This work is Fan Fiction, derived from Characters and Situations that are Copyright and/or Trademark AIC, and Pioneer LDCA, any public performance or commercial use of this material would require the very unlikely permission of the original copyright holders. A Hound of Heaven The Captain of the Jurai fast cruiser Lightning let out the breath he'd been holding as his target bloomed in to an expanding cloud of plasma. Let the big boys in the Battle-wagons boast, Lightning was the fastest ship in the fleet. Without her, this particular target would have gotten away, and the big boys wanted this one badly. Something had slipped out that shouldn't have; Captain Hideo considered that as he keyed open a voice channel to the flagship. "Sir, Lightning reporting. Target Ryo-ohki destroyed at long range. Analyses indicate that one hundred percent of target mass was converted to plasma. Spectrum analysis shows lithium-deuterium fusion, there must have been a self-destruct. I await further instructions." Admiral Toratoshi handled the call personally, not normal procedure. "No further action is required" thank the gods for that, "Good work, Captain Hideo. Return at once, we don't want to stay in the forbidden zone any longer than necessary. Report to fleet intelligence for debriefing" and pray that fine young officer didn't ask too many questions. Good officers are hard to replace. Admiral Toratoshi replayed the telemetry of the intercept, and was relieved to find no sign that anything, object or signal, escaped the destruction. Odd, that; why would a Live-ship like the Ryo-ohki have a thermo-nuclear self-destruct? On a need to know basis, the only other person with him was his intelligence liaison, Lieutenant Morimoto. The Admiral turned to him: "So, the Gabriel Rachets screw up again, and the military has to go in and clean up the mess. Thirty five hundred years since the first mutant terror, and here they go again. Will another sovereign have to kill as Queen Hinase did? The bleeding hearts still call her "The baby killer Queen", what else could she have done?" "Perhaps she could have put the Mutant Yuugi into stasis?" The Lieutenant speculated. "How would that have been more humane? And nothing is forever." The Admiral shuddered, then consciously squelched his feelings. "Pah, what am I thinking? Humanity? Artificial Persons have no legal or moral status. They're just protoplasmic machines; and nothing more" he reassured himself. "Still, that would have quieted some of the bitterest criticisms. The throne's reputation has suffered." The Admiral glanced speculatively at his Lieutenant. "At least we've kept this one quiet. Can't have a scandal just now, when an heir has finally been born. She'll be presented to the court within the week, and the home fleet needs to be there to show the flag. Aeka is not a very auspicious name, eh?" The Lieutenant hesitated, "Aeka is the name of a royal ancestor, as I recall." "The King is always right, eh, Morimoto?" "Are you testing me, Sir? It is the throne, and not the man that we are sworn to." "That's right, you're one of them, aren't you? A Gabriel Rachet? Oh, don't look so shocked, as a member of the Holy Council, I'm one of the twelve who even know you people exist. You think I would have mentioned them in your presence if I didn't know? There is nothing in the records to identify you. I happen to have seen you during my official tour of your facility. You think I could rise to this rank and not be that sharp? What makes you people so sure of your own loyalty?" "We are Janissaries, Sir, and we accept that. We have no existence apart from the crown, no personal identities, no childhood, no name. I was unclaimed, taken at birth, my parents either dead or unfit, but my genetic heritage was vetted. I owe all of my continued existence and status to the Gabriel Rachets, and of course, the Crown." A week later, following the presentation of the new Crown Princess, Admiral Toratoshi took his personal yacht, and entered the forbidden zone; setting a course for Gabriel Rachet headquarters. "Marshall, I think you know what I'm here for" "Admiral?" responded Marshall Ota. He was in fact the Grand Marshall of the Galactic Police; an ace up Jurai's sleeve in it's efforts to covertly control those parts of the Galaxy not under direct military domination. "The Counsel wants a full accounting of the Ryouko incident, Marshall. We don't want any repetitions." "Indeed. A number of years ago we incidentally obtained custody of several children that were products of; shall we say, Royal indiscretions. Testing showed a considerable potential in them for Jurai power. We reviewed records extending back to the days of the Yuugi project, and our chief geneticist approved two new experiments. Admiral, there has been a lot of progress in the last thirty- five-hundred years. We