Time Enough for Tenchi, part 3: Time Enough for Lullabies by Eaerth I felt myself dumped on a floor somewhere. Then I started being sick. "Oh, yuck, he's throwing up," a voice said. "Help me, he'll choke," a second voice said. I felt myself being turned on my side, where I curled up and puked on myself. Something in my belly or my chest tried to tear me apart. "This happened to my husband sometimes..." the second voice said. "I'll get something to clean up." I faded into unconsciousness again. # I felt the chill of ice on my face. Someone was picking long slivers of glass out of my flesh with a worried hum. I moaned in pain. "Is he going to be all right?" someone asked. "I don't know," the person holding me said. # I dreamed a dream I had dreamed when I was a young man, still living in Japan. I was lying in bed listening to the singing sound of the afternoon sun bleeding through heavy drapes, when Washu stepped through the walls into my room. "Tenchi," she said. Washu looked unhappy. I had the sense that she had climbed almost a million steps up the brass horn of Hell, following her Orpheus. Orpheus stood with the gate open, turned away as he must be, waiting for her to catch up. A shining angel with a sword of fire towered over him, preparing to strike him down for his trespass. She knew she had to call out, and cause him to turn. I don't think I'd ever seen Washu unhappy before. Other than the day she left me. "I love you, Tenchi," she said. As her hand touched my face, she faded away. # I cried out with the agony only possible in the unwaking world. "Shhh," someone said. A hand rested on my forehead. # Half asleep and in dream, I heard mother singing to me. It was a lullaby she would sing when I was a child, long long long ago. "...didn't know that I'd hurt you, hope you realize how much I need you here with me now..." I dreamed again I was in Japan, living with father and grandfather. I came home from school and dumped my books on the dining room table and then sat down to study. An arm came from behind me and wrapped around my neck. "Aaaaaah!" I yelled in startlement. "Hi Tenchi, how was school," Ryoko said before sticking her tongue in my ear. I froze, terrified. "S-stop it, Ryoko," I said. "I'm going to choke." But I liked her arm around me. "Come on, honey," she said, dropping into my lap. "I bet it was a *hard* day at school. I'll help you relax. It'll be fun." She licked my throat. Bluegreen hair tickled my nose. I grit my teeth in fear and my nose bled. I didn't know what I was afraid of. I'd known Ryoko for almost a year and I knew she would never harm me, no matter how vicious she could be at times. She had other targets for her aggression. "Please, Ryoko," I said, pushing her away, "you're moving too faaaaaAAAA!" The other target I mentioned grabbed me by the hair and tried to pull me away. "Leave him alone, you whore," Aeka said, pulling. "Hey, don't call her--" I started to say before they began trying to tear me apart. Neither pulled hard enough to injure me. Aeka was too delicate and Ryoko was more squishing me than anything else. The two were just using me as a focus for their arguing. In fact, having two women wrapped around me felt quite pleasant. I cried with the pain, but they were too busy to notice. Somewhere I could hear someone singing. It was about a month or two before my twentieth birthday and I had been trying to read a book in our living room. Ryoko was howling with laughter at Aeka. "How dare you touch me, you pervert?" Aeka shouted. She raised her sharp nose haughtily. "Relax, Aeka," Ryoko said smoothly, "it was just a little pat. Hey, how about a nice tongue kiss? Tenchi's watching." "You disgusting whore!" Some device of Aeka's threw a thousand volts against the older woman's energy shields. Mihoshi wandered by the living room, singing a silly song. She paused by the door, still in her own world. "I was much further out then you thought and not waving but drowning," she sang happily. "Come on, princess," Ryoko taunted. "Do it for Tenchi. Men can't resist girls making out. Take one for the team. I promise not to feel you up." She cackled. "OOOOOH, Tenchi is not a pervert like you! He's a good pure man who will be Emperor one day. Why would he wallow in the mud with you?" "You're probably right," Ryoko said darkly. "But what makes you think Tenchi would be attracted to a nasty, evil, meanspirited bitch like you? What do you have to offer? You couldn't love him, he's not *perfect* enough for you. And he could never love you." "Don't say that Ryoko, you know that's not true," I tried to say, but my voice was unheard in the spectacular devastation they unleashed. When the smoke cleared, half the living room was in shards. The two women were untouched, however. "La la la la," Mihoshi sang, "still the dead one lay moa... ning... heyy, that was really terrible. Ryoko, Aeka, you're not even trying." "*STAY OUT OF IT!