Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Aurora of Rainbow Fire ❯ Crime and Punishment Part A. ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

The story arc Aurora of Rainbow Fire is part two of an
ongoing series called The Odd Man Out.

This story is archived at
http://www.tmffa.com/member.html?id=420

Visit http://www.livejournal.com/users/nugarwrites/ for
updates and new fics.

Aurora of Rainbow Fire chapter four: Crime and Punishment
part a.

A Tenchi Muyo TV series lime comedy by Nugar.
Email the author at nugarthebarbarian@yahoo.com with any
comments.
All characters and situations copyright their creators,
Hiroki Hayashi and Masaki Kajishima, and AiC and Pioneer and are
used without permission. This is a nonprofit work only.





Far, far out beyond Pluto, it searched, automated systems
scanning diligently for something rare in the universe.

The characteristic green-spectrum spike that indicated
chlorophyll based plant life.

All the other planets suitable for its purposes were
hostile, and would undoubtedly have sophisticated defense
mechanisms set to stop anonymous travelers.

But not this one. Earth was not listed on most galactic
charts for the same reason Beinville, Louisiana is not listed on
most maps. There's nothing there of interest and no one in their
right mind would want to go there, so why bother?

Well, the strange space pod wanted to. It had a delivery
to make.

Preposterously low-tech cryogenic equipment (because any
scientist worth his cesium uses insta-stasis fields now) began
the laborious process of thawing the pod's single occupant. The
approach was planned precisely so that the energy from the
friction of atmospheric entry would be available for the final
thawing.

There was no noise as it braked and used Jupiter's gravity
as a sling to send it toward Saturn. There was no air in space
to conduct sound. However, there was also precious little in the
way of other 'noise', rendering it virtually invisible in the
vastness of the solar system.

Despite the generally low level of technology, the rocklike
space pod was remarkably efficient. Centuries had gone by as it
had traveled the depths of deep space from system to system,
coasting on a single tremendous push supplied from its origin.
Even now the only energy it used was in minor course corrections;
the sun provided the inward pull, and clever usage of the various
planetary gravities supplied the brakes. After several circuits
of the solar system, it finally fell on the final intercept
course for Earth.

But something was in the way. A large modern spaceship was
in far Earth orbit, hailing it on much of the spectrum. It had
been cloaked until then, which is why the pod hadn't noticed it,
although it hadn't noticed the pod up until now for much the same
reason.

No matter. It was far too close to completing its mission
to be stopped now. Its builder had planned for a contingency
like this.

Nearly the entire rear portion of the space pod detached
from the whole with a burst of stored energy. Then, antiquated
tracking systems came online and targeted the newer spaceship,
sending the newly made irregular missile flying toward it even as
the rest continued to plummet toward the Earth.

The newer spaceship 'woke up' to full alert and started
evasive maneuvers, easily keeping itself out of reach, but also
unable to intercept the part heading toward the Earth. And when
it did attempt to dart by, all of the remaining fuel that had
powered the space pod for so long released its energy at once.


****************


*beep* *beep*

Kiyone duly noted the signal from her portable link to
Yagami, but continued to set out drinks for the couple at table
seven. Business was quite busy this time in the morning. Out of
the corner of her eye, she could see Mihoshi do essentially the
same thing as she took down an order on her side of the cafe,
although with Mihoshi it was hard to tell. She might not have
noticed at all.

*beep* *beep* *beep*

Uh oh. It was urgent. She'd better start thinking of
excuses to give her boss so she could take off early. Kiyone was
a Galaxy Police Officer first, and a waitress second.

*beep* *beep* *be-*

The origin of the sound that followed next was hard to
identify. It put one in mind of a rendition of 'Flight of the
Bumblebee' played on an organ comprised entirely of dog whistles.
Why everyone in the cafe's ears didn't start bleeding remains a
mystery to this day.

One waitress's tablet and pen hit the floor. Another
waitress's (fortunately empty) serving tray hit the floor. And
lastly, four sensible shoes hit the much-abused floor many times
in rapid succession, suggesting running.

As she ran, Kiyone cursed her fate and ruefully wondered
where she was going to find another job THIS time.

Mihoshi just ran, not really thinking about anything in
particular, all of her attention devoted exclusively to the task
of making it to the ship in the least amount of time possible.

Isn't deep brain structure command-response imprinting
wonderful?


****************


"Yes, I understand. Don't worry, I'll tell everyone. You
can count on us. Good luck." *click*

Ayeka looked up from where she had replaced the phone in
its cradle.

"Yes?" Ryoko asked expectantly from directly behind her.

"Eep!" Ayeka replied cleverly, jumping, spinning around,
and pressing a hand over her heart. "Ryoko! Don't do that!"
She had been jumpy all morning, given to brooding and long,
thoughtful silences, always conspicuously away from her friend.

Ryoko simply quirked her mouth ironically and gave her a
level stare. Her thoughts on Ayeka's odd behavior were a closely
guarded secret, even to Sasami's careful probing.

"That was Kiyone and Mihoshi," Ayeka began, warming to her
topic. "Apparently some sort of very small ship or space pod has
crashed down in Africa. As there are no other GP vessels in this
system, she asked if we would act as backup if they need it."

Ryoko looked interested. "Hey, that sounds like fun. I
wonder who it is?"

Ayeka shook her head. "Apparently, it wouldn't respond to
a request for information, other than to send a missile at
Yagami. The explosion was negligible, Kiyone says, but the pod
still managed to make it to Earth. There's no telling what sort
of being could be on there, but the odds are it isn't good."

Ryoko shrugged. "Not necessarily. Had I been in that pod
I would have shot at a GP vessel, too. They'd never catch me on
an uninhabited planet, as long as I could make it to it."

"My point exactly," Ayeka deadpanned, almost back to her
old self. "There could be someone like you on board."

Ryoko narrowed her eyes, a vision of last night coming
unbidden to her mind's eye. "Very funny. I think little miss
Princess is getting too uppity for her own good."

Ayeka's eyes narrowed as well; angry to hear such backtalk
from her pet. She hadn't brought up the previous night's events
because she was slightly embarrassed by her lack of control over
herself, but she might just have to remind the pirate of her
place. "Oh? And just what do you think you're going to do about
it?"

Abruptly Ryoko was all sweetness and innocence. "Oh,
Ayeka-chan, I forgot to tell you. Sasami and I took a little
stroll through the forest surrounding the shrine yesterday."

A guarded look crept onto Ayeka's face. (What is she
getting at?) she wondered. "Yes...?"

"Well," Ryoko said in a matter of fact tone, "We were
walking along and enjoying the scenery, and Sasami happened to
notice an old bird nest in one of the trees." She smiled,
enjoying the growing look of fear on Ayeka's face. "I just _had_
to fly up there and look, and wouldn't you know it?" she said,
reaching behind her head to extricate something hidden in her
hair. "I found just the most beautiful pretty blue feather lying
there in that nest," she continued, pulling out a large light
blue wing feather and waving it in a mesmerizing pattern. "I
said to myself, 'You know, Ryoko, I bet Ayeka would just love
that feather. I should bring it back and give it to her as a
gift.' And I did. Do you want your present now, Ayeka-chan?"

Ayeka gulped and shook her head franticly; all thoughts of
her position vanishing like fog in a strong morning sunbeam.
"Oh, no," she replied, giggling nervously. "You shouldn't have.
Really!"

"Oh, but I did." Ryoko's posture changed subtly, becoming
more of a fighting stance. "I was saving it for later, but I
realize that you need it now." She advanced menacingly, still
twirling the feather.

"Oh, no, I couldn't accept that," Ayeka protested, backing
up. "Really, such an elaborate gift for little old me? I really
couldn't." She bumped backwards into a wall and scrabbled
sideways until she could continue retreating through the door.

"Oh, but I insist," Ryoko insisted.

"I couldn't possibly," Ayeka protested weakly, glancing
furtively behind herself.

"But it's rude to turn down a gift," Ryoko replied. "And
I'm afraid you don't have much choice in the matter." With a
battle cry and a lunge, she grabbed for the princess.

Ayeka yipped like a startled Pomeranian and dashed away,
Ryoko hot on her trail.


Sasami was just about to walk up to the back door when it
burst open, missing her by a scant few feet, and Ayeka came
barreling out.

"ExcusemeSasami!" Ayeka called back, having all but knocked
her younger sister down in her haste.