are now quite sure of our ability to condition and control any human child that we take from birth. What we failed to take into account in project Ryouko was the mother. We assumed that the already cowed mothers would reject a child that was essentially the product of medical rape. The first Jurai Power Mutant, code named "Nagi", was produced according to plan. It is now four years old, and it's programming is proceeding as expected. The Ryouko child's mother caught us unawares. She was smarter, more precocious than our conditioning techniques allow for, and she developed a pre-natal psychic link to the child that was quite unexpected. It allowed her to suborn the Ryo-ohki creature." "What exactly is this the Live-ship Ryo-ohki, anyway?" "You will recall the "cabbit" creatures that the mad scientist Washu produced seven hundred years ago, just before she was sentenced to stasis?" The Admiral nodded, "Yes, interesting creatures; a cross between a genetically engineered small mammal and a higher-dimensional crystalline life-form. The creature form is curiously reminiscent of both a cat and a rabbit. They went feral after Washu's arrest, and have become a pest on several thinly populated agricultural planets." "Their crystalline ship form is as powerful as a ship of Jurai, more compact, faster, and a lot tougher. Not only that, but they stow their crystalline form in subspace and conveniently become cute little cuddlies. Ahem, anyway, they have too much of a mind of their own to be suitable for use, or so we thought. We now believe that Washu intended mutant work along the lines of the Yuugi model, since it turns out that pair bonding occurs between Yuugi type Jurai power mutants and cabbits. We selected a young female cabbit and bonded it with the project Ryouko child in-utero, calling the creature Ryo-ohki. The mutant was designed to have a strong telepathic empathy with shamanic animal spirits, hence the name Project Ryouko. As I said, the mother also formed a psychic link with the fetus. Apparently the mother had a powerful undetected shamanic potential. About the end of the second trimester, we started to detect anomalies we now know were related to the unsuspected psychic bond. On the recommendation of the supervising researcher, the fetus was taken by c-section and transferred to an artificial womb. When the mother woke up, all hell broke loose. Ryo-ohki transformed into her ship form and ripped into the laboratory like a demon from hell, taking mother and fetus into herself. The rest you know." "Her, Marshall?" "Uh, yes. I know. We think that was part of the problem. Empathy levels entirely too high for our conditioning techniques to cope with. Fortunately, the cabbit in Project Nagi is male. It just may be that was the crucial difference." "So the Ryo-ohki creature took mother and fetus, and made a run for it?" The Marshall nodded an affirmative, "and that's the end of it" "Your life depends on that, Marshall. In any case, I want a permanent alert entered in the Jurai net on all three names and genetic patterns. If any of them ever surfaces, they must be eliminated." "Naturally" the Marshall responded, unphased by the threat. "My life belongs to the Gabriel Rachets, and thus to the Throne" "Now that we've got everything understood; please satisfy a personal curiosity of mine. Where does the name Gabriel Rachet come from?" "It comes from the home planet, from a people so removed from the Sunrise Islands your Royal culture is associated with that they might as well be at the opposite end of the Galaxy. It has to do with a legend called the wild hunt." "The secret of planet oh-three-one-five, eh? You think it's safe to invoke folklore connected to the home world?" "The shamanic powers are so damped down around that world, there is little chance of anyone making a connection. If anyone ever tumbles on to the fact that obscure, backward colony is actually the mythical home world, it won't be through something like our name. Really, all it would take is some halfway bright naturalist noticing that all the native life forms on that world are based on the same life chemistry as humans." Tally was an old man, even he wasn't sure how old. Captured in crystal for he didn't know how long, he'd recently been freed from the crystal, only to find that he was still a prisoner, a long way from home. He had a fair intuitive grasp that he was now in a world among the stars, a garden world of the Jurai royal family, and a world as heavily shielded from his shamanic powers as was his native Earth. The Jurai Nobility were terribly afraid of anyone outside their own hereditary clans having those powers. Once, on Earth, commonly known as Planet Colony oh-three-one- five, he had been a kingmaker, the most powerful shaman of his time. Now he was the head gardener of a world. Head gardener, and the