Okay, disclaimer time.  I don't own these characters.  Tenchi Muyo is
the property of AIC and Pioneer LDC.  This is just for fun, so get off
my back all right!  <Sniffle>  You think it's _easy_ dealing with your
lawyers _and_ the IRS?  Huh?!  WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?!  
Anyhoo, here it is.  E-Mail me with your comments.  If no one criticizes
me, I can't get better at this.  Just try to avoid the tender, bleeding
heart messages like, "You suck,"  or the even more emotional, "You're a
shameless jerk and your writing makes me want to hurl."  If you have a
constructive comment, great.  If you think the story sucks, fine, just
tell me in a way that will help me improve.  That's all I ask.
Enjoy!
BTW:  This story takes place in the OAV universe between Episode 13 and
Manatsu No Eve.


Tenchi Muyo:  Empire


	His empire was dying.
	That was the only way he could see it.  Thousands of ships destroyed,
billions dead, and all he had to show for it now was a last handful of
star systems that still rallied around him for their own ambitious
ends.  The Jurains had continued to press them, and although his forces
usually gave better than they got, there was no ignoring the inevitable.
	This was the end.
	No!
	His hands balled into fists, his teeth clenched.  If they wanted him,
they'd have to come and get him!  He would fight to the very last man,
and he would make sure that they paid for every inch of space.  He would
see to it that, in the end, their victory would taste as bitter in their
mouths as his defeat did in his.
	He stared out the window at the brown, dead world his flagship, the
Soja, was orbiting.  This had been his home once, a long time ago.  Two
hundred years of war and conquest had destroyed it.  It was somehow
fitting that he would make his last stand here, among the rubble of his
homeworld.
	Then again, it could be argued that this wasn't his homeworld at all.
	He had to smile at the irony.  
	The door behind him opened, admitting two men.  He could see their
reflections in the window.  One of them was his High Admiral, the other
he recognized as a task force commander from the Orsini system.  They
came to attention and bowed low.  He didn't move.  He continued to stare
out the window, making them wait for a few more moments.  They didn't
say anything.  Neither was stupid enough to test his resolve here and
now, with his empire in disarray.  Finally he turned, swirling his
crimson cape of rank behind him.  
	"Speak,"  he ordered.
	The High Admiral said nothing.  The other man, Commodore Ranza spoke. 
"My Lord, it is my regret to inform you that the Orsini system has
fallen to the Jurain advance.  We fought bravely, but in the end we
could not hold them back."
	"Casualties?"  he asked.
	The Commodore licked his lips in apprehension.  "Thirty-three ships of
the line, out of a fleet of thirty-five."
	He stood there a moment, eyeing the Commodore.  "And yet you manage to
escape,"  he commented.
	The Commodore gulped visibly.  "I..I felt it necessary to return and
inform Your Majesty of this..this tragic turn of events."  His words
came quicker and quicker in his nervousness.
	He brought his hand up to silence him.  "A task any fighter pilot
could've taken."  He turned back to the window.  "You are aware, I hope,
Commodore, that I cannot tolerate even the suggestion of cowardice in my
fleet.  To tolerate such behavior, especially in one of my fleet
commanders, would invite mass desertions and similar forms of
cowardice.  You do understand, don't you?"  His voice was low, almost
pleading.
	Ranza began to sweat.  "I meant no cowardice, My Lord, I..."
	He got no farther.  In one quick motion, the Emperor swung around, a
shaft of light leapt from his hand, the Commodore's head flew from his
shoulders.  
	He looked down at Ranza's corpse and nodded to his High Admiral, who
waved two guards to come and clean up the mess.  The light sword
disappeared.
	He addressed his High Admiral for the first time.  "Kagato, find a
replacement for the Commodore as soon as possible."
	High Admiral Kagato looked nervous as he readjusted his spectacles. 
"And what fleet, exactly, would this replacement command?"
	The Emperor cursed himself for a fool.  Ranza's entire task force was
wiped out.  "Forget it,"  he said.  "What reports from the other
fleets?"
	On this, Kagato was less apprehensive, considering that, for once,
there was some good news to report along with the bad.  "Commodore
Mihoshi has managed to retake the Morphia system."
	He waited for the admiral to go on.  "And?"
	Kagato gulped.  "We lost half of the Sixth Fleet trying to take
Belegast."
	He growled low in his throat.  
	"My Lord, we have lost."  Kagato noticed that, for the first time, his
emperor did not argue the point.  "Even with Mihoshi in Morphia, we
cannot stand against Jurai and the Galaxy Police any longer."  He took a
deep breath.  The Emperor wasn't going to like this.  "We must
surrender."
	"NO!"  He screamed, whirling around.  "Have you turned against me as
well, Kagato?!"
	"Of course not, My Lord, but we must face the reality that in as little
as two weeks, the Jurain fleet will be here."  Kagato spoke calmly.  He
knew that the Emperor could become violent with very little
provocation.  His mood swings had become worse lately.  "However, we do
have a plan."
	The Emperor eyed him suspiciously.  "A plan?  We?"  He took a step
toward Kagato.  "Who is, 'we?'"  
	Kagato cursed the slip.  The Emperor could be extremely paranoid at
times.  "Myself and my scientific staff.  We've come up with a way to
hide you until the time comes to retake the empire."
	"'Hide!?'"  He took a few steps back toward the window and turned, his
cape flapped around him like an angry storm cloud.  "'Hide?!'"  he
repeated, making the word a curse.  "You would have me run out like a
thief in the night while those self righteous Jurains,"  he spat this
last word, "sit on _my_ throne?!"
	"My Lord, hear me out.  I am not suggesting that we bow down to the
Jurains, only to pretend to.  I have developed a machine that can rip
the fabric of subspace and send you to another dimension, another
timeline.  You can remain there until such time as your loyal followers
are ready to throw off the Jurains.  If we don't, they will kill you,
either in battle or in a public execution on planet Jurai.  I have a way
to make them think they've destroyed you, but keep you safe at the same
time.  When the time comes for your return, they'll never expect it." 
He continued, outlining his plan.  The Emperor listened intently, his
eyes going wide in some parts, grimacing in others.  
	When Kagato was finished, he had a comment.  "Admiral, that is by far
the most devious, underhanded, spiteful, and cruel thing I have ever
heard of in my life."  The Emperor smiled.  "I like it.  Make the
necessary preparations.  But be quick.  As you pointed out, we no longer
have the luxury of time."
	Kagato bowed from the waste.  "As you wish...Lord Tenchi."

	Tenchi Masaki hummed a tune as he pulled another carrot out of the
earth and tossed it into the bucket.  He was in a good mood.  For the
first time in a long time, he had managed to get out of the house
without the usual Ryoko/Ayeka wars breaking out over him.  Sure, he had
had to wake up at a quarter past four to do it, but out here, in the
peace and tranquility of the field, he decided it had been worth it.  As
he was humming, he heard a strangled, high pitched whine.  He looked
around, quickly.  With everything that's happened around him for the
last year, it didn't hurt to be cautious.
	He had just decided it was nothing when he heard a voice behind him.
	A very familiar voice.
	"Hello, there."
	Tenchi turned and found himself staring at...well...himself.  His alter
ego was dressed in some kind of uniform and cape, both of which were the
color of dried blood.  He looked farther down and was shocked by
something else his double was wearing, his sword, the Tenchi-ken!  
	"Who...who...?"
	"Who am I?"  His double asked with a smile.  "I'm Tenchi Masaki, Tenchi
Masaki."
	Tenchi detected movement behind him and turned.  As if seeing himself
was shocking enough, there stood Kagato, back from the dead.  "You!" 
Tenchi's cry was cut off when his alter ego struck him from behind with
the hilt of the light sword  he had been carrying.
	The Tenchi Masaki who was an intergalactic warlord stood over his
unconscious self.  His lips curled in disgust.  "Pathetic.  It's hard to
believe there are me's like this in almost every other dimension."
	Kagato merely nodded.  They didn't have much time.  Tenchi stripped the
clothes off his sleeping double and changed into them.  All the while,
Kagato was giving him last minute instructions.  "I chose this dimension
because here you have no enemies.  Remember, things are not the same
here as in our dimension.  Expect surprises and maybe even dangers, but
as long as you keep you head and remember who you're supposed to be,
you'll be fine."
	"Just remember to come and get me when you've had enough of Jurai."
	Kagato smiled.  "It may take years, but we will come for you.  The good
news is that time flows faster in our dimension than it does here, so
you won't have to wait as long as the rest of us."  He bent down and
picked up the unconscious Tenchi along with the Emperor's uniform.  The
Emperor had kept the Tenchi-ken, fixing it to his belt as he had done
for centuries.
	"Good luck, High Admiral,"  Tenchi said. 
	"Worry not, My Lord, as soon as I return, I'll give the order to
surrender.  Once that's done, we will initiate our plan."
	Tenchi nodded as Kagato and his other self disappeared through the
green portal.

	It didn't take long for Tenchi to find his house.  He was amazed at how
much it looked like the home he grew up in.  He brushed off his awe. 
His home, his real home, was two hundred years gone.  At least it was
familiar.  He scratched under his arm.  The clothes he took from his
alter ego were wet with the boy's sweat.  They were also made of a
material that caused Tenchi to itch.  He wondered how long he would have
to stay in this primitive backwater.
	As he approached the front door, he heard two voices that struck two
different chords in him.
	"Ryoko!  I can't believe you!  How dare you!"
	"What's wrong, Little Princess?  It's not my fault if Tenchi didn't
want to see you this morning."
	The conversation increased in volume as the argument escalated.  Tenchi
stood outside the door and listened carefully.  <Ryoko!  And my bitch of
an aunt!  How can this be?!>
	He smiled.  Kagato had told him things would be different.  If they
were all sharing a house together, perhaps this wouldn't be so bad,
after all.  It would certainly make things...interesting.  He opened the
door and stepped inside.  The two women stopped fighting and turned to
him as he appeared.  
	"Oh, Tenchi!  Welcome home!"  Ayeka greeted him with a smile.
	Tenchi couldn't help smiling at the greeting.  In his dimension, Queen
Ayeka of Jurai would've tried to kill him on the spot.  He gave his aunt
a hungry look.  He had always wondered how his aunt could be so prim,
proper, and aristocratic with the body of a sexpot.  "Hello, Ayeka, how
was your day?"  he asked innocently.
	Ayeka was beaming.  "Well, I..."  
	She was cut off by Ryoko, who materialized with her arms around
Tenchi.  "Tenchi!"  He grinned.  There were times he missed his Ryoko. 
He allowed himself a brief second to wonder how she was.  He had sent
her and Ryo-Ohki out as a commerce raider, striking against Jurain cargo
vessels and supply convoys.  
	He was about to say something flattering to his favorite demon when he
heard a cheerful, bubbly voice call out from the kitchen.  "Tenchi?"
	Tenchi froze up.  <No!  She couldn't be here too!>  A small,
blue-haired girl emerged from the kitchen wearing an apron with a giant
carrot on the front of it.  Tenchi began to sweat.  <Damn!  Tsunami!>
	She walked right up to him.  "Where did you put the carrots, Tenchi?"
	Carrots?  Tenchi cursed inwardly.  He had forgotten that his
counterpart had been working in the fields when he found him. 
"I...uh...forgot.  Sorry."
	"Forgot?"  Ryoko asked.  "Are you feeling okay?"
	"Um...not really.  If it's all the same to you, I'd like to go straight
to bed."  <Care to join me?>  he added silently.
	"Oh...well, all right."  She let him go, and he proceeded up the
stairs.  They all watched him go.
	"I wonder what that was all about."  Ayeka commented.
	Sasami just shrugged in puzzlement.

	Tenchi closed the bedroom door behind him and smiled.  Ryoko was here
along with an Ayeka that was kindly disposed toward him to say the
least.  On the other hand, Tsunami was here as well.  He wondered what
other surprises were waiting for him.  Either way, he knew he was going
to have fun here.
	However, if he was going to make it here, he'd have to do a little
studying.  He went to his double's desk and started searching.  Opening
a desk drawer, he found his counterpart's Tenchi-ken.  He put it back
and closed the door, he already had a sword.  He continued searching his
desk, his dresser, and his book shelf until he found what he was looking
for, his double's diary.  Smiling smugly, he sat down and began to read.

	Tenchi woke up in his underwear in a dark room.  He moaned and sat up. 
There was light in the room, it was just that the walls were painted
black.  The room was smaller than his bedroom, with only a sleeping mat
as the only furniture.  A dull hum could be heard from somewhere
outside.  There was a steel door at on one wall.  
	"Hello?"  he called out.  "Can anyone hear me?  Hello?"

	A Lieutenant appeared at the doorway to Kagato's office.  "Sir, the
Commodore is here."
	He adjusted his glasses.  "Send her in, Lieutenant."
	The young Imperial officer disappeared.  Kagato sighed.  Fifty years
ago, that young man wouldn't have left before a smart salute.  In the
aftermath of constant defeats, discipline was beginning to break down; 
not in any appreciable way, not when insubordination could be punished
by death, but in the small, almost miniscule ways that separated the
Imperial Navy from other militaries in the galaxy.
	His expression brightened when the tall blonde woman entered his
office.  He stood and returned the textbook salute she offered. 
"Commodore Mihoshi,"
	"High Admiral Kagato,"  she returned the greeting.
	"Have a seat, Commodore, we have much to discuss."  She sat in the
chair opposite of his desk.  "I trust you received the brief I sent
you."
	"Yes, sir, and with all due respect, I have my misgivings about this
idea."
	Kagato smiled.  "It's a little late now, Commodore, I sent our
surrender to the Jurai fleet command.  They would've received it about
an hour ago."
	"Yes, sir, but how do you plan to account for the Emperor's
disappearance?"
	Kagato's smile widened.  "I don't intend to.  I plan on giving them an
emperor for them to execute."
	Mihoshi's eyes narrowed.  "I won't be party to treason,"  she said with
a touch of threat in her voice.
	"Don't worry yourself.  Our beloved Emperor is out of Jurai's reach. 
The Emperor I intend to give them is a decoy, a decoy so perfect that by
the time we're through, Jurai will not only let us live, but sympathize
with us as well."  He hastily outlined his plan for Mihoshi.  She
smiled.  
	"That's harsh,"  she commented with a touch of admiration.  "You know,
he'll tell them the truth at the first opportunity."
	"So much the better," he told her, "They'll call it the rantings of a
madman, which will only strengthen our argument that we could do nothing
to stop him until now.  The Jurains will eat it up.  This will work,
Commodore."
	"It had better," she told the Admiral, that hint of threat once again
in her normally gentle voice, "I have no intention of spending the rest
of my life in a Galaxy Police prison."
	"Commodore, if this doesn't work, we'll be lucky if we get a quick
execution."


