Disclaimer:  This stuff is owned by other people, except for the stuff that 
isn't.  If you own the stuff I've used, please do not sue me.  Chances are 
you already have one hell of a lot more money than I do.

The Legacy of Kain - Chapter 9 (Spark)

	Galaxy Police Officer Detective First Class Mihoshi was, all in all, 
something of an enigma, both to her friends and her colleagues.  In her day 
to day life, the kindest descriptive terms that could be applied to her 
manner were something along the lines of 'bubbleheaded moron'. Nonetheless.  
Somehow, Mihoshi had a sterling service record - through an oddly acute 
attention to detail, through periodic flashes of competence, and more often 
than not through uncanny luck, she always managed to get the job done.  
Scuttlebutt at the GP had it that she was the luckiest being, sentient or 
no, to have ever existed.
	Detective Mihoshi was also, at the moment, bored out of her skull.
	The Yagami darted through the spinning rocks of the asteroid belt, spinning 
and skipping like a silver dolphin as it made its winding way towards 
Jupiter for the second leg of the required monthly system sweep.  
Technically, the accepted procedure for sweeping a system with an asteroid 
field was to skip it entirely, but playing dodge 'em was about the only 
excitement Yukinojo got these days, and Mihoshi indulged him.  She sat 
slumped in her plush seat in the cockpit, fiddled with her control cube, and 
sulked.
	"Stupid monthly sweeps," she muttered.  She hated them.  Nothing to do but 
go from planet to planet and take readings.  No one EVER came to this 
forsaken little system...especially not since Asuza had found out that Ayeka 
and Sasami were in residence and made the whole system a Jurian 
Protectorate.
	"Now leaving orbit of asteroid belt," reported Yukinojo.  "Laying in course 
for Jupiter."
	Mihoshi sighed and tossed the cube over her shoulder, wincing briefly at 
the clamour erupted behind her as various objects were summoned from 
subspace due to a bad bounce.  She tried to amuse herself by identifying 
them by sound.  Let's see...that was probably my trophy from the GP Academy 
Wet Uniform Contest (I don't know WHAT possessed me to enter THAT), the 
coffee maker (oh, sure, can't ever find that when I need it), twelve power 
cells for the XJ-4 hyperspanner (wondered where those went), and I have no 
idea what THAT was, I give up, oh MAN I'm bored!
	"Approaching orbit of Jupiter.  Ten seconds until recommended course 
correction."
	In fact, EVERYTHING had gotten boring in the past few weeks, since Kevin 
had left.  Everyone was tense and upset with each other...and not even in a 
fighting way, but in the not-speaking-to-each-other way.  The only mildly 
exciting moment that had occurred was when Ryoko had come downstairs wearing 
the ring that Kevin had given her around her neck.  Ayeka had recognized it 
immediately...apparently it was made to be a twin ornament to the tiara that 
she habitually wore.  They were twin artifacts, fashioned ages ago for twin 
sisters in the Royal Family.  Princesses.
	"Five seconds, Mihoshi."
	Mihoshi giggled as she remembered Ayeka's hysterics.  There was a long and 
involved tale of the two princesses - there was even an opera about it, 
considered a classic.  One princess had stayed on Jurai, the other left to 
