"Argh...get off me!" "What?" was the snorted reply. "Get your leg off me! I have to get up!" "Oh..." sighed the male voice. Taiyokei grunted and lifted herself out of bed once her mate's leg shifted off of her. It was another lousy day, and she knew that someone would have a mission for her. Once she was dressed and ready, she turned for the door, only to be stopped by her mate's voice. "Taiyo-chan..." "What?" she said as she turned around. "Where are you going?" "To receive my mission." "Ohh...okay..." "Why don't you get your lazy self out of bed and get yours?" "I dun wanna..." "Fine..." snorted Taiyokei, and walked out. She walked down the hall outside of her bedroom, and made her the way to the Briefing Room, not bothering to grab something to eat. The briefing room was a decent-sized room, big enough to fit a wall of mainframe computers, one large hologram table, seven workers, and two high officers--and it still gave enough room to walk around in. "Ah, Taiyokei Kaikoken, I presume?" "Yes, sir." "You're late." "I know, sir." "Well, anyway--we've discovered yet another solar system, but this one is very odd. Only one planet seems to be habitable without format. We want you to check this one out, but do not return with your data. Send a probe, and stay on this planet for a while--try to blend in." "Um, okay...sir." Taiyokei gave a crisp military salute and spun around for the door, walking out neatly. The spacedock was directly across the large, flame-lit hall from the briefing room, and a one- person transport was already prepared, no gunnery whatsoever, though-- and nothing in the tiny cargo bay of the ship. The chief technician was the first to approach her, with a sheet of instructions, the came the pilot with the security cardkey. "Take good care of my ship--don't let her die." "I won't," Taiyokei promised, and hopped up into the cockpit, then began to flip various switches and push buttons. The alarm went off shortly after the engines started up, and once everyone cleared the dock, the bay doors opened, and the engines ignited. Taiyokei grabbed the joystick, flipped one more switch, and pushed the joystick forward. The tiny craft zipped forward, then flew out of the bay, and into the air. The ship gained speed as it hit the fourth and outer layer of the atmosphere, and blasted off into space. It won't be long now, Taiyokei thought, and watched the computer bring up the cryogenics controls. She selected the destination and time to awaken, then pushed the "start" button. The autopilot light on the ship lit up, and the surroundings became very cold, then Taiyokei fell asleep--but not before reading the screen, which read: "E.T.A. -- 30 days." ******************* Taiyokei opened her eyes to the new warmth of the cockpit, and found herself looking at a blue planet, and the computer screen blinking the words: "E.T.A. - 3 minutes." Taiyokei blinked, rubbed her eyes, then let the computer take the craft into the atmosphere. She passed through four layers of atmosphere, then crashed into the face of a mountain, losing consciousness as she was thrown into the dashboard controls. ******************* Taiyokei woke up once more, and ran a hand through her hair, and panicked as she found blood on her hand. Now that she was aware of her head injury--was it fatal? "It--it can't be fatal," she whispered, "or I'd be dead now." She picked herself out of the wreckage and began to look around, the sword Tai-ken strapped to her back. "Beautiful planet," she pointed out to herself, and kept looking around. "Well, might as well 'blend in' like my mission says. The ship should send the probe out soon." And with that, she walked away from the craft, and down a path. The path was surrounded by trees, with different colored leaves from the changing seasons, and various footprints were embedded in the ground. She kept walking on this path until finally--she found a house. A lone house, beside a lake, and a shrine not far from it--at least she thought so. The house looked big enough to fit several people, and outside on the sidewalk was a young boy--or a man--she couldn't tell from such a distance. Taiyokei ran up to this young man--as she found out--and he introduced himself. "Hello there, can I help you? My name's Tenchi. Tenchi Masaki." "Nice to meet you, Tenchi. My name is Taiyokei Kaikoken. I came here from another solar system to study this planet." "Oh, another outer space visitor! We've gotten so many," he chuckled, sweatdropping and putting his hand behind his head. "What do you mean? And do you think you could help me with some information on this planet?" "Tenchi!!" yelled another voice, female. "Tenchi, where are you!" yelled yet another, female as well. "Oh no, here they come." "Who?" Taiyokei asked, confused. From the house emerged two young women, one with cyan hair and dressed in a blue and yellow outfit with a tail, the other in a royal lavender Jurain robe, with purple hair. They were deep into an argument, not even noticing Taiyokei. "Tenchi, please tell this barbaric woman that you do not love her!" "Hey, hey! Tenchi, come on! Tell her how much we love each other!" yelled the one with cyan hair, throwing her arms around Tenchi and smiling. "Take your hands off poor Lord Tenchi, you sinister person!" "Hey, watch it, princess. You're not exactly the most special person in the universe, much less the solar system." "Girls, please..." Tenchi pleaded. Taiyokei's attention was drawn away from the fight by yet another voice, female as well, but as she looked to the origin of the voice, she found a little girl, holding a cat-like creature in her arms. "Hiya! My name's Sasami!" "Sasami? That's a cute name. Say, who's that?" Taiyokei replied, pointing to the cat-like creature. "Miyaaa!" It meowed, smiling. "That's Ryo-Ohki. Say hi, Ryo-Ohki!" "Miya, miya miyan!" It shouted, and smiled. "Little Ryo-Ohki sure is cute!" Taiyokei pointed out, her voice almost drowned out by the two girls' fighting. "Are you hungry? I just got finished making lunch!" "Sure, why not?" "Okay! But first--what's your name?" "I'm Taiyokei. I come from another solar system." "Honto? Sugoi!" "Hai. Now, shall we go get lunch?" "Hai!" Sasami replied, taking Taiyokei's hand and leading her into the house. It was pretty big, as Taiyokei suspected, and already there were two people at the table, one with blond hair in a pink sweatshirt and white pants, the other with long blue hair in a white shirt and blue pants. "Hi, Kiyone and Mihoshi! This is Taiyokei, and she's from another solar system." Taiyokei just laughed. "Well, Miss Taiyokei--my name is Mihoshi, and this is my partner, Kiyone!" "Don't remind me," Kiyone grumbled under her breath, then piped up to say hello to Taiyokei. "Ah, Sasami, who's this?" asked a voice from behind, another female voice. Sasami turned around and immediately replied. "Oh, hi, Washu! This is Taiyokei, from another solar system!" "Uhh, hello, Washu." Taiyokei greeted as best she could, being introduced to everyone so suddenly. She thought it was all over, until-- "Ah, Sasami, who's this?" repeated another voice, surprising to Taiyokei that it was male. She looked up and saw two men, one visibly older than the other, and both were wearing glasses. However, the older one was dressed in a loose-fitting outfit, and carried a bokken, and the younger one wore a yellow button-up shirt and jeans. "Hi, father! And hello to you too, grandfather! This is Taiyokei- -" "From another solar system," Taiyokei finished before Sasami could. "Nice to meet you. I'm Katsuhito, and this is my son-in-law, Nobuyuki." Nobuyuki grinned and took Taiyokei's hand, and grinned up at her. "Nice to make your acquaintance, Taiyokei. It'll be nice to have another pretty lady in our house." He then chuckled, placing his hand behind his head. Taiyokei sweatdropped and chuckled along with him. "Hey, Sasami...where's--oh, there she is!" Taiyokei recognized that as Tenchi's voice and looked behind Katsuhito at Tenchi, being followed by the two women from earlier, who were still growling and snarling at each other, the sparks flying between their eyes as they locked on one another. "Eh heh, don't mind Ryoko and Ayeka. Kudasai, have some lunch." "I think I will," Taiyokei replied, and sat down to eat.