"I have a bad feeling about this job..." The red hared girl dressed in a black cape, yellow blouse and purple shoulder guards told her side kick. "Come on Lina, what could be easier all we have to do is find this writer and make him put a disclaimer in the front of... uh what was it again?" "Fanatical Friction?" "That's it HOHOHohohoho HOHOHOhohoho..." "Why me?" Ever After Chapter 6: Welcome Home Tenchi! "The local space is distorting again." The main hologram changed showing stars move slightly in a mild rippling effect. In the bottom right hand corner of the hologram the coordinates and magnification were displayed to try to give some reference points for the humans. "Any other ships in the area reporting the same phenomenon." Konaka asked, keeping a closer eye on the enemy fleet then some sensor ghost. "None of my siblings have noted any changes in the surrounding space." She paused for a second. "They are also out of our scanner range. They might not be able to pick up the phenomenon that is likely localized in out space." "Are you detecting the increase of radiation as well?" Mia typed something on her pad. She looked worn out to him. Which meant that he had to look worse, for three days they had both been awake waiting for an attack that hadn't come. This was one of the first times since he had bonded with the Gilvilyko that Konaka wished for a bigger crew. Resignedly he swallowed another stim tab that was guaranteed to keep him awake for four hours. Though it would have to be the last one. Gilvilyko would relieve him of command in moments if she felt he was unfit or endangering himself and he knew she was watching for mistakes. "Mia, why don't you go get some sleep. I can handle this." She stubbornly looked at him for a second, then yawned and grinned sheepishly. "I guess your right." She said tugging herself out of the chair. Giving her a kiss he sat down in the seat she had vacated checking the new sensor data on the radiation before the door she had exit through shut. The Gilvilyko formed her holographic body floating translucent in the room. "You should get some sleep too captain." "Not now, I'll trade places with Mia in four hours." He said trying to focus his eyes on the sensor screen. It blurred for a second and then gradually came into focus the readings though hadn't changed just an increase in background radiation where ever the spatial distortion was. "We had to use both probes trying to scan the system." He remembered having said the exact same thing not two hours ago. She stared at him hard, the skin on her holographic brow wrinkling in concentration. "Don't look at me that way. I couldn't go to sleep for another four hours anyway." The hologram eyes unfocused for a second. "I am reading a large surge of radiation around the area of one of the spatial distortions." The main view screen's picture rapidly moved sending stars flying across the screen until they settled onto a space of pure blackness. Konaka strained his eyes trying to focus on it. As colors began to wash out of that space heading towards the ultra violet. A gap appeared in the colors and then another revealing a black ship barely visible on the sea of stars. But completely visible to radar. The size of a destroyer it would have been more then a match for the Gilvilyko if it wasn't for the fact that it was expelling plasma. "Get us away from it." The Captain yelled arming weapons. "Contact the other ships tell them that the enemy is able to hide some how." "Trying." Her face lost all expression as the ship used all of her powers to contact her siblings. The room became heavy as the compensators were over used as she applied maximum thrust away from the disabled ship not trusting that its weapons were as disabled as its drive. Her scared face changed once again a combination of fear and sadness he had never seen before. "I can't reach my siblings, their not there." Konaka stared at her afraid he would see the hologram cry. "One of the distortions is approaching us. I don't have enough acceleration yet to avoid." Her face had gone neutral "I am preparing to fire." The enemy ship began to decloak rippling colors until it was a solid black on black space. At only ten times the size of the Gilvilyko the battle was a forgone conclusion. It wasn't even worth waking his wife for. "Drop the buoy." He ordered. That would be his last order he would ever give. Konaka stared at the other ship as they approached he noted with half his mind that Gilvilyko was accelerating towards the other ship firing with all her weapons not that they making an impact. Cut off from the other ships and Tsunami, her one Light Hawk Wing failed to deploy. The console in front of him went black as shipboard systems cut out. The holograms followed suit. Running towards the wall locker where his suit was stored he wasn't braced for the impact that shook the ship sending him flying through the air until he hit wood at the end of his trajectory. Automatic sap dispensers began to fill the room as the air was sucked into space by micro fractures in the hall. Konaka's sight blurred again but this time from blood and sap sealant crawling he headed once again towards the closet containing his suit. Wiping his eyes clear. Internal gravity died allowing the sap to form into bubbles and speed towards the holes in seconds his ears stopped popping as the air pressure regained consistency in the ship. Pushing forward with his feet he sailed across the final distance hitting the storage locker hard. The doors emergency battery still worked allowing him access. Calming himself, he tried to remembered his zero G training. Three minutes later he was breathing bottled air and grabbing the pulse rifle. The ship safety had been disengaged when they had lost power and it glowed a comforting yellow. On safe but ready to fire at full power once he changed the selector switch. *I hope Mia's alive.