New Partner!
Chapter One: Enter Kiyone.


    "Come in," said Captain Nobeyama.  As Galaxy Police Detective Kiyone
stepped into his small office and closed the door behind herself Captain
Nobeyama couldn't help but smile.
    "Sir, you wished to see me?"
    "Why yes, do sit down."
    The slim woman sat down, very proper and alert.  From the dark blue
hair,
right down to her polished boots, the woman was a very serious looking
officer.
    Captain Nobeyama leaned back in his chair and said, "Have you heard the
latest news from the planet called Earth?"
    "Oh yes," said Kiyone, "something about a battle between Jurai's Royal
Guard and some of the natives?"
    "Well, it is not as simple as that," Nobeyama sipped some tea and added,
"the Commander is distressed.  It seems our officer on the spot was somehow
part of the tiny mishap.  She lost both her patrol ship and the accompanying
rendezvous ship. Again."
    Kiyone frowned and remarked, "How did she do that and still live?"
    The Captain shrugged, "We have no idea.  We're relying on Jurai sources
for our data and they are not giving us everything.  Oh, would you like some
tea?"
    Kiyone shook her head, "No thanks."
    "Are you sure?  It helps with stress."
    "Very sure sir.  So, what is my assignment?"
    "Well," said Nobeyama, as he carefully picked his words, "The Commander
felt that Officer Mihoshi needed not only new equipment, but maybe some help
with her assignment.  Earth and the surrounding space IS a lot for one
officer to handle.  The Commander felt that somebody with greater knowledge
and skill in dealing with natives might make a great partner for her."
    "What?" shouted Kiyone, almost jumping out of her chair, "I did not
spend
the last year on a third class mud ball of a planet dealing with local drug
dealers just so I could be sent to another planet!  I was promised a
promotion and a transfer to Seventh Headquarters!  Do you know how many
miles
of jungle I had to walk through?  Do you know how many fire fights I have
been in?  Do you know what sonic grenades can do to your hair?"
    Nobeyama was waving his hands at her, "Yes, yes.  I understand.  And you
will be promoted to First Class.  But you will not be getting a desk job.
You will be her new partner."
    "Why does she need a new partner?" demanded Kiyone, trying to keep her
temper, "I thought her arrest record was a mile long?"
    "It is," stated Nobeyama as he tasted his cooling tea and made a face.
"The only problem is the bills and damage reports are ten times as long.  We
need somebody there with just a tad more commonsense."
    "Well," grumbled Kiyone, "as long as I get the new rank and the pay
increase that goes with it, I guess its OK.  This people of Earth, they
don't
live in huts or anything?"
    "No, no," chuckled the Captain, "they are somewhat advanced.  Oh, they
have only started exploring space in the last few decades and are still
burning chemicals for fuel, but most of them live in structures NOT built
from other living things."
    Kiyone frowned and asked, "When am I leaving?"
    "You have 24 hours," replied the Captain as he slid a sealed package
across the table.  "Here is all the disks holding updated passwords, ship
information, data on local customs and some credit chips to boot.  You can
exchange those for local money with the finance department on level 12
before
you leave."
    Kiyone sighed and said, "OK.  I better go pack then."
    Captain Nobeyama nodded and said, "Good, good.  Dismissed."
    Kiyone picked up the package, stood up and saluted.  "Yes, sir,"
    As she left, shutting the door behind herself, the Captain couldn't help
but cheer out loud. 'Now I won't have to worry about that bubblehead any
more!' he thought to himself.

    Mihoshi was crying, sitting before the fresh flowers she had placed
before the small shrine.  She clapped lightly, wanting the gods notice, but
at the same time not wishing to upset them.
    "I didn't mean to kill them.  The Haven pilots were only doing their
jobs."  Mihoshi sniffled and closed her eyes.
    "I don't mean to mess up all the time," whimpered Mihoshi. "I don't mean
to screw up the orange juice or crash the ships or upset Tenchi."  She wiped
at her eyes with her hands and bowed deeply.
    "Please help me do better."

