Chapter Six
Earth
The Present Day

"I just don't understand all of the readings that I've been getting on this planet, Heiwa."

Washu sat back in her seat with a heavy sigh, dropping her hands down on the top of the computer unit with a burst of frustration as she did so. "Yume, nothing adds up. Nothing makes sense. All the data seems to suggest that the planet was imploded by something within - but a seperate force, such as an outside weapon of some kind. Yet there's been nothing of that nature on that world for a long time. Heiwa was a peaceful planet. They didn't involve military techniques or personnel, and they didn't have any political enemies. They were a haven for nomadic space travellers from all over the galaxy, but there was no overruling party or government and every sector seems to have lived happily alongside the rest, with folk coming and going as they chose. So what suddenly caused such a world to ignite and throw rock and debris out across the whole of their solar system? It really makes no sense, and that worries me."

"What worries me is the fact you're obsessing about this Heiwa place." Yume sighed, coming to stand at her companion's side. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you're using it as an excuse to hide in here and avoid other issues that are bothering you. Things such as the fact this was Clay's planet, for example. You're wondering if somehow he might have survived, aren't you? That he could have built a weapon and attacked his homeworld for some reason of his own?"

"Am I so transparent?" Washu looked rueful. "Yes, it had occured to me."

Yume shook her head.

"Clay is dead." She said firmly. "There is no doubt about that, Washu-san. I analysed the material myself, and it was definitely Clay's decomposing remains hidden within that gel. He didn't escape. When Tokimi lost her magic, he lost his extended life-span and so died. That's what happened. Heiwa's destruction is tragic, but probably an innocent occurance. A meteor, perhaps. Things do still happen by chance, you know. There has to be some allowance made for naturally occuring phenomenon."

"Spoken like a true logician." Washu laughed, nodding her head. "And you're right. I'm growing paranoid. But I get a touch edgy when dealing with planets exploding. It's a sore subject of mine, you might say."

"You think of Kihaku?"

"Of course." Washu agreed. "But Heiwa's destruction was worse. All those people...they do at least deserve some kind of explanation for what happened."

"Then are you going to approach your contacts at the International Space Consortium about this?" Yume raised an eyebrow. "Since you completed your work on the Earth's defences, Washu, you've not really involved yourself in the Earth's manoeuvres. Is it time to change that, do you think?"

"No, I think that I've done all I can and all I should for the Earth on a public basis." Washu said thoughtfully. "I like to keep some of my talents hidden, after all, and if they were to know too much about me and my technology, well, they might take fright. My work is a lot more advanced than even the most skilled scientist on the Earth is used to. They have bright minds, true enough, and many of the people I worked with picked up the idea as soon as it was explained to them. But they lack the background and training that the Academy would give them - and I don't want to scare people with things they don't understand. Heiwa is nothing to the people of the Earth. Right now their concept of the greater universe is limited to the Juraian Empire and the planets in their own solar system. It's better for them if they learn about others gradually. Don't you think so?"

"Then what do you want to do about this?" Yume questioned. "We can't stop Heiwa from being destroyed, or help the people who died. The Galactic Military will carry out investigations, as will the Galaxy Police and probably many of the surrounding planets. Does it really matter so much to you to get to the bottom of it? Just because it was Clay's planet - is that the only reason?"

"I don't like questions without answers." Washu turned back to her computer screen. "That's all."

"Well, I think that all you'll do is vex yourself further, if this continues." Yume said pensively, glancing at her hand as it glimmered and shone before her. She smiled, watching her slender fingers change shape slightly, the glow fading as she flexed her fists together. Then she ran her digits over the controls, setting the computer into shutdown mode. "And you need a break. You've been at this far too long, Washu-san, and it's starting to get repetitive."

"I thought I told you about shape-shifting my fingerprints once already this week." Washu objected. "I was busy with that!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but you look tired, Washu, and you haven't eaten much since this began." Yume said unrepentantly. "You should take better care of yourself. Ryoko and Tenchi aren't here - they left for Osaka already - so you won't have to face any more awkward questions from them about Ryoko's birthday. You might as well take a break and get something to eat, at the very least."

Washu gazed up at the droid as if seeing her with new eyes.

"Yume?"

"What?" Yume frowned. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"

"I'm just realising how much of a personality you're developing." Washu offered her a faint smile. "Something else I need to study further, I think. You're getting positively bossy. Perhaps I've let you mix with Ryoko for too long."

"Or I'm turning your own techniques back on you." Yume's lilac eyes twinkled. "Like mother like daughter, after all. Ryoko didn't fall so very far from the tree."