"Ayeka?!" she exclaimed, stumbling back a few steps after
the bigger girl brushed by. "What-AHH!" she yelled again as
Ryoko came flying out immediately after, a bright blue feather
clenched in her teeth.

Rather than dodge and lose precious time, Ryoko simply made
herself insubstantial, flowing around the little princess with
ease.

Sasami stood in shocked silence, staring after them as they
ran the short distance to the tree line.

"Miyah?"

"You and me both, Ryo-Ohki."


Ayeka ran like she'd never ran before, although not in the
usual sense.

Despite her initial burst of speed that had given her some
headway, Ayeka was a terrible runner. She was clumsy. Three
times she had nearly fallen, and that was on flat ground. Her
rhythm was off and her form was nonexistent. She took great
gasps of breath whenever she could, but she usually had it jarred
right back out by landing heavily after yet another overextended
stride, leaving her in even greater oxygen debt than before. She
didn't watch where she was going. Despite knowing full well what
happens to people who look back in the movies, she kept her head
turned as she ran, trying to keep Ryoko in sight. And her choice
of running apparel was terrible as well, as a bright yellow and
green flower print kimono isn't the loosest garment in the world.
She had already discarded her obi to the wind and threw the
kimono open as best she could, trying to give her tightly wrapped
legs more space to move.

The cause of all this ineptitude is unknown, as Ayeka was
actually in great physical condition and well trained in many
sports, including track. Nevertheless, she ran so badly that
Ryoko finally quit toying with her and simply tackled her gently
to the ground in order to prevent her from hurting herself.

Ryoko's form was, of course, flawless. Many an American
football coach would have wept with pride at such a tackle and
demanded a thousand pushups of anyone who insinuated that manly
men don't weep. She came in midway up Ayeka's body, hitting her
in the butt with her left upper arm and shoulder and positioning
her head to Ayeka's right. Due to the angle of attack, Ryoko's
head ended up slightly in front of the purple-haired princess,
and Ryoko's right arm wrapped around from the front, pushing on
Ayeka's left side even as her other arm pulled from the rear,
twisting the princess off her feet.

It would have hurt a whole lot more if Ryoko hadn't used
her powers to slow the fall enough for her to get her own body
out from Ayeka's path of descent and allow the still flailing
girl to thump gently down on the grassy earth between two well-
leafed trees.

Then, as Ayeka tried to regain her breath, Ryoko straddled
her thighs and sat, grabbing both of her slender wrists in one
vice like hand and stretching forward to pin them down above
Ayeka's head. Then she used her power to increase her relative
weight, making doubly sure the princess wouldn't escape.

This also positioned her face about six inches from her
captive's, and although she did have one hand free, Ryoko chose
to keep the feather in her mouth for the moment. This was great.
She grinned in triumph at the no longer haughty princess.

Ayeka shifted and struggled, acutely aware of the
vulnerability of her position. Usually, she was in control and
trying to create this kind of feeling.

Ah, well. Research.

"Unh unh unhh," Ryoko said through her closed mouth,
lightly dragging the end of the feather down the side of Ayeka's
face.

"AH! Don't do that!" She squirmed more and snapped at the
feather, forcing Ryoko to withdraw or risk losing her instrument
of vengeance. Her torment halted for the moment, Ayeka looked up
at her ex-rival's face framed in teal hair.

"Laughing a bit early now, aren't we?" Ryoko murmured as
she watched the princess giggle beneath her. "I haven't even
_begun_ yet."

"No, no, that's not it," Ayeka replied contritely,
amusement dancing in her eyes. "It's just the way you looked
just then reminded me of an Earth saying I heard on television a
few weeks ago."

Ryoko looked intrigued. "Oh? What was it?"

Ayeka grinned impishly. "You looked like the cat that ate
the canary."

Ryoko slowly reached up and removed the feather from her
mouth, studying it thoughtfully. A smile slowly crept across her
face as she considered the statement. "You know, I kind of like
that."

Ayeka snorted delicately. "You would, you little sex
kitten."

"Mrrroww."

Ayeka shivered ever so slightly.

One of Ryoko's eyebrows raised. "My... My. You know, I'm
glad you finally got rid of that bug up your ass. You've been
too damned moody this morning." Ayeka really was kind of cute,
pinned to the ground as she was. Her hair was in disarray,
flared out around and underneath her head, and Ryoko could see
several twigs and leaves that had gotten bound up in the dark
silky mass.

"Sorry," Ayeka apologized, thinking similar thoughts,
staring up at the violently innocent pirate whom she had fought
with most of her life. (Those eyes, those eyes were it,) Ayeka
thought. Everything about Ryoko could be read through her
beautiful, soulful eyes. Then she shivered again as she realized
that those selfsame eyes were looking down into her flared
kimono. She wasn't wearing a bra thanks to the tenderness the
leather outfit had caused.

(She's not wearing a bra,) Ryoko thought, having just
noticed.

The tableau held for several long moments, neither girl
quite sure what to do or say.

"Ah, erm, I was thinking, earlier," Ayeka said finally.

"You? Thinking? No!" Ryoko mocked, her free hand across
her breast and a look of astonishment on her face.

"I think!" Ayeka replied indignantly.

"You think what?" Ryoko asked, suddenly innocent.

"I think-" Ayeka started to repeat, but was cut off.

"You think you think? You mean you're not sure? You must
have more in common with Mihoshi than I thought!"

"Ryoko..." Ayeka growled, the fire that drove her the
previous night starting to grow once again.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Go ahead," Ryoko apologized.

"As I was saying," she said very definitely, daring the
pirate to comment. "We may have been a little rash earlier in
deciding to go back to separate beds." Ayeka was actually
stretching a point there. As a matter of fact, she had
forcefully acted demure and tucked the cyan-haired woman in her
own bed, then gone to take a cold bath, brush her teeth
furiously, and curl up on the couch, all the while insisting that
they should share Tenchi's loneliness and sleep separately.
Further justification had been the reasoning that she would sleep
better without Ryoko's freezing feet rubbing her legs.

"It is kinda silly," Ryoko agreed. "I mean, when you think
about it."

"My point exactly!" Ayeka exclaimed. "So," she continued
in a more subdued tone, "I would be most pleased if you would
care to rejoin me."

"Cold feet and all?"

"Cold feet and all."

"Ayeka-chan, I would be glad." Then, on impulse, she
leaned forward once more and gave her a quick kiss.

"Err, yes," Ayeka replied, dumbfounded. "I knew you didn't
like the couch, but I had no idea you hated it that much."

Ryoko nodded seriously. "You have no idea. Why, sometimes
inconsiderate people walk by and dump ice water on me in my
sleep."

Ayeka giggled, once. Then she looked up at Ryoko, eyes all
wide and innocent. "So, now that you've caught me, what are you
going to do with me?" she asked in a high voice that made her
sound years younger.

"Well, I'd pretty much figured on tickling you with this
feather until you screamed for mercy for a while. Gotta make
sure you learn your lesson. 'S for your own good."

Ayeka nodded back, big-eyed.

"Or," Ryoko said, cocking her head sideways at the
princess. "Say 'I submit to your will, most powerful and feared
space pirate Ryoko.' and we can skip your punishment and go back
in to wait for Tenchi. Deal?"

Ayeka visibly considered it; all that was missing was one
finger on her lips as she looked upwards and to one side. Then
she focused back on her capturer. "Nah, I don't like that deal.
Tell you what, you let me up, bow, apologize for getting your
mistress all dirty, and I'll be extra lenient the next time
you're naughty."

Ryoko grinned and shook her head. "Nah. Where's the fun
in that?"

"Well then, we appear to be at a standoff."

Ryoko shook her head. "What makes you think that? You're
at _my_ mercy, remember? I guess I need to remind you of that
after all." Her hand started moving in an intricate series of
evasive maneuvers; all done for show, as there really was little
Ayeka could do about it.

The bright pretty blue feather mesmerized the fallen
princess, captivating her attention as it wove and spun, fell,
darted and dipped in to gently caress the line of her jaw.

Ayeka tensed as the tip connected, but the spot wasn't one
of the most sensitive and Ryoko was using a bit too much pressure
for it to really tickle, so she soon relaxed. At least until
Ryoko brought it up to just barely tease the end of her nose.

"Ahh... AHh... AHH...!"

"Whoops!" Ryoko said quickly, removing the feather.

"Ahhh..." Ayeka sighed, the urge to sneeze fading. "YEEK!"
she said again as Ryoko's feather danced around the underside of
her arm.