    "Right, lets turn you on."
    Kiyone flipped the last switch and closed the maintenance panel.  The
cockpit seemed to come to life, as the ship's computer finally went online.
Lights flickered and screens came to life, as Kiyone slid into the pilot's
chair.  She entered the proper code and placed her hand against one of the
screens, giving the ship her finger prints.  All systems showed green and
one
of the screens even started to list the status of the rendezvous ship which
the patrol ship was docked with.
    "This is Galaxy Police Detective First Class Kiyone.  Testing voice
command."
    "Welcome Officer Kiyone," said a robotic voice from one of the speakers,
"how are you?"
    Kiyone looked about, "Hey.  Where is your head?  You know it's thought
of
rude not to give me a face to interact with."
    "That was an old fashion idea," said the voice smugly.  "My eyes are all
about the ship.  As is my voice.  My generation have no heads available."
    "Well, the first peeking Tom in space.  What is your name?" demanded
Kiyone as she started to warm the engines up. "Model and software package if
you don't mind."
    "You didn't scan the disk in your package, did you?" questioned the
voice.
    "Answer the question," said Kiyone, wishing she had a head to glare at.
    "Of course," stated the voice.  For a second there was silence, as if
the
computer was clearing its throat.
    "I am a Model B Galaxy Patrol Ship Interface, with a Class D Personality
and an optional Chaos Generator.  My name is Farmer. The ship itself is a
Galaxy Patrol Ship, commissioned only 3 months ago, after 40 hours of
testing.  All equipment has been found to work while within Galaxy Police
standards.  All equipment and software is standard, with the Washu Seal of
Approval.  Do you really wish a list?"
    "No Farmer," said Kiyone as she leaned back in her chair.  "Please set a
course for Colonial Planet 0-315 in the Special Protection Area.  All the
proper authorization codes are within your memory.  Make sure to stick to
the
preflight plan as selected by the Jurai Royal House."
    "Yes, Kiyone," said Farmer, with a touch of humor.
    Kiyone sighed and buckled up as she thought, 'I hate computers.'

    Tenchi frowned at Mihoshi as she poked at her food.  The rest of them
the
household, especially Ryoko, was digging right into their food without a
thought and, in most cases, without much in the way of accuracy. For Mihoshi
not to eat...
    "Miss Mihoshi," said Tenchi, placing his chopsticks carefully down
across
his bowl, "are you OK?"
    Mihoshi sniffled and tried to put up a brave face.  "Oh, I'm OK.  I was
just praying for the Haven pilots that died because...oh..."  She was not
able to finish her sentence, as she started to cry.  This was not the normal
crying she did whenever Ryoko yelled at her or when she thought her bottom
had become too big.  This time her whole body seemed to be racked by the
sobbing.
    "Those pilots died because they attacked you," stated Washu, as she
poured Mihoshi some sake.  "If you hadn't done everything you could,
everything you need to do to survive, you and Princess Sasami would be
dead."
    "You did what you had to do," said Katsuhito as he adjusted his glasses.
    "That's right," said Ayeka.  "Miss Mihoshi, I can't tell you how much I
owe you for saving my sister."
    Mihoshi sniffled and sipped some of the sake.  "Really?  But I fired at
them."
    "But you didn't attack them first," said Ryoko.  "What happened to them
is their own fault.  They were adults and are responsible for their own
actions."
    Ryoko glanced about the table and said, "What?  Why are you all staring
at me?"
    "Well, if I remember right," said Princess Sasami, "you're the one that
suggested me and Mihoshi try to help Washu and that is why we ended up out
there in the first place."
    "Hey, you all decided it was a good idea too!"  Ryoko crossed her arms
and closed her eyes, preparing herself for a long debate.
    "Could somebody pass the fried shrimp?" asked Nobuyuki as he looked up
from his tea cup.
    "Well," said Tenchi, "that is true.  I even said you two could go.  In a
way, it is my fault.  If I had just asked Washu whether she had wanted the
help or not, we would have never of gotten into the mess."
    "Well, I think the whole mess started when Ryoko was kidnapped," pointed
out Washu.
    "Oh sure," whined Ryoko, "blame me for Haven command sending a nutty
computer to kidnap me instead of kidnapping you like it should have!"
    "Meow."
    "You stay out of this!" snapped Ryoko.
    "Could somebody pass me the fried shrimp?"
    "I'm not blaming you for being kidnapped my girl," said Washu with a
smile, "I am just saying, it's nobody's fault.  Nobody here anyway."
    "That reminds me," remarked Mihoshi, "what happened to First Fleet
Commander Tally?"
    "I just want some fried SHRIMP!"