only human other than Royal visitors. The gardens were actually tended by Wuzzles, semi-sentient insectivores resembling white ferrets with long sticky tongues. Tally stroked his long white beard and pondered. There had been a bright shooting star the previous night. It was unusual for anything but sunlight and Royal ships to penetrate the mystic shields protecting Niwa, the rather unimaginatively named royal garden planet. Since Niwa was a small artificial world, it was not long before the Wuzzles brought him word of a crushed flower-bed, and mysterious stone. Tally entered the bole of the nearest Jurai tree, and emerged seconds later from a similar tree near the damaged plantings. He brushed himself off and quieted his stomach before walking the kilometer or so to the site. Travel between the trees was rather like falling down a very long shaft, until you were popped out at your destination, off balance. Tally had lost his lunch more than once traveling that way. By the time he arrived at the fallen star, several local Wuzzle caretakers had joined him. The fallen star was lying on the surface, at the end of a short track of plowed up earth. It was about two meters long, shaped like a pointed ice cream cone, and made of a rough, fibrous material. Tally judged it to be either artificial or organic in form, and made of some sort of silicon carbide fiber composite. Putting his hand on it, he found the thing still warm, and it pulsed like it was alive. On his touch, there was a loud click, and the rounded back end fell off the cone. Inside he could see a metallic capsule half a meter by a meter, and a fifteen centimeter purple ovoid that he judged to be some sort of egg. On the capsule were several labels written in Juraian glyphs. One of them read "Project Ryouko", another "neo-natal artificial womb, manufactured by Aldebaran bio-medical, New Yamato, Jurai. Read instruction manual before use." Taped to the capsule was a note, "This is my daughter. If you find her, for the love of the gods, please hide her from the Jurai." Literacy is a wonderful tool. Little as he understood of Juraian technology, Tally was able to activate and read the electronic manual wired to the capsule. After reading, he was able to ascertain that the fetus inside was only a few weeks from full maturity. While still pondering what to do, he noticed that the purple egg was twitching. Just as he put his hands on it, it cracked open with a flash of heat, revealing a small brown creature resembling a cat, but with the ears, tail, and hind legs of a rabbit. He picked up the creature, and mumbled to himself. "What in the world am I going to do with these things?" The creature started struggling violently in his hands, and when he dropped it, it scurried on top of the capsule, took a protective stance with fangs bared, hissing. Tally mumbled some old chants, passing his hands over the strange creature. At that range, even the with the severe limits his Jurai jailers had imposed on his shamanic powers, he was able to converse with the spirit of the animal. "So, you are the child's familiar, Ryo-ohki" "Meow" "And a fine guardian beast you are, too" With his mind made up, Tally passed his hands over the local Wuzzle foreman. Within minutes, dozens of tiny clever hands were chipping away at the composite material of the fallen star, and it started dissolving before his eyes. Tally picked up the capsule, which only weighed about twenty kilos, and Ryo-ohki assumed a post on his right shoulder. Half an hour later, Tally was back in his caretaker's cottage, on the far side of Niwa from the landing site. Three weeks later, carefully following the instructions in the instruction manual, Tally activated the capsule's birthing protocol. Fifteen minutes later, he held in his hands a newborn girl. Examining the infant, he saw that she had flaring, curled elfin ears, bright golden irises with elliptical pupils, and wisps of bright, almost cyan blue hair. As he held her, he noticed his hands were wet. Chuckling to himself, he realized he had a lot to re-learn about infants. "So you are Ryouko" he muttered, "Spirit-caller. I like that name." The years pass quickly for an old man. Before Tally knew it the orphan Ryouko was getting about on her own feet. He now spent much of his free time teaching the child to read, and to operate the computers of the Jurai net that remained a mystery to him. Other than her ears, which after a while seemed more paddle like than elfin, and those golden eyes, Ryouko's features seemed more akin to Juraian nobility than any ethnicity Tally was familiar with from old Earth. Even given how small Niwa was, barely a thousand kilometers across, what happened in Ryouko's fifth year defies comprehension. One day, while Tally was away, supervising the installation of amusement rides for the young Crown Princess, Ryouko