Ryoko knew from past experience that Ayeka was extremely
vulnerable to underarm sensations, and promptly put that
knowledge to evil use. Ayeka immediately degenerated into
mindless, out of breath giggles under Ryoko's ministrations. Due
to the princess's sensitivity, she did relent and allow her time
to catch her breath, which she did in great gasps.

"Oh... okay, now that you've had your fun, can we go in?
Please?" Ayeka all but begged.

Ryoko visibly considered it, and she did have a finger on
her lips as she looked upwards to one side. Then she refocused
her attention on her prisoner. "No." She resumed her attack.

Ayeka squirmed and fought with all her strength, giggling
hysterically as Ryoko tormented her. Her struggles were so
fierce that she nearly unseated the pirate, but Ryoko's strength
was far greater and the effort was in vain.

Ryoko loved it. She would occasionally switch sides and
tickle the other arm because it was funny when Ayeka started
throwing her head from side to side and screaming her name.

"Ryoko! ReeooKOO! dOn't doOO THAT! PLEASE!" Ayeka
screamed at the top of her lungs.

Mercifully, Ryoko stopped.

"Do what?" she asked.

Ayeka gasped for several seconds. "Don't, *huf*, do that.
Please."

"Do that?" she asked, demonstrating.

"YAH!"

"Okay," Ryoko agreed easily. "I won't do that anymore."

"*huff* *huff* thank you..." Ayeka sighed and allowed her
tired and strained neck to rest, laying her head back on the
ground.

Ryoko stuck the feather in her mouth and brought her free
hand up to grasp Ayeka's wrists as well, releasing them with her
other hand to give her arm a break. Then she started pulling at
the opening of Ayeka's kimono, freeing it more and giving herself
a wider access to the inside.

"Ah, Ryoko?" Ayeka asked, once again raising her head.
"What are you doing?"

Ryoko paused and looked directly at the flushed princess.
"Oh, this? Nothing much. Just finding more of your sensitive
spots." She resumed her task.

"Nooo..." Ayeka sobbed.

Ryoko halted yet again, this time slightly exasperated, and
looked at Ayeka in annoyance. "Look. If you don't want me to
tickle you, all you have to say is 'Ryoko, I really don't like
this. Please stop it.' and we can go back in. Otherwise, cut
the crap."

Ayeka's mouth pressed into a hard, thin line and her eyes
bore intensely into Ryoko's. "Ryoko, I really don't like this."

"Fine." Ryoko said curtly, jerking the feather out of her
mouth with her left hand and preparing to get up.

"...but I want you to do it anyway."

"Ah," Ryoko ahhed, breaking into a smile. "Well, you had
your chance." She lightly touched the top of Ayeka's right
breast with the end of the feather.

"Heehee, ohh no," Ayeka protested.

Ryoko lifted it and stuck her face about three inches in
front of Ayeka. "Look, are you going to quit complaining or
what?"

Ayeka stared at her in disbelief for a second, then yelled
angrily. "WILL YOU FIGURE IT OUT ALREADY?! It's a part of the
damned game!"

Ryoko threw her head back and laughed hard. "Princess, I
knew from the start. I just like jerking your chain, that's
all."

Ayeka's face clouded and her hands balled into tight, hard
fists. "Ooooh!"

Ryoko laughed again. "You're _so_ easy to manipulate," she
said idly, twirling the feather back and forth between her
fingers. "All it takes is pushing the right... Buttons..." She
trailed off, using the feather to flick at Ayeka's bared right
nipple.

"HoooOOHH!" Ayeka giggled in discomfort, her voice rising
at the end. Despite it all, she really didn't like being
tickled. Really. It just got her painfully excited, was all.

But Ryoko did it anyway, lightly dragging the feather in
ever increasing circles around Ayeka's breast, delighting in the
way Ayeka squirmed and fought. Even Tenchi didn't react like
this, although his, 'reactions', were fun in their own right.
Ryoko shifted her position to the side, pushing her left leg
beneath Ayeka's and locking her ankles together on the other
side, giving her even more unrestricted access to the uppity
princess.

One of the less widely known tidbits of information about
Juraians was that they were almost universally ticklish, and
Ayeka was not one of the few exceptions.

She screamed, she begged, and when her breath ran out, she
arched her back and slammed it into the ground over and over as
Ryoko's very naughty hand disappeared under her kimono and
emerged minus the feather.

Ryoko's fingertips danced the Monkey, the Chicken, and the
Nitty Gritty _all_ up and down Ayeka's side, frequently at the
same time, then did an impromptu and extremely bad version of the
Highland fling across the sensitive line of her stomach, just
above the waistband of her panties.

Ayeka didn't know any of those dances; for that matter,
neither did Ryoko. Ayeka's face suddenly got very serious as she
raised her head to watch Ryoko's hand at play. That only lasted
for a few seconds though, as Ryoko pinched the inside of her
thigh with a gleeful expression on her face. Fresh laughter
erupted from her tormented throat as her eyes squinched close on
her tears and she threw her head back.

She fought to raise her head again, desperately attempting
to bite Ryoko's left forearm when it got too close to her face,
but she noticed Ryoko's hand, all but the first two fingers
curled into a ball, do a line dance across her belly like the one
they had saw on Earth TV. That was weird enough, but when Ryoko
started using her fingers to do high kicks and humming "Da da
daaa da, da da dada ta," as an accompanyment, neither of them
could take it any longer and they both burst into laughter.

They lay like that for several moments, sharing the moment.
Ayeka used one of her now free hands to wipe her eyes and curled
the other arm down around Ryoko's shoulders, lightly stroking her
hair. Ryoko flopped back, throwing her arm wide as she laughed,
but soon curled onto her side, grinning at Ayeka.

"I must say, that is one of the silliest punishments I've
ever had to endure," commented the princess. "You certainly make
things interesting in the oddest ways, Ryoko. Have you no sense
of propriety?"

"Nope," Ryoko said grinning. "Not a one."

Ayeka sighed. "I thought not."

They both giggled again briefly, Ayeka starting in alarm
and falling silent as Ryoko reached across and grabbed the edge
of her kimono. She quickly relaxed as Ryoko only tugged it
closed and let her hand lay on top.

"I miss Tenchi," Ryoko said finally.

Ayeka said nothing, merely nodding. Although she couldn't
see it, Ryoko knew from the way she had moved. Ayeka hugged
Ryoko close, squeezing hard before rubbing her arm up Ryoko's and
lightly caressing the side of her face.

Ryoko sighed and closed her eyes, hugging back. It was
hard to wait, but having a friend helped.

"This isn't what it looks like," Ayeka said finally.

"Huh?" Ryoko replied, raising up and looking at the
princess. Then she noticed where Ayeka was looking and quickly
turned to see Tenchi's grandfather standing a little ways away.
"Oh... Ah, yeah." Ryoko said, indicating agreement with Ayeka's
statement.

Katsuhito just stared at them impassively, or possibly just
in shock.

Ayeka and Ryoko exchanged a look, then chorused together,
"It's Mihoshi's fault!"

That got a chuckle.

"Girls, it wouldn't surprised me at all," he replied,
chuckling and scratching the back of his head. "Pardon my
interruption. I'll let you get back to your... Whatever." He
turned and walked away toward the house at a stately pace.

"He thinks we were..." Ayeka said wonderingly. "You and
I..."

"Well, Hell!" Ryoko replied, deliberately loud enough for
her words to reach Katsuhito's ears. "What does he expect,
telling Tenchi not to sleep with us any more until after
marriage? That we'd just wait patiently?" She watched with glee
as the elderly man stumbled in mid-step, then hurried inside.

"Out here among the trees..." said the purple-haired girl,
still lost in the thought.

"Hah! Serves him right! I may respect Tenchi's
grandfather as much as anyone else, but it's still his fault that
we're in this mess. I've half a mind to just grab you, go find
Tenchi, and blow this backwards planet," she said irritatedly.

"Your hand in my clothes..."

"Well, no, only Tenchi, but we could be back in
civilization in a week, without all these funny attitudes about
sex."

"Dancing on my velvet flesh..."

Ryoko glanced over at her zoned-out friend in irritation,
tapping her hard on each side of the face. "Hey! He~y! Snap
out of it, will ya, Ayeka? I'm trying to be pissed, here."

Ayeka turned a vacant, goofy grin on the pirate. "Yes?"