    The Lemon Nebula was a huge cloud of celestial gas and dust which looked
nothing like a fruit.  It was a gold mine of organic and inorganic material.
There was a long and sad history linked to the nebula, a history of wars and
ghost ships and love lost which nobody really cared about.  Huge harvesters
moved across the vast and very rich nebula, gathering the raw resources to
produce pre-made meat patties for a hundred fast food chains while mining
ships consumed any ore that they spotted to manufacture staples.  The
Galactic Union could never get too many staples!
    Factories had been set up within the nebula to cut down on the cost of
shipping all the mass bulk.  Why not produce the fine goods locally and than
ship the final product?  Of course, the whole catch to this wonderful
sounding plan was that the nebula exported lots of trashy tourist junk, like
T-shirts, collectable spoons, coffee mugs, bad movies, native artwork from
planets that nobody could seem to ever find and dreary PBS documentaries
about cheese.
    There were few planets within the nebula as the environment within the
nebula changed too rapidly to allow the formation of planets, much less the
yellow suns needed to give them life.  There WERE a few colonies, set up on
floating moons or rogue asteroids.  They gave the men and women (who ran and
operated the harvesters, mining ships and floating factories) a place to get
drunk, make love and lose their money.
    First Fleet Commander Tally looked down at his lizard-skin suit, black
leather pants and bright red sneakers.
    "I feel like a pump," he complained to the Special Trooper standing next
to him.
    "It's pimp, sir," said Van as the trooper lowered the long range
binoculars and checked his noise scrambler.  This conference was a private
one and Van just hated eavesdroppers.
    Both men were standing on the roof of the Red Nebula Casino.  With them
on the roof were two hovercraft, one in the form of a bike, the other in the
form of a rental car.  Neither craft seemed armed and both had been locally
made, which meant buying the one dollar insurance was a must.
    Half a mile up was the well lit dome that kept the people and air from
being sucked out into deep space.  All around them, below them and even
above
them flashed the neon signs and the city lights of one of the biggest and
loudest colonies within the Lemon Nebula.  On the sidewalks and bridges
flowed miners, hookers, lawyers, businessmen, tourists, homeless and high
paid janitors.  Most were humanoid and a few were not.
    About a mile away was the space port, the huge airlocks that allowed
some
of the smaller space ships access to the atmosphere filled dome.  It cost a
pretty penny, but many of the space lines wanted their paying passengers to
have the best view available when they docked into port.  Also some cargo
ships just found it easier to load and unload in normal gravity, without
cumbersome space suits making it just that much harder for their crews to
work.
    "That's the one," said Van, pointing out the small transport that had
arrived only a few minutes before.
    "It is under the flag of the Jurai Trading Council," he added.  His was
wearing a loose leather jacket and cotton slacks.  Tally wondered how many
weapons were on the Special Trooper's person.
    "I want it done tonight after it takes on the cargo," ordered Tally.  "I
want both phases of the operation to go without a problem."  Tally blinked,
trying to get use to the colored contacts.
    "Yes, sir," said Van as he stepped up to his hover bike, powered it up
and shot up into the sky, disappearing among the bright lights of the big
city.
    Tally grumbled and walked towards his rental hovercraft.  'Frankly, pump
feels more like it,' he thought to himself as he slid into the small cockpit
and put on the feathered beaver hat.

    Kiyone glanced up at the computer screens and said, "What do you mean I
will have to land the ship?"
    "There is no homing beacon and there are legal questions in the court
about allowing computers to land spaceships on uncharted planets," replied
Farmer as the green patrol ship started to enter the Earth's atmosphere.
    Kiyone grabbed the throttle with one hand and the control stick with the
other.  "Do they know we're coming?"
    "I have notified Miss Washu of our upcoming arrival," stated Farmer, "I
am also activating the heat and radiation shields."
    Kiyone nodded and said, "Good."  As she kept her one eye on the computer
readouts and one eye on the front viewing screen she couldn't help be feel
that Farmer wasn't that bad a ship's computer.  'Once you get over the
strange sense of humor,' she concluded.
    Frankly, everything HAD gone well without a hitch.  They had come out of
hyperspace near Saturn, where they had dropped the rendezvous ship and then
reentered hyperspace to go straight to Earth.  Farmer was a little weird,
swinging back and forth from being silly to being very serious, but it did
its job without much in the way of real complaints.
    As the patrol ship started its final approach Hawaiian hula music
started
to play over the speakers. Kiyone shook her head and said, "Do you have to
do
that?"
    "Welcome to the lovely nation of Japan," stated Farmer, "which comprises
over 1,000 islands.  Its exports are televisions, robots, computers, cameras
and anime."
    Kiyone ignored the ship's AI and started the landing procedures.  "ETA
in
two minutes."