went out in a flower strewn meadow to play. How the Princess Aeka came to be playing in the same meadow, and what really happened between the two girls may never be known with any certainty: What is known is that Princess Aeka reported the presence of the other girl to her guardians. "I've been dismissed, dear heart" Tally informed the solemn faced child. "It seems these people don't even remember who I am, or why I was brought here. I'm afraid we will be leaving for Jurai tomorrow morning." "I shall miss Niwa" was Ryouko's only reply. Tally knew nothing of registration and immigration laws, and no one on the military transport that took them from Niwa to Jurai seemed to think anything of the presence of the unauthorized child that had caused his dismissal. They landed at a military base, incidentally bypassing immigration checks. Tally, the child, and her strange pet were literally shown the door with nothing but what they could carry. After wandering the streets for a while, Ryouko went to a public information kiosk, and found the address of the Office of Royal Benevolence (Welfare, that is). The benevolence clerk couldn't find any employment records for Tally, but since his identity was registered, and a bio-scan verified his biological age as nearing one hundred years, a minimal Stipend from the Royal Alms for the Aged (Social Security) was authorized, as well as a small public housing unit. Inexplicably, the clerk ignored the presence of the blue haired child, and Tally certainly wasn't foolish enough to press the matter. Over the following three years the old man devoted nearly every waking hour to educating the child, and quietly implanting in her the inner disciplines and keys that would allow her to use her shamanic powers when she matured. Their income was meager, and since Ryouko could neither register, apprentice, nor attend school, she took to making handcrafts and selling them on the streets when she wasn't learning from old Tally. In Ryouko's eighth year the second of her inexplicable encounters with the Crown Princess occurred. Once again, we cannot know with certainty what passed between the Crown Princess and Ryouko. What can be said with certainty is that signs went up detailing the licensing and permit processes required for vendors at street fairs and carnivals in royal precincts, which meant pretty much all of Planet Jurai. Police searches were conducted for the black marketeering street urchin of whom Princess Aeka had complained. From that moment onward, Ryouko's wiles were devoted to the conduct of her affairs outside of official purview. When Ryouko told the old man what had happened, he told her what little he knew about her origin, showing her the note. "So it looks like I can't just register and get it over with?" "I should think that would be very dangerous, child. What I can do is give you the network key and passwords that I was given as Royal Gardener on Niwa. I didn't give them to you up to now because I wasn't sure you were mature enough, or that it would be necessary. After all, I didn't know what life would be like here on Jurai. I have checked, the account still works. I guess they never thought to revoke my net privileges. Rather than using a biometric, they gave me a token that could be passed on to my successor. They didn't ask, and I didn't hand it over." The token was a key that fitted into a slot in standard JuraiNet terminals. In conjunction with passwords, it gave Ryouko privileged access. Just the fact that the account originated in the forbidden zone seemed to prevent the net minders from questioning the account. From that time on, Ryouko made her living as a street runner for the various underworld enterprises that seem to spring up in any organized society. Ryouko's ability to anticipate and evade the Jurai police on her runs made her legendary in the back alleys of the Juraian capitol. A few times undercover police actually closed in on her, but she used some of the lesser tricks of "the power" that Tally had taught her, such as fogging her presence in the minds of people around her, and blocking Jurai energy swords. Since Jurai commoners, even policemen, were not permitted any weapons beyond staves, and were totally helpless in the face of Jurai powers, the undercover investigators concluded that the mysterious new underworld runner must be a renegade from the nobility. The word from encouters, that it was a young girl, was just too much to credit. In those tender years on Jurai, Ryouko was fairly safe from perverts because of the awe in which the Jurai powers were held, but it was not hard for the young girl to pick up on the undercurrents. She did not enjoy the people she was working with. When teenage and puberty hit her at the same time, her figure and her powers bloomed together. It became difficult for her to practice