Ryoko screamed her anger at the heavens.


****************


"There it is," Kiyone said quietly as she directed the
unscathed Yagami through the upper levels of the stratosphere.

One part of the screen displayed an aerial view of a
section of the African jungle just south of the equator. The
space pod hadn't landed so much as simply hit almost dead on,
creating a slightly oval shaped crater over a hundred and fifty
meters across at its widest point. The steaming crater was
nearly twenty meters deep where the pod now rested, and due to
the copious amounts of groundwater to be had in the region it was
slowly filling up with a murky brown sludge. Despite the fact
that the crash had happened only four hours earlier, the water
was just about to completely cover the cooling pod and was nearly
halfway up the sides of the crater. All the immediately
surrounding trees leaned away from the blast, making the rim a no
man's land of twisted and broken splinters.

"I'm not picking up any life signs in the area," Mihoshi
reported. "I think whoever it is has already gotten out." She
looked at the screen and made a face. "We need to look for clues
in the pod, but I wish it wasn't all yucky."

Kiyone nodded seriously. "We'll have Yagami tow it back up
before we search it, but we need to do a careful sweep of the
area to find whoever rode here in it. Or whatever. That's not a
pod design I'm familiar with. Yagami is running a search in the
database, but we've got no matches so far. We'll have to look
inside and out to find out where it came from and who owns it."

Murky water was no hindrance to Yagami's sensors, and they
scanned and probed, bringing up a 3-D schematic of the antiquated
vessel on screen. Suddenly, the water around the pod started to
bubble and steam, drawing both of their attentions to the screen.

The water boiled away in an instant, leaving the scorched
earth to bake and fuse as the pod glowed white, melting to an
inert lump of base materials in a matter of a few seconds.

Mihoshi brightened. "Oh, well. At least we don't have to
get all dirty."

"There is that," Kiyone agreed. "So much for clues there.
Let's find the owner and ask it where it came from instead."

"Right!" Mihoshi immediately had the computer search an
even wider area, hoping to pick out the intruder before it got
too far.

The computer immediately returned readings from hundreds of
life signs of large animals within a half-mile radius. As the
search went on even more beings were reported, flooding the
screen with reports. None of them were in the database and all
of them had potentially come from the crashed pod.

"Oh, my," Mihoshi murmured, awed by the rampant
biodiversity. "There are too many readings. We may have trouble
finding it in this."

"Great." Kiyone sighed, thinking. She kept Yagami high,
well out of visual range of anything on the ground. No sense
letting the other guy know where they were at until it was
absolutely necessary.

Mihoshi frowned at the screen and keyboard, furrowing her
brow and squinching up her face in a fair, if unintentional,
parody of the 'thoughtful' face she saw other people use. Given
that she usually had an open expression, she looked much like she
had bitten into something sour. "I wonder..." she said to
herself, tapping keys to the tune of a song she had heard earlier
that day.

Kiyone frowned severely and rubbed at her temples. "We're
not combat rangers, we're not equipped for this kind of search,
especially since _you_ destroyed our last combat suit. We need
our enviro-suits, and portable life scanners-"

"Like those in the equipment locker," Mihoshi replied,
listening absently.

"-And capture field generators-"

"There's one under my bed," Mihoshi supplied helpfully,
although she hoped her partner wouldn't ask why.

"-And insect repellant-"

"GP standard, equipment locker, third drawer on the left."

"-And most importantly, backup-"

"You did ask Ayeka and Ryoko if they would help," reminded
the blonde, still typing away.

"-We can't do this. We don't even know how many of them
there are, or where they are. This jungle is huge, how are we
going to find it in this?"

"Found it!" chirped her partner happily.

Kiyone stared dumbfounded at the screen where Mihoshi had
caused a blinking red light to appear, indicating a life form the
computer had flagged as being non-native after Mihoshi had
somehow managed to get it to understand the difference. She
sagged back in her chair, crossing her arms and looking away in
disgust. "Well, I didn't hear you say anything about the enviro-
suits," she groused.

"I'm wearing mine," Mihoshi replied hesitantly, looking at
her innocently. "I thought you were just thinking about the
equipment lists. Didn't you get yours when we were at the
apartment?"

Kiyone's eyes snapped open wide, and her head jerked around
to stare at her partner's curvaceous form, completely covered by
a one-piece GP uniform that provided protection from a wide
variety of extreme environmental conditions.

Like temperature extremes, both hot and cold. And chemical
irritants, such as industrial strength ammonia-based cleaners.
Which was why both she and Mihoshi had taken them out of the
ship, down to their apartments, and worn them every day to work
during their brief stint at a fast-food place where they were
either being splattered by grease, freezing in the refrigerator,
or wiping at their watery eyes as they scrubbed everything in
sight. The GP suits didn't draw attention under the long-sleeved
uniform and could be a lifesaver when your bumbling co-worker
caused you to spill six cups of near-boiling coffee on yourself.
They didn't even stain.

Kiyone looked down at her own clothes; sensible shoes,
socks, a light pink skirt that came to just above her knee, cream
colored shirt, and a pink vest that matched her skirt. She was
in uniform all right, but it was the wrong one. And thanks to
budget cuts, there weren't any more on board.

Dammit, Mihoshi was the one that was supposed to pull this
kind of stunt, not her!

"Ano, Kiyone?" Mihoshi asked again. "Why are you hitting
your head on the control panel?"

Yagami plummeted from the sky.


****************


Ayeka and Ryoko walked back to the house and into the
living room to find Katsuhito kneeled behind the TV, randomly
tugging on wires while Sasami stood by watching in concern.

"Hey, what's up?" Ryoko asked.

"Oh, the television wasn't working when I turned it on,"
Sasami replied, baffled. She didn't have much experience when it
came to malfunctioning devices; Jurian technology having long
since advanced past the random malfunction stage. Even the earth
equipment she'd been around thus far had worked perfectly.

Katsuhito didn't know a coaxial cable from a power cord,
his expertise being with spiritual matters and such, but when
Sasami looked up at him with big, innocent eyes and asked him why
the TV wasn't working, he had little choice. So now he did his
best to mimic the things he'd always seen his son-in-law do in
situations like this, giving it the same devotion to detail and
appropriate reverence he reserved for all important rituals.

The three girls watched in mystification as the old man
frowned, pulled out plugs, blew on them, replaced them, tried the
controls, frowned some more, scratched his chin, hmmed to
himself, switched plugs around, tried it again, switched them
back, cursed under his breath, and finally stalked off for a
stiff drink and some deep thought on the Zen of electronics
repair.

As planned, none of them asked any questions or tried to
stop him, afraid as they were to disturb his apparent bad mood.
He concealed a faint smile of triumph; apparently Nobuyuki was
wiser in the ways of women than he'd ever given him credit.
Katsuhito wondered how many other situations this technique could
be applied to.

"It must be bad," Ayeka said, to which the others all
nodded seriously.

But, of course, there's always one.

"Well, lemme give it a shot," Ryoko volunteered. "I know a
pretty good bit about electronics from all the times I hotwired
ships." Without so much as a by your leave, she knelt and ran
through a checklist of all the things that could be wrong.

The television itself seemed to be okay in that it would
display picture, white static fuzz, anyway, and it also had the
accompanying his of audio static. She stuck a handy tape into
the VCR, which also worked, and the movie started playing
accordingly. But whenever she tried to get an earth channel, all
she got was static.

"Well," she said finally, "the TV is fine. We can't get
the broadcast. It could be a broken cable or the receiver, but
either way I can't fix it." She noticed Sasami's crestfallen
look and thought furiously. "But... I think I can work around
it. Ryo-Ohki!"

"Miyah?" replied the cabbit from where she had been
watching on the couch.

Ryoko grinned at her. "Come on, Ryo-Ohki, we need your
ears." She walked over and scooped the cabbit up, depositing her
on top of the TV. "Now, we're waiting for a call from Kiyone an'
Mihoshi, so I want you to keep an ear cocked for that, but Sasami
wants to watch some earth TV, too. Think you could decode the
signals?"

"Meyow." She looked down dubiously at the primitive box.

Ryoko leaned in close and whispered, "It's for Sasami.
Pleeese?"

Appearing to come to a decision, the cabbit shrugged and
nodded.

"Thanks, Ryo-Ohki. I'm sure you'll get a few extra carrots
out of this." Ryoko pulled out the short coaxial cable from the
VCR and pulled it up where it could be grasped in one little paw.