	Tenchi woke up in _his_ room and smiled.  He rolled over and looked at
the clock on the night stand.  It was almost eight in the morning. 
Sitting up, he yawned.  This was like being on vacation.  Usually, he
was awake by five and on the Soja's bridge by five-thirty.  It was nice
to sleep in for a change.
	He wondered what he should do today.  He was in a  house surrounded by
both allies and enemies, all of whom seemed think of him as their's. 
The opportunity for fun was definitely present.  Ryoko was always fun,
but his mind kept coming back to Ayeka.  He had to admit, despite the
abject hatred he had for her, he had always wondered how'd she be
between the sheets.  He smiled at the thought.  
	Of course, his grandfather might be a problem.  Despite his appearance,
Tenchi knew that his grandfather was younger than he appeared, or
appeared younger than he was depending what perspective you took, Human
or Jurain.  Yosho had revealed his true form to him during their last
duel, a duel Yosho failed to walk away from.  Tenchi remembered the day
fondly, the day he had defeated his grandfather and had taken his empire
away from him.  He considered killing the old man again, just for old
time's sake, but he thought it probably best to keep a low profile.
	Tsunami could also present a problem.  She was every bit as powerful as
Ryoko, and probably more.  He didn't know why she had chosen to take on
the form of a child, it certainly wasn't the form he usually saw. 
Normally, she chose the form of a tall, blue haired woman.  Then there
was the warship that shared her name.  He knew there was a connection
between the warship and the royal family of Jurai, but his spies had
never been able to determine exactly what that connection was.  
	He had just rolled over to catch another hour of sleep when the entire
house was rocked by an explosion.  In a second, he was out of bed and in
a combat stance, his Tenchi-ken up and ready to face the unknown enemy. 
There was another explosion, this time, he knew where it was coming
from.  Years commanding the Imperial Fleet from the Soja's bridge had
not dulled his combat reflexes.  He rushed out the door and down the
stairs.  
	What he saw shocked him.  Mihoshi, (the ditz, not the Commodore,) was
sleeping on the couch, Tsunami, (the child, not the Jurain General,) was
humming in the kitchen while she made breakfast, and Ryoko and Ayeka
were standing in the middle of the living room practically glowing with
suppressed rage and psychotic power.  He stood there for a moment,
wondering why no one was attempting to break up the fight.  The two were
bickering back and forth, and seemed to be bringing up _his_ name an
awful lot.
	A stray energy bolt struck a wall.  Tenchi ducked to avoid the flying
debris.  Mihoshi was still asleep and Tsu...Sasami, he corrected
himself, was still making breakfast as if nothing was happening.  The
fight continued while he watched in awe.
	"Of course, I would expect something like that from a monster like
you!"  Ayeka was shouting.
	"'Monster?!'  I'll show you a real monster, you snobbish little..."
	"'Snobbish?!'"
	Tenchi let the argument go for another few moments.  Why wasn't anyone
stopping this?  They were going to level the house!  Finally, he
mustered himself and let loose in the finest tradition of the Imperial
drill instructors.
	"ENOUGH!"  The two women stopped dead and looked at him in shock. 
"Now, I don't know what the problem is, but you're going to drop it! 
Now!  I'm going to go into the kitchen and have breakfast, you two are
going to either table this argument, or take it outside.  Understood?"
	They looked at him, speechless.
	"UNDERSTOOD?!"
	They nodded slowly.
	"Good," he said quietly.  He turned and entered the kitchen, leaving
Ryoko and Ayeka just staring at his back in puzzlement.  He sat at the
kitchen table and watched as Sasami cooked.  
	"Wow, Tenchi, that was great!"  she commented as she put a plate of
rice and fish in front of him.  Looking back on it, he regretted saying
anything.  According to his double's diary, such arguments were common,
and it seemed that he never did anything to interfere with them.  Still,
he had no intention of living in a house that could fall apart because
of a girls' petty squabble.  
	Ryoko and Ayeka entered the kitchen and, (surprise!) took seats on
either side of him.  Sasami served them breakfast as Mihoshi and Washu
entered.  
	"Morning, everyone,"  the little pink-haired scientist said as she sat
down.  She looked at Tenchi and frowned.  "Tenchi, are you okay?  You
look...different."
	_Shit!_
	He looked right at her and smiled.  "I'm fine, Washu."
	She glared at him.  
	Tenchi wasn't sure what was wrong until he remembered what it said
about Washu in his double's diary.  "I..uh..mean Little Washu!"
	She brightened.  "Are you sure?"
	"Uh...yeah...I'm just feeling a little under the weather today is all."
	"Oh, well, come by my lab, I'll take a look."  She continued under her
breath, "A very good look."
	_Shit squared!_  Kagato said that he was an exact match for the other
Tenchi, but anything was possible, especially where his would-be mother
in law was involved.  "Uh...no thanks Little Washu, I'm sure it's
nothing."
	Washu shrugged.  "Suit yourself."
	He managed to get through breakfast unscathed.  Ryoko and Ayeka
appeared to be behaving themselves.  Mihoshi was babbling almost
incoherently.  Tenchi listened in absolute amazement.  How could a
clumsy ditz and absolute moron like this woman be one of his most
vicious and talented fleet commanders?  The differences between the two
astonished him.  About five minutes into the conversation, he decided he
definitely preferred his Mihoshi.  When he was finished, he rose and
left for the front door.
	He figured if his double had been working in the fields, that he should
do the same.  This served two purposes.  First, it was what the others
expected him to do as their Tenchi Masaki;  two, the less time he spent
around the house, the less likely it would be that the others would
notice something odd about him and call him on it.
	As he was walking out the door, Ryoko materialized with her arms around
him.  "Oh, Tennnchiiii!" she sang.  He felt a rush as she held him. 
This Ryoko was just as aggressive as his.  So much the better.
	She swung around to face him.  "C'mon, Tenchi, forget the chores
today.  Let's go play!"
	From behind them, Ayeka stood fuming, but knew that Tenchi would brush
Ryoko off, and then she would blast the space pirate into atoms.
	This time, however, it was different.  "Sure, Ryoko, let's play."
	"Huh?"  was all that Ryoko could get out.
	Ayeka didn't do much better.  "WHAT!!!"
	Ryoko blinked.  Usually, Tenchi gave her some excuse and went on his
way.  This was an unexpected turn of events.
	"Sure, it's a beautiful day.  Why not?"
	Ryoko squealed in glee and grabbed his arm.  Ayeka was speechless. 
"Ten...Ten...Ten.."
	As the two walked off arm in arm, Ryoko's head turned toward Ayeka. 
The demon stuck her tongue out at the stuttering princess in victory.  
	Ayeka was so shocked, she forgot to kill Ryoko.

	Tenchi sat on the hard mat in his underwear and waited.  He had no idea
how long he had been there.  Hours, days, plus however long he was
unconscious.  He had stopped trying to figure it out.  Finally, with no
preamble, the door slid open revealing two men in those same uniforms
Kagato and his double had been wearing.  Their's were less ornate than
his double's.  
	"What's going on here, huh?!"  he demanded.  The two men said nothing. 
One of them tossed a cloth bundle at him.  He caught it and examined
it.  It was a dark red uniform, like they were wearing.  
	"Put it on,"  one of them said.  They turned and left, the door sliding
shut behind them.
	Tenchi looked at the uniform.  "What the hell is going on?!"

	Kagato sat in the command chair on the bridge and waited.  It should be
any time now.  He tapped the armrest of his chair nervously with his
fingers.  When the lieutenant at the Operations console spoke up, he
responded so quickly the younger officer thought he had somehow angered
the Admiral.
	"Sir, we're reading multiple jump points opening in grid twelve!"
	Kagato turned to the three viewscreens in front of him.  "How many?"
	"Twelve...no...eighteen...no....twenty-three."  The Ops officer shook
his head in dismay as the readings on his screen kept changing.  "Make
that forty-seven..."
	Standing behind Kagato, Mihoshi spoke up.  "They're not taking any
chances, are they?"
	"Would you?"  Still, it was more than he was expecting.  Kagato had
sent almost half of his remaining ships to the outer systems in order to
hide them until the day the true Emperor returned.  The rest were spread
out in the territory they still held, to give the Jurains the impression
that they were still trying to defend their holdings.  He had only ten
ships in this system, not counting the Soja and Mihoshi's flagship, the
Risano.
	"Sixty-four,"  the Ops officer whispered in awe, "Tsunami's left tit!"  
	Kagato overlooked the profanity.  Silently, he echoed the sentiment.  
	Mihoshi stepped over to the Ops station and checked the readouts
herself.  "Eighty-three," she breathed.  "That's got to be a quarter of
their starfleet!"
	"Not taking any chances, indeed."  Kagato rose from his seat.  "I trust
they're hailing us?"
	"Yes, sir,"  the Communications Officer answered from her station.  "I
have Queen Ayeka herself on the channel."
	Kagato took a breath.  Show time.  "Patch her through."
	The angry, but beautiful, face of Queen Ayeka appeared on the center
screen.  Kagato, acting the part of the defeated commander, bowed low. 
"Queen Ayeka, allow me to introdu..."
	"I know who you are, High Admiral,"  Ayeka broke in viciously.  "I've
received your surrender communiqué, and it is accepted.  Prepare to be
boarded."
	Kagato bit his lip and counted to five.  The idea of Jurains on his
ship galled him.  He plastered a smile on his face.  "Of course.  We
anxiously await your..."  The screen went black.  Kagato growled low in
his throat.  "Commodore," he began, turning to Mihoshi, "Take an honor
guard and meet the Queen's representative in the landing bay."
	Mihoshi's expression matched his.  "They're so close," she mused, "A
good barrage of N2 torpedoes, and we can wipe them out."
	"And what's left of their fleet afterwards will fall on us like
wolves.  We stick with the plan.  Now, go."
	Mihoshi saluted and headed for the lift.
	
	The shuttle that landed on the flight deck wasn't a Jurain military
transport, but a Galaxy Police assault lander.  The Imperial Marine
lieutenant called his troops to attention.  A single squad of Marines in
their crimson ceremonial armor stood lined up in front of the descending
landing ramp of the lander.  Mihoshi had to fight back the bitter taste
in her mouth.  Plan or no plan, she hated having to kiss up to the
Jurains, more so, the GP.  Her bitterness turned to disgust when she saw
exactly _who_ the Jurains sent as their representative.
	She took a breath and stepped forward.  She refused to either bow or
salute.  The GP scum didn't deserve it.  "Marshall Kiyone,"  she greeted
icily.
	"Commodore Mihoshi,"  the Marshall was obviously enjoying this, given
the smug grin she made no effort to hide.  "I'm here to formally accept
your surrender of the Soja and take command.  Please take me to the
bridge."
	Mihoshi glowered at Kiyone.  "This way," she said and turned back
towards the door.

	Tenchi and Ryoko walked through the forest that surrounded the Masaki
shrine for almost an hour.  Ryoko was on top of the world.  She and
Tenchi were on a date!  A date!  Well, sort of a date, but it was more
than he was giving Ayeka.  Feeling bolder than usual, she reached out
and took his hand.  He smiled and squeezed her hand back.  Ryoko's hopes
soared.  
	They reached a small clearing in the forest.  Smatterings of sunlight
peered through the leafy canopy above them.  Tenchi released her hand
and took a few steps forward.  He looked around and said, "It'll do." 
He undid the buttons on his shirt.  For the first time, Ryoko felt
apprehensive.  Was this really happening?  "Well, Ryoko," he said, his
back still to her.  "Are you ready to play?"
	"Uh...sure."
	"Good."  Without warning, he spun on his heel!  Ryoko's senses just
barely registered the light sword blade that swung toward her!  In an
instant, her own sword was up, and she deflected the blow.  The two
swords crackled with energy as they crossed.  Ryoko was shocked.  What
the hell was he doing?!  She looked into his eyes and saw a mischievous
look there she hadn't seen on him before.  She had seen it on herself
when she looked in the mirror at his school the night they met.  Then,
she had been flirting with him in her own way.  It looked odd on Tenchi.
	He drew back the blade and tried another quick thrust that almost made
it though her defenses, but she managed to parry the blow and counter
with one of her own.  Tenchi effortlessly blocked it.  He smiled.  He
and his Ryoko played this game often, it was their favorite form of
foreplay.  He twisted around for another slash, but Ryoko dodged it and
tried for a thrust of her own.  Tenchi danced out of the way and went
for a backhand slash that nearly took Ryoko's arm off.  
	Ryoko was having the time of her life.  She didn't know what had gotten
into Tenchi, but she liked it.  Still, there was something bothering
her, something about the way he was fighting.  Most of his technique was
reminiscent of Yosho's, a technique she remembered from when she fought
Tenchi's grandfather seven hundred years ago.  But there was something
else there, a style she recognized, but couldn't put her finger on.
	Suddenly, Tenchi reversed the blade, holding it downward.  Ryoko tried
for a thrust to his midsection but he turned the shot with his blade. 
He thrust downward, burying his blade in the earth and holding Ryoko's
sword away from her.  He let go of the Tenchi-ken, letting it stand on
its own.  He leapt forward and tackled Ryoko.  Ryoko, taken off guard,
was pushed to the ground, Tenchi landing on top of her.  Her light sword
disappeared, and once Tenchi was separated from his sword, the
Tenchi-ken was deactivated, the hilt falling to the floor.
	Ryoko looked up to see Tenchi gazing into her eyes.  "Tenchi, what...."
	Tenchi smiled playfully.  "How does it feel to be the mouse instead of
the cat for a change?"  His hands pinned her to the ground.  She wasn't
afraid.  She knew she had the strength to throw Tenchi off, she just
didn't want to.
	Ryoko smiled.  "It makes for a nice change."  She didn't say anything
more.  Tenchi's lips were on hers.  Ryoko giggled inside.  Still, there
was something...off.
	_Stop!  There's something wrong!_  one percent of her mind shouted at
her, at which point the other ninety-nine percent promptly shouted back,
_Shut up!_
	Just as she was really getting into the kiss, she realized where she
had seen his sword technique before.  Her eyes went wide.  She broke off
the kiss and looked at him hard.  _This isn't Tenchi!_
	"Um...I just remembered!  I have to...to...help Washu in the lab! 
Um...gotta go!"  With that, she vanished.  Tenchi fell to the floor.  He
sat up.
	"Damn,"  he said to himself.  He stood up.  His gaze rested on the
Tenchi-ken.  The Emperor extended his hand toward it, and the sword
obediently flew to him.  He clipped it to his belt.  "Well, that was a
bust,"  he commented.  He smiled.  "I wonder what Ayeka's doing."


	Kiyone and her troops spent two days inspecting the Soja.  At the end
of those two days, Queen Ayeka and her general, Tsunami boarded the
Imperial flagship and the negotiations began.
	"Your Majesty, really, I don't think..."
	Ayeka cut Kagato off.  "When I begin to care what you think, Admiral, I
will inform you.  Now, then, I want to see him."
	Kagato bit down the curse he wanted to hurl at her.  He motioned to one
of his officers who disappeared through a doorway behind them.  The
highest ranking officers on both sides sat in silence at the Soja's
conference room table.  Kagato waited anxiously.  This was not
unexpected.  Even so, he had hoped that the Queen would not want
anything to    do with the Emperor.  Now, he had to watch and wait and
see if his plan actually worked.  He had told them the story, and they
seemed to be ready to believe it.  Even Ayeka, who was a big proponent
of the, "wipe them out," faction of Jurain politics when it came to the
Empire, seemed to want to believe what Kagato had said.  Hopefully, his
puppet would say all the right things.
	The officer appeared five minutes later followed by two Imperial
Marines.  Between those Marines, with his hands cuffed behind his back,
was the Emperor himself, Tenchi Masaki, dressed in full dress uniform.
	He was downcast, "pathetic," would be a better word, but he brightened
when he saw Ayeka and Tsunami.
	"Ayeka!  Thank the Kami!"
	Ayeka's eyes widened in shock.  She wasn't expecting this.  Tenchi took
a step toward her, but the Marines grabbed him by the shoulders and
secured him.  
	"You've gotta help me!  Kagato's back!"  Then he noticed that Kagato
was sitting there with his back to him.  He looked at Ayeka in
surprise.  "Ayeka?  What's going on?"
	Kagato sighed.  "You see what I mean, Your Majesty?  He's been like
this for the last couple of weeks.  Before that, he was erratic.  I
think it's been progressing like this for the last fifty years."  He
shook his head, "I should have seen the signs long before, but he
managed to hide them from me, but now he's finally cracked, and our
Empire with him."  Tenchi, Ayeka, and Tsunami listened as he went on. 
"Had I known, I would have taken command long ago.  Now, he claims he's
not the Emperor at all, that he's an innocent.  I think he honestly
believes it.  The psychiatrists that examined him think it's some kind
of deep rooted psychosis, a way to deny the things he's done."
	"What are you talking about?!"  Tenchi called out.  "I have no idea
what's going on here!"
	"The structure of the delusion is extremely complex, not unusual given
the Emperor's intelligence.  Two weeks ago, he broke down on the bridge
and started screaming that _I_ had kidnapped him and brought him here
from another dimension."
	"You liar!  You _did_ kidnap me!"
	"It soon became apparent that..."  he hung his head in sadness, "that
our entire war was based on the delusions of a madman.  Please forgive
me, Your Majesty."  His voice was sad.
	"I don't buy it,"  Kiyone said from the end of the table occupied by
the Galaxy Police delegation.  She smiled and turned to Mihoshi.  "And
what about you, Mihoshi?  You would honestly allow your precious Emperor
to be handed over to Jurai for execution?"
	Mihoshi collected herself and said her line.  "What I do is for the
safety of the Empire and its citizens.  Placed next to that, the life of
one man, even the Emperor, is irrelevant."  Kagato had to struggle to
keep a straight face.  He knew that for Mihoshi, the exact opposite was
closer to the truth.  She was almost fanatical in her loyalty to Tenchi
Masaki.  She'd be willing to kill billions to protect Lord Tenchi.
	Ayeka turned to Kagato.  "I have another question, Admiral.  Our
monitoring stations and reconnaissance vessels have compiled an accurate
count of ships that you have deployed throughout the remainder of your
Empire.  However, this number is not concurrent with our records of
ships destroyed in battle.  Where is the rest of your fleet?"
	Kagato smiled inwardly, but kept his expression as one of grief. 
"Unfortunately, Your Majesty, not all of our leaders agreed with my
decision to surrender.  Some of our fleet commanders and several
Senators at the capital refused to acknowledge that the order was even
given.  As a result, we had to put down some of the more...patriotic
elements of our fleet."
	Kiyone blinked.  "You killed your own men?"  she asked in frank
disbelief.
	"Marshal, thirty billion people have already died, this war shouldn't
have even happened!  If ending this war meant killing Imperial soldiers,
then that's what we were willing to do."  He turned to Ayeka.  "Your
Majesty, the political situation at the capital is tenuous at best. 
There are some that believe we should make Jurai earn their victory with
blood, but I have told them that surrender to Jurai is the only way to
save our people, so they had better get used to it."
	"I see,"  Ayeka said solemnly.
	Tenchi finally exploded.  "Could someone _please_ tell me what's going
on?"
	Ayeka's expression became harsh.  "I'll tell you what's going on!  You
are going to be dragged to the Grand Colosseum on Jurai and executed for
war crimes."
	"WHAT!?"
	Kagato and Mihoshi looked saddened by this, but nodded in acceptance.  
	"But you can't!  I haven't done anything!"
	This infuriated Ayeka.  "'Haven't done anything?'"  she hissed, "Tell
that to the eight hundred and twenty seven _million_ people you killed
during the Stardica Invasion!  Or the six hundred million who died on
Belegast!  You are the greatest monster Jurai has ever known!  Take him
away!  Get him out of my sight!"
	Kagato nodded and the Marines started to drag him away.  Tenchi
struggled.  "Wait!  This is a mistake!"  He searched the room
desperately for a someone, anyone, who would help him.  Suddenly, he
cried out.  "Let me speak with Tsunami!  Alone!"
	Ayeka growled low in her throat.  She was about to repeat the order to
take the fallen Emperor away, but Tsunami's hand on her shoulder stopped
her.  Kagato cursed inwardly.  What was his puppet up to?
	Tsunami looked up at the would-be Emperor.  "Your Majesty," she said,
referring to Ayeka, not Tenchi, "With all due respect, I would like to
hear what he has to say."
	Ayeka fumed, but relented.  "Fine," she said softly, "If that's what
you would like.  Is there somewhere the two of them could speak
privately, Admiral?"
	Kagato looked worried.  "Of course, they can use my office."  He shot a
look at Mihoshi who began to detail a guard to watch them.  
	"Alone, Admiral,"  Tsunami said, pointedly.
	Kagato nodded and showed them the way.  Unlike the other Jurain
generals, Tsunami wore a blue kimono with all the trappings of royalty. 
Kagato never understood what exempted her, what made her so special. 
Then again, he thought, remembering the Empire's disastrous defeat at
Kobar at Tsunami's hands, she usually earned  it.
	He led them to the office adjacent to the conference room and shut the
door behind them.  He smiled.  There was a reason he suggested this
place.  He would listen to the tape later.