* Ran through his head as he walked up to the main trunk and central core of what had been his little ship. The boots on his feet acting like Velcro on the wooden surface. He stood in front of the sign naming his ship behind it sat the heart wood, the soul of his ship. Reaching out he pushed his gloved hands through the wood which parted for him. His fingers tingled as they passed through the Jurian power that surrounded the heartwood Konaka closed his hands and pulled, slowly drawing his ships soul and central memory center. Blackness and rot engulfed the rest of the trunk spreading to the floor as the ship slowly started to self self-destruct. For the first time in his life he got to see the real Gilvilyko. Brown and unspectacular was its first appearance but when he moved it into the light its core shone like quarts capturing and reflecting the light in a hundred directions. He noted a small electronics device made of plastic and metal attached to the side of the wood. It blinked at him expectantly. An inconsistency compared to the rest of the wooden ship. He stuffed the wood into a special bag attached to the suit and hurried towards the crew quarters trying to stay ahead of the rot that was overtaking his ship. *She must have disabled some of their weapons with the ramming or we would all be dead by now.* He told himself as his boots made a soft tearing sound each time he took a step through the dead quiet ship. He finally found Mia in their quarters a bloody gash on the side of her head collecting blood in little bubbles all across the room. She had her suit already on except for the helmet. Grabbing up a pillow he made a crude bandage and stuck the helmet on her head sealing it. The ship suddenly jerked throwing him across the room along with everything else that wasn't fastened down. *Calm, stay calm, it will take the rot at least another three minutes before it eats through the power core stabilizers.* Grabbing his wife he kicked off the wall on a course towards an escape pod grateful for the zero g making her easy to carry. One of the two escape pods on the Gilvilyko was directly across from the bridge. Made out of metal and plastic it was an enigma compared to the wooden structure of the ship designed to prevent the self-destruct that engulfed his ship from destroying it as well. The hatch to the escape pod open and blinking green at the first loss of pressure in the ship. It was sterile to him all bright shiny metal padded with plastic foam and eight shock chairs. It's kind were mass produced and fitted onto every ship the number of pods increased with the size of the crew. Hurriedly strapping Mia and then himself down into a chair he punched through the safety glass listening to the audible clang as metal slammed against metal closing the door. "Tsunami, help us." He whispered as the gravity suddenly went from zero to three G pressing him into the seat as the little pod used all its fuel except for a two second emergency burst and the directional thrusters. He could see the Gilvilyko from his position a small gray speck dwarfed by the huge black ship it had impacted into. The wood holding the core finally rotted away leaving the micro singularity with out any force fields. The singularity began to eat first his ship and then inexhaustibly the enemy ship in a matter of seconds both ship were gone as if they had never existed. The only sign of their last position a singularity and a life pod just escaping its gravity well. That and the three ships appearing in their path. *** Waking early, Sasami had started on the feast that would be dinner. Mixing and stirring, boiling and simmering, she was creating a masterful blend of Earth foods and Jurain from the limited stores that the messenger ships brought her every month. Ryo-Ohki, in matured fur form, helping her with the slicing and dicing. Being two extra hands when needed and a friend to talk to about gossip and whatever else came to her attention. The Bebrean was the last thing to be finished and the first thing she had started on. A wild beast, a cross between a beaver and a rabbit, but about three times as big the preparations and proper cooking rendered it into a delicacy of unimaginable flavor. She hoped that Tenchi would enjoy it. This being to her knowledge the first time he had eaten Jurain food since the victory festival. She blocked the thought folding it and tightly placing it back in the portion of her mind where it belonged. She gazed proudly at the spread. Everything that could remain at room temperature neatly put in its place. The rest in the refrigerator or warming