"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes we're galaxies apart." Washu shrugged her shoulders. "But all right. You win. I'll stop for a while, and get something to eat. I am hungry, as it happens. I've been so focused that I guess I haven't really been considering my stomach."

"Then we'll close the Heiwa file and take a break?" Yume suggested, as her companion got to her feet, stretching as she did so. "Perhaps you need to just get out of the lab and into the sun for a while. The Earth is beautiful, after all. You shouldn't hide away in here all the time, when there's so much to see out there."

"You really do love this planet, don't you?" Washu eyed her keenly, and Yume nodded her head.

"It's become my home." She agreed. "Which is more than I ever expected or dreamed I'd have. So yes. I like the Earth a lot."

"Me too." Washu agreed pensively. "Oh well. Guess I'm heading to the kitchen to see if there's anything left in the cupboards. Cooking isn't exactly my top pastime, but I guess I can throw something together. I mean, the physics of it can't be that difficult, can it?"

"I'll come with you." Yume said, amused. "And I'll cook. I think Noboyuki-san and Katsuhito-dono want to keep their house, and Tenchi won't like to come home to a burning pile of ash. Let me cook."

"You really are getting bossy." Washu reflected, a rueful smile touching her lips as the droid slid open the door of the laboratory. "But I won't complain. Earth cooking devices are based on such primitive technological principles that I have to go right back to the drawing board to work out how they function. I'd probably only end up taking the thing to pieces, and I don't know if I'd get it back together again."

"Which is where I come in." Yume shrugged. "And I like to cook. So it's fine."

"It seems a shame that you cook so much and yet can't eat any of it." Washu said pensively. Yume shrugged.

"I don't need food. I'm not human, however I appear." She said simply. "My power cells are strong and recharge themselves each night when I power down to sleep. But I enjoy making dinner for other people...I like knowing that I can do something normal and everyday which makes people happy. Since I became more human in my outlook, there are a lot of my other abilities which don't sit well with me at all. Being a chef seems to be a positive thing I can do, so I do it. It's better than being an assassin, and that's what Clay seemed to see me as."

"True." Washu acknowledged. "And I think we're lucky to have you, all things considered."

She stepped out of the laboratory, reaching up to flick the door shut behind her, but as she did so, a strange sensation washed over her body, paralysing her momentarily as it shot through her nervous system and encircled her heart. She took a deep breath, swallowing hard as she struggled to bring the impulse under control, but it was to no avail as slowly the sensation spread through her form, causing the tips of her fingers to tingle and dots to dance before her eyes.

"Washu?" As the scientist drew another breath into her lungs, Yume seemed to register that something was not right with her mentor and she turned back, approaching the woman with a look of genuine concern on her features. Washu opened her mouth as if to speak, but her tongue felt thick and heavy and the world around her seemed to be swimming and dancing at an odd, unnatural angle. The colours that swirled through her mind were too bright, hurting her eyes, and somewhere in the back of her brain she felt a strong sense of panic mingled with sudden despair as her mind fought to make sense of what was going on.

"Washu!" Yume was at her side now, as she sank to the floor, putting heavy, numbed hands out to break her fall as her breaths became shorter and heavier. She fought against the blackness that sought to consume her, her thoughts racing through possibility after possibility as she tried to get to the bottom of the strange, debilitating feeling. She raised frightened green eyes to Yume's, swallowing hard, but as she parted her lips to speak, no words seemed forthcoming. For a moment Yume just stared at her in panic, then, as logic seemed to set into the droid's brain, Washu found herself roughly hauled to her feet, the door of the lab swinging open once more as Yume brought her ailing companion back into the darkness, hurrying over towards the central computer as she once more morphed her hands into Washu's own genetic likeness.

As Yume flicked through files and flustered around her, Washu felt her breathing begin to ease and she drew herself into a sitting position, huddling against the wall of the laboratory as she struggled to re-assemble the shreds of her usual composure. Beads of sweat still formed on her brow as she fought against the waves of panic and emotion that still threatened to consume her, and it was a while before her pulsing heart rate began to slow and steady, the burning, relentless sensation of a few minutes earlier dissipating bit by bit until Washu wondered if she had somehow imagined its intensity.

At length, she took in a shaky gasp of air, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes as relief flooded through her.

"Yume." She murmured, her voice still faint, and Yume turned, casting her a frightened glance.

"Washu? Just sit tight, okay? I'll figure this out - whatever it is, I'll..."

"It's okay, Yume. I think...I think I'm all right." Washu opened her eyes once more, holding up her hands. "I feel all right now."