	Tsunami turned to him.  "Very well, speak."
	"Tsunami, you've got to believe me.  A few days ago I was pulling
carrots at my home on Earth.  All of a sudden, I...I saw me, standing
right in front of me.  I guess they knocked me out.  When I woke up, I
was on this ship.  Tsunami, I have no idea what's happening or how this
upside down world got started, but I'm not the man you're looking for."
	"Why should I believe you?"  she asked.  Their was a faint hint of
contempt in her voice.
	"I know you, Tsunami.  We fought Kagato together.  Don't you see? 
They're using me as a sacrifice."
	Tsunami frowned.  "On that, I'll agree with you.  Kagato and Mihoshi
will probably be spared.  Your execution will satisfy the Queen, and
she'll need Kagato to keep an eye on the pro war faction of your people,
but I need proof of what you're saying before I'll even consider taking
this conversation further."
	Tenchi thought frantically.  What could he use as proof?  Tsunami saw
that he had nothing further and started for the door.  Finally, Tenchi
blurted the only thing he could think of that might save his neck.  "Did
you tell Ayeka that you're assimilated with her sister?"
	Tsunami went rigid.  She turned on him.  "How did you know about
that?"  
	Tenchi breathed a sigh of relief.  This could be his big break.  "You
told us, me and Ayeka together.  We were living on Earth. 
Sasami...you...were only a little girl.  You were so afraid that once we
knew what you were, that we would leave you."
	Tsunami didn't want to believe it.  "You're spies could have...but no,
I never told anyone but Ayeka.  Everyone believes I'm just another of
her generals.  She looked up at him.  "Sasami and Tsunami are the same
person, but we live as two different people:  Princess Sasami and
General Tsunami.  It's the closest guarded secret in the Kingdom."  She
straightened.  "This bears closer investigation.  I will speak to the
Queen."  She walked to the door and knocked, beckoning the Marines to
take Tenchi back to his cell.

	Ayeka slammed her fists down on her desk.  "No!  I refuse to believe
it!"  Tsunami had requested some time to speak with Ayeka alone later
that evening on board her own ship.  She had told Ayeka what Tenchi had
told her, and was now seeing just how deep her hatred of Tenchi Masaki
went.  
	"Ayeka, what if he's telling the truth?"
	"He's not telling the truth, Sasami!  He's trying to hold off his own
execution, and he's grasping at straws!"
	"He knew about me,"  Tsunami pointed out.
	"So what?!  So his spy network was better than we thought, what about
it?!"
	Tsunami couldn't believe she was hearing this kind of irrational talk
from her own sister.  "Ayeka, if their spy network was _that_ good,
there'd be an Imperial flag flying over the Royal palace on Jurai right
now!"
	Ayeka sniffed.  "We both know how clever he is.  I won't risk it."
	"I'm not asking for you to turn him loose, only to delay the execution
while we investigate!"
	"No!  That's the end of it!"
	Tsunami was silent for a moment.  "Then I will take this to the Great
Council.  They will decide what to do."
	"You would go over _my_ head?!"
	"Yes, because it needs to be done."
	Ayeka was livid.  "Fine!  Then go!  I will see you on Jurai, General!"
	Tsunami flinched as if slapped.  Ayeka never used her rank when
addressing her.  She bowed low and left.  Ayeka turned to her office
window, and did not watch her leave.

	Tsunami walked down the hall that housed the Soja's brig, and stopped
in front of a cell manned by two Imperial Marines and two Galaxy Police
officers.  The Galaxy Police saluted her, the Marines came to attention.
	"I need to speak with him,"  she told them.  The Marines looked to each
other.  The GP officers merely nodded and unlocked the door, which slid
open.  She stepped inside.  Tenchi sat on the mat that had become his
bed in this strange world.  He looked up when he heard the door open.  
	"Ms.  Tsunami," 
	She stood before him, and studied him for a moment.  If he was telling
the truth, he was an innocent boy who got caught up in something he knew
nothing about.  If he was lying, then she was about to side with the
most evil man in Jurai's history.  She took a breath and began.  "I
believe you."
	Tenchi's face brightened.
	"My sister does not, and she rules Jurai, not me."  
	Tenchi's face fell.
	She sat next to him.  "I am going to go on ahead of the fleet back to
Jurai.  I will talk with the Great Council.  If I can convince them to
open an investigation, not even Ayeka will be able to order it
otherwise.  Until then, you will have to remain here."
	Tenchi nodded.  "I understand."  Tsunami rose and headed towards the
door.  "Sasami?"
	She turned.  No one but her sister ever called her Sasami anymore.  
	"Thank you," he said quietly.
	She smiled and nodded.  "I will see you on Jurai."  With that, she
left. 

	Standing in Kagato's office, Mihoshi watched in silence as the second
tape ended.  "'I will see you on Jurai.'"
	When the tape was done, she said, "We have a problem."
	"We have a big problem,"  Kagato agreed from behind his desk.  "If they
open an investigation, sooner or later, someone will realize the truth."
	Mihoshi thought for a moment.  "Then we have to stop Tsunami from
reaching Jurai.  It's the only way."
	"And how to you propose we do that?"  Kagato asked bitterly.  "Our
ships are being watched around the clock, and even if they weren't, it
would take an entire fleet to destroy Tsunami and her escorts.  Not to
mention, that if we make a move like that, this whole plan will fall
apart."
	"No, think about it.  Use what you learned on the tape.  Tsunami is
Ayeka's sister.  If something were to happen to her while she was doing
a favor for the Emperor..."
	Kagato finished the thought.  "Ayeka would blame Tenchi.  Yes, I see. 
After that, he'd be lucky if she even waited for them to reach Jurai
before executing him.  It still doesn't solve the problem of how we do
it without involving our own forces.  It would take a major fleet to
bring down Tsunami, and even with my bit of play acting, Ayeka would
know that something like that couldn't be done without my knowledge and
approval.   There would doubtlessly be survivors who would scream at the
top of their lungs that it was Imperial warships that did it."
	"Not necessarily,"  Mihoshi said with a twinkle in her eyes.  "We could
use the new Advanced Destroyers."
	Kagato turned to her.  "The experimental ships?  They haven't even been
approved for testing yet!"
	"What better time than now?  It would only take a handful to destroy
Tsunami, and because their design is so top secret..."
	"...No one would be able to identify them as Imperial,"  he finished
her thought again.  He smiled.  "It's a good plan, Commodore.  Make the
necessary arrangements, but do it from your ship.  Mine's being watched
too closely."
	Mihoshi saluted.  "Yes, sir."

	Ayeka closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  The water in the flying
onsen was just the right temperature.  She tried to relax, to let go of
her anger, but she couldn't.  How dare she?  How dare _he_?  To think
that the two of them were off somewhere...she broke that thought off
before it had the chance to upset her even more.  She sighed as she
soaked.  <Oh, Lord Tenchi...>  
	Why couldn't it be like in the Jurain romance novels she read?  Why
couldn't the handsome prince and the beautiful princess be together in
real life?  <Why does a certain space pirate always have to get in the
way?>  
	She decided that she had been moping long enough and rose from the
bath.  As she did, she felt hands rest on her shoulders.
	<Ryoko!  That bitch must've come to gloat!>
	She whirled around to slap the space pirate only to see Tenchi catch
her wrist with his hand.  "Did I do something wrong?"  he asked with a
smile.
	"Lord Tenchi...I..."  she looked down and realized her state of
undress.  She shrieked and ducked back into the water, covering
herself.  Tenchi laughed.  She saw that he was wearing a towel around
his waist, and nothing else.  He slid into the water next to her.
	"There's no need to be shy, Ayeka,"  he told her.  Ayeka looked around
for the towel she had rested on a nearby bench, only to find it
missing.  
	She choked down a frightened gulp, and rallied.  "How did you and Ryoko
pass the day, hmm?"  There was no room for mistaking what she meant with
_that_ tone.
	Tenchi told the truth.  "We sparred.  Fighting skills have to be
practiced or lost, and Ryoko is good at it.  You understand?" 
Sometimes, the best place to hide was in plain sight.  
	"Sparred?"  Ayeka asked, her sarcastic tone was gone.  "So you..."
	Tenchi looked at her.  "What?"
	"Huh?  Oh...nothing."  She began to relax...right up until he moved
closer to her.  They were sitting side by side now, Tenchi's arm around
her shoulder.  "Uh...Lord Tenchi?"
	He moved closer, enveloping her in a tender embrace.  Ayeka had to stop
herself from bolting from the onsen.  "Ayeka, there's something I've
wanted to tell you for a long time..."
	"Tenchi...I..."  This was happening too fast for her!  What had gotten
into him?
	His face fell.  "Don't you like me, Ayeka?"
	"Well, of...of course..."  She was shaking now, partly in fear, partly
in absolute glee.
	He interrupted her.  "'Like,' is the first step towards attraction,
then love..."  There lips were barely an inch apart, his words came in
whispers.  "One kiss and we're there,"
	"Lord Tench..."  Her words died on her lips as he kissed her.  Ayeka
joyously reciprocated.
	"Ayeeeekkaaaaa!"  Ayeka broke away as she heard her sister call for
her.  
	"Sasami!"  She shook her head and looked at Tenchi.  It was like waking
up from a dream.  He seemed disappointed.  She heard Sasami call her
again.  She was coming towards the onsen.  Ayeka flailed about looking
for her towel.  Tenchi looked as if he had all the time in the world and
just sat in the water soaking.  She finally found it behind the bench
where she had laid it.  Wrapping it around herself, she rushed to the
doors of the onsen and managed to get there before Sasami.  She didn't
want her little sister to see her and Tenchi in the bath together and
get the wrong idea, or in this case, the right idea.
	She opened the door and saw Sasami there, about to knock.  "Sasami,
what is it?"  There was more than a subtle hint of irritation in her
voice.
	If Sasami saw it, she didn't let on.  "Ayeka, Washu needs to talk to
you right now.  She says it's important.  Maybe it's about Ryuo."
	Ayeka bit her lip.  She couldn't just brush this aside, it was too
important, and the others would get suspicious if she said she was too
busy.  She nodded.  "All right, let me get dressed."
	"Okay,"
	She quickly threw on the dress she had been wearing when she entered
the onsen.  Throwing a quick look to the bath where Tenchi was still
soaking comfortably, she cursed her bad luck and left.

 	Kagato sat in the command chair of the Soja and watched the view as
the ship flew through the realm of hyperspace.  It had been three days
since Tsunami had taken her escorts and left for Jurai.  Marshal Kiyone
had left along with her to give her report to the Galaxy Police High
Command, and Tenchi had been transferred to Queen Ayeka's flagship.  The
Soja and her escorts, Mihoshi's Risano among them, was in the center of
a Jurain fleet on its way to the planet Jurai.  
	He checked his computer.  They would be jumping to normal space in a
few minutes to traverse the Kadowa Corridor.  Hyperspace, like normal
space, had its hazards, the subspace fissures.  To avoid these dangers,
a ship had to leave hyperspace and traverse certain areas of the galaxy
in normal space.  The Kadowa corridor was one such place.  If Mihoshi
had gotten her message through in time, Queen Ayeka and the rest of the
Jurain ships he was traveling with were in for a big surprise.

	Captain Koryo of the Queen's Flagship toggled on the direct
communication's link to the Queen's chamber.  
	"Yes, what is it?"  The Queen's voice was not happy, she had been
playing with her new toy and did not wish to be disturbed.
	"Your Majesty, we will be leaving hyperspace in a few moments.  I just
wanted to inform you."
	"Yes, yes, whatever."  The channel closed.  Captain Koryo, a
sixty-three year veteran of Jurain service, hated the Imperials.  Even
so, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the Emperor right now.
	"Prepare to jump to normal space," he ordered.

	Tenchi, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and in pain, hung upside down in
the force field generated between Azaka and Kamidake.  Ayeka's face,
upside down as it was, was full of contempt.  
	"I will ask you again!  Where is the Master Key?!"
	Tenchi took a deep breath as he repeated the same answer again.  "I
told you," he said quietly, he hadn't the strength to speak any louder,
"It's back in my world,"
	Ayeka's lips curled in disgust.  "You're lying," she said simply.  She
shot a glance to Azaka.  A current of electricity shot between the two
Guardians.  Tenchi screamed in pain for several seconds until it finally
subsided.
	"Where?!"
	He didn't answer this time.  He knew it would do no good.  It didn't
matter to Ayeka.  Another current of electricity coursed through him. 
He screamed again.  When it was finished, he was unconscious.  Ayeka
cursed her bad luck.  Just then, the comm system beeped again. 
	"What is it, Koryo?"  she snapped.
	"Your Majesty, you'd better get up here."

	Ayeka stormed onto the bridge and approached Captain Koryo who began
his report.  "We detected it as soon as we jumped to normal space.  It's
a debris field."  He pointed to the screen where wreckage floated
serenely in the blackness of space.  Ayeka stared at the screen while
Koryo addressed one of his officers.  "Sensor readings?"
	"No energy readings, no active subspace fields.  There's a lot of
carbon scoring.  There was definitely a fire fight."  The young officer
checked his board as new sensor data came up.  "I'm reading emergency
beacons from the wreckage.  IFF reads as..."  He waited as the ships
names came up,  "The Florzano, the Yagami, the Peiryo, and..."  His face
went ashen.
	Before he could continue, Ayeka's eyes found a large hulk of burning
wreckage.  Even the ship's broken hull was instantly recognizable.  Her
eyes went wide, and she fell to her knees.  Then she screamed out one
grief stricken word.
	"SASAMI!!!"

	Two galaxy police officers in EVA suits entered the bridge of the
battered Yagami.  Their instruments read that there was still an
atmosphere in this part of the ship, but it wasn't worth taking the
chance.  The bridge was a wreck.  Only a few emergency lights were still
working.  GP officers were slumped over their instrument panels, dead or
dying.  The two GP officers soon found the object of their search. 
Sitting in the command chair, half her face burned away, sat Marshal
Kiyone.  Her breathing was erratic, but she was conscious.  The two made
toward her.  One of them opened a med kit while the other tried to talk
to her.
	"Marshal?  Marshal?  Can you hear me?  Who did this?  Who?"
	Kiyone's eyes found the young officer.  They were filled with pain and
shock.  "I don't know,"  she whispered eerily.  "Tsunami help me, I
don't know.  They came out of hyperspace right on top of us."  Her
breathing was labored.  The officer seeing to her wounds worked
efficiently, but the other wanted to get as much information as he could
just in case she died.  He listened closely as she went on.  "We didn't
know what was happening.  They were so fast."
	"Were they Imperial ships?"  he asked.
	She shook her head slowly.  "I've never seen anything like them
before.  Within three minutes, they had most or our ships destroyed. 
They crippled the Yagami and then turned on the Tsunami."  She spoke as
if watching a dream.  "Tsunami...activated her light hawk wings, but the
attackers had some kind of...pulse weapon.  Every time one of their
shots hit a wing...it would collapse.  Tsunami would have one wing
established, and two more would be knocked down...they..."  With that,
she lost consciousness.
	"Marshal?"  The officer shot his partner a look.  
	"She's unconscious.  She'll be okay if we can get her to a med bay,
quickly."
	The officer nodded and set about getting the Marshal to the Ryuo.

