Time Enough for Tenchi, part 5: Time Enough for Dinner by Eaerth "Hey, we eat dinner together around here," Rosman said. "Come meet everybody." Mihoshi beamed. "I love dinner," she said. "Wow, what a surprise," I said. "Hey," Mihoshi said. "You're not nice." "You're right." Then my eyes were drawn to the oval-shaped craft. Something was coming out of it, looking like nothing so much as a giant purple penguin, a dumpy round bird-like creature with stubby fingered wings. It wore a thin black mesh on which hung strange jewels and a long cape. "What is that?" I asked. "Who," Sasami said. "What?" "Who, not what, you dumbshit." "That's a Tuvan," Mihoshi said. "I think they're neat!" The Tuvan, comical, walked with a clumsy waddle. An irregular crystal hanging from its chest glowed sometimes when the alien passed people. Dinner took place in a large storage chamber, which contained a number of tables and chairs and about forty or fifty people. The air was filled with a mix of languages, mostly Juraian: Japanese, galactic rim, and other alien dialects. The food was nothing special, but it was hot and I hadn't eaten anything of substance in over 24 hours. I found myself seated next to the Tuvan. It spoke to me with a low cooing sound. A half second later, the crystal on its chest pulsed as it translated for me. "Hello, you are the Juraian heir, Tenchi Masaki. My name is ... Oude. I am very interested in meeting you." "Um. Hello," I said. A thin cord ran from the crystal to one of the alien's ears, probably translating. "I've um, never met one of your species." "You don't comprehend how bad this is for us," Rosman said loudly from across the table. "We absolutely must gain access to another high energy communication ansible. And right away. Perhaps the base in Zaire." My neck creaked painfully as I turned to look. Rosman took my grunt of pain for a question. "Your high energy communications technology is essentially tachyon communication," he explained. "Your corporations use them mostly to manage the lunar bases and asteroid mining crews because tachyon communication has no delay. And because the particles are not limited by line of sight or distance, tachyon bases serve also as useful, if expensive, terrestrial communications." I nodded. I knew this. "For us, high energy communication bases are especially useful, though our purposes definitely do not fall within specifications. By directing an ansible toward Jurai and other planets, we can communicate with our people, undetected by the Empire's monitors and listening stations, which aren't looking for prehistoric technology." "We can have the right people bribed by the end of the week," a jumpsuited man said. "We don't *have* till the end of the week! The Empress knows we're on this planet, and she can find us. This *girl* was able to track us to the Sony ansible. If she hadn't caught us or I hadn't decided to abort when we were compromised, you and I both would be dead. None of us would have survived that explosion." "Yes, sir." "I still don't understand it," Rosman mused. "Our enemies are fascists, not terrorists. It's not like the Galaxy Police to blow up buildings." "Not any more, at least," said Merle. "Shut the hell up, Merle," I snapped. "If Sasami could track us, so can her sister," Rosman said. "We have to warn our people away from here. When we have secured a new location, we can make the transfer. Right now, it is far too dangerous, and every single day we delay puts the whole Revolution at further risk." "Aye, sir. I will have an attack force assembled and ready by tomorrow morning." "You have the ... Jurai royal power," Oude said. I turned back to the Tuvan. "This is very interesting. None of my ... race have any sort of psionic ability." "Are there any more of your people here?" I asked. "No, I am alone.... I had to leave ... my wives at home. To be honest, this is my first chance to relax in nine turns." "Why are you here alone?" "I am a ... businessman," Oude said. "I am providing equipment for your rebellion. I have a courier coming to make the transfer but I must manage the sale. Do you know how widespread the ... Jurai royal power is among the species of ... your race?" "No," I said. "One. The power of your people is limited to the ... Jurai royal bloodline. Since the death of your grandfather, and since you have had no children, you are ... the last. As I said, we have no psionic ability in my galaxy. How ... is it?" The penguin-shaped alien leaned closer eagerly. "What is it like to be the most powerful individual ... of your race?" "Means nothing to me," I said. "Really? That is fantastic. As I mentioned, the ... Jurai royal power is unknown to my people, as is any similar power. We are bound by base physics. Yet this awesome ability means nothing to you. Astounding." "The Jurai power never did anything for me," I said. "The only thing I ever used the power for was to save the life of the tyrant these people hate so much. Someone who would be better off dead. Better for everybody. Better for me." "Mmmmm," Oude cooed. The crystal did not translate. I ignored him and looked across the table at where Mihoshi was talking animatedly to whoever came by to chat with her. She was very popular. Watching her was a strange experience. When she talked to people, she was bubbly and blonde. Her apparent age seemed to drop 25 years. She was an excitable young schoolgirl with all her friends, and even if I couldn't hear her laughing voice, I would have known her bliss. But when people went away from