Ryo-Ohki's eyes lost their focus as she concentrated,
occasionally flicking her ears.

"Can she really do that?" Ayeka asked.

"Yup! She's a cabbit, after all," Ryoko said as if that
explained everything. "She receives almost every form of signal
there is, continuously, and figuring out how to send it to the TV
shouldn't be a problem for her at all. It wouldn't surprise me
at all to learn that she watches soap operas non-stop."

"Miyah! Miyah!" she replied enthusiastically, and Ryoko
facefaulted.

Sasami giggled. "I guess she does."

Ryoko struggled back to her feet. "She says that 'Days of
our Lives' is the best."

Abruptly the TV speakers shrieked and the screen became a
blinding collage of colors, startling everyone. Ryo-Ohki's nose
twitched rhythmically as she adjusted her output to a signal the
television would receive properly.

"Wow, Ryo-Ohki is really smart, isn't she?" Sasami
enthused, scratching the little cabbit between her ears.

Ryo-Ohki miyahed in agreement, soaking in the praise.
Coincidently enough, the picture blurred, becoming pink-tinted
and full of static.

Sasami backed away to look at the change in sound. "Ano, I
think you lost it again," she told the furry antenna.

"Miyah..." Ryo-Ohki growled in exasperation. She didn't
work well with the low-level radiation waves the Earthlings
employed to transmit data, and this was rapidly becoming a
headache. She swiveled her ears slightly, hunting for the best
reception.

One of the great mysteries of life, and one of the most
important ones asked since the invention of electronic broadcast
units throughout the universe, is why everyone in the immediate
vicinity of someone attempting to adjust the reception on a
receiver feels that it is simply impossible for anyone else to do
it properly without their constant input.

"Try sitting up straighter."

"No, lay flat and raise just your ears. That should do
it."

"Maybe if you turned sideways?"

"Cup your ears slightly, and bend the left one down. No,
your other left. MY left. Yeah, that's it, just a little
more... Darn! Lost it!"

"No no no, stick your left one out, raise your right paw,
and wiggle your nose."

"That'll never work. I'm telling you, she needs to bend
that left ear, but swivel her right. We almost had it."

"Oh, and I suppose you're an expert on cabbit reception
now?"

"I've only been with Ryo-Ohki all my life, PRINCESS, I
would think I would know a little something about her by now!"

"With the way you carry on, I'm surprised you even know
what she is!"

"Why you snooty little bitch!" Ryoko pushed up her sleeves
on each arm and got in Ayeka's face.

Ayeka didn't even flinch. "Uneducated cretin," she said
matter of factly.

*slap*

Ayeka's face was turned to the side from the force of the
blow, yet the rest of her body remained locked in place. Slowly,
she turned back to face her opponent, who was staring at her hand
with a shocked expression. "Care to try that again?"

"..." Ryoko replied, horrified at what she had just done.

"No, really. I won't even move. Do it again," Ayeka
dared.

"But I'm-YEARRG!"

Ayeka dropped her fighting stance for the one she was in
when Ryoko had slapped her, bringing her hand back from where she
had pinched and twisted Ryoko's left nipple.

Ryoko stepped back, her arms crossed over her breasts
protectively, her face squinched up in pain. She looked up at
the princess, eyes alight in fury. "You want this? You want
this?"

*POW*

Ayeka sat down heavily. That wasn't a slap, that had been
a punch that caught her full on the mouth. She shook her head to
clear away the cobwebs and raised one hand to her throbbing lip
and sore jaw, using only one hand to assist her rise to her feet.
Her finger came away bloody, a fact she duly noted when she held
it back to check. She brought it back to her mouth and licked it
removing all traces of blood. Then, much to Ryoko's horror, she
smiled at the pirate, an unholy light coming to her eyes.

And launched herself at the taller woman.

"Here, Ryo-Ohki, have a carrot," Sasami said, having
carefully navigated the active battleground to bring the cabbit's
reward.

"Miyah!" *crunch* It wasn't all bad, she supposed,
munching on a carrot and watching the princess and the pirate
Eskimo wrestle each other. At least she got her entertainment
out of it too.


****************


Several minutes later, after a hasty recover, the two GP
officers had a plan.

Going back for her uniform was out of the question. It
would take far too long, and the perpetrator would have that much
extra time to hide. They had to go for it now.

Kiyone gave her equipment a final check. They only had the
one capture field generator, a fat cylinder about three feet long
and a foot thick with two extensible handles and a diamond shaped
bulge on the end of the 'barrel', so she had grabbed it herself,
hooking its carrying strap over her shoulder. Complimenting that
was her standard issue GP handblaster and control cube, making
her one of the best armed people on the Earth. If she couldn't
have armor, she could have weapons. She did have some
protection, however, as she had slung a GP firefight shield over
her back in case she was ever in a position to use it; the CFG
took both hands to use. None of that took very long, and she
spent the rest of her prep time hooking up both her partner's and
her own climbing harness.

Due to the extremely thick forest growth, they couldn't set
down or teleport, so they'd have to descend on a cable from
Yagami's airlock.

Mihoshi had already been suited up, and she also had her
gun, but it took her nearly twenty minutes to properly configure
the portable life form scanner to distinguish between the suspect
and the alien flora and fauna. Unfortunately, the portable unit
didn't have the sophistication of Yagami's instruments and she
had to do it all by hand. It was good thing that Mihoshi
excelled at mindless repetitive tasks.

Once finished with her final checks, Kiyone returned to the
bridge to find her partner on her knees, begging for someone to
save her life.

"Please, oh please! The big icky monster has me cornered
right now, threatening me with its big, sharp teeth and preparing
to rend me limb from limb! Tenchi! HELP ME! Wah, I'm scared!"
she bawled, clasping her hands together, tears streaming down her
face. "Ryoko? Ayeka? Are you there? Hurry, or you may be too
late! Wahhhh-" Off camera, she abruptly stabbed her finger down
on a button.

"Mihoshi! What in the nine levels of Bureaucracy are you
doing?"

Mihoshi turned to her partner, the tears instantly drying
on her face. "Oh, I'm recording a desperate plea for help to
send to Ryo-Ohki in case we get in trouble and need backup. It's
set to send if we don't check back to Yagami once every hour."

Kiyone blinked. "But why were you pleading for your life?"

Mihoshi gave her a frank look. "So they'll hurry, of
course!"

Kiyone shook her head. "I had no idea you were so good at
acting."

Mihoshi smiled vapidly and shrugged. "I was one with the
moment," she replied simply.

"Mihoshi, let's go."

Gear was grabbed, lines were tied, and Yagami dropped down
to within ten meters of the treetops, less than three hundred
from the position indicated by the blinking light on Mihoshi's
flat square detector screen.

"Get ready..." Kiyone warned as the ship darted into
position, the line gripped tightly in one hand and wrapped around
her waist.

"Ready!" Mihoshi replied.

"GO!" Kiyone yelled, opening the door and diving through in
one smooth motion.

Mihoshi was right behind her, keeping an eye on both the
screen and the rapidly approaching treetops, letting the pre-
programmed instructions in the line winch slow their descent as
they got closer.

Kiyone was first down, her hand blaster drawn in one hand
and the end of the line held in the other. She landed close to
the trunk on a particularly wide limb, keeping hold on the line
as she steadied herself with the same hand.

Mihoshi landed next, even more gracefully as she simply
swung onto a fork that allowed her to stand unaided, far enough
back from the trunk that she had a better view down.

"Well?" Kiyone hissed, eyes darting around. The trees they
were in were on the bank of a large river, just up from a large
waterfall hissing in the distance. According to Mihoshi's
coordinates, the alien being was in the river itself, a lucky
break since they would be hard pressed to spot it in the dense
foliage that surrounded them.

"No change-uh oh. Change. BIG change! Fast!" she
exclaimed, clipping the line to her belt and letting go so she
could draw her own blaster in her hand.

"Running to us or away?! Dammit, Mihoshi, directions! I
need directions!" Kiyone insisted, scanning the rapidly flowing
river.

"Toward! It knows we're here!" Mihoshi replied, fear
entering her voice. "It's too fast! One hundred meters!" She
turned to face the direction it was coming from. "Seventy!
Fifty! Fourtythirtytwentytenit'scomingrightforus!" She
screamed.

A twelve-foot streak of pale white and dark green rocketed
up through the limbs, sending wood splinters flying.