	Kagato entered the Queen's chamber onboard the Ryuo and found the
monarch sitting behind her desk with her head in her hands.  He stood
there, silent, for a long moment before she said,
	"I'm going to ask you this only once, Admiral,"  she said quietly, "And
the Gods help you if you lie to me.  Did your forces have anything to do
with this?"
	"Your Majesty,"  his response was quiet, "I've read the reports, and
all I can tell you is this:  If we had the kind of power that
did...this, we would have used it long before now."
	Ayeka nodded and seemed to accept this.  "Yes, I suppose you would
have.  Thank you, Admiral, you may go."  Kagato turned to leave.  "I'm
going to execute him,"  Ayeka said, not as a threat, but a statement of
fact.  
	Kagato turned back to her.  "I know...it has to be done."
	She said nothing as he walked out the door, however, Kagato would swear
that she was weeping.

	It had been days since Tenchi heard that Tsunami was dead.  Information
flowed rather slowly in the flagship's brig, and his source of news was
limited to what the guards talked about outside his cell.  When he
heard, he cried, not because she had been his best hope for getting
home, but because she had been more like the person he knew in his world
than anyone else had been.  It was like his Sasami had died, and he knew
that she was dead because of him.  Ayeka had made that abundantly clear.
	Now, he was standing in a concrete booth at one end of the largest
colosseum he had ever seen.  It must have held a hundred thousand
people.  He had always been curious as to what Jurai looked like, now he
knew and would have readily foregone the trip for the opportunity to be
back home.  Three flags flew over the stadium:   the Tree of Jurai, was
easy to recognize in the center, the emblem of the Galaxy Police was
there as well.  Tenchi didn't immediately recognized the third flag
until he remembered that he had seen a similar emblem on the capes of
his Imperial guards.  The flag was black with three red circles arranged
in an inverted triangle in the center.  It looked very familiar.  Tenchi
realized with a start that it looked exactly like the arrangement of
Ryoko's gems on his Tenchi-ken.  
	The people that filled the stadium were cheering.  He looked out a
narrow slit in the wall and saw that Ayeka was standing in her own booth
on the right side of the massive colosseum.  She waved, and the crowd
went wild.  Tenchi grimaced as he saw Kagato sitting next to her.  He
looked out at the floor of the colosseum and saw a raised dais and what
appeared to be the stump of a giant tree.  Standing next to the stump
was a tall, thin man wearing a red hood and carrying a rather wicked
looking axe.  Tenchi gulped.
	The guards, one GP and one Jurain, took him by the shoulders and
frog-marched him out.  When the crowd saw him, they began to hiss and
boo him. The guards led him up to the dais and then roughly turned him
so that he was facing Ayeka's booth.  She raised her hands, and the
crowd was silenced.
	"Tenchi Masaki," she began.  Tenchi wondered how it was she could
project her voice so well over such a distance.  "You have been found
guilty of war crimes.  The punishment is death by beheading.  Have you
anything to say?"
	Tenchi decided that if he was going to die here, he would die with his
head held high...for as long as he had it.  "Would it make any
difference?"  he shouted.  "You've made up your mind already!  I told
you the truth, but you're so blind with rage, you won't hear it!  If
you're going to kill me, do it and be done with it!"  It was the boldest
thing he had ever heard himself say.  The crowd was speechless.  Ayeka
fumed for a moment, then said,
	"Very well."
	The crowd cheered.  The two guards moved him over to the stump.  With
his hands still cuffed behind him, he couldn't even think of
struggling.  They pushed his head to the stump and chained him there. 
Then, they came to attention and marched to either side of him as if
they were on parade.
	"You're making a mistake!"  he shouted as he struggled futilely.  This
was _not_ the way he wanted to die.  He turned his head slightly and saw
the hooded executioner.  He checked his axe with his thumb and nodded in
approval.  Tenchi took deep breath and prepared for oblivion.  
	The executioner raised the axe over his head and brought it down...but
not onto Tenchi's neck.  Instead, the axe swung around and bit into the
Galaxy Police guard's chest!  Before he even hit the ground, the
executioner swung the axe in the other direction and threw it at the
Jurain guard.  The throw was off, so the blade end didn't strike him. 
The handle hit the Jurain in the neck, effectively taking him out of the
fight.  The Jurain collapsed as the crowd began shouting.  The
executioner swung around again, a shaft of red light in his hand.  With
one careful swing, Tenchi was free of his chains.  
	Ayeka was standing now, shouting for her guards to do something.  There
was a great deal of commotion from one end of the colosseum.  People
were pushing and trampling over each other trying to get out.  Suddenly,
something crashed through that end, floating just above the ground and
settling above Tenchi and the executioner.  He recognized it at once,
but didn't have a chance to say anything.  A few of the Queen's guards
fired at them, but the object had surrounded Tenchi and his savior with
it's force fields.  The executioner had grabbed him, and together, they
dematerialized.
	Tenchi opened his eyes and found himself on board Ryo-Ohki.  The
executioner pulled off the hood, revealing the spiky, cyan hair of
Ryoko.  "Let's go, Ryo-Ohki!"
	
	"YOU IDIOTS!  YOU BOOBS!  YOU ABSOLUTE MORONS!  HOW HAS THIS KINGDOM
SURVIVED THIS LONG WITH NINNIES LIKE YOU..."  Ayeka continued to
viciously berate her guards as Kagato calmly watched Ryo-Ohki fly away
from the Great Colosseum.
	Mihoshi came up behind him as he watched.  "Commodore,"  he said. 
Mihoshi came to attention, and Ayeka paused in her tirade.  "Handle it."
	Mihoshi saluted and touched a button on her wrist communicator.  She
disappeared in a flash of blue light as she was transported to her ship.

	Tenchi had just gotten his balance when he was knocked off it again as
Ryo-Ohki lurched to one side.  
	"Damn!" Ryoko cursed, steadying herself on a floating crystal.
	"What was that?!"  Tenchi asked alarmed.
	"A laser blast, we're taking fire!"  She checked a crystal display. 
There was a hiss of indrawn breath as she saw the ship that was pursuing
them.  "The Risano," she breathed, "That's Mihoshi's ship!  What the
Hell!"

	Sitting in the Risano's command chair, Mihoshi nonchalantly signed a
work order handed to her by a young yeoman.  The communications officer
turned in her chair.  "Ma'am, we're getting a transmission from
Ryo-Ohki."  Mihoshi listened as Commodore Ryoko's voice came over the
speaker.
	"Dammit, Mihoshi!  What the Hell do you think you're doing?!  Have you
turned treacher too?!"
	Mihoshi's eyes narrowed at the accusation.  The communications officer
spoke up from her station.  "Shall I send a reply, Ma'am?"
	The Commodore gritted her teeth.  "No," she hissed, "Let them eat
static.  Load forward torpedo tubes.  N2 warheads, maximum yield; full
spread."  The weapons officer looked a question at her.  N2 torpedoes
were planetary siege weapons, not designed for ship to ship combat.  A
full salvo like the one Mihoshi was ordering could wipe out half a
planet.  In stellar combat they were very difficult to control.  She saw
the look.  "You heard me!"  she shouted.  The weapons officer turned
back to the controls and carried out her orders.
	Mihoshi waited while the torpedoes were being loaded.  If this worked,
even a near miss could destroy Ryo-Ohki.  She rapped her knuckles on the
armrest of her chair in annoyance.  "Weps, what's taking those
torpedoes?"
	The weapons officer checked his board in desperation.  "Torpedoes
loaded!  Ready!"
	"Fire!"
	"Torpedoes away!"  
	Mihoshi watched as the fusion torpedoes streaked toward their target. 
Suddenly, the space in front of Ryo-Ohki was distorted, and the small
commerce raider disappeared.  A moment later, the torpedoes detonated.
	"The target's jumped!"  the sensor officer called out.
	Mihoshi grimaced.  "I can see that.  Track them!  I want possible
destinations based on their last known position and trajectory.  Now
move!"  The bridge crew rushed to obey.

	Kagato listened as Mihoshi gave her report.  He saw through the
viewscreen that she was more angry at herself than anyone else.
	"We're working on possible destinations based on their last known
trajectory.  I assume full responsibility for this failure and await
your judgement."
	She nodded to the two armed Marines standing next to her.  They cocked
their weapons and brought them to bear on her, waiting for the Admiral's
orders.  Kagato sighed.  Fifty years ago, at the height of the Empire's
power, he might have taken her up on it, the Emperor surely would have. 
Now...
	"No, Commodore, we can no longer afford to piss our most talented
officers away anymore.  Failure, in itself, is not blameworthy,
Commodore, only lack of effort, and I'm quite sure you've made the
effort."  The Marines got the message and stood down, returning to order
arms.  Kagato moved on.  "Commodore Ryoko,"  he mused.  "He'll tell her
everything, and she'll, in all likelihood, believe it.  Then, she'll run
straight to Washu."  He made the scientist's name a curse.  His former
teacher had made herself something of a renegade in the past century.
	"If we knew where Washu is hiding herself, we could set an ambush, but
we don't.  Now what?"
	Kagato thought hard for a moment.  "How many possible destinations do
you have?"
	"Three, I was about to give them to some of our other ships."
	"Don't," he told her.  He gave her a questioning look.  "Are you on a
secure channel?"
	She tapped a few keys on her terminal.  The screen seemed to shift for
a moment, then returned to normal.  "I am now."
	"Where did you order those Advanced Destroyers after they took care of
Tsunami?"
	"I spread them out.  Two are in the Dedla system, two in the Cardell
system, and two in Cassus."
	Kagato nodded.  "Give them the destinations and then send our other
ships to false locations with orders to search and destroy."
	Mihoshi nodded.  "Understood."

	Tenchi soaked in the floating onsen for an hour after Ayeka left.  It
was a shame.  He was looking forward to tumbling his haughty aunt. 
Well, there was always tomorrow.  He got up and dressed, he was about to
attach the Tenchi-ken to his belt, but at the last minute, he concealed
it in his shrine tunic.  He walked out of the onsen and headed for the
house.  He didn't make it ten steps when her heard the voice of his
grandfather calling him.
	"Tenchi!"  Tenchi gritted his teeth and turned.  Katsuhito Masaki stood
there carrying two boken.  "Tenchi, did you forget our training session
today?"
	Tenchi had to stifle a laugh.  He didn't need anymore training from
_this_ man, that was for sure.  "Sorry, Grandfather, but there's some
things I have to do."  He turned to walk away.
	"Insolent boy, how do you intend to improve if you don't train?"
	Tenchi growled at the insult.  Then he smiled.  It was not a pretty
smile or one that inspired joy in those who saw it.  "All right
Grandfather."  He turned and took one of the boken from the elder
Masaki.
	"Here?"  the older man asked.
	Tenchi nodded.
	Katsuhito smiled.  "Then defend yourself!"  he shouted and lunged at
Tenchi.  Calmly, Tenchi brought his boken up and deflected the blow,
countering with three of his own.  The two heavy, wooden swords met with
dull "clonks."  Katsuhito was pleased and impressed.  Usually, his
grandson was skittish during their training sessions and often
panicked.  This time, he was calm, collected.  
	The old man tried an overhand slash which Tenchi avoided altogether,
countering with a quick jab that struck Katsuhito in the stomach.  He
grunted in pain, but kept his stance.  Tenchi's eyes never left his
grandfather.  Katsuhito saw something in those eyes, something he didn't
like.  Tenchi should never have been able to get through his defenses.  
	This time, Tenchi didn't wait for an attack, he lunged, attacking from
a different direction every time.  Soon, Katsuhito was completely on the
defensive as he parried blow after blow.  Finally, he was able to launch
an attack of his own, but Tenchi danced out of the way in a maneuver
that was almost like a ballet step.  At the end of this maneuver, Tenchi
was once again in a combat stance, smiling at his grandfather. 
Katsuhito surely didn't teach him _that_ move!  Tenchi saw his would-be
grandfather's puzzlement, and his smile got wider.  One of the only
lessons of his grandfather that he had taken to heart was, "Never pass
up on the chance for experience."  Every time Tenchi had taken a world,
he learned from their sword masters, taking their knowledge and blending
them with other techniques to form his own unique style.
	For the first time, Lord Katsuhito realized that he wasn't dealing with
a novice, at best, he was dealing with an equal;  at worst, he was
dealing with someone who could, in fact, beat him.  Tenchi attacked, the
oak swords clonked together, and the two Masaki's stared at each other
over crossed swords.
	"You're not Tenchi!"  Katsuhito accused him.
	Tenchi smiled.  "Finally figured it out, did you?  Well, you won't be
around long enough to tell anyone else."  Tenchi shifted his stance,
spinning around and striking his grandfather in the side with a backhand
slash.  Katsuhito fell to the ground, clutching his right side.  Tenchi
followed up on the attack, but his overhand cut was deflected.  However,
Katsuhito's block was weak, and his boken was knocked out of his hand. 
Tenchi spun again, hitting the old man in the temple with the flat of
his blade.  A boken was made of heavy oak; in the hands of a master, it
could kill.  Tenchi was most certainly, a master.  Katsuhito slumped to
the ground.  Tenchi stared down at him.  He could see blood dribble from
the right side of his grandfather's head.  He also saw that his chest
was moving up and down.  Tenchi grimaced.  The old codger was still
alive.  Well, he could take care of that.
	Tenchi raised the boken over his head...

	Ryoko sat back and sighed.  They had made it to the relative safety of
hyperspace.  She still couldn't believe that Mihoshi, _Mihoshi,_ of all
people, would betray the Emperor.  She shook her head.  Will wonders
never cease?
	And speaking of the Emperor...
	She launched herself at Tenchi, who was still trying to stand up after
the tossing around he received during the fire fight with Mihoshi. 
Ryoko glomped onto him, kissing him.  A small part of Tenchi was glad. 
At least this was familiar territory.  He finally managed to break away
from her.  
	"Wait!  We've gotta talk!"  He stood up, leaving Ryoko sitting on the
floor looking up at him with sad eyes.
	"What do you mean?"  she asked.  "You still reject me?  Even after I
saved your life?"  None of the anger Tenchi would expect from his Ryoko
was there, only sadness.
	"You don't understand, I'm not your Tenchi."
	"Huh?"
	Tenchi told her the whole story, how he got kidnapped, how Tsunami was
killed, and how Ayeka was going to execute him without a trial.  When he
was done, the anger in her eyes was all Ryoko.  However, it was anger
directed at him.
	<How dare he?>  she thought.  Did he think she was stupid?  Did he
think she didn't know why he sent her out to become a lone commerce
raider in the first place?  The least he could do after she saved him
was be honest with him.  Tears welled up in her eyes, and she slapped
him.
	"You don't have to lie to me!"  she cried.  "If you don't want me
around, just say so!"
	"Ryoko!  I'm telling you the truth!"
	A flicker of doubt struck her.  Was it possible?  She thought for a
moment and then turned back to him.  "Take off your shirt,"  she
ordered.
	"Huh?!"
	A light sword appeared in her hand, leveled at his neck.  What was
this?  Was she going to rape him?!  Faced with the lightsword, he had no
choice but to obey.  He stripped the crimson uniform shirt off and held
it in front of him in a bundle.
	"Turn around," she ordered.  He obeyed and waited.
	She looked at his back and ran her hands along it.  It was as smooth as
the day he was born.  Ryoko was puzzled.  Where were they?  She knew
they were there, she had seen them, Hell, she _gave_ them to him.  She
remembered that night.  The night when, in a fit of passion, she raked
her claws deep into his back as he moved above her, causing permanent
scars. 
	But they weren't there.
	She sighed and the light sword disappeared.  "Okay, I believe you." 
Her voice was sullen.  Tenchi put his shirt back on and faced her.  She
sat in the command chair.  What should she do?  She had went to Jurai
looking for an emperor and got a patsy instead.  What should she do
now?  She took a deep breath.  Mother would know.  She would just have
to ask her when they got there.
	The bulk of the trip passed in silence.  Ryoko made no attempt to start
a conversation, and Tenchi didn't want to risk upsetting her.  This
Ryoko was different somehow.  On the surface, she was still the same
strong willed girl he found in a cave at his grandfather's shrine, but
there was more in her eyes.  It looked as if she were carrying a heavy
burden.  <The weight of experience,>  his grandfather would say.
	Several hours after their escape from planet Jurai, Ryo-Ohki miya'd. 
Ryoko checked one of the panels and nodded.  "Okay, Ryo-Ohki, jump to
normal space."
	"Are we there all ready?"
	Ryoko spared him a glance.  "No, we have fly the next couple of parsecs
in normal space because of the subspace fissures."
	"Oh," he said, not quite understanding.
	He watched on the viewscreen as the blue haze of hyperspace disappeared
and was replaced by stars and one large, green planet.  Tenchi was still
admiring the view when Ryo-Ohki miya'd  urgently.
	Ryoko checked her screen.  "Oh, damn,"  she whispered.
	"What is it?"
	"Company," she said curtly.
	Tenchi looked at the viewscreen and saw two black objects.  They looked
like giant kites, large, dart-like triangles.  
	"Ryo-Ohki, get us out of here!"  Ryoko ordered her ship.  Ryo-Ohki
miya'd in compliance and increased her speed.  Ryoko's eyes widened as
she saw the readout on her panel.  "They're catching up," she breathed
in shock, "That's impossible, we're the fastest thing out here!"
	Tenchi was thrown off his feet as Ryo-Ohki was hit  with a laser
blast.  "Well, they don't seem to agree with you!"  he called out from
the floor.  Ryoko worked the controls as fast as she could.  She was a
commerce raider.  She didn't have the weapons to go up against two
capital ships, especially capital ships she had never even seen before!
	There was another lurch, even more intense than before.  Ryoko was
knocked out of the command chair.  Ryo-Ohki wailed in pain.
	"Damn!  That was a bad one!" she observed.  
	"What's going on?!"  Tenchi cried.
	"We're going down!  Hang on'ta someth'n!"  She directed the little
raider into the atmosphere of the green world they had spotted.  It
wasn't a perfect reentry angle, and the ship got hotter as they
proceeded through the atmosphere.  Ryoko checked her sensors, wiping a
few drops of sweat from her brow.  The two unidentified ships were
holding orbit.  <Probably waiting to see if we die in the crash so they
won't have to come down here,> she thought bitterly.  Well, she had ways
to hide from them.  She made few brief calculations in her head and, at
the right time in their descent, pushed three buttons on her control
pad.  Four large crystals connected to Ryo-Ohki's hull separated from
the ship and exploded into millions of tiny metallic strips.  Ryoko
smiled grimly as the chaff strips spread out over a ten kilometer area. 
<Let's see 'em find us through that!>  she thought triumphantly. 
Suddenly, there was another lurch.  Ryoko's head struck a crystal and
the world went black.