Mihoshi, left her alone with no one watching her (except me), her shoulders slumped and for brief moments she seemed weary beyond her years. Sometimes she sighed or shook her head. But then someone would come up to talk to her and she would be perky and happy. My god, but she was beautiful. It shouldn't have been a surprise to me, she was always beautiful. But I was surprised anyway. She looked like someone right out of old America. She was out of place here. I should be seeing her in a shopping mall, several bags in each hand, touching occasionally exposed calves as the bags swung back and forth, lifting aside the hem of her sundress. She should be trailing a daughter, also sun haired and smiling, talking about boys, almost as beautiful as her mother. Only almost, though. Shopkeepers would hit on the mother in the traditional way, asking if the two beauties were sisters, not out of desire but just because being in their presence made the men feel alive. "A Jurai for your thoughts?" someone said, waking me from my musing. "Hm? Oh, hi Mihoshi. I was just thinking, uh, how strange this all was." "Yeah, it's exciting isn't it?" "Well, that's not exactly what I was trying to say." "Oh." She said nothing for a minute. "Tell me about your ex-wife, Tenchi," she said. "Minami was.... I married Minami because she was the first woman who'd sleep with me. The marriage didn't last very long. She also slept with any other man she got her hands on. It tore me up. It ruined our relationship, and she got sick of me." I stopped and closed my eyes. "I miss her." "Oh," she said. "What about your husband?" "Kazumi owns a big nightclub on the Hoshan Orbital," Mihoshi said. "I remember when we met, umm, I don't know, twenty-something years ago. My knight in black tuxedo. But it was..." Mihoshi paused for so long I looked over to see if she was still there. "...not good," she finally finished. "I had to divorce him." "I'm surprised," I said. "I mean, you divorcing him. I mean, you never were the type who could make big decisions. It always seemed... seems... there's never a right choice, everything is always a mistake..." "Mm," she said. After a quarter hour of silence, I left her and found my place to sleep. # "Hello, honey, I'm home," I said as I came through the front door. No one answered me, of course. If someone had, I'd have been forced to flee the ghost or intruder, because I lived alone. "Oh, Aeka," I said as I dropped my book bag under a chair in the living room, "I wonder how your day was. Mine was... well... I'd better change." I went to my bedroom to change out of my work clothes. "Now don't you..." peek in at me, I said as I stripped. I talked like that when I was in my apartment. Sentences drifted back and forth between speech and the forever unsaid like branches in a sighing wind. In the kitchen, I started some rice in the steamer. Then I went into the living room and dragged out my homework. I was working, doing my internship, but I still had some school to get through with. I glanced at the fading light in the window. "Oh, Aeka, if you... I..." I know you want me to go out and watch the sunset with you, but I really have to do this homework. Please let me work. Maybe... "Tomorrow," I said. I went to the kitchen and took some leftover spicy chicken from the refrigerator and microwaved it. I liked cooking. I found it relaxing. When you have to cook for one, you always have a couple days of leftovers, but it was still good. While the chicken was being heated, I fried the rice. You would like this, Aeka, I thought, chopping lettuce. You would call it below my station, but at the tasting, you would be happy. I added the lettuce to the wok, fried the rice again briefly, and poured the rice onto a plate with the chicken. I had to clear the dining room table to eat. It was only big enough for one person's meal. One more thing. A murrp from the refrigerator, for Mihoshi. Murrp is what she called her favorite soda, Mr Pibb. I drank it with every meal. "Well, let's eat." I wish I'd kept a picture of you, Aeka. I wish I'd kept pictures of any of you. I can't remember what you look like, except in my dreams. "It was a pretty fire, though, with..." With... all the colors of autumn leaves. I finished eating. Maybe you'll come back so I can show you how well I cook. I sometimes hear a thump outside, but it is always just a fallen branch, broken with the wind. Or maybe Mihoshi and Kiyone will come back, like they did before. No, one return is all that men are given upon this earth. I squandered Aeka, Ryoko, Washu, and I guess I'll never understand why Mihoshi and Kiyone gave up promotions to come back here. I wish, I wish it had been for me, and I wish they'd do it again. It was a real Romeo and Juliet story for us in the old days: a harebrained scheme goes terribly wrong and destroys the lives of everyone involved. The rest of the evening, I worked on programming homework on the computer in my bedroom. At times I would stop and try to remember Aeka's face. Finally, I got up and changed into my pajamas. "Remember, no peeking," I almost said. I crawled into bed in the darkness. Tomorrow I will talk to Ryoko, ok Aeka? I have to be fair. We will talk again next week. Goodnight, Aeka. "In time, the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble, they're only made of clay, but our love is here..." I pulled the bedsheet over me. "To..." I pulled the covers to my neck. "Stay." I pulled the covers over my head. --------- 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.