Two shots spanged out from their blasters, far too late to
intercept the speeding creature as it shot by Kiyone. An unknown
appendage caught under her outstretched arm, knocking it up and
sending the blaster flying, causing her to reel backwards off the
branch, frantically grasping at the safety line.

Which no longer offered support, severed as it was by the
being jumping from her perch to the line over Mihoshi's head.
Kiyone fell head first toward the bank of the river below, but
first she had a few dozen limbs to go through.

Mihoshi snapped off another shot, but missed as she was
jerked off the branch from the impact on the line above her. For
one sickening moment she dangled, a couple hundred kilos of
sinewy alien monster on the line between her and the airlock
above.

It turned to look at her, a cold light burning in its
bright, solid yellow eyes. She saw a mouth full of long, sharp
teeth curled back in an inhuman grin and an unknown number of
mottled limbs curled around to grasp the safety line.

And then it swarmed upwards, not even sparing a backward
glance as the severed end of the line slithered through its feet,
sending Mihoshi on a long fall after her partner. First things
first, however. Mihoshi aimed carefully, bringing both hands to
the grip of the pistol and squeezing off one final shot.

The bright yellow bolt streaked by the monster at a shallow
angle, far outpacing it in the race to the airlock. Mihoshi's
shot severed the safety line at the airlock, smashing several
electronic panels in the process.

Yagami, sensing the attack, closed the airlock doors as
programmed, cutting off Kiyone's dangling line and removing the
alien's last possible route to the ship. The GP cruiser then
darted back upwards, not stopping until it reached low Earth
orbit.

About that time Kiyone hit her second limb, accidentally
biting deep into her tongue as she flailed to catch herself.
Unfortunately, she was hampered severely by the bulky CFG and
slid by painfully, on to the next. She soon lost both count and
consciousness, never even noticing when an errant limb snagged
the strap on the CFG and left it dangling as she bounced to the
ground.

Mihoshi landed on her back on the limb below her with an
'ouch', hanging there for a moment as coils of line fell around
her. Slowly, awkwardly, she rolled sideways and slipped toward
the rushing water below. Her frantic efforts to stop her fall
were not in vain though, as she promptly wrapped the line around
her, barrel rolling to the end of the slack and getting
hopelessly tangled. She hung there with her eyes spinning madly,
disoriented from the wild fall.

A series of sharp cracks and moans above brought her back
to reality. "Oooh... My head..." she complained, rubbing the
back of her skull with one free hand as she looked around. The
first thing she noticed was the complete lack of items in her
hands. That was cool, no cause for alarm yet. The next thing
she noticed was the large alien monster straddling the limb she
dangled from, an expression of pure agony on its twisted, inhuman
features. This was rather more cause for alarm.

Slowly, it fell sideways until it dangled from the limb
just above her, hanging by four different arms and letting its
legs slip free. A groan slipped past a truly ferocious grimace,
and Mihoshi felt the need to say something.

"Umm, Mr. Monster?" she began hesitantly. "Are you
alright?"

It jerked at the sound, one yellow eye popping open and
swiveling wildly until it focused on her. It narrowed in what
was definitely an annoyed glare, the other eye opening to match
it.

"Well, I, uh, didn't mean to make you fall, you see," she
said, poking her fingers together and glancing down. "But, uh,
as a Galaxy Policeperson I couldn't just let you steal our ship,
but then again you might not have been going to _steal_ it, but
anyway I'm very very sorry to have made you fall like that..."

*huff* it huffed, although what it was trying to convey
wasn't clear. Its two upper arms let go and crossed over its
elongated torso; apparently it was willing to wait for an
explanation.

"Oh, yeah!" Mihoshi exclaimed. "In all the excitement I
forgot to read you're your rights and the charges. Ahem. You
have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be
used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an
attorney. If you do not have one one will be provided to you by
the court. You are hear by charged with attacking a Galaxy
Police vessel with a low yield antimatter weapon, which is a
misdemeanor according to GP regulation number 638766-7625
section... Nine, I think." She leveled an accusing glare at it.
"That paint job is practically new, you nearly smudged it!"

It blinked.

"Oh, yeah, and you are also charged with entering the
restricted area of the Earth system, an off limits 'natural
evolution' preserve of the Empire of Jurai. This is a felony
violation and you will face additional charges in Jurian court.
Let's not forget the criminal assault on two Galaxy Policepersons
and the attempted theft of their vessel, unless you can give me
some mitigating circumstances."

One wickedly clawed hand reached up and scratched its chin,
then stretched out casually and held two claws scissor-like
against the safety line. It grinned at her, displaying more
dagger like teeth than Mihoshi cared to count, and raised one
hairless eye ridge at her questioningly

Mihoshi looked down. Naught but empty air and a few thin
bundles of leaves separated her from the rapids below. She
looked back up, eyes wide and frightened. "Okay, why don't we
just forget about the assault charges?"

*snip*

Mihoshi jerked downward, sliding about a foot as she
franticly grabbed at all the coils within reach. "Waah!"

*snip*

Mihoshi bawled uncontrollably now, tears streaming down her
face as the freed line snaked around the branch, dropping her
even lower. "Please don't, Mr. Monster! Killing a GP officer is
a high felony offense, punishable by-"

The monster gave her another delighted grin and cut the
second to last remaining support.

This was a slack one, however, and she remained where she
was. Now, though, only a single loop of line held her to the
branch.

"Punishable by, by..."

*snip*

"Byyiee..." Mihoshi's dwindling scream stopped with a
sharp splash. The last thing she saw as she fell was the monster
waving at her with one hand.


Kiyone noted her partner's disappearance blearily, rubbing
at her sore head. She sat on the soggy ground that broke her
fall, dazed and confused.

Then the sounds of several more limbs breaking above her
brought her back to the situation at hand. It was time to go.

A pair of comfortable, feminine shoes were kicked off and
discarded immediately, their hard, flat heels, though low, were
not suited for jungle travel. Kiyone's feet were tough and
nimble; perfectly suited for a high-speed sprint through the
jungle.

This was very similar to one of the GP officer's training
programs, and by following remembered tricks Kiyone was able to
make excellent speed in the harsh terrain. Barely a twig was
crushed or a leaf left swaying in the breeze, such was the
stealth of her passage. A hunting leopard could hardly do
better, and the alien beast-thing was left far behind her.


Part of the reason for that was that it had stopped to chew
curiously on the CFG and eat a luckless tree sloth, but her
passage was no less swift for all that.


Blood pounded in her ears and the throbbing lump on her
head, and occasionally she was forced to crash headlong through
tangles of brush and vines, but Kiyone's instincts were true.
She laid several false trails, doubling back repeatedly, running
backwards, splashing through the numerous small streams; every
trick she knew of to throw off her pursuer.


Several miles back, the huge hexapod burped out a tuft of
sloth fur and settled back comfortably against a mossy tree trunk
for a siesta. Out of the prison for only a day and it had
already had to drive off an assault. If it was going to deal
effectively with the various threats it had already encountered,
a nap was probably a good idea.


Finally, she staggered to a halt and collapsed breathlessly
on a grassy spot of ground, a little more than one hour and five
miles away. Automatically, she reached for her earring,
intending to summon Yagami and get the hell out of here, or at
least get help. Ryoko could probably match the perpetrator on
its own ground, but she wasn't able to.

She didn't actually expect it to be there, and wasn't
surprised to learn that it, too, had been lost in the flight.
The E-Z Remove feature had always been those thing's weakest
point. Irritatedly, she brushed at an itch on the back of her
neck.

A sudden memory flashed in her mind: Two young women with
dirt smears all over them, wrestling with a sink drainpipe.

Her heart sank at the hopelessness of the situation. There
was simply no way that she and Mihoshi were going to be able to
work their shift tomorrow, and there went yet another job.
Kiyone let out a long, heartfelt sigh.

Everything had gone wrong for her from the start.
Forgetting her uniform, that was a rookie mistake. Kiyone had
long since thought she had moved on to the veteran's mistakes;
apparently she was in some sort of transition stage.
Encountering yet another ridiculously powerful criminal on this
primitive planet that wasn't even listed on most maps, now that
was just bad luck. She seemed to have a lot of that kind.
Getting knocked off one limb and hitting the rest on the way,
incidentally losing her gear in the process, well, that was
another example of bad luck. Watching her partner fall to her
probable demise in the surging currents of an alien planet...