on the stove or oven. Ryo-Ohki had wandered off by then disappearing with a bag of baby carrots her favorite delicacy, and was playing with the CD player looking for a song. Whichever one that was for she kept skipping tracks and CDs scanning for something Sasami would have rather just turned on the radio, but that hadn't worked right for months in the Masaki home. Something to do with one of Washu's experiments. The clock over the sink finally struck two. Tenchi's train should be arriving any minute, Noboyuki had already gone down to the train station to pick the three up so that gave her... every thing was right on time she would start serving at three. And probably continue eating the feast for days to come. *** The emperor of Jurai proudly sat on the royal chair as his command group efficiently handled everything. He was bored but not about to show any emotions to his subjects. The main hologram tank some twenty feet by thirty feet tall displayed the fleet he was spearheading. Over a thousand Jurain ships, an equal number of GP Cruisers and destroyers, plus 50 of the huge Tigeran dreadnoughts and their escorts one day out from the Farreach system. One of the admirals approached him bowing efficiently. "Emperor we've lost comms with one of the scout ships at the Farreach system." *So they are finally making their move. Its about time.* "Inform the fleet. We'll retake Farreach as soon as we get their and have one of the other scouts carefully check out the last known area of that ship." He tapped his fingers impatiently gazing at a bright blue dot on the holotank that showed the secondary command ship his wives were on. The majority of the Jurain court was on one ship or another out here. Whenever Jurain went to war every able body man and woman who had a space tree bonded with them went as well. It forestalled revolutions and such. Who wanted to win a war and lose on the home front? The fleet moved steadily on. Leaving a hyper trail wake that could be tracked by the most primitive of scanners and those that watched were not primitive. *** "Tenchi!" Sasami let out a squeal and tackled the young man. Hugging him in a tight squeeze happy to see him again. Tenchi fondly returned the hug carefully moving the two of them out of the door so that Aeka and Ryoko could enter. She finally disengaged the hug only to be replaced by Ryo-Ohki and then Yosho. Smiling, Sasami, headed back to the kitchen checking one last time on the Bebrean as Ryoko, Aeka, and Tenchi took their bags up to their rooms. *** "Thank you Sasami, that was delicious." Yosho settled back sipping his tea. "It was great." Aeka added. "I can't believe your related, you only got a C in culinary arts." Ryoko taunted Aeka good naturally. "Compared to you, who hasn't completed one class she signed up for that didn't have Tenchi in it." "That's because I have my priorities straight little princess." Ryoko smiled at her. "You two knock it off." Tenchi yelled fondly only to suddenly be squished in between them as each one leaned against him. "Tenchi," both crooned in unison. Causing him to sigh and everyone at the table to burst out laughing, except for the two new officers. "I miss those days." Yosho sipped on his tea. "We had some fun then didn't we, Tenchi?" Ryoko asked. "That was a long time ago. Some things change you can't stop them." "Entropy." Washu inserted. "Intro what?" The blond police officer asked. "Everything changes and dies." Kiyone told her partner. "That's kind of sad. We should be happy. Their only going to be here for a couple of days." "Miya!" "So what are we doing tomorrow?" Kiyone adjusted her headband. "I promised the girls we would go on a picnic and Aeka wanted to visit Funaho." "A picnic that's a great idea, Tenchi." Sasami giggled, as Noboyuki rose from the table only to return with two bottles of warmed saki that Sasami had put on the stove half an hour ago on low heat knowing they would be wanted when the meal was finished. He passed glasses out to everyone but Sasami and Ryo-Ohki. The Tigeran feeling like a third wheel all night with his partner accepted the cup with a look of mystification only to have it filled by Yosho. He took one sniff and drank the cup empty holding it out for a refill. Mitsuki allowed hers to be filled took a small sip so as not to offend her hosts and then put the cup down continuing to drink Sasami's tea. *To each their own tastes.* Yosho thought observing everything over his cup. Noticing Tenchi joining in with the rest of them. *And sometimes taste changes.* *** "Here are the operation orders." The major accepted the papers and walked away to brief his men for the upcoming operation. He reached into his pockets and pulled out another cigarette and light it up in the non-smoking building. It was done. Tomorrow he could assure Earth's future or destroy it. Their was no looking back their never really was in his job. *** "Tenchi.... soon..." A voice called out, startling Tenchi awake in his dark empty room. *** Sasami awoke to the sounds of birds chirping. Sunlight poured through the curtains giving a tantalizing view or what was going to be a gorgeous, perfect day. Nothing could go wrong in such beauty. Nothing at all... *** Send all complaints to STRIKESTWICE@hotmail.com