	Tenchi raised the boken above his head.  Just as he was about to
strike, he heard an all too familiar voice calling for him.
	"Tenchi!"  He turned and saw Mihoshi coming over the hill.  <Damn!>  He
had to think quick.  Throwing the boken to the ground, he turned to the
approaching GP detective.
	"Mihoshi!  Come quick!  Help!"  He saw Mihoshi quicken her pace.  He
knelt down next to Katsuhito.  The old man was still unconscious and
wasn't showing any signs that it was going to be otherwise anytime
soon.  Good.
	When Mihoshi approached them, she stopped and gasped.  "Tenchi!  What
happened?!"
	Tenchi began to stammer.  "I..I..we...we were practicing, and...I ..I
guess I got...a shot through!  It...It hit him in the side of the head!"
	The GP detective knelt down next to the elder Masaki and examined him,
using everything she learned about xeno-first aid at the Academy.  "It
looks like he has a concussion,"  she said seriously, "That's medical
talk for a bad bump on the head,"  she pointed out.
	Tenchi mentally shook his head.  To think, in another universe, this
woman was a cold, calculating killer in his employ.  It was amazing. 
"We need to get him inside."
	Mihoshi stood up.  "Right, you grab his feet."
	The two lifted him up and carried the old man back to the house. 
Tenchi managed to get the door open, and they rushed into the house.  He
thought they would lay him on the couch, but instead, Mihoshi made a bee
line for the hall closet.  She opened the door, carefully making sure
not to drop her end of Katsuhito.  They carried him into Washu's lab.  
	When he finally made it inside with his end of his grandfather, he
found that Ryoko and Ayeka were already there, along with Washu.  The
petite scientist saw what Mihoshi and Tenchi were carrying and guessed
what had happened.  She cleared off a nearby table and motioned for them
to lay Katsuhito on it.  Tenchi dumped his grandfather's feet onto the
table and backed away.  Washu stood over the old man while everyone else
crowded around her to see what was happening.  She examined him, making
learned noises as she went.
	"I don't think there's any permanent damage, but I need to make sure. 
Tenchi?"
	"Huh?"  Tenchi was startled.  Did they suspect?
	"Could you hand me that scanner on the workbench, please?"  she asked.
	"Huh?  Oh, yeah sure."  He walked over to the bench where the scanner
lay.  Washu watched him as he walked.  When he hit a certain spot, she
reached out and tapped a key on her translucent keyboard.  There was a
flash of light around Tenchi as a force field flashed into existence. 
Tenchi stopped dead in his tracks.  He reached out and touched the field
with his finger, watching in sparkle at the touch.  He threw Washu a
venomous look.  "What the Hell?!"
	He looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him:  Ryoko with
contempt just short of bald hatred, Ayeka with angry embarrassment,
Mihoshi fright, and Washu with the kind of cold, analytical look a
biology student might give a dissection frog.  One look around the room
and he knew he had been found out.  He smiled and crossed his arms over
his chest, his right hand reaching into his shrine tunic.
	"Well, well, well," he said.  "It looks like my performance wasn't as
convincing as I first thought.  Tell me, for my own education, what
tipped you off?"
	Ryoko took a step toward him.  "How long did you study under Kagato?" 
Her voice was low and threatening.
	He smiled.  So that was it.  "As long as it suited me.  As long as he
had something worth teaching me.  Now, then, another question.  For you
Washu."  His smile disappeared and his voice grew menacing.  "How long
do you think you can keep me here with your cheap parlor tricks?"  He
bent his knees and jumped back, vanishing as he did so and reappeared
right next to the pink-haired genius!  Washu had just enough time to be
shocked before the Emperor had the Tenchi-ken out and ignited.  He
brought the blade down, but it was deflected by another light sword,
Ryoko's.  
	The two fenced as everyone jumped out of the way.  Ryoko threw
everything she had into the attack.  Tenchi laughed at the attempt and
countered each blow.
	"What did you do with Tenchi, you bastard!?"  she screamed.  The two
blades locked.  Tenchi heard movement behind him and teleported again,
just as an energy bolt from Ayeka's hand would've hit him.  With Tenchi
no longer there to take the blow, it hit a stunned Ryoko, throwing the
pirate back against the wall with a cry of pain.
	"Ryoko!"  Ayeka shouted.  Suddenly, Tenchi rematerialized behind her. 
Before she could turn, the Emperor grabbed hold of her purple hair and
viciously threw her to the ground with it.  He brought the Tenchi-ken up
for a quick stab through the face as Ayeka lay there, stunned.  Just as
he was bringing the sword down, he was struck in the back by a laser
blast and knocked off his feet.  
	He got to his knees and found the source.  Mihoshi was standing next to
a dazed Ryoko, holding her GP sidearm, shaking just a little.  "As a
first class detective in the Galaxy Police, I..I hereby place you under
arrest for...for...impersonating a member of the Jurai Royal family,
resisting arrest,...and...and..."
	Washu ended the conversation.  She had used the distraction to pick up
one of her earlier inventions, a subspace tachyon rifle.  The large
weapon looked comical in the hands of the child-like Washu, but that
didn't matter, only the end result.  She aimed and fired.  Tenchi
managed to raise the Tenchi-ken to block the blow, but was still blown
backwards by the force of the shot.  He landed in the middle of a large
red circle that had been painted on the ground.  Washu pressed another
button on her keyboard and another force field sprang into place. 
Tenchi dematerialized again, but reappeared inside the force field with
a cry of pain as he hit the field. 
	"You won't be teleporting out of _that_ particular field!"  Washu cried
in triumph.  "That one I designed with Ryoko in mind!"
	"Thanks, I think,"  the pirate said, rubbing her head and wincing at
the pain it caused.
	Tenchi growled, and deactivated the Tenchi-ken.
	"Now then,"  Washu began.  Mihoshi was helping Ayeka to her feet. 
"Let's try this again, shall we?  Who are you, and what have you done
with _our_ Tenchi?"  Neither Ryoko or Ayeka liked the amount of emphasis
she put into the, "our," but said nothing.
	Tenchi smiled and laughed.  "Don't worry, I found something useful for
him to do,"  he said.  <Die for me,>  he finished silently.
	Washu's eyes narrowed.  "Oh, you're not going to make this at all easy,
are you?"  she asked sarcastically.
	Tenchi didn't move.  Ayeka took a step forward.  "You filth!"  she
shot.  "Where's Lord Tenchi?!  What have you done with him?!  I demand
you tell me this instant!"
	Tenchi smiled, pursed his lips, and made a kissy noise.  Ayeka turned
beet red.  
	Ryoko stood barely a foot from the force field.  "Here's the deal," 
she said, her light sword in her hand again,  "You tell us where Tenchi
is, or I'll make sure it takes you the better part of the month to die."
	Tenchi gave her a smug look.  "Promises, promises."
	Ryoko growled.  "Drop the field, Washu."
	"Forget it," the scientist said.  "Let it be, Ryoko.  There are other
ways."  Now it was her turn to give him a smug look.  Tenchi's eyes
narrowed.  He had the feeling the greatest scientific genius in the
universe already had something in mind.

	Ryoko woke up with her head pounding.  She opened her eyes slowly,
letting them adjust to the light.  She moaned.  What happened?  Oh,
yeah, that's right.  They crashed.  She heard the sounds of moving
water.  She was next to a stream or a river of some kind.  She opened
her eyes wider and sat up.  
	"Oh, you're up,"  a voice from behind her commented.  She turned
quickly and instantly regretted it as her head exploded with pain.  
	"Oh, yeah, right as Toydarian rain,"  she said sarcastically.  She took
a look at her surroundings.  They were in the middle of a strange
jungle, next to a crystal clear stream, with an odd, green sky
overhead.  There was no sign of Ryo-Ohki.  She looked a question at
Tenchi, who seemed to know what she was thinking.
	"I didn't think it would be a good idea to stay near the wreckage in
case those other ships saw the smoke.  I...carried you here."
	"Oh."  There was something in her voice that said she was surprised at
that.  He didn't ask about it. 
	"So, now what?"  he asked her.  
	She sighed and scanned the sky.  She couldn't hear or see any of those
ships that had shot them down.  The chaff cloud would've bought them
about an hour.  "Now, we make tracks.  Those ships might come down here
to finish the job."
	"You know this area better than I do, are there any people on this
planet?"
	"Of course," she said, rising to her feet.
	"Good, where?"
	"You're looking at one."
	Tenchi's face fell.  "Great, welcome to Planet X, population:  two."
	"Don't worry," she told him.  "With any luck at all, we won't be here
long."
	"What do you mean?"  he asked.
	She closed her eyes and concentrated, directing her thoughts out into
space.  She smiled as she felt the warm mental caress that said she had
made contact.  She quickly sent the details of their situation, and 
heard the response in her mind.
	<I understand.  I'm on my way.  Be careful.>
	"Okay, help's on the way.  Let's put some more distance between
ourselves and the wreck."  She began walking upstream.
	"Right, uh..."  She turned to him, "I'm sorry about Ryo-Ohki,"
	"Why?"  she asked.
	"Huh?  Well, I know you two were close."  She gave him a blank look. 
He shook his head.  "Never mind."
	Ryoko shrugged and they started on their way.
	It was a good hike.  Ryoko led the way, following the dark orange sun. 
Occasionally, one of them would slap at the small flying insects that
would land and then take a bite out of them.  As the sun set below the
horizon, Ryoko stopped at a small clearing surrounded by trees and lush
undergrowth.  They had debated whether or not to have a fire, in case
those ships were still around, but a fresh influx of biting insects
settled the argument.  Tenchi gathered fire wood, and Ryoko lit it with
a short energy blast from her hand.  Despite the tropical heat of this
planet during the day, it began to get extremely cold after sunset, and
the two were soon glad they had chosen to have a fire.  
	They sat next to one another, listening to the odd chirping of the
insects.  Ryoko's stomach grumbled in hunger.  She tried to ignore it. 
"Tenchi,"
	"Yeah?"
	"Tell me about your dimension."
	"Uh..okay."  Tenchi told her all about his world.  She listened raptly
as he told her about his Ryoko and Ayeka, how they all lived together
with Sasami, Washu, and Mihoshi.  He told her about Kagato and Dr.
Clay.  When he as done, she looked at him in envy.  
	"Your world sounds wonderful,"  she told him.
	"Yeah..well, at least there I'm not an escaped war criminal."  At this,
she said nothing.  "What about you?"
	"You don't want to know about this world, Tenchi.  It's been a long
war."
	"Tell me about it."  He was curious as to how this world got started.
	She seemed to consider it for a moment and moved closer to him.  "About
a thousand years ago, Prince Yosho of Jurai, founded an empire separate
of the Kingdom of Jurai.  Ayeka gave him half of her kingdom as  kind of
peace offering.  He built up a strong military and soon, the Empire of
Jurai, was rivaling the Kingdom of Jurai for territory, money, power,
space ship trees, the usual...  Three hundred years ago, you...I
mean...Tenchi Masaki killed Yosho in a duel and took over the Empire. 
Inside a hundred years, we were at war with the KOJ."
	"What started it?"
	Ryoko sighed.  "Same as any other war.  The two largest empires in the
galaxy, sharing a border, a common people, a common language; 
eventually, they're going to find something to fight about."
	"How did you get involved?"
	"I came in when Kagato offered his support to Yosho."  She turned to
him.  "That's when I met you."  She turned back to the fire.  "When you
overthrew Yosho, Kagato made me a gift to you."
	"Gift?"
	She nodded.  
	Tenchi saw that look in her eye, the look he saw in his Ryoko's eyes
every time she looked at him.  He remembered her reaction to him back on
Ryo-Ohki.  "You loved him,"  he told her.
	She sighed again and nodded.  "We were great together for a long time."
	"What happened?"
	Her face adopted an irritated look.  "I screwed up,"  she told him.  "I
started pressing him for a marriage.  He told me that his marrying
a..."  she seemed to chew on the word before spitting it out,
"demon...would not be appropriate for the Emperor of Jurai.  But I kept
pressing him.  Then, one day, I guess I pressed too hard, or he just
simply got tired of me.  He told me he had an important assignment for
me.  He made me a commerce raider and sent me out to disrupt Jurain
shipping."
	"I see."
	"No,"  she said with a sigh, "You probably don't.  The reason he sent
me out there was because he knew that, odds are, I wouldn't be coming
back."
	Tenchi frowned.  To send someone out to die just to be rid of them was
barbaric.  Something occurred to him.  "But you went anyway,"
	She nodded.  "It's stupid, I know, but he asked me to do it, and I've
never been able to deny him anything."  Her voice was sad, as if she
were only a second away from crying.  She looked up at him, her eyes
were moist with fresh tears.  "You're so different than him," she said
softly.  "I remember he was once like you are.  Somehow, he lost what
made him special.  Special like you.."  She leaned over to him, and, for
once, Tenchi didn't feel scared or anxious.  Usually, when Ryoko glomped
onto him, he felt overwhelmed by the capricious girl, but he saw
something in this Ryoko that was different.  He leaned toward her. 
Their lips were only an inch apart when their tiny campsite was flooded
with light.
	"I hope I'm not interrupting anything,"  a familiar voice called out. 
Tenchi and Ryoko broke apart and tried to shield their eyes from the
glare.
	The intensity of the light decreased, revealing a short, pink-haired
girl holding a rather large flash light.  Ryoko saw her.  "Mother," she
growled.
	Washu pointed the flashlight down.  "Oh, I'm sorry Ryoko," she said in
a voice that said she was anything but.  "Did I come in at the good
part?"
	Ryoko sighed.  "Mom, this isn't him."
	"Huh?"
	Tenchi put it together based on what Ryoko told had told him and what
he knew of his Washu.  It seemed that Ryoko's mother didn't approve of
the man her daughter tried to marry.  He couldn't say he liked the guy
all that much, himself.  Tenchi stood up from where he was next to
Ryoko.  "Well, you see..."
	Rather than wait for Tenchi to try to explain it, Ryoko used her mental
link with her mother to instantly fill her in.  Washu's eyes lit up.
	"Ah, I see!  A parallel dimension!  Kagato's really outdone himself
this time."
	Ryoko rose.  "Did you see any of those strange ships on your way in?"
	Washu shook her head.  "Nope, I guess they got bored and left.  Any
idea who they were?"
	"Not a clue."
	Washu "hmmm'ed," in thought.  "Well, either way, it's probably not a
good idea to hang around here too long.  C'mon, ship's over this way." 
She started walking back the way she came, Tenchi and Ryoko following
her.
	As they walked, Tenchi thought about what almost happened.  He looked
up at Ryoko, who was a step behind Washu.  This was Ryoko, he knew, but
not _Ryoko._  He wondered how his friends were doing.