Kiyone brightened. "Well, I guess it's not all bad," she
said aloud, and was startled when a flock of birds burst from
cover a few yards away. Realizing what she had said and why, her
mood darkened once more.

What kind of monster does it take to be happy at her
partner's death? Mihoshi was probably her best friend, and
certainly the only one who had never intentionally stabbed her in
the back.

Although, there were doubts about one time. Kiyone
couldn't imagine how she had missed noticing a giant venomous
newt-spider crawling around on her back, and Mihoshi never did
manage to produce evidence, but she was probably telling the
truth. Her tendency to tell the truth was her most annoying
personality quirk, even worse than leaving the toilet seat up.

"Ugh," she said and shuddered, the skin on her back
crawling at the very thought of having a newt-spider on her. A
convenient stick served to scratch the imaginary itches even as
she continued to berate herself.

Mihoshi was a good GP officer, even if she did manage to
get herself, and Kiyone, demoted as fast as they were promoted.
She was a devoted friend, incurably honest, and possessed of an
unshakable set of morals. Just because she was also mind
bogglingly annoying at times didn't mean she should be happy she
was gone. Kiyone made a mental note to do something nice for her
the next time she saw her.

It was almost definitely too good to be true, anyway.

Rest break over, all hopes of immediate rescue dashed,
Kiyone hopped up and set about the simple mechanics of staying
alive.

She never noticed the six-inch eight-legged horror that ran
for cover as she got up, having been so recently evicted from its
temporary mobile home.

First, more distance was needed between her and the
monster. She had seen how fast it moved, so her only hope was to
get lost in the biological wonderland that made up the local
flora and fauna. Kiyone set off at her most stealthy pace,
gauging her remaining daylight with a worried eye.

Unlike her previous mad dash, this one was less energy
intensive, affording her the time to actually look at her
surroundings and hopefully avoid the odd Earth predator as well.

Brightly colored birds of all shapes and hues flitted to
and fro in the branches, their calls and whistles mixing with the
calls of even more, stranger animals. No two trees were alike it
seemed, and fascinating animals of all sorts scaled their bark
skins. Once she caught a glimpse of a large humanoid creature
sitting on a branch, but her path carried her elsewhere.
Perhaps less appealing, strange squishy creatures were flattened
beneath her toes, with the odd crunch just to break the monotony.

Kiyone was startled at the diversity. It was one thing to
see the listings on the scanners, a whole other to experience it
firsthand. By contrast, even the wildest of the planets she had
been on were about as biologically diverse as a large garden. Of
course, Earth _had_ been set aside as a 'Natural Evolution
Preserve'. It was supposed to have diversity such as this.

The paths she followed were generally bare and slightly
slimy, the dirt dampened almost to the point of mud by the
frequent rains the area received. Other than the occasional
hard-shelled insect, the ground was almost perfect for barefoot
travel. Her prints would likely be trampled on and churned to
the point of obscurity by the other animals on the trails, and
there were few sharp objects to pierce her feet and slow her
down. She was stealthy and silent as she ran, just another
predator/prey relationship playing itself out in the ancient
jungle.

Of course, it being a busy jungle, with lots of other
animals living out their day-to-day lives beneath and in its
canopy, it was inevitable that she would run into another such
struggle running concurrently.

"YEEK YEEK!"

"AHHH! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"ROWL!"

"YEEK!"

"AHHH!"


****************


"I'm home!" Nobuyuki called as he walked in the door with
his jacket over his shoulder. He loosened his tie with one hand
as he slipped his shoes off, smiling when he heard several
welcoming calls coming from different parts of the house. He
would miss the girls when they were gone. They made the big
house feel alive.

He deposited his briefcase on a table and walked to the
living room. He could already hear the television on.

Inside the living room, Sasami looked over the back of the
couch as Nobuyuki walked in. "How was your day, Mr. Masaki?"

"Oh, good, good," he replied dismissively, then gestured at
the TV. "What's with Ryo-Ohki?"

Sasami giggled. "The receiver stopped working, so Ryo-Ohki
took its place. We even get more channels now."

Ryo-Ohki took a large bite of a carrot lying beside her,
causing the image to blur and become orange tinted.

Nobuyuki chuckled. "I've stayed in a lot of hotels, but
this is the first time I've ever seen a carrot operated
television. I'll have a look at the dish after I change
clothes." He paused. "Have you seen Tenchi?"

Sasami nodded. "Yep, he's talking to my sister and Ryoko
right now." Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper and
she leaned closer.

Instinctively, Nobuyuki leaned down as well.

"Ayeka and Ryoko had a fight earlier today," she said
solemnly, as if it was a statement of great importance.

Nobuyuki laughed. "Oh, is that all? They used to fight
all the time. The house is still standing, so I guess it wasn't
too bad."

Sasami shook her head. "They got into a _fight_. No
powers."

Nobuyuki raised an eyebrow. "Are they still mad?"

Again, Sasami shook her head, sending her long tresses
bouncing. "That was the weird part. They weren't mad. My
sister laughed the whole time. It was very strange."

"Hey, Dad. How was work?" Tenchi asked as he entered the
room.

"Same old," he replied noncommittally, looking up.

Both Ayeka and Ryoko had followed Tenchi in, and they drew
Nobuyuki's eye. Ayeka walked along in the position she had
favored ever since the whole mess had started, clinging lightly
to one of Tenchi's arms, in this case the left. Ryoko, on the
other hand, clearly wanted to be closer to Tenchi, but every time
she did Ayeka would glance in her direction and Ryoko would
skitter back nervously. Of further interest was that Ryoko
sported a dark bruise over one eye and a series of shallow
scratches across her cheek. Ayeka's lower lip was so swollen
that it looked almost like she'd been stung by a wasp, despite
the wide grin she wore, and her hair was in a terrible disarray.

"Hello," Ayeka greeted, and bowed lightly.

"Yeah, um, hi," Ryoko spared him a perfunctory glance
before resuming her watchful gaze at Ayeka.

"Miyah!" Ryo-Ohki said suddenly, startling everyone. She
adjusted her output as they looked around, changing the image on
the television screen.

Mihoshi's face popped up on a white screen, eyes wide and
full of fear. "Ryoko! Ayeka! We've got a situation here!
Neither I nor Kiyone can reach the ship, and we need backup now!"
Her voice got even higher with panic. "Please, oh please! The
big icky monster has me cornered right now, threatening me with
its big, sharp teeth and preparing to rend me limb from limb!
Tenchi! HELP ME! Wah, I'm scared!" she bawled, clasping her
hands together, tears streaming down her face. "Ryoko? Ayeka?
Are you there? Hurry, or you may be too late! Wahhhh-" The
transmission cut off with an air of finality that didn't bode
well for the hapless detective.

"Oh, no!" Sasami cried, even as the others blinked at the
TV in astonishment. "You've got to go save them!"

"Right!" everyone agreed.

"Ryo-Ohki! Get off there and let's go!" Ryoko barked.

"I'm coming too!" Tenchi added, as neither of the two girls
seemed to be paying him much attention. He suppressed a flash of
anger as they conferred for a few seconds, probably about his
safety, but was gratified when they nodded.

Ryo-Ohki jumped straight up and phased through the rest of
the house, transforming into her crystalline ship form as soon as
she was clear.

Ryoko grabbed both Tenchi and Ayeka, instantly teleporting
them into Ryo-Ohki. The cabbit shot away into the sky without
another word.

They found Yagami orbiting pilotless above central Africa,
a fact Ryoko noted when she teleported over to check. The ship's
log was uninformative; showing only that it had closed both
airlocks and rose to a height of seven miles when it detected
shots fired at the airlock.

Ryoko teleported back over with a worried expression and
gave Ryo-Ohki the coordinates for where Kiyone and Mihoshi had
exited Yagami.

Ryo-Ohki paused just above the treetops, much as Yagami had
previously, but this time only Ryoko emerged, teleporting around
quickly as she searched for clues. She quickly spotted the coils
of safety line, the scuffmarks on the limbs, and an intact GP
blaster, which she recognized as Kiyone's. She also found a
scattering of electronic parts which she didn't recognize, but
did see parts of the GP emblem on some of the shards. A pair of
sensible shoes was also lying at the base of a large tree, but
Ryoko left them where they were.

Of Kiyone and Mihoshi themselves, and the being that
attacked them, the only sign was a set of barefoot prints which
Ryoko followed for a short distance and lost in the jungle
vegetation.

She returned to her ship even more worried.