her powers in secret, and more important than ever that she be able to protect herself. It was then that she became able to communicate directly with Ryo-ohki, and learned of the cabbit's hidden crystalline body. At that time Ryouko developed two of her signature touches. Since her hair had too much body for the current hair styles of the Jurai nobility, she searched through the net and found an exotic spiked version of the usual Noblewoman's haircut, dating from the "Academy" period, about seven hundred years before. This hairstyle had been brought into fashion by the famous "Mad Scientist" Washu in the heyday of the Royal Science Academy, before she'd been discovered doing forbidden research on weapons of mass destruction. The second Ryouko touch was when she discovered that Ryo-ohki had the ability to produce just about any clothing Ryouko could provide her with a design for. Ryouko combed the net, and quickly developed a flare for exotic and dramatic costumes. It irked her more than a little bit that she couldn't strut the costumes in her then lifestyle. It was shortly after her fourteenth birthday that Ryouko came home one night to find Tally collapsed on the floor. She quickly lifted him to the couch and summoned the para-medics. Though Tally was conscious, he knew he was dying. "Ryouko, you take care of yourself now. Get away from here, as far away as you can. With me gone there is no reason for you to stay on Jurai. You know, you always reminded me of Morgaine" he started reminiscing. He sensed that she thought he meant the Jurai Queen Morigana, who had imprisoned him in crystal stasis, sealed away the greater part of the Earth's shamanic powers, and spirited him away to Niwa. "No, not her. Funny how similar the names were. I mean the incestuous sister of the Dragon King" he chuckled, "such a wicked beauty, such a body.an old man's dream. How I'd love to see her again." And with that, the old man passed away. By the time the Para-medics arrived, there was little left to do but the formalities. Ryouko stood numbly over the diminished body of the old man, and cried. Assuming that she was next of kin, the lead para-medic did an ID bio-scan on her. His eyes goggled wildly when his scanner screen lit up with a biohazard alert. According to the instrument, the girl standing in front of him was an exotic and dangerous alien life form. Notification was already sent to the Royal Biological Warfare Center. The instructions on his screen told him to try to detain the creature. The paramedic attempted to take her hand, "Miss, please sit down" Ryouko glanced him over, and spotted the bio-hazard symbol on his scanner. "You scanned me, didn't you?" "Now Miss", he tried to reassure himself, licking his suddenly dry lips, "there's no reason to get excited" A burst of shield power flung him against the wall. His partner tried to block the doorway, but changed his mind when she materialized an energy sword. Ryo-ohki leapt to Ryouko's shoulder, and she walked out of the apartment without a glance backwards. By the time the first troops arrived, Ryouko was nowhere to be found. By midnight, the capitol was teaming with black-clad special forces teams armed with energy weapons and led by Noble officers with Jurai powers. Ryouko walked out several kilometers into the Royal parklands surrounding the capitol. When she reached what she judged to be a suitable clearing, she took her pet in hand and flung her skyward. She had never before seen Ryo-ohki's ship form manifested. Needless to say, she was impressed. Planet Jurai's defenses were designed to keep things out, not in. By the time the fleet could react, Ryouko and the Ryo-ohki were vanished into the void. Ryouko alighted on the resort world of Aldaran. This seemed a likely choice, since though it was a tributary planet to the Jurai Empire, it was not inhabited by Juraians, or incorporated into Juraian territory. Neither the public net nor the authorities were tied into the Jurai Net, so it was possible for Ryouko to register and obtain a work permit; (well, she did have to lie about her age). With credentials in hand, she was able to get an honest job as a hotel maid at one of the most prestigious hotels on the planet. It seems wildly improbable that in an Empire of over a thousand systems, and on a planet with over a thousand resort hotels, the Crown Princess would choose to vacation at the hotel where Ryouko chose to go to work; but that is in fact what happened. For a third time, orphan and Princess met. Again, what really happened between the two is not recorded, but this time she was recognized by the head of the Princess' security detail. With her powers in full bloom, Ryouko simply dropped through the floor and vanished, leaving behind her first and last attempt at an honest job. Jurai's Royal Guard immediately cast a dragnet over the