	Washu typed in a few last commands on her computer before picking up
the helmet that lay on the work bench.  "It's ready!"  she announced
triumphantly.
	Ryoko looked at it quizzically.  "All right, I'll bite.  What is it?"
	The others waited for Washu to answer.  Sasami had joined them from
outside,  Katsuhito still lay unconscious on the table, but was expected
to recover, and Tenchi sat in the containment field, waiting.
	"It's my patented memory simulation helmet!"  she said proudly.  "With
it, I can scan Tenchi's memories as if I were living them."
	"It's _not_ Tenchi," Ryoko pointed out angrily.  "And how do you know
it'll even work on him?"
	Washu looked up at her daughter in irritation.  "Well, it's always
worked on you...when you're asleep, that is."
	"WASHU!"
	"Just kidding,"  Washu said, smiling.  "Kinda."
	She typed in a few commands on her keyboard and then threw a smile at
Tenchi as she donned the metal eyesore she called an invention.  "Don't
worry, Tenchi, this won't hurt a bit."
	"You're gonna use that thing to experience my memories first hand?"  he
asked, pointing at the helmet.
	"That's right."
	He smiled viciously.  "Then you're wrong, Washu.  It _is_ going to
hurt.  A lot."
	She looked at him coldly.  "Let's get started."  She punched in a few
commands on her computer, and an opaque visor dropped in front of her
eyes.  The helmet began to hum, and the force field surrounding Tenchi
began to change colors as the machine scanned his memories.  "I'm in," 
she said.
	The machine hummed.  Everyone watched as Washu sat in her chair and
worked.  Her breathing began quicken.  Tenchi showed no reaction at
all.  Washu's hands clenched into fists, her teeth gritted.  Ryoko began
to worry.  
	Sasami, it seemed, was also worried.  "Miss Washu?"
	Washu began to shake her head violently.  The hum of the machine grew
louder.  Her hands went to her head and she began screaming.  "MAKE THEM
STOP!  GOD, PLEASE!  MAKE THEM STOP IT!  STOP IT!  STOP IT!  STOP IT!" 
Ryoko and Ayeka rushed forward and grabbed the helmet off her head,
throwing it to the floor as if a viper had suddenly appeared in their
hands.  Washu fell from her chair onto the floor.  She was on her knees,
shaking violently.
	Ryoko kneeled down next to her.  "Mom?"
	When the scientist finally spoke, her voice was haunted, just above a
whisper.  "I saw it, Ryoko, all of it.  His life, his childhood, his
memories."  She looked up at her daughter, on the verge of tears.  "And
it's all so sad."
	"That's what you get for sticking you nose where it doesn't belong,
Washu,"  Tenchi said, smiling.  "I told you it would hurt."
	They ignored him.  "Did you find out what happened to Tenchi?"  Ayeka
asked.  
	Washu nodded slowly.  She stood up and began to explain everything to
them.
	
	Ryoko smacked her fist into her palm.  "That rat bastard!"  She turned
to the Emperor, who sat in his cell as if he didn't have a care in the
world.  "If he dies, your next!"
	Tenchi smiled up at her.  "Why don't you drop the field and find out,
Ryoko?"
	Ayeka had a more level-headed approach to the problem.  "Miss Washu,
can't you send us to his dimension to get Tenchi back?"
	Washu shook her head.  "We'd need temporal coordinates to make sure we
get to the right dimension."  She pointed to Tenchi.  "And he doesn't
have them, Kagato does."
	"So, what do we do now?"  Mihoshi asked.
	Washu sighed.  "We wait and hope Tenchi finds a way to escape."
	Sasami was on the verge of tears.  "You mean there's nothing we can
do?"  She buried her head in Ayeka's dress and began to cry, followed a
second later by Mihoshi.
	"It's not over, yet,"  Ryoko growled.  "It's only been a day.  They
still have to try him, and that could take years.  Take it from someone
who knows what it's like to have to wait for a court date.  Before long,
someone's gonna come to check up on his highness here, and when they do,
we'll nail 'em."
	"Ryoko, you're forgetting one thing,"  Washu told her sadly.
	"What?"
	The genius sighed.  "Time flows faster in their dimension, remember?"
	Ryoko looked at her, puzzled.  "So?"
	Washu closed her eyes in silent grief.  "For all we know, Tenchi could
be ten years dead by now."

	"A day?!"  
	Tenchi couldn't believe it.  He had been in this nightmare dimension
for three weeks, and now Washu was telling him that only a day had
passed back home?
	She nodded, staring at her computer.  "Mmm hmmm.  According to your
astral pattern, anyway.  I could be off, but if I am, it's only by a
couple of hours."
	They were sitting in Washu's lab on a small moon orbiting a dead
world.  Tenchi couldn't get over how similar this Washu's lab was to his
own Washu's.  There were a few minor differences.  There were no trees
in this lab, something Tenchi had always found soothing about his
Washu's lab.  There were starcharts lining the walls with Imperial,
Jurain, and Galaxy Police insignia placed over different stars.  
	Ryoko appeared next to him and handed him a cup of....well...it was
hot, and that's all that mattered to Tenchi at the moment.  He took a
sip and was surprised.  It was good. It had a spicy tang to it.  He
noticed Ryoko was drinking a similar beverage.  He turned back to his
conversation with the renegade scientist.
	"Well," he said gamely, "At least it's nice to know I haven't missed
Ally McBeal."
	Ryoko gave him a puzzled look.  "Who's Ally McBeal?"
	"Never mind,"  he said.  "Can you send me back?"
	Washu turned to him.  "In a word, no.  I don't have the temporal
coordinates necessary to send you back to your dimension...but Kagato
does."  She smiled.
	"Great," Tenchi commented.  "Now what?"
	Washu looked at her daughter for a hard minute.  Ryoko looked vaguely
uncomfortable.  Finally, Washu spoke.  "Now, we kill two birds with one
stone."
	"Um...what do you mean?"  Tenchi asked.
	"Simple, Tenchi,"  Washu told him.  "We're going to help each other
out.  I'm going to send you home, and in exchange, you're going to help
me overthrow the Empire."
	"Mom!"
	She turned to Ryoko.  "Ryoko, you know this has to be done.  We both
know what Kagato has in mind.  He's going to lull the Jurains into a
false sense of security, bide his time, and then start the whole war
over again when the time is right.  We have a chance to stop this once
and for all.  I know you don't want to hear it, but if we kill Kagato,
if we kill Mihoshi...if we kill the Emperor...we kill the war."
	Ryoko looked angry, then the anger left her eyes to replaced by
sadness.  "I know,"  she said.  "The old Empire is dead...and it
deserved to die."
	Washu took her daughter's hand.  "With a little luck, and some good
planning, we can make the Empire what it was supposed to be, but I'll
need your help to make it happen."  Ryoko nodded sullenly.  "Good
girl,"  Washu said, smiling.
	"So..um...what do you need me for?"  Tenchi asked, not too thrilled
with the idea of taking on an entire empire.
	"That's easy.  They wanted you to play the part of the Emperor, and
that's exactly what you're gonna do!"
	Tenchi frowned.  "Why do I get the feeling that I'm _really_ going to
hate this plan?"
	Washu typed a few commands on her computer, and a star chart appeared. 
She began to lecture.  "We know from what you told us that Kagato told
the Jurains that several Imperial ships were destroyed because they
wouldn't accept the surrender order.  I happen to know that no such
battles took place.  This means that Kagato is hiding his forces in
preparation for the next war, so we can't use them, however, there are a
few garrisons that might not have been privy to Kagato's plan."  She
typed a few more commands into her computer.  "Ah, got one!"  One of the
stars on the chart turned red.  "Chovar Yagar, Captain Ris Devalo,
Commanding Officer.  Four light cruisers and six thousand troops.  It
should just be enough as long as Kagato doesn't add any more ships to
his escort at Jurai."
	Ryoko raised her hand.  "He won't have to.  You're not going to destroy
the Soja with four light cruisers."
	"I don't want to destroy the Soja.  The light cruisers are going to
keep the escort ships busy while we sneak aboard."
	Tenchi was next to raise his hand.  "What about Ayeka?  I got a good
look out the window when I was there.  It looked like she had a hundred
ships!"
	Washu shook her head.  "We won't have to worry about them.  There's no
treaty between the Empire and Jurai, just a surrender.  Nothing would
please Ayeka more than to see Imperials weaken each other by fighting it
out with one another.  Jurai won't interfere."
	"All right, Mom,"  Ryoko said.  "How do we get those ships?"
	"Simple, Ryoko,"  she looked at Tenchi, "The Emperor is going to give
them to us."

	Plans were made to leave for Chovar Yagar the next morning.  For the
first time since arriving in this dimension, Tenchi got to sleep in a
comfortable bed, which delighted him to no end.  The next morning, after
a hot bath, he met Ryoko on the landing pad located next door to Washu's
lab.  
	Ryoko brightened when she saw him.  Tenchi flinched, remembering how
his Ryoko would greet him every morning.  However, as Tenchi had to
remind himself every time he saw her, this Ryoko was different.  He
smiled.
	"Good morning, Tenchi.  Does the uniform fit all right?"
	Tenchi looked down at the crimson dress uniform Washu had provided him
with.  "Good morning, Ryoko.  It fits fine, thanks."  He noticed that
Ryoko was wearing a similar uniform to his, complete with a red cape
that sported the three black gems, the Imperial emblem.
	They heard a noise behind them and turned.  Washu appeared from one of
her dimensional doorways.  To Tenchi's surprise, she was also wearing an
Imperial uniform, but instead of a red cape, she wore a white one with
the gems featured in black.  She walked right up to them and made an
announcement.
	"Trip's delayed."
	"What's wrong?"  Ryoko asked.
	"Well, I was thinking last night after I went to bed, and it occurred
to me that if we kill Kagato and the Emperor, it might make things
worse."
	"How do you mean?"  Tenchi asked.
	"The Imperial chain of command is very centralized at the top, but
decentralized the farther down you go.  At the top is the Emperor, then
the High Admiral, then there are twelve Commodores, no one outranking
any of the others."  She saw that Tenchi wasn't getting it.  "Okay, try
this.  Imagine you're a Commodore with one-twelfth of the entire
Imperial Navy under your command.  One day, you wake up and find that
the only people who outrank you are dead.  What do you do?"
	Ryoko growled in annoyance that she didn't see it sooner.  Tenchi
looked at her.  "The answer is, 'Whatever you want.'"  she told him.
	"Right,"  Washu agreed with a nod of her head.  "This plan could plunge
the entire Empire into a twelve way civil war.  That is _not_ a good
thing."
	"So what do we do?"  Tenchi asked, worried.  This was his only hope of
getting home.
	"Don't worry, Tenchi, simple solution."  She shot a meaningful look at
Ryoko.  "We just promote Ryoko."
	Tenchi nodded.  Making Ryoko High Admiral would certainly make it
easier for her to take over once this was over with.  "All right.  Is
there anything I need to do, some ceremony, changing of the guard, that
kind of thing?"
	"Mmmm hmmm,"  Washu said, "Something like that."  Her tone was playful,
as if she were playing a wonderful joke on them.  "All we need now is a
man named Maltavar."
	Ryoko's eyes widened.  Tenchi didn't know who Maltavar was, so the name
didn't mean anything to him.

	Kagato looked over the reports.  Mihoshi stood in front of his desk and
waited for the High Admiral to acknowledge her presence.  Kagato
"hmmm'ed" in thought.  "I trust this has been confirmed?"
	Mihoshi shook her head.  "They found the wreckage, but no bodies.  I
sent a ship out there to search the area, I didn't want to risk the
Advanced Destroyers being seen."
	Kagato nodded his head in agreement.  "Still, this means he's still at
large."  He looked up at her.  "The Emperor needs to be brought up to
speed, we may have to alter the plan."
	Mihoshi nodded.  "I'll do it."
	"Good, I can't leave, myself, and I don't want to send someone who
isn't directly involved with the plan.  It would be too great a risk."

	The green portal appeared, and out stepped Commodore Mihoshi of the
Imperial Navy.  She checked her surroundings.  It was dark out, and she
was in the middle of a forest somewhere.  She checked the homing device
Kagato had given her.  It pointed in the direction of the Emperor's
Tenchi-ken.  She began walking east.

	Tenchi fidgeted in his seat on board Washu's ship.  He was still very
nervous about this, but there was more. The process of,  "Promoting
Ryoko," had been a little more involved than he had first thought. 
Ryoko appeared from the forward cabin and sat next to him.  She seemed a
little uncomfortable around him as well.  She turned to him.  
	"You'll be fine, just do it like we practiced.  Just act like you own
the whole galaxy and that you deserve to.  If someone asks you a
question you don't know the answer to, act like the answer's on the tip
of your tongue and turn to one of us.  Washu or I will take it."
	Tenchi nodded.  Neither of them spoke for a long moment.  Tenchi
searched for something neutral to talk about.  "Uh, I've been meaning to
ask.  What's with the different capes on your uniforms?"
	"The capes of rank?"  she asked.  He nodded.  "Each one represents what
part of the service you belong to.  Flag officers wear red capes, junior
officers also get red, but their's are shorter, Marines get black,
Science and Engineering get white, pilots get blue.  It goes on like
that through the various parts of the Navy."
	"I see."  Thinking back on it, he remembered that the Marines who
guarded him wore black capes, while Kagato and Mihoshi wore red.  The
conversation trailed off again until Ryoko finally spoke.
	"Tenchi?"
	He turned back to her.
	"Will you show me your world some time?"
	He smiled.  "Sure."

	They landed on Chovar Yagar without incident.  The ships that
challenged them sent them on their way when Washu sent them Imperial
security codes.  She had contacted Captain Devalo with news of who she
would be bringing and ordered that he not contact anyone.  Given that
she was speaking on the Emperor's authority, with his security codes, he
obeyed without question.  
	They landed on a pad in the middle of the largest city.  The landing
area was the roof of a tall building, the Imperial capital building for
Chovar Yagar.  Tenchi looked out the window and panicked when he saw
rows upon rows of Imperial Marines standing outside his ship.  "It's a
trap!"
	"Relax,"  Washu said coming back from the cockpit.  "That's just your
honor guard."
	"Honor guard?"  He looked out the window again.  Sure enough, the
Marines were all at attention.  He noticed three men in red capes at the
forefront.
	"By the way, take this."  Washu handed him something. 
	"The Tenchi-ken!"
	"No,"  Washu said, shaking her head.  "It's just a replica I made.  The
Emperor hasn't been more than ten feet from that sword since the day he
got it.  If you walked out there without it, it would raise more
questions than are good for us.  Just remember, it's useless in a fight,
so don't try to show off."
	Tenchi nodded.  Ryoko stepped forward.  "Are you ready?"  He nodded
again.
	Washu worked the door release and the super alloy door slid open. 
Tenchi took a deep breath and walked down the ramp, Ryoko and Washu
right behind him.
	He stopped right in front of the three red caped men.  Their leader, a
balding man of about forty, saluted, placing his fist over his heart,
then bowed low.  The two officers behind him followed in this ritual a
second later.  Tenchi, playing his role perfectly, returned the salute
lazily.  "Captain Devalo," he said, sounding bored.
	"Yes, Your Majesty," he said smiling, "You do us a great honor with
your presence."  He turned to his two officers.  "This is Commander
Florza and Commander Tel'da, my adjutants."
	Tenchi introduced Ryoko and Washu.  Devalo's eyes widened in shock when
he heard the title Tenchi attached to Ryoko's name.  He bowed low.  "If
you'll come this way, we have prepared quarters for Your Majesty.  I
hope they are adequate."
	Tenchi waved him on.  As they walked, Tenchi delivered his lines,
informing Devalo of Kagato's "treachery," to the Empire.  Devalo shook
his head in disbelief.
	"I knew it, Your Majesty, I knew something was wrong when we got the
order to stand down.  Since the surrender,"  it sounded like a dirty
word in his mouth, "I've kept us at war time status.  I'm glad to know
it was not in vain."
	Tenchi smiled.  "Excellent, Captain, excellent.  It is my intent to
throw down the traitor and regain control of my Empire."  He gave Devalo
a knowing look.  "When all is said and done, I will need a new Commodore
to replace Mihoshi."  Devalo's step faltered just slightly.  "You'll do,
I think."  At that point, Devalo would follow Tenchi into Hell.

