etc. 
are property of Pioneer and AIC. All other characters and ideas 
are property of the author and their use is prohibited except by 
consent of the author. Any similiarities to actual persons, events, 
etc. are purely coincidental and in no way makes the author liable. 
To sum up all this legal stuff don't steal my original characters 
and don't sue me for use of ones that aren't.

Author's note: This is my first attempt at a fanfic so dont expect 
perfection. If they aren't listed here already i don't have anything 
else on my mind so this whole fic should be posted shortly. 
Questions,comments, (good and bad, i will even glance at flames) 
advice from other writers, or requests on where to send big bags of 
money to buy a neverending supply of caffiene (so i can write 24/7) 
should be directed to: kemanorel_7@yahoo.com

Tenchi Muyo! : Airs of the Past 

Prologue: Zerute's Device
	
	It was a quiet and peaceful winter morning on Coregor 7
and Bial Kallia hated every minute of it. He had just made planetfall,
a process which always left him feeling sick, and he had not slept in 
3 days. On top of his anxiety of the landing and his impending journey,
he hated the cold and the Coregor system was always cold, especially 
the further one got from the pitifully small red sun. 
	
	Bial Kallia was clothed in heavy, grey, cotton robes resembling
a suit of jurian armor. "At least they gave me warm attire," he 
muttered as he trudged across the barren surface of a world that was 
completely alien to him. "Ah,well may be crappy place but at least 
this will be an easy fifty thousand credits," he said with as much 
of an air of satisfaction as he could manage. "Still," he said to 
himself, "makes me wonder why a powerful jurian noble had to hire me 
to go on his little scavenger hunt for him."
	
	At this point he could see his destination off in the distance.
It was a huge maze of ruins from a few centuries ago when a band of 
rebellious jurians fled here. They had been angered by the governments 
lack of willingness to change so they came here to try and live away from 
the empire. They probably could have done it had it not been for 
Arekon Zerute.
 
	Zerute was a brilliant man before he went mad from an awry 
experiment on himself and started to make instruments of mass destruction.
Zerute's device was a small sphere of radioactive material designed to 
destroy all life on a planet when activated. Unfortunately the triggering 
device was very sensitive or at least thats what he had heard. No one had 
survived the disaster so it was all pretty much speculation.
 
	This very same artifact (or the remains of it) was what Bial was 
here to find. He had no idea what his employer wanted with the Zerute device. 
All he knew was he was being payed to get it and not ask questions. That 
was no problem for him, he thought with a sadistic smile. Being a bounty 
hunter, one got skilled at slinking around in darkness not trying to be found.

	He knew right where the device should be from schematics and stories 
he had heard. He just hoped his information was reliable so he could get out 
of here before those anti-radiation shots wore off.

	He slowly walked over to the door of a large charred building. 
Oddly, there were no windows here. He knew it had to be the meeting hall of 
the revolutionist colony. He pushed with all his might but the doors would not 
budge. "Figures," he shouted in disgust, "I was hoping to avoid making this much 
of a racket but here goes." He pulled a small black box off a loop in his belt 
and slapped it to the door. After punching a couple of switches he ran for cover. 

	The explosion resounded through the city and he sighed, 
"Well, if there is anyone else here I think they know im here now." 
He peaked out around the pile of rubble he was hiding behind and to his satisfaction 
a hole large enough to fit through had been opened in the door. He crept into 
the building and was looking at a entry hall which had nothing but white marble 
and a few black doors. Amazingly enough, aside from his rude entrance this area 
of the building looked to be in fairly good shape.

	He knew that Zerute's Device should be in the center of the building, 
so he went through the door in front of him. Seeing the scene in front of him 
his jawed dropped wide open. The door opened into a lush atrium that was 
untouched by radiation and looked to be well tended. The glass of the sunroof 
wasn't even dirty.
 
	Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw something move. 
He started to whirl around and was reaching for his plasma rifle when he was 
rewarded for his efforts with a sharp blow to the back of the head.

	Bial Kallia awoke even colder than before on a hard steel table. 
He shot up from the table and tried to draw his rifle only to find it was missing. 
Typical, he thought checking the rest of his items. Everthing was gone except 
a short lightsword he kept hidden in a compartment in his boot. He checked the 
only door to the place and found it was locked. He tried his lightsword on it 
only to find it had been fortified against it somehow.

	"DAMMIT!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, pounding on the door. 
"Let me OUTTA HERE!" He soon got frustrated and found that pounding on the door 
was not getting him any attention. He slowly scanned the room for anything that 
could serve as an exit or something useful. There was nothing, no way out, 
just the steel table, a similar steel chair and a lamp hanging from the ceiling 
shedding an eerie light into the room.
 
	He sat there dejected trying to think of what to do when he heard the 
door behind him open. He wheeled around to see what looked to be two jurian knights 
and a man in old clothing but definitly jurian in origin.
 
	"What have you done to me and where is my equipment?" Bial demanded. 
The man looked at him and smiled a friendly, perhaps even familiar smile. 
Bial couldn't place it but it was definitly familiar.
 
	The man laughed a little, which only served to enrage Bial more, 
"How was your sleep, bounty hunter?" he chuckled again. 
"I know who you are, Bial Kallia, and I know why you are here."

	The now fuming Bial growled out, "How??!!"
"That is for me to know, and you to never find out." the man replied with a 
satisfied smirk. "As for Zerute's Device you can have the remains as long as 
you leave here immediately and tell no one of our presence here," he said flatly. 
This sounded reasonable to Bial and he nodded his agreement.

	"What about the items you took of mine?" he glared at the man. 
This only made the man laugh harder as he threw the belt and gun to him. 
Strapping on the belt and holstering his rifle he walked over and the guards 
took positions on either side of him. The man handed him a small steel container 
and told him that the guards would escort him to his ship.

	Reluctantly Bial accepted the escort back to his ship. 
He silenty made a vow to return someday and explore what he once considered 
ruins but now knew to be some sort of hidden city.

	As he rocketed away from the planet he decided he had better check 
the container the man had given him. After preparing a special area 
against the radiation he took a look at the box. "hmm," he mused, 
"appears safe enough." As he slid the top off the container he didn't notice the 
wave of plasma fire closing in on his ship until it was to late......

To be Continued.......

Quick Author's Note: I dont like to drone so I'll make this short. 
Yeah I know you are all asking "I thought this was supposed to be a Tenchi fic?" 
(Hey its just the prologue after all.) Don't worry. You won't be disappointed.