entire resort island the hotel was located on, but not before Ryouko was able to rent a small sailboat using a forged identity. This gave her about a forty-eight hour head start, since Princess Aeka had arrived by commercial ship, and it took the nearest squadron of the Jurai space navy that long to arrive on scene. Why Ryouko imagined that what hit her little sailboat was the Princess' yacht, we may never know. What we know is that the Jurai space battleship Toratoshi, under the command of Admiral Hideo, decimated that entire quadrant of the resort planet. Ryouko evidently escaped under water in the Ryo-ohki. Resentment by the locals of the unprovoked bombardment, the worst in Galactic history to that day, would in generations to come result in Aldaran's leadership in founding the First Republic: But that is another story. Admiral Toratoshi, (retired), sat glumly in the executive offices of the Galaxy Police, watching Internal Investigations officers document the late Marshall Ota's remains. He reflected sourly that the custom of seppuku had far more down sides than up sides. A fine and useful agent, the late Marshall had carried out his suicide as soon as he had verified the reappearance of the Ryouko child. Why couldn't that damn fool Hideo have the decency to do the same? But no, Admiral Hideo was totally oblivious to the fact that he had committed an atrocity of historic proportions, using the ship named for his retired predecessor, yours truly. Meanwhile, Toratoshi had been sent to smooth things over with the new Marshall. The new GP commander, Marshall Kuremitsu, was a man of unquestionable integrity and competence. Unfortunately, Kuremitsu was not a Jurai agent. Toratoshi gazed at the blond bearded giant seated across from him and gathered his words. "Marshall, the Jurai need your help on this one. This creature Ryouko may look like a human being, but it's really an exotic and dangerous alien predator. Unfortunately, Admiral Hideo has made matters worse with the Aldaran incident. Damn it, protocols call for sterilization by fusion bombardment only for alien infections, and then only after every effort has been made to control spread by quarantine, and then to minimize impact on the civilian population." "Admiral, the member planets of the Galactic Police Union are very uncomfortable with what happened at Aldaran. I look at the bio- scan data for this alleged "creature" Ryouko, and it looks like a human being to me. I'm sorry, but unless she commits a crime, I'm going to have to say no." "Marshall, I could send the fleet after her in "Hot Pursuit" under the terms of our extraterritoriality treaties" "After the Aldaran incident, I should think that unwise. The Union states would regard it as an act of war." Admiral Toratoshi seethed: Damn, if that little bastard Hideo doesn't commit seppuku voluntarily, I'll do it for him. Meanwhile, Ryouko had hooked herself up with a Corrillian smuggling clan. The patriarch immediately gave her the Kessel run because of Ryo-ohki's maneuverability. It seemed that the Kessel run was a notorious obstacle-course of nebulae, dead stars, and asteroid debris. Most ships took the long way around, thirty parsecs or more. Smugglers generally laid in courses about twenty parsecs long. Ryouko had it down to fifteen. Given the crowd she was working with, it is perhaps not surprising that Ryouko hung with the boys at the bars frequented by smugglers, and began drinking. It wasn't long before some good ol' boy tried something. The first drunken smuggler that put her in an arm-lock got his right foot blown off by a plasma bolt. Word spread quickly that the blue haired smuggler girl who looked like a deranged Jurai Noblewoman was armed and dangerous. Not long afterward, she was intercepted by the Galaxy Police while she was doing the Kessel run. It was said that the smuggler with no right foot had informed on her. Not surprisingly, his body was found drifting in space near a Corrillian trading station above Tatooine a few weeks later, but the damage had already been done. Instead of surrendering like a good smuggler, Ryouko had rammed the police cruiser and run. "I know you have your reasons" the Patriarch told her, "but we're going to have to let you go. I run a clean smuggling operation. We always stay out of trouble with the authorities by surrendering and paying our fines." Ryouko drifted into the more dangerous circles of Ninjas, Pirates, and Assassins. Marshall Kuremitsu appeared on the video screen in Admiral Toratoshi's office. The formerly retired Admiral was not happy to see him, but it got better quickly. "Admiral, your prize goat has done it" "Eh?" "The Ryo-ohki was intercepted on a smuggling run, and ran, damaging a police cruiser. The pilot was positively identified as Ryouko. It's a bit of a stretch, but I can make out a warrant charging