	The door to Washu's lab opened, and in stepped Sasami carrying a plate
of grilled fish and rice.  She walked up to Washu, who was typing away
at her computer, trying to find something, anything, that would enable
her to find the temporal coordinates to the Emperor's dimension.  Washu
paused in her work and turned to the young girl.
	"I brought Tenchi some dinner, Miss Washu.  Er...how do I give it to
him?"
	Washu smiled at the little girl.  "Just slide it through the force
field.  Stuff can go in, it just can't come out again, so don't stick
your hand in there."
	"Okay."  She walked over to the imprisoned monarch.  He was sitting
with his back to the force field, facing Washu and her computer.
	He looked up.  "Hello, little one,"  he said with a smile.
	Sasami put the plate on the floor and slid it through the force field
with her toe.  She turned to go but stopped when he called her name.
	"Sasami!  Wait!"  She faced him. He continued on.  "Sasami, I know you
all want your Tenchi back.  I want to get out of here.  Let's help each
other.  You let me out of this force field, and I'll take you to
Tenchi."
	Sasami looked over at Washu, who was typing away at her computer.
	"Come on, Sasami.  I'm not a bad person.  I was just scared, that's
all."
	She straightened her shoulders.  "No, if I let you out, you'll try to
escape."
	Tenchi closed his eyes and smiled.  Suddenly, he lunged at her,
stopping dead in his tracks at the force field, which crackled as it
tried to contain him.
	"FINE!  THEN DIE WITH THE REST OF THEM!"
	Sasami jumped back.  She sniffled for a moment, then started to cry. 
She ran straight to the door and left in tears.  Tenchi picked up the
plate of rice and began eating.  
	Washu, who had turned when she heard the commotion, walked over to the
force field.  Tenchi gave her a look and smiled.  "Jurains," he said as
if that explained everything, "No sense of humor."
	Washu grimaced.  "In case no one's ever told you this before, you're a
evil, hateful, mean-spirited bastard, and I have half a mind to drop
that force field and let Ryoko deal with you her way."
	There was that smile again, the one that annoyed the Hell out of her. 
"Go ahead," he told her.  "You've been in my mind, Washu.  Do you
honestly think she could win?"
	That made Washu pause for a moment.  Observing his memories had given
her a healthy respect for his abilities.  Any man who could defeat
Prince Yosho _and_ keep Kagato in line was a man to watch out for.  She
rallied and snarled at him.
	"One day, we're gonna find out.  I promise you that."
	He smiled.

	Sasami came running out of Washu's lab and straight into the living
room, bawling her eyes out.  Ayeka turned at the sound just in time to
collide with the younger Jurain princess, who grabbed hold of her and
cried into her dress.  
	"Sasami!  What is it!?  What's wrong?!"
	Sasami continued to cry, but managed to choke out what had happened
between sobs.  Ryoko, who had been sitting on one of the support beams
of the house, growled.  Ayeka hugged her sister.
	"There, there, Sasami, don't worry.  We'll find a way to get Tenchi
back."
	Sasami continued to cry, but she looked up a Ayeka.  "Really?"
	"Really," Ayeka told her with a smile.  "I know, why don't we go into
the kitchen and have some ice cream?"
	The blue haired princess let go of her sister and sniffled.  "Okay." 
She still seemed frightened, but suddenly, Ryo-Ohki jumped up on her
shoulder and "miya'd."
	Sasami giggled through her tears.  "Come on, Ryo-Ohki."  She turned to
her older sister.  
	"I'll be in in a minute."  Sasami nodded and went into the kitchen.
	Ayeka sighed.  Ryoko appeared right next to her.  "Poor kid," she
commented.
	"It must be hard on her.  She's only a child, and it's easy to forget
that she loves Tenchi just as much as we do."	
	Ryoko nodded in agreement.  "Washu'll find a way to send us to that
other dimension, and when she does I'll tear that place apart until I
find him."  She waited for the inevitable argument from Ayeka, but for
once, it didn't come.
	Ayeka sighed.  "I hope you're right, Ryoko.  I just want him back."

	Standing outside the house next to a window, Mihoshi listened and
cursed her luck.  The Emperor was captured, and by this dimension's
Washu of all people.  Not only that, but Ayeka was here, as well as that
whore, Ryoko, the Emperor's tart.  
	Mihoshi decided that action had to be taken.  She raised her left wrist
and entered a few commands on the tiny keyboard that was attached to her
changeling suit.  Suddenly, the black jumpsuit she had been wearing
turned into a T-shirt and trousers, the kind that was culturally
acceptable on a hundred different Imperial and Jurain worlds.  She then
checked the action on her sidearm, taking the safety off.  It was time
to go rescue the Emperor.

	Tenchi stood at the head of the table, but was trying desperately to
stay out of the way, only nodding whenever Washu asked him, "Is this
acceptable to you, Your Majesty?"  Washu was running this briefing, and
the only ones who didn't know it were Devalo, (Now a Commodore,) his
adjutants, the captains of the four Rendarii class light cruisers, and
the leader of the Imperial Marine regiment stationed on Chovar Yagar, a
tall blonde man with short hair, Captain Stolykios.  Ryoko and Tenchi
listened with rapt interest as Washu laid out her plan.
	"Now, then, moving on," she said, tapping the butt of the laser pointer
on the table, which featured a holographic chart of the Jurai system. 
"Once our ships jump into Jurai, they will have to attack the Soja's
escorts immediately if they are going to maintain the advantage of
surprise."  She pointed at the four ship commanders.  "Don't try to get
closer than you already are by answering their hails.  Just get in there
and nail them."
	One of them raised his hand.  "The Soja's protected by five Kovan class
heavy cruisers, we'll be outgunned."
	"True," one of the other captains pointed out.  "But we have the speed
and maneuverability.  That'll even things up a little."
	Washu nodded.  "You'll also have surprise on your side, as long as you
remember to use it."
	"What about the Jurains?"  The same ship captain asked.
	"As long as you don't target them, they'll be content to watch from a
distance."  The four captains nodded at this as Washu continued.  "Now,
while you boys are dancing with the escorts, His Majesty, Ryoko, and I
will be sneaking aboard the Soja through one of her sensor blindspots,
located here."  The holographic image changed to that of a close-up view
of the Soja.  She pointed the laser pointer at an area just below the
Soja's main engines.  This was sound theory to everyone, but only
Tenchi, Washu, and Ryoko knew that the real reason for choosing this
particular area was the fact that Kagato's lab was on that same deck.  
	"From there, we will proceed to the bridge along with some of Captain
Stolykios' Marines, and hold it.  When this is accomplished, we will
arrest the traitor, Kagato, and order all of our ships to stand down. 
Is this all right with you, Your Majesty?"
	Tenchi nodded.
	"Good."
	Devalo spoke up for the first time.  "What happens after we take the
Soja?  Retreat?"
	"Negative,"  Washu told him.  "Surrender to the Jurains."
	"WHAT?!"
	Washu nodded.  "But this time, from a position of strength."
	Devalo was about to argue.  Tenchi could see it.  He was this close to
pulling his men out of this operation.  Tenchi straightened and
addressed the newly minted Commodore.
	"Do you have a problem with my plan, _Commodore?_"  he asked, placing a
great deal of emphasis on the officer's new rank.
	Devalo face faulted.  "Well...er...of course not, Your Majesty.  If you
believe that surrender is what's best for the Empire than I will support
it."
	Tenchi nodded.  "Good."
	"How are we gonna sneak onto the Soja?"  Ryoko asked.  "We'd need a
small ship that could evade detection long enough to get to that blind
spot.  Ryo-Ohki could do it, but we don't have one.  Could you clone
another, Mother?"
	Washu shook her head.  "It would take three weeks to make a proper
Ryo-Ohki.  I could probably halve that time, but it would be mentally
and emotionally unstable."
	Devalo spoke again.  "If you need a ship, I think I have just the
thing."

	Devalo led them to a hangar deep within the base.  It was dark when
they opened the doors, but when the lights flashed on, Ryoko and Tenchi
jumped back in surprise.  Thankfully, Devalo didn't notice their
reaction.  He was busy showing off his new toy, a very familiar new toy.
	"The Advanced Destroyer, AD7.  Imperial R and D sent us one for testing
about a month back.  It's top secret, but given our current situation, I
figure we can use it.  It's got a new weapons system, faster, and best
of all, it can fly through the subspace fissures.  It'll take the
cruiser two days to reach Jurai, we can get there in three hours."
	The ship was slightly larger than Ryo-Ohki had been.  It was jet black,
dart shaped and lethal looking.  It reminded Tenchi of one of the United
States' stealth fighters, only larger and with no tail wing.
	Washu thought her daughter a question.  Ryoko used her link to tell her
that it was one of the ships that had shot them down.  Washu smiled.
	"Perfect!"

	Once again, Tenchi found himself on a strange star ship heading into
danger.  Ryoko sat next to him, but Washu couldn't pass up the
opportunity to see what the AD7 had to offer, and was poking around the
various systems.  They had left only two hours ago, three days after
Devalo and the cruisers had left.  He looked over at Ryoko.  She looked
back and smiled.
	She looked away and blushed.  Tenchi found himself blushing too.  He
finally realized it and accepted it.  He was falling for this girl.  He
wondered why.  He liked his Ryoko, but he wasn't in love with her, but
here he was falling for her double.  Maybe it was that she had Ryoko's
strength and zest for life, but also had some of that vulnerability that
he had seen in Ayeka when they spent that rainy afternoon together in
the wood shed.  He had always known that the two of them were waiting
for him to choose between them, but he never could.  Was this why?  Was
it because they each had some of the things he looked for in a woman,
but not all?  
	 As she looked away, she frowned.  It was then she felt her mother's
presence in her mind.
	<Ryoko, tell him!>
	She mentally sighed and sent back, <Why?  What good would it do?  He's
going home, Mom.  What should I say to him?  Stay with me in a war
zone?>
	<It might just be that simple.>
	<Nothing's ever simple, Mom, you know that.>
	She could feel her mother mentally shaking her head.  <Then don't ask
him to stay, but tell him how you feel anyway.  You never know.  After
all, you two are...>
	Ryoko mentally sighed again and broke the connection.  This wasn't the
time.  Then again, they were going out on a suicide mission.  If they
succeeded, she would never see Tenchi again.  If they failed, she'd
probably see him in the afterlife, if there was an afterlife.  She
straightened her shoulders and turned to him.  "Tenchi, I..."
	She was interrupted when Tenchi leaned forward and kissed her.  When
they finally separated, Tenchi looked into her eyes and said,  "Just in
case I never get the chance to do that again."
	Ryoko smiled as she realized that she didn't have to say anything.  He
knew, and he felt it too.  They might have said more if Captain
Stolykios hadn't come in from the cockpit and interrupted.
	"Your Majesty, we'll be jumping into the Jurai system in ten minutes."
	Tenchi nodded.  "Good, Captain, good.  Find Washu, and have your men
get ready."
	Stolykios nodded and went to find Washu.  Ryoko stood up.  "Come on. 
Let's go get ready."
	
	The AD7 appeared out of hyperspace at the exact place they wanted to
be, just to the rear of Soja.  Tenchi looked out the window while
Stolykios tapped a few keys on a control panel  The lights dimmed
slightly.
	"Stealth mode on," he announced.  "They can't see us, but we've only
got ten minutes like this."
	Ryoko scanned the sky.  She could see the Soja's escorts flying tandem
with the mammoth ship she once called home.  Below, she could see the
green planet surface of Jurai.  The view of the planet was disrupted by
the sight of Jurain warships, not all that different from their Imperial
cousins, and three large planetary defense stations.  She hoped that
Washu was right and that the Jurains wouldn't attempt to interfere.  If
they did, this would be the shortest engagement in Imperial history. 
She continued to scan the space around them.  There was no sign of
Devalo and his ships.  Ryoko bit her lip and wondered if they had been
ambushed on the way in.
	Washu must have been entertaining similar fears for she was scanning
the sky just as intently as Ryoko was.  She pointed out to a section of
space.  "There!"
	Four blue disruptions in space appeared, and a light cruiser came out
of each one.  As soon as they were out, they began launching missiles at
the larger ships, which engaged their engines and started for the
smaller vessels.  Once again, Washu had been correct.  The smaller light
cruisers were more nimble, and were having no trouble evading the larger
Imperial craft.  Washu tapped Stolykios on the shoulder and told him to
move out.  The Marine captain nosed the smaller ship over and made for
the Soja.  Ryoko touched Tenchi's shoulder and pointed at one of the
larger Imperial cruisers that was going after their ships.
	"The Risano," she declared.  "Let's hope Mihoshi's planet side."
	"Why?"
	"Because if Mihoshi's on the bridge of her ship, this battle isn't
going to last long."

	Mihoshi wasn't on the bridge of her beloved Risano.  She was standing
at the front door of the Masaki residence, pressing the door bell.  She
had the plan worked out:  ring the bell, tell them her vehicle broke
down just up the road, ask to use their communicator, get inside, kill
the Queen, the whore, and the genius, and find the Emperor.  No muss, no
fuss, and if she was lucky, she'd be back on the Risano's bridge in time
for her watch.
	The door opened, and there stood Ayeka.  When the princess saw who was
at the door, she frowned.  "Mihoshi, did you forget your key again?"
	<Huh?>
	Mihoshi blinked.  She _lived_ here!?  "Er..that's right, Ayeka.  Silly
me!"  she said, beaming.  This was going to be easier than she thought. 
Smiling broadly, she stepped inside.

	Captain Koryo watched as the battle unfolded in front of him.  Two of
the light cruisers were flying circles around one of the larger heavy
cruisers, peppering it with shots from their forward guns.  Every time
another of the Soja's escorts appeared to help its sister ship, the
lighter ships would break off and find another target, repeating the
attack.  
	His Executive Officer, Commander Ra'tel, approached him.  "We're in
attack position now, sir."
	"Hold here,"  Koryo told him.
	"We're not going to attack, sir?  The Soja..."
	"Is an Imperial ship, Commander.  I have my orders directly from the
Queen.  We are to see to it that no Jurain property is destroyed, but,
otherwise, we are not to interfere."
	"Understood, sir."

	The AD7 docked with the Soja with a heavy "clunk."  Within seconds, the
Marines had used laser torches to cut a doorway in the Soja's hull. 
Within minutes, Washu, Ryoko, Tenchi, Stolykios, and two dozen Marines
were standing in a cargo bay in red tactical armor, ready to single
handedly take the greatest warship since Tsunami.  When the Marines
secured the cargo bay, Stolykios detailed two of them to stay behind and
guard the AD7 while taking the rest of them to the entrance of the
hold.  Opening the doors, Stolykios checked either side of the hallway. 
Washu stepped up to the front, carrying a small laser pistol.
	"Your Majesty, you come with me.  Ryoko, take these guys up to the
bridge."
	Ryoko nodded.  She shared a look with Tenchi, but no words.  She led
the Marines to the right.  Washu grabbed Tenchi's hand and began running
to the left.  "C'mon, Tenchi.  If you live, you have my permission to
see her again."
	Tenchi ran.

	Kagato watched the battle in growing frustration.  His escort ships had
the upper hand, but it was going worse than it should.  He briefly
thought about taking the Soja into the battle, but he wanted his
captains to handle this on their own.  Still, this was a bad time for
Mihoshi to be away from the Risano.  He could always count on the
Commodore to be efficient.  
	One of his lieutenants turned to him.  "Sir, we've got a hull breach on
deck ten."
	Kagato's eyes narrowed.  "Were we hit?"
	"No sir, it looks more like..." the officer checked his board. 
"Breaching pod, sir!  Deck ten!"
	"Sound general quarters.  Send a security detachment to deal with the
intruders."  As he gave these orders, something was troubling him.  Why
would they go to deck ten?  His eyes widened in realization.  He shot up
from his command chair and headed toward the lift.  "Commander," he
said, addressing his Executive Officer, "Take command.  I'll be in my
lab."