"Did you find anything?" Tenchi asked.

"Not enough." She handed Kiyone's blaster to him. "At
least one of them was able to get away, but I lost her trail.
We'll have to search in Ryo-Ohki."

"Can she find them?" Ayeka asked, equally worried.

"I'm not sure," Ryoko admitted. "But there's only one way
to find out."

As it turned out, Ryo-Ohki was unable to spot either of the
two detectives for the same reason Yagami's sensors couldn't pick
out the alien. There were too many different animals in the
jungle, and they all seemed to belong to a different species.

They tried a search pattern along the river, visually
looking for either of them, but again were unable to find them.
Both, if alive, were probably in hiding, making it that much more
difficult to find them.

Finally, late that night, weary and worried, they called
for a break in the search. Tenchi had school, and wasn't really
needed. Ryo-Ohki flew back to Japan, and Tenchi grimly looked
forward to hurrying off to school as soon as he got back. Ryoko
and Ayeka would return and search in shifts as soon as they
could.


****************


If they had only continued searching that night, they might
have spotted the unusual sight of three different figures in the
leafless top of an unusually tall tree, illuminated by the bright
moonlight and surrounded by a dense cloud of blood-sucking
insects.

Kiyone glared at the occupant of the third painfully
slender tree branch from her perch between the first and second,
nursing her injured hand where it had been bitten, either by the
leopard or the thrice damned monkey she wasn't sure. From time
to time she would wave furiously at the bugs.

Farther down below, the leopard crouched patiently on the
smallest limb that would support it and stared up hungrily at the
two tender morsels that should have been its supper, occasionally
licking its tail where it had been bitten, either by the monkey
or the human it wasn't sure. Every now and then it would twitch
its ears when the carpet of mosquitoes that covered them became
too much to bear.

The monkey hung onto the top of the thin branch with three
limbs, cradling its arm where it had been scratched, either by
the leopard or the human, and responded to the glare by throwing
its own excrement at the one whom it suspected was responsible.
It, too, scratched at bug bites in its fur.

"Hey! Knock it off you little bastard!" Kiyone protested,
taking a half-hearted swipe at the monkey before grimacing and
wiping the filth off. She flicked it aside, unable to choose
between the monkey and the leopard as targets.

"Yeek yeek," it gibbered, swinging out of reach.

The leopard just grumbled deep in its throat and lay its
head back down.

Kiyone slapped at another one of several thousand
mosquitoes and tried to relax her aching muscles. She had been
hanging there for several hours now, and it was beginning to tire
her out. She looked around for the seventy-third time, trying to
figure out how to secure herself to the tree while she slept
since she was definitely going to be spending the night here.

The three branches were green and flexible, swaying
whenever she or the monkey moved, and they sprouted from a single
junction a few feet up from the leopard. Suddenly, she hit upon
the perfect solution to her dilemma.

Squirming and holding on with only her legs, she was able
to remove her shirt and bra, which she knotted around her neck.
This left her topless, but now she had building materials.

The branches each angled slightly away from each other,
making the second phase of her plan difficult. Still, Kiyone
picked the likeliest of the pair and began her climb, poking her
skirt clad rear out behind herself as far as possible, trying her
best to bend it toward the other one.

The bark was smooth and difficult to grip under the best of
circumstances, and as tired as she was, not to mention in the dim
light, it wasn't the best of circumstances. Despite her best
efforts, her fingers and toes slipped around just a little,
sending her on a gentle, arching course over to the third limb;
the one with the monkey.

"Yeek!" it protested, startled by her strange antics.

"Yeek!" she agreed, feeling several small shivers in the
wood that indicated some of the fibers had separated. After a
few sickening moments of swaying back and forth violently, the
motion slowed, as did her heart rate. Chuckling nervously, she
gave a wry grin to the monkey, now only about three feet away.
"So," she began, mostly just to talk. "Hang around here much?"

A blob of something foul struck her just under the left eye
and stuck there for a few seconds before sliding slowly down her
cheek.

Kiyone sighed and wiped it off. "Happens every time," she
grumbled to herself. "You try to make some nice small talk and
they always bring politics into it."

Being lighter than she, the monkey didn't have much trouble
clambering higher until it was at the level where the end of her
branch crossed the end of its own.

"Hey," Kiyone cooed, having just had a happy thought.
"Could you swing me around to that other branch? Please?" she
coaxed.

It cocked its head sideways at her, eeping softly.

"Pretty please?" she begged. "Look, I'm sorry about the
arm, alright? You'd have done the same. In fact," she said,
looking at her hand, "I think you did."

The monkey reached out with one hand and grabbed her limb,
giving it a few experimental tugs, which caused her to sway
again.

"Yes! That's it!" Kiyone cried, causing the leopard to
look up. "Just push me around to the other limb. That's it, you
can do it..."

The little simian braced itself with both its legs and its
tail, grabbing her branch with both hands. Then, using all the
strength in its wiry frame, it pulled hard.

"Nono!" Kiyone protested. "Bad monk-"

*CRACK*

"IEEE!" she cried, holding on for dear life as the green,
living limb fractured in what is typically called a 'greenstick'
break, and with good reason.

The fibers on the outer edge of the bend separated, letting
it, and Kiyone, fall unimpeded. However, the fibers on the
inside edge, and fortunately this was in a fairly thick section,
held firm, causing her to arc in toward the trunk and sway back
and forth like a pendulum, upside down.

Her cries and the monkey's laughter resounded throughout
the jungle, stirring creatures for miles.

The leopard, meanwhile, sat up and batted at the oversize
cat toy, making Kiyone even more nervous if such a thing was
possible, even though she was well out of reach.

Gulping audibly, she collected her wits. Now she had to
get back up to a safe limb, preferably without making any sudden
movements that might break the last bit of wood keeping her from
a long, long fall.

Kiyone considered all her options, then crossed off
swinging around and going up upright. It would probably prove to
be too much for the limb to take. Ditto swinging and grabbing
onto the trunk, especially since it would put her in reach of the
big cat.

No help for it. With nothing in front of her but a leaf-
stripped end and a gaping void, she carefully, oh so carefully,
began to slide backwards up the tree.

Once close to the still solid portion of the limb, she was
able to grab it and turn herself around without much difficulty,
making it the easiest part of the task so far. Once steady
again, she regrouped and considered another option.

Her last remaining branch was a bad choice; it simply
leaned too far out. The monkey's, on the other hand...

As quickly as she could, she shimmied back up her limb
until she was the same height as her fellow prey. "Hey, monkey-
boy," she said unnecessarily. "Get down from there. I need your
branch." Seeing it just stare at her, which she expected, she
wrapped a leg around behind the limb and whipped her shirt off
from around her neck. A few deft wraps around one hand and a few
flips to twist it properly turned it into a decent weapon that
gave her the extra reach she needed.

*crack* *snap*

"EEP! YEEK EEK EEK!" The monkey scrambled around, trying
to evade the deadly accurate blows. Finding its way up blocked
by a rapid series of snaps, it quickly climbed down the tree,
which was the plan all along.

Kiyone just snickered, finally getting some of her own
back. Although she didn't mention it often, she was known as the
Queen back when she was just another trainee in the Galaxy Police
boot camp showers. Even the toughened graduates who regularly
hazed the recruits gave her a wide berth.

Finally managing to get on the proper branch above the
monkey, she lost little more time in bending it over to the other
one. The bra went around both and was tied off in a triple
secure knot that she doubted even the damned monkey could untie
or bite through. Now she had a secure frame to work with, formed
by the arch of the two branches.

Unfortunately, she still didn't have enough material. So
the skirt was added to the supply of cloth her shirt provided.
Then, making a few careful rips, twists, and knots, she was able
to fashion herself a short, narrow hammock and hang it between
the now shortened space between the two branches.

Kiyone grinned in accomplishment as she eased her weary
body into place. It wasn't the best bed she'd ever had; her
lower legs dangled over the side, her head lay on a particularly
large knot, and she didn't even want to think about what she was
going to feel like in the morning, but after hours of running
through the woods, climbing trees, and holding on for dear life,
it felt like heaven.

Then it started raining.

Not long after that, the wind picked up.

And some time after that, the monkey bit her toe.


****************


Miles away, nestled in a hollow on the ground, protected by
the tough, insulated material of her uniform and a small bottle
of GP insect repellant, Mihoshi slept like a baby.

As Kiyone would say, 'There ain't no justice.'





To be concluded in part b...