    "You sure she won't be crashing?" asked Tenchi, as he glanced up at the
diving ship, an umbrella in his hands.
    "Not all Police Officers are like Mihoshi," pointed out Princess Ayeka
holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
    "Hey," said Mihoshi, as she stood next to Washu in her Galaxy Police
uniform, "what does that mean?"
    "You know what she means," remarked Ryoko from where she was sitting on
the house's walkway, drinking some sake.  "You won't even be able to fly if
the ships didn't have navigation computers!"
    "Oh yeah?" said Mihoshi.
    "Yeah!" stated Ryoko.
    "She is coming in a little fast," said Princess Sasami as she held on to
the mewling Ryo-Ohki.
    "That's true," said Washu as she looked at the black box that beeped in
her hands.  "Also, the ship does not seem to be using my beacon.  She's
coming down manually."
    "Did you alert them to the fact that we had a homing beacon?" inquired
Princess Ayeka.
    "Well, no."
    Even as Ayeka glared at Washu the green spaceship seemed to make a sharp
screaming turn and landed on all three landing struts next to the lake.  The
ship had made a perfect three point landing without evening using the
retrorockets or the antigravity engines.  The grass was not even harmed.
    "Wow," said Mihoshi, "she used the air to slow down the ship.  I didn't
know you could do that!"
    "That's how you should do it," stated Ryoko from the walkway.
    "Hey, I thought patrol ships were red?" said Tenchi, looking confused.
    "Only after you have to repair and repaint them a few million times,"
stated Ayeka.
    "Well," replied Mihoshi blushing, "that's true. My ship was given a new
paint job before our visit to the moon's orbit."
    "Shouldn't we go greet her now?" said Sasami as she glanced at the
spaceship whose massive engines were letting off steam as they cooled off.
    "I'm guess we better," said Tenchi as he started to walk towards the
ship.
    "Let us hope we don't scare her," joked Ryoko as she flew off the
walkway
and floated after Tenchi and the rest.
    As the jade patrol ship powered down a ramp unfolded and allowed Kiyone
to walk to the ground.  She was wearing her crisp and clean uniform, with
the
cap rolled up and held in one shoulder strap, and a small memory pad in her
hands.  In her left ear was clipped a tiny com unit.
    Kiyone saluted when she reached the bottom of the ramp and started to
say, "Galaxy Police First Class Detective Kiyone.  I have come with a newly
built Galaxy Patrol-"
    Mihoshi grabbed Kiyone in a hug and said, "Hello!  My name is Mihoshi.
Welcome to Earth!  This is Princess Ayeka and Princess Sasami of the Jurai
Royal Family.  This is Ms Washu, the smartest person alive.  This is Ryoko
and Ryo-Ohki.  She can turn into a spaceship!"
    "Meow!"
    "Hi!" said Washu.  "Just call me 'Little' Washu.  Everybody else does."
    "No, we don't," injected a boy holding an umbrella.
    "and this is Lord Tenchi, who is also a member of the Jurai Royal
Family!
 In fact, I think that makes him the great grandson of the King of Jurai."
    "Hi," said Tenchi, blushing.
    "Would you like some cookies?" asked Ayeka as she held up the plate.
    "Don't do it," shouted Ryoko as she dropped from above, knocking the
plate to one side, "she baked them herself!"
    "Hello!" said a little girl holding what looked like a cross between a
rabbit and a cat. "Do you have any dishes you really like?  I can cook it
for
tonight's dinner!"
    "You barbarian," said Ayeka as she broke the plate over Ryoko's head.
    "What's going on?" said Kiyone as she pulled herself out of Mihoshi's
arms.
    "You still haven't had a chance to read the information disks have you?"
asked a soft voice over her com unit.