	Mihoshi finally figured out where Washu was hiding her lab.  Opening
the closet door, she stepped inside and was thrown off guard by the
sheer size of it.  Containing her awe, she saw Washu speaking with Ryoko
at one end to the lab.  On the other end, sat the Emperor.  Washu and
Ryoko were heavily involved in conversation.  She caught the Emperor's
eye and gave him a  quick salute.  His eyes widened as he realized what
was going on.  He pointed at the translucent computer terminal Washu was
standing next to and brought his hand across his throat.  <Kill the
computer.>  Mihoshi nodded and started toward the two women.  
	She was halfway there when the entrance appeared in front of her and in
stepped Ayeka, Sasami...and Mihoshi.
	"Miss Washu," Ayeka was saying, "Sasami wants to know if..."  She broke
off as she saw Mihoshi standing there.  She turned back and saw another
Mihoshi behind her.
	Washu knew immediately what was going on.  "IMPERIAL!"
	Commodore Mihoshi reacted quickly and as training dictated.  She jumped
up and delivered a snap kick to Ayeka, which struck the princess in the
chin, throwing her back.  Mihoshi then did the first thing that occurred
to her.  She drew her pistol, grabbed Sasami and pointed it at her head.
	"No one moves!"  she shouted.  No one did.  Sasami was shaking, the
laser gun attached to her head while the Imperial officer held her
fast.  
	Ryoko took a step forward.  "I swear by all that's holy," she said,
threateningly, "If you harm one blue hair on that kid's head, you'll be
lucky if you _just_ die."
	Mihoshi paid no attention.  She leveled the gun at Washu's keyboard and
fired.  The translucent computer fluttered and disappeared, as did the
force field around the Emperor.  He smiled and made for the door.  
	"Well, ladies, it's been an absolutely wonderful visit, but I've gotta
go.  Mihoshi, see that we have time for a proper getaway."
	"Aye aye, sir."
	With that, the Emperor left.  Ryoko made as if to follow, but the
Commodore tightened her grip on Sasami.  Ryoko got the message.
	Had Mihoshi spent more time in this dimension, she would've known that
the Princess Sasami is never, ever, unprotected.  High above the earth,
in a geosynchronous orbit above the Masaki household, the great ship of
Jurai, Tsunami, awoke, detecting a direct danger to Sasami.  Tsunami
studied the situation and determined a suitable defense.  She engaged
her transporter device, but it wasn't directed at Sasami.
	Mihoshi was going to give the Emperor at least ten minutes to get
away.  She would have no trouble finding him with the tracking device. 
Her eyes never left the group of women who were waiting for her next
move.  Ryoko had to practically hold Ayeka back from trying to rescue
Sasami herself.  Mihoshi smiled at that thought.  <Go ahead, Your
Highness, try it and I'll....What the...>
	She felt odd.  She recognized the sensation.  Someone had activated a
transporter!  She felt her entire being begin to dissolve.  Sasami broke
away and ran to Ayeka, who grabbed hold of her sister.  The Commodore
began to scream as her entire being began to break apart.  She wasn't
being transported!  Someone was using the transporter to disperse her
molecules all over the lab!  She screamed in agony as she disappeared.
	Sasami, breathing hard, whispered, "Thank you, Tsunami."
	In their shock at what had just happened, it took them a minute to
remember.  
	"Tenchi!"  Ryoko exclaimed and disappeared.

	Tenchi and Washu rounded a corner and entered a large, empty room.  In
the center of this room was high, round, metallic circle.  A control
terminal was only ten meters in front of it.
	"This must be it,"  Washu said, heading for the terminal.  She rested
her pistol on the top of it and began typing.  "Now, then, we just check
the coordinates and...there it is!"  She entered a few commands, and
suddenly, the room was enveloped in a green light as the portal opened. 
Tenchi looked at it for a few moments, hesitant.
	Washu seemed to see it and pushed it just a little harder.  "My
daughter loves you, you know."
	Tenchi sighed and nodded.  "I don't belong here.  I have to go back."
	Washu nodded.  "Then go,"  she told him quietly.
	He turned to her.  "Good bye, Washu."  He turned back to the portal and
walked through it.  Washu sighed.  In her instant of lapse, she didn't
notice the movement out of the corner of her eye until it was too late. 
She turned just in time to see Kagato level his hand at her and fire an
energy blast.  She went for the pistol she had laid on the terminal, but
wasn't fast enough.  She took the full force of the blast in the chest. 
She only remembered hitting the wall with a thud and falling to the
floor.

	Ryoko turned a corner and ducked right back behind it as two energy
blasts hit the wall in front of her.  Two of her own Marines stepped up
and returned fire.  She turned to Stolykios.  "They've got us bottled up
here!"  she shouted over the gun fire.  Suddenly, she seemed to lose her
balance.  Stolykios caught her.  "Mother," she said.
	Stolykios knew that she had a link with Ms. Washu.  "Is she okay?"  he
asked.
	Ryoko nodded.  "She's unconscious, but alive.  We don't have much
time."
	Suddenly, the lights turned red, and the Marines cursed as their
weapons stopped firing.
	Stolykios knew what it was immediately.  "Dampening field!"  Another
laser blast came from down the hall.  "I guess it's just in this area." 
He raised his voice to shout to his men.  "Fix bayonets!"
	The Marines hit the toggle on their rifles just below the trigger.  On
each weapon, a foot long disturbance in the air appeared in front of the
rifle as the men switched on their sonic bayonets.  To describe one
would be to say it was like looking over a stretch of pavement on a very
hot day and seeing the distortion the heat made in the air above it. 
That was the general appearance of a sonic bayonet.
	"Bayonets aren't going to do us much good, bottled up the way we are." 
Stolykios pointed out.	
	Ryoko nodded and disappeared.  She reappeared in an empty corridor that
looked a lot like the one she had just left.  She flew down the hall and
came to a T-junction.  Turning right, she began to hear weapons fire. 
She engaged her light sword and flew faster.  The Soja's Marines didn't
know what hit them.  One moment, they were firing down the hall at the
intruders, the next they were being shredded from behind by a flying
demon with a light sword and Imperial armor.
	Stolykios heard the screams from down the corridor and smiled.  "Let's
go, lads!"

	Ryoko shot up above the house and began searching the landscape around
the Masaki home.  <Where is he?!>  Then she saw him.  He was in the
carrot fields heading toward a bright green light.  She growled and flew
toward him.  She watched as he approached the light, then, suddenly,
something jumped out of the bushes next to him and tackled him to the
ground!  He was dressed in some kind of red plastic.  Ryoko saw the
braid on the back of his head and knew who it was.
	"Tenchi!"
	She flew faster.

	The Emperor saw the portal and smiled.  Mihoshi must have opened it for
him by remote.  He walked up to it and was suddenly struck from out of
nowhere and tackled to the ground!  His head spun.  Whatever had hit
him, hit him hard.  He looked up and saw red Imperial armor.  He
smiled.  Then he saw who was wearing it.
	He stopped smiling.
	Before he could move, Tenchi was on the Emperor, punching him in the
face and body, trying to knock him out before he could use the
Tenchi-ken.  However, the Emperor was also well trained when it came to
unarmed combat.  He managed to get a shot to the solar plexus.  Even in
armor, the blow was strong enough to do damage.  Tenchi gasped and
doubled over.  The Emperor pushed him off and bolted for the portal.
	Tenchi gasped for air, but followed the Emperor all the same.  He
leaped and grabbed hold of his foot, tripping him just short of the
portal.  The Emperor's head and chest went through.  Tenchi grabbed hold
of his legs and refused to release him, either avoiding or enduring the
kicks the monarch sent his way.  He had to hold on.

	Kagato looked down at the pink-haired scientist and smiled.  So, his
old teacher was trying to interfere.  He shook his head and turned to
the control terminal to shut down the portal.  Suddenly, the Emperor's
head and arms appeared at the portal.  His head hit the cold floor with
crack.  He looked up and saw the High Admiral.  
	"Kagato!  Help me, dammit!"
	 Kagato rushed to him and grabbed his arms.  He pulled, but something
was holding the Emperor fast.

	Ryoko landed next to Tenchi and grabbed one of the Emperor's legs. 
Tenchi looked over at her.  "We can't let him go back!"  he shouted. 
Ryoko nodded and pulled.

	Kagato pulled, but something was holding him steady.  He leaned over
and stuck his head through the portal.

	Ryoko looked up and cried out in shock.  Kagato's head was floating in
the middle of the green vortex.  Kagato grimaced.  He brought his hand
out and engaged his light sword.  He swung it around intent on taking
Tenchi's head off.  Ryoko brought up her own light sword and blocked the
blow.  The two light swords crackled together.

	Washu woke up and shook her head.  She opened her eyes and looked up...
	Only to see the weirdest thing she had ever seen in her entire life. 
The Emperor's head was sticking out of the portal right alongside
Kagato's legs.  It didn't take long for the greatest scientific genius
in the universe to pick up on the opportunity.  She jumped up and ran to
the panel.  The Emperor, who was intent of shaking free of Tenchi and
Ryoko, looked up and saw what Washu was doing.
	"NO!"  
	Washu pressed two keys on the terminal, and the portal dissolved.

	Ryoko staggered under Kagato's swing.  Suddenly, the portal collapsed. 
Kagato's face adopted an expression of shock.  Then, his torso,
separated from his legs by an entire dimension, fell to the ground next
to the Emperor's limp legs.  
	Tenchi and Ryoko sat back and took a deep breath.  Then, without
warning, Ryoko was on him, crushing the life out of him with a bear hug
that could kill most bears.
	"Oh, Tenchi!  I was so worried!"  This continued just long enough for
the rest of the girls, Ayeka at the lead, to find them.  
	"Tenchi!"  she cried, followed a second later by, "Ryoko!  Let him up! 
You're squashing the life out of him!"
	Ryoko let him go and turned on Ayeka.  Tenchi shook his head in shock. 
He had been gone for four weeks, and it was as if nothing had changed. 
He closed his eyes and collapsed from exhaustion.  His last thought
before his head hit the ground was the name, "Ryoko," but he wasn't
thinking of the Ryoko standing next to him.

	The lift door opened and three Marines stormed the bridge, their rifles
at the ready.  The Soja's bridge crew was taken completely by surprise. 
None of the officers tried to resist.  Ryoko stepped off the lift
accompanied by Stolykios.  The Executive Officer, Uretel, turned to
her.  
	"Commodore, what's the meaning of this?"
	"Commander, I am taking command of the Soja."
	"The High Admiral will..."
	"The High Admiral is dead, Commander,"  Ryoko told him flatly.  Washu
had already contacted her and informed her of the Admiral's grisly death
along with that of the Emperor.  "I am taking command, now move aside."
	The commander took a look at the Marines around him and moved aside. 
Ryoko nodded quickly and sat in Kagato's command chair.  "Captain
Stolykios,  order out ships to stand down.  Use my command codes, and
get me Queen Ayeka's flagship and patch our conversation through to
every ship in the system, Imperial _and_ Jurain."
	Stolykios obeyed and soon Queen Ayeka's face was on the main screen. 
"I hope you have a good explanation for engaging in hostilities in _my_
star system, Admira..."  Her face clouded over as she realized she
wasn't speaking with Kagato.  "Commodore Ryoko!  What is the meaning of
this?!"
	Ryoko took a deep breath and began.  "Queen Ayeka, it is my regret to
inform you that you have been the victim of a cruel hoax."
	"What?"
	"High Admiral Kagato had no intention of keeping to the surrender
agreement.  He's been hiding parts of his fleet throughout the Empire."
	Ayeka was livid.  "Is that so?!  Well, then, I guess I'll just have to
destroy your fleet piece by piece until we have a more accurate count."
	Ryoko thought fast.  Ayeka was volatile enough to do it.  "Your
Highness, Admiral Kagato is dead, along with the Emperor.  I speak for
the Empire now, and I hereby offer you our _legitimate_ surrender."
	"You speak for the Empire?  A two-bit Commodore?  What's your word
worth?"
	"More than you think, Your Highness,"  Washu spoke up from the lift. 
She stepped up and stood next to her daughter, the Tenchi-ken in her
hand.  She had taken in from the Emperor's, "body."   "Ryoko isn't
acting on her authority as a Commodore of the fleet, she's acting on her
authority as Empress."
	"'Empress!?!'"
	"Yes,"  Washu said smugly.  The jaws of every officer on the Soja, with
the exception of Stolykios and the other Marines, dropped.  
	"Lies,"  Ayeka said, but without conviction.
	"I can prove it,"  Washu told her.  She brought her hands up, and her
computer terminal obediently appeared.  She entered a few commands and a
door appeared out of nowhere right next to her.  She  turned the knob
and opened the door, shouting into it.  "Okay, you can come out now!"
	Everyone on the bridge, and indeed, on all the bridges of every ship in
the Jurai system watched fascinated as an old, bald man with a long,
gray beard stepped out of this dimensional door and stood on the
bridge.  He wore long purple robes and supported himself with a cane.
	Washu turned back to the Queen.  "Your Highness, I believe you know
Father Maltavar of the Jurai Holy Order."  Upon hearing this, several of
the young officers on the bridge who followed the teachings of the
Order, made the sign of the Great Tree on their chests.
	Washu continued.  "If I'm not mistaken, he performed the ceremony at
your father's wedding, didn't he?"
	"Fa..Father Maltavar?"
	The ancient man looked up at the screen.  "Well, well, little Ayeka! 
How have you been child?"
	"Father,"  Washu said, "Tell them about your most recent wedding
ceremony."
	"Well," he said, "About a week ago, I had the distinct honor of
performing the ceremony at this young lady's wedding to the Emperor
Tenchi Masaki."  He was pointing at Ryoko.  "That makes two royal
families I've performed weddings for."  He laughed.
	Washu pressed her advantage.  "And, of course, here's the marriage
certificate signed by the late Emperor and my daughter, as well as the
good Father, here."  She waved a piece of paper in front of the
viewscreen.  "With the Emperor dead, under Imperial law, as well as
Jurain Royal law, Ryoko is now the lawful ruler of the Empire of
Jurai."  She stepped forward and offered the Tenchi-ken to Ryoko.
	Ryoko paused, then took the weapon.  There was dead silence on the
bridge.  Ryoko wasn't quite sure it was going well.  Then, Commander
Uretel, the man who had been Kagato's second in command, stepped
forward.  He faced Ryoko, saluted, and bowed as he would do for his
rightful sovereign.  He was followed by the other bridge officers, one
after the other as they offered their salutes and bows.
	Ayeka mulled this turn of events over.  A surrender from a live Empress
was better than one from a dead Admiral.   "Empress Ryoko, if you are
willing bring all of the forces that Kagato hid out into the open, I
will be glad to discuss the terms of your surrender."
	Ryoko nodded.  "Very well, I will see you onboard your ship, Highness."
	Ayeka nodded, and the screen went blank.  Washu smiled, and even
Stolykios was grinning.  It was defeat, but not death, and that was
worth celebrating.
	Ryoko smiled, but her thoughts were not with the celebrators, but with
the man whose Empress she had been.

	Tenchi sat next to the lake and gazed up at the stars.  It was late,
almost three in the morning.  He had spent the last five hours
explaining what had happened to him for the past four weeks.  He still
couldn't believe it had only been a day in this dimension.  
	He almost didn't hear the footsteps of someone who had also come out to
look at the stars.  He turned.  "Hello, Little Washu,"  he said.
	"Deep thoughts, Tenchi?"
	He nodded.  Washu stood next to him and looked up at the stars.
	"Washu, do you believe that a person is nothing more than the sum of
their memories?"  She looked at him.  "I mean, like how a person is on
the inside.  Is it all a result of experience, or is it something else?"
	"That's part of it I guess.  No one's born evil, Tenchi.  Their
surroundings and experience play an important role in their
development.  There's more to it than that, though."  She shivered as
she remembered the brief moments she spent reliving the Emperor's life.
	He looked down at her.  It was obvious they were speaking of two
different people.  Nevertheless, he was curious.  "Washu, when you were
in my double's mind, what did you see?"
	Washu shuddered.  "Do me a favor, Tenchi?"
	"Uh..sure."
	She looked up into his eyes.  There was pain there, Tenchi could see, a
great deal of it.  "Never ask me that question again.  If I'm very
lucky, I might forget before I die."
	Tenchi nodded.  
	"So, who were you talking about?"
	"Huh?  Oh, no one.  Just wondering."  He shook his head.  He had given
them a somewhat edited version of what had happened, just telling them
that it was a resistance movement that had freed him and that he helped
them overthrow Kagato and his Emperor in exchange for passage home.  He
didn't think Ryoko or Ayeka could handle it if they knew the whole
truth.  His left hand trailed to the middle finger on his right hand.
	Washu, being the observant person she was, picked up on it.  "Mmm hmm,"
she said.  "You should take that wedding band off before Ryoko or Ayeka
sees it and gets the wrong idea."
	Tenchi started.  Then sighed.  "I will," he said, "Tomorrow." 
	Together, they looked up at the stars for a long time.


Author's Notes:

So, what did you think?
Some of you may have noticed a few subtle references to other anime
series as well as a shameless Ally McBeal plug.  (I couldn't help it,
I'm a fan!)  So, where should I start?

""Like,' is the first step to attraction, then love.  One kiss, we're
there!"  Is a line from El Hazard 2, owned by A.I.C. and Pioneer.  I
couldn't help putting it in.  I figure an evil Tenchi would be a big
Fatora fan.   (I'm one too!)

N2 torpedoes/missiles/warheads are from Neon Genesis Evangelion, owned
by Gainax and A.D.V..

The time differential can account for just about everyone being able to
be in both universes.  The one possible exception is Mihoshi, but given
that she _is_ an alien as well and that we don't know how long her
people live on average, I figured I had a little latitude.  Besides, I
rather liked the idea of an evil Mihoshi.

Yes, I know Kiyone doesn't appear in the OAV's until Manatsu No Eve,
(How does that happen, by the way?  I still don't know!  Write and tell
me.) however, this is an alternate dimension, which makes it okay.

I had so much fun writing this fic, (Can you believe the whole thing was
done in a week?!) that I decided to write a sequel that will help
resolve some of the unfinished issues I left here such as the memories
Washu witnessed while in the Emperor's mind.  So, be on the look out
for, "The Sum of All Memories."

I hope you enjoyed it.

Thomas J. Doscher

Please write me with your comments at:
doscher009@hotmail.com