join the wars in space.  Just before the Rift. No one knew what became of 
her, or the ring.  It was a priceless treasure, in the last days of the war 
the Jurians had sacked several planets looking for it.
	And now it belonged to Ryoko.
	"Er...one second...Mihoshi?"
	Then Sasami had innocently commented that this meant Kevin's family and 
theirs were distantly related, and walked into the kitchen. Mihoshi's grin 
widened.  She hadn't known that Ayeka's face could turn that color.
	"Mihoshi..."
	Her grin faded.  Ayeka had demanded that the ring be returned to the proper 
owners.  Ryoko snarled that she WAS the proper owner.  After that had come a 
battle of epic proportions, even for Ryoko and Ayeka.  When it was all over, 
the two of them standing charred and frizz-haired in the blasted remains of 
what had once been a rather nice living room, Ayeka had muttered something 
about how she couldn't believe that the ring had been in possession of 
monsters.  Ryoko had looked up.  "Like me?" she'd said.  There was a new 
tone in her voice, something painfully raw.  Ayeka had just looked at her.  
Ryoko merely drew back her arm and punched the princess in the jaw, laying 
her out before turning and teleporting away in disgust.  After that, 
well...no one had seen Ryoko for a week.  She was still missing.
	"Mihoshi!"
	The ship lurched violently to one side, sending Mihoshi, several empty 
ramen cups and the pile of oddments that had formed behind her chair 
skidding towards the wall.
	"Ow," said Mihoshi.
	Yukinojo's domed head retracted from the ceiling and fixed her with a 
glare.  "Mihoshi, recommended course correction was not made.  We are now 
caught within Jupiter's gravity field."
	"Oh my."
	There was a moment of silence.
	"Well, can we get out?"
	"Negative.  Overthruster engines offline due to sudden gravity stress.  
Estimated repair time 32 hours."
	"Oh.  Well..." a small light began to wink on the control console.  "What's 
that?"
	Display windows opened on the viewscreen, revealing a small, pockmarked 
moon.
	"It appears to be a previously undiscovered moon.  Unbelievable," replied 
Yukinojo.  "It seems to be partially within Jupiter's 
atmosphere...effectively cloaking the entire planet from long range scans."
	"Wow," said Mihoshi.  She brightened suddenly.  "Say, do you think they'll 
name it after me?"
	"Mihoshi..."
	"Yeah!  Nice name, don't you think?"
	"Mihoshi, look at the control panel."
	She did.  Most of the indicator lights were flashing red.  A couple even 
went ultramaroon, which she had never seen before, but she remembered from 
the Academy that it was...bad.
	"Oh, right," she smacked her forehead.  "We're crashing."
	Yukinojo, lacking any hands to smack his head with, just sighed.
	"Okay, well, alter trajectory to land on the moon and begin repair 
sequences.  After that we'll use it as a jump-point to slingshot out of the 
gravity well.  Okay?"
	"Uh...affirmative, Mihoshi."
	She settled back in her chair.  "Hmmm...maybe I'll name it after my long 
lost partner Kiyone instead.  Gah!"  The cockpit lurched again as the craft, 
red hot and shedding parts, wrenched out of its death dive and headed for 
the cloaked moon.
	Somewhere else entirely, Detective First Class Kiyone (retired) sneezed 
violently.