    Captain Mist used the suit's sensors to swept the sector of the jungle
in
front of her.  The rest of her company was doing the same thing, looking for
any enemy units who might be trying to sneak up on the concealed ground
troops behind her.
    The ground infantry were wearing their jungle style combat soft-armor,
sitting against trees and enjoying their rest period.  Some of the soldiers
were checking their rocket launchers and reloading the extra clips for their
assault rifles, while others were filling their stomachs with gray tasteless
protein pudding.
    Standing close to Mist's tactical suit was Colonel Val, of the Third
Army, one of the oldest men Mist had ever seen.  He was checking on his
outdated single-shot plasma blaster, a weapon most troops felt was as
dangerous to the user as it was to the enemy.  He slipped in a fresh
shell-less round and checked the battery.  "Will be moving out in five
minutes," he said without looking up, "right after the flight boys hit that
enemy column heading our way."
    Colonel Val glanced up at Mist's helmet and said, "You'll be going
against front line troops, not just security units who don't know the
trigger
from the barrel.  Keep calm and pick your targets well.  Don't waste your
missiles."
    Mist nodded, but inside her helmet she was frowning.  'Silly old man,'
thought Mist, 'my suit can handle anything in this jungle.'
    In the sky above them came the sound of roaring jets as vapor trails
appeared, all heading north, converging on the unseen enemy.  Mist checked
her back and leg thrusters at the same time increasing the oxygen flow in
her
suit.
    "Here they come," said Val, as he keyed his small collar radio, "All
units of Red Bravo prepare to move out."  He turned and shouted, "sergeant,
made sure the weapon sections have those flame-throwers charged up!  Those
jets should take care of the heavy ground craft so we'll be dealing with the
leftovers."
    Mist rechecked the missile launchers of her suit and thought, 'Waste my
missiles? After the jets there won't be anything to waste them on.'

    Kiyone placed the tea cup onto the table and said, "Well, that sounds
amazing."
    Mihoshi nodded and continued, "Well, after we dealt with Dr. Clay, we
had
some peace till Washu brought back some MASS."
    "Some what?" probed Kiyone, as she scanned the room full of strangers.
Unknown to the rest of the room Farmer had been feeding her pieces of
information via her com unit as the meal had progressed.
    Mihoshi babbled on as Kiyone tried to fit everybody's face into memory.
Mihoshi, even with her pointy ears and tiny fangs, was as normal as you
could
get when compared to the others.
    There was Washu, with the red hair and small girlish body.  The report
said she was a 20,000 year old scientist and maybe a mad one at that.  Washu
seemed to be slightly deranged but not out and out mad to Kiyone.
    Sitting next to her was Princess Ayeka, with her slim figure and purple
hair that seemed to change with light or mood.  The report said she was only
a little over 720 years old.  She spent most of the time glaring at Ryoko.
    Then there was Ryoko who with her light blue hair and yellowish eyes was
acting like a cat in heat, as she leaned towards the boy named Tenchi,
crooning at him.  Her belt even had some kind of tail attached to it, which
was pointing up and swaying back and forth.  The reports said Ryoko was a
2,000 year old pirate who also happened to be a demon and the daughter of
Washu.  HOW Washu had created Ryoko while being a captive of the evil Kagato
was a mystery still.
    Then there was Princess Sasami, with her blue hair and pink eyes,
holding
in her tiny hands Ryo-Ohki who was currently in cabbit form.  Ryo-Ohki was
really the offspring of the first ship Ryoko had had so she could not be
blamed for any of the crimes that have been carried out by her parent ship
and her yellow eyed owner.
    Even the native family was something to be amazed at.  Tenchi's father
was a normal human from the planet, but his grandfather was Yosho, son of
Lady Funaho and next in line for the throne of Jurai!  Kiyone's watch was
going nuts just being so close to his ship's tree.
    Tenchi himself was only partly Jurai and mostly Japanese, yet all
reports
suggested that he had full use of the Jurai power and then some.  On the
other hand, he seemed to be turning red for no reason and his nose kept
bleeding.
    Kiyone just nodded to whatever Mihoshi was saying, as she tried to
decide
if she was being punished by the Gods.
    "Great," bubbled Mihoshi, "you'll find me a great roommate!"
    Kiyone blinked but before she could say anything Mihoshi had already
pulled the shocked officer to her feet and was dragging her towards the
stairs.
    "Wow," said Sasami, "she's very brave."
    "I'd say," smirked Ryoko, "Mihoshi snores like a jet engine"

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-------------------
Tenchi Muyo! and related characters are owned by AIC and Pioneer.  The rest
is owned and controlled by me.  Well, Farmer/B-Chaos, you're in.  Let us see
how long you last!  Oh, and don't worry, I don't plan to torture Tally
anymore.
Kiyone is a character I know only from non-OVA sources, so I will try my
best.