Space Piracy." "Oh, good, good. The Crown would like to put a bounty of five thousand Jurai on her. We've already got a bounty hunter hired. That's all clear and legal now, ne?" "Yes, perfectly legal and proper. By the way, who have you hired?" "A young hunter by the name of Nagi. Perhaps you've heard of her?" "Oh, yes. Nothing but the best, eh?" The Marshall didn't need to add that the spectacularly successful new bounty hunter seemed to specialize in collecting Jurai Crown bounties. "By the way, do you think you could re-classify her as a class-A criminal?" "That's a bit premature, Admiral. Be patient, with the abilities we've seen so far, it won't take long for her to get there." The Admiral severed the connection, and turned to the cloaked figure standing just outside camera range. "You heard the man, Nagi. Go to it." She raised her right fist to her chest, slightly parting her cape, bowing. "Sir!" Owari Postlog In a system dominated by old men, Minister of Security Sagami was not only the youngest person ever appointed to head the Gabriel Rachets, he was also the first field agent ever elevated to that post. Promotions had come with dizzying swiftness since "Yosho" had reappeared to claim the throne. Sagami was a cynic, but he was not at all comfortable with the unsavory characters gathering around the throne under the new Lord. What was worse was that the Admiral of the Home Fleet, an uncle to the now outlawed Crown Princess, had provided Sagami with surveillance recordings of Yosho boasting that he intended to be the "last king of Jurai". This put Sagami's loyalties in a quandry. The preternaturally youthful and earnest man sat in the base chapel. Before him was a surreal sculptural representation of Tokimi, the patron goddess of the intelligence services. At the foot of the statue were a number of dried fruits, and a holder with a couple of sticks of burning incense. The composition of that incense would get you ten to twenty at hard labor if used outside a Tokimi chapel. Sagami inhaled deeply, and the smoke of the incense did it's "magic". He bowed his head and pleaded for at least the hundredth time for Tokimi to resolve his dilemma. The statue dissolved and was replaced with an impossible vision, a semblance of a human being, but somehow represented in more than three dimensions. Sagami was terrified to the point that he was afraid he would soil his undergarment. "Why are you mortals always do surprised when your prayers are answered? Don't you think I'm real?" "Goddess, if you are real, then you must know my dilemma" "There is no dilemma" Sagami's mind whirled with confusion. Tokimi sighed in response. "Thank the one god that you are sincere. Look, you. I am the goddess of clock time, if you please. On old Earth I am known by many names, Hel, Hecate, Astarte, Kali, and Tokimi, among others. How many times am I mistaken as evil by my followers. If you imagine that you serve evil, why aren't you running as fast as you can in the opposite direction, boy? Clock time passes inexorably, the past, any past, is immutable. It is it's nature to be unyielding, unforgiving. What is past, for good or ill, cannot be undone. That is the first lesson of life. That is why I govern the grave. If you wish to follow evil, that path is before you. I must say though he styles himself a Dark Lord, your so called "Yosho" is a mere lieutenant of the Evil one. Serve evil if you will, it does not please me" Sagami's vision was gone. When he had recovered, Sagami composed a communiqu‚: "To Agent Nagi: until the present emergency is over, you will suspend all other objectives and lend your full assistance to Lord Tenchi and his group. I, Sagami, Lord Commander of the Gabriel Rachets, take full responsibility for this directive, for the sake of the throne, and by the will of our goddess Tokimi" Author's notes: The purpose of this story was to imagine a history and origin for the Ryouko and Nagi of the Tenchi Universe series. I have with some alterations, borrowed Queen Hinase from Shin Tenchi Muyo, and Marshall Kuremitsu from OAV. Transportation inside the trunks of Jurai trees is only shown in OAV. In my opinion, the Dimension Tuner stories give us an explicit basis for regarding the various Tenchi Muyo continuities as parallel worlds. As such it is reasonable to suppose that other people and incidents in the parallel histories would carry through in recognizable form. I've even provided some explanation for the differences between Shin and TV. Readers will also note some crossover elements from the universe of Star Wars. Not only do I think the parallels suggest themselves, I think it is fair to say that certain elements of that universe were firmly in the minds of the creators of Tenchi Muyo. Text Copyright?2001, Gregory W. Matteson. Characters are Copyright and/or Trademark AIC and Pioneer LDCA