	A little later, when Mihoshi regained consciousness (there were, after all, 
no lakes on this barren Jovian moon to cushion a patented Mihoshi landing), 
she found the viewscreen covered in scan information.  Idly scanning them, 
she noticed that most of them focussed on a small, derelict runabout that 
lay about four standard kilometers from their crash site.
	"Hey, Yukinojo.  What's that?"
	"Scans indicate a one-person in-system runabout, currently inoperative.  It 
is broadcasting a standard distress call.  Due to Jupiter's unusually strong 
magnetic field, the signal never got beyond this moon."
	"Right!" piped Mihoshi.  She located her control cube, twisted it, and was 
suddenly standing in a GP pressure suit.  "Detective First Class Mihoshi is 
on the way!"  She twisted it again.
	"Mihoshi, the time signature on the beacon indicates that the message has 
been broadcasting for almost forty years.  Mihoshi?  Mihoshi!"
	Yukinojo scanned the ship.  Then he switched to external sensors just in 
time to see Mihoshi bounding over a sand dune...in the wrong direction.
	Not for the first time, Yukinojo fervently wished that his programmers had 
seen fit to include some swear words in his vocabulary.

	Mihoshi looked over the wreckage of the runabout.  It was an ugly 
thing...squat, black, and angular, it was obviously cobbled together quickly 
and without an eye for aesthetics, unlike her sleek silver ship.  Circling 
the wreck, Mihoshi noted the lack of hyperdrive engines and the telltale 
scoring of weapon fire.  Hmm, she thought.  An escape vessel.
	Neat.
	She bounced over to the airlock and located a keypad, punching in the 
standard GP override code.  A little red light winked on.
	"Rejected?" muttered Mihoshi.  Impossible.  There wasn't a craft anywhere 
in the galaxy that was made without the override codes imbedded in the 
control system.  Except for illegal vehicles, of course...pirates, maybe?  
Hmm...
	Mihoshi checked the charge on her sidearm, then twisted her cube.  A moment 
later, she was standing in the cramped cockpit of the runabout.  Sitting in 
the pilot's chair, she looked over the main console.  It was wrecked...the 
glass of the screens were spiderwebbed with cracks, and one in particular 
looked as though it'd had a sizable hole punched through it.
	A soft klaxon queeped in Mihoshi's ear, followed by the soft, feminine 
voice of her suit's computer.  "Atmospheric analysis complete.  Atmosphere - 
nominal.  Remove helmet?"
	"OK," said Mihoshi.  No point wasting the charge, she thought.  Her helmet 
hissed and detached from the main body of the suit, folding into the small 
pack on the back.  She shook out her hair and got up, heading for the main 
room of the shuttle, peering around the corner.
	The furnishings were sparse...a small food synthesis unit, a few chairs and 
a table, and a one-man cryo-stasis unit in the corner.  There was a fine 
layer of dust over everything, and...
	Hang on.
	Cryo-stasis unit?
	Mihoshi made her way cautiously towards the unit.  She tapped a few 
buttons, and the unit coughed its way to life, rattling in an unhealthy 
sounding way.
	"Let's see now," said Mihoshi, punching a few buttons and bringing up the 
system log, "current status - unoccupied...well, duh...last usage initiated 
thirty-five years ago...occupant discharged...39 minutes ago?  Huh?"  She 
stood up, thought for a moment.  "Oh darn."
	She span around, drawing her pistol, as the dark-robed figure leapt out of 
the shadows behind the food unit and lunged for her.  He lashed out with a 
foot, kicking her pistol from her grip.
	"Now hang on, I - urk..." said Mihoshi, as the figure closed and wrapped 
its fingers around her throat.

	The sun shone on the Masaki house.  It was a beautiful fall day, the crisp 
autumn air just warm enough.  Tenchi hummed to himself as he raked a few 
stray leaves that had fallen on the shrine grounds.
	"Hello, Lord Tenchi."
	He turned, and smiled.  "Hi, Miss Ayeka..."
	He sat on the steps beside her.  It was nice, he reflected, to have her to 
talk to.  The whole house was divided at the moment...Sasami wasn't speaking 
to either of them, Ryoko hadn't been seen for a week now, and Mihoshi just 
sat around and sniffled a lot, upset by the tension in the house.  Speaking 
of which..."
	"Hey," said Tenchi, looking up at Ayeka.  "Shouldn't Mihoshi be back from 
her sweep by now?"
	Ayeka snorted in a very unprincesslike manner.  "Mihoshi?  I would not be 
surprised if she had gotten lost, navigational computer notwithstanding."
	Tenchi relaxed and laughed, joined, after a few moments, by Ayeka.

	Mihoshi found herself slammed against the cabin wall, her head whacking 
painfully against the hardened steel.  She clawed desperately at the hands 
around her neck, to no avail - the iron grip merely tightened.
	Her eyesight dimmed.  I'm going under, she thought absently, as her body 
began to go limp.  She slumped against the wall.
	No.
	NO!
	She lifted her head to stare her attacker in the eye, an agonizing effort.  
Her arm snapped up, and she executed a textbook-perfect punch to his face.  
Once, twice, three times she lashed out, her final blow sending him reeling 
against the table.  She leapt, spinning in midair and kicked him square in 
the chest, knocking him clear over the table to land with a very satisfying 
thump on the floor beyond.  She was walking around the table to continue her 
use of unnecessary force in apprehending him when he stood, Mihoshi's gun 
nestled in his hand.
	"Oh dear," said Mihoshi.
	The gun discharged.  Mihoshi sighed.  Her legs folded under her and she 
slumped to the floor.
	The man stood over her, rubbing his jaw absently.
	"Not bad, my dear, not bad at all," he said, in low, sonorous tones, 
flipping over Mihoshi's limp form with the toe of his boot.
	"Well, Detective First Class Mihoshi," he said, picking her up and slinging 
her over one shoulder, "let's go and see this magnificent ship of yours."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Heh heh heh.  Comments and criticisms, plus the information 
on who REALLY killed JFK, are welcome at kakapo101@hotmail.com.  Thankee.