*" they shouted at her in unison. "Ok, ok, sorreee. I'll just go over here and watch, um. Uh." I stood up from behind the couch. "Please, Ryoko and Aeka, sit down, we can't--" "Tenchi loves me," Aeka said. "I'll never let you get in the way of him and me. You should quit now and save yourself the trouble." Then the real commotion started up. I sat down, moaning, with my head in my hands. I noticed the fighting had died. I looked up from my hands. Ryoko was looking at me. She sighed and faded through the floor. Aeka smashed a glass figurine on the floor where Ryoko disappeared and sulked off to her room. I'm sorry, Aeka and Ryoko. "Now I am turning out the light, got to say goodnight," someone sang. # "Just when I think I'm winning, when I've broken every door, the ghosts of my life blow wilder than before." I shook with fever as I dreamed there. Nightmares surrounded me in the darkness like prison guards. I sat down at the kitchen counter. An arm came over my shoulder from behind. "You're late," someone said in my ear. "Yeah, I know," I said, pulling Minami around in front of me and kissing her. "Start-up life, you know. They're all insane there." "You could move to the city," she said. "No, I like it here." "Me too," she said. She separated herself from me and sat down across the counter. I looked at Minami. She was so pretty. Her hair was cut in a modified pageboy, and long locks of starless sky and straight lines framed a delicate face, cute nose, and large eyes, and touched a proud neck. We sat in the kitchen of her expensive flat in town. She had been my girlfriend for almost three months. She smiled. "I was thinking, today," she said. "I think I might go away for a few weeks. On a vacation to somewhere sunny." My heart beat once so hard I was sure Minami could hear it. "*No,*" I whispered. "What was that, Tenchi?" "Why don't we get married?" I asked. She thought for a minute. "Ok," she said, "why not? It'll be fun." I went to hug her. Minami shook my hand. Her lawyer stood at her shoulder. "Goodbye, Tenchi," she said. I listened to the chill of space ringing through armor and albedo shielding. Ryoko lay barely moving, dying. Blood seeped at the corners of her mouth. Internal bleeding. She had flown into space, in her ship Ryo-Okhi, to die alone. She had been mortally wounded helping to save Princess Aeka. Who would have supposed she would be a hero? Certainly not her. But she would do anything for Tenchi. For me. The boy wasn't my kind, she thought as she lay moaning. I could never have been his wife, and I could not live knowing. But you know, she thought about dying, I'm glad. It was always too cold around him, the only sense I had. Oh no, I would live if I could, still she thought as she lay moaning. I would follow him unloved until the end of the last day, but no, I could not live knowing. She whispered one word unheard before her eyes closed. There was a slight shudder as docking clamps latched onto Ryo-Okhi. A man in a space suit boarded the ship. The logo on his suit read "Mars Expeditionary Force." He was far from home. Ryoko opened her eyes. "Who are you?" she rasped. "I represent certain powers that do not want you dead." He kneeled and placed dark crystals on her wrists, feet, chest, and face. When he stood, the glass cocoon had already begun growing over her body. "This will heal you, in time. If you find yourself in danger again, use this ident chip. We will help you however we can." Everything went dark for Ryoko. "It's a trap!" a voice cried out in the darkness.. We hit our flashlights. We were surrounded by NATO troops in Achilles suits, coming around every crate and out of every corner of the landing bay. Bullets like electric insects filled the air with panic and screaming. "Return fire, dammit," shouted Rosman. Lullabies of dying in the night. --------- The names of Tenchi, Washu, Aeka, Sasami, Ryoko, Mihoshi, and Kiyone are copyrighted and probably trademarked by AIC & Pioneer LDC. I don't claim any ownership over them. Beyond the names, this story has just about nothing to do with the series. I hope you don't feel cheated. Completely unrelated stuff, such as my comic, "Kevorkian Won't Return My Calls," can be found at my website. http://eaerth.isfuckingbrilliant.com/ is the redirect. The email address on this post has been spam harvested and at least one of the spammers has the Klez virus, so I'm getting that mailed to me too. If you send anything there, there's a good chance I won't even notice it when I check email (once every couple months). If you have any comments or questions or anything, check the website. I used to put my real email address here at the bottom, but the website redirector has lasted two years, which is longer than any email service I've signed up with has lasted. Sorry for the extra step, but if you'd tried to send a message to the old address at the bottom of this chapter and gotten a bounce, you'd understand why.