"Are you sure?" Yume looked doubtful, coming slowly to her mentor's side and taking the woman's hands in hers. "Your fingers feel freezing, Washu-san, and you're white as a ghost. You're still shaking and you're drenched in perspiration. Are you sure you're all right? You really scared me."

"Scared me, too." Washu was regaining her strength with every second, now, and she managed a faint smile, settling herself more comfortably against the wall of the lab. "But I'm all right. Whatever it was - it's gone."

"What happened?"

"I wish I knew." Washu bit her lip. "I've never felt like that before. Like every sense in my body was out of control...and bit by bit, shutting down around me. So many thoughts rushing through my head, and so many sensations...I really don't know. But whatever it was, I'm not anxious to repeat the experience."

Yume frowned, reaching across to rest a hand across Washu's brow.

"You don't have a fever." She said thoughtfully. "Though your fringe is damp with sweat and your clothes are probably likewise. Your colour is returning, too. But I don't like this. I've never seen anything like it before. Are you working too hard, Washu-san? I told you you were obsessing about Heiwa."

"No." Washu swallowed hard, shaking her head. "It has nothing to do with that. I've always worked long lab hours and I'm pretty tough, all things considered. No, this was something else. Something alien to me. I can't explain it, but it was like something - or someone - had taken hold of me, and bit by bit they were doing their best to dismantle me from the inside."

"Outside interference?" Yume looked alarmed, and Washu shrugged.

"I only know how I felt." She said softly. "Like I was...losing my mind, somehow. Losing all control. That something was burning through me and it had an evil intent."

"But you're all right now?"

"I seem to be." Washu's eyes narrowed as she considered the situation. "In fact, as soon as you brought me back in here, I began to feel better."

"Then whatever it is must be in the hallway." Yume reasoned. "Some kind of energy pocket or...or weapon we don't know about?"

"Possibly, but what point could that have?" Washu looked non-plussed. "Who'd want to attack me, Yume?"

"Maybe it wasn't aimed at you."

"But you were unaffected. Right?"

"Yes, but I am not biological in all regards. Maybe my digital memory made me immune."

"Well, maybe." Washu sighed heavily, pursing her lips. "But I'm not sure. You're organic enough to have at least detected something. Your sensors picked up nothing?"

"Nothing abnormal, no. But I can go back out there and see if I can, now I know I'm looking for something." Yume suggested. "If you're sure you're okay, that is."

"I'm fine." Washu assured her. "I feel much better now than I did. And I'd appreciate it, if you'd go do a quick analysis. If there's something there, it has to be something fairly potent, and I'd like to know about it before Ryoko and Tenchi return. If I'm susceptible, Ryoko certainly would be - and I'd rather we'd resolved it by then."

"I agree. Tenchi might also be affected, if it's to do with living organisms." Yume said grimly. "I'll do my best, in any case. Just sit tight, Washu. If there's something to be gotten to the bottom of, I'll see what I can find out!"

***washu/timeshift/crisis/**
---------------

"You know, Ryoko, you seem awful preoccupied this evening."

Sakura Ito kicked her legs idly against the wall of the Osaka apartment, sending the pirate a concerned look as she settled herself more comfortably on the arm of the worn out brown sofa that graced the small living room. "Is something on your mind? You've been pretty quiet, since Ikeda and I got here."

It was the next night and, with the weekend upon them, Tenchi and Ryoko had returned to Osaka, putting the discussions about Ryoko's birthday and Tenchi's studying behind them as they looked to spending some time in the city. It was now almost nine o' clock in the evening, and the couple, plus two of Tenchi's closest college friends were now ensconsed in the little twelfth floor apartment while Tenchi hunted frantically through his clothes and his cabinet drawers for his wallet.

"She's probably just calculating how many units of alcohol she can ingest before Masaki asks her how much she's spent." Hiroshi Ikeda leant up against the door-frame, looking amused. "I'd bet a fair few - although if he doesn't find his wallet, we won't be going anywhere this evening."

"Ryoko?" Sakura reached out with her foot to nudge Ryoko, who started, staring at her with a look of confusion.

"Huh?"

"Are you on this planet physically as well as mentally, tonight?" Sakura tilted her head on one side. "I don't think I've ever seen you look so serious before, except maybe for the night we first met, when someone sent a club up in flames. Nothing's going to happen this evening, is it? I mean, this is just an ordinary night out on the town...right?"

"Right." Ryoko looked rueful, offering a slight smile. "No, I'm fine. Really. I was just thinking, that's all. No big deal."

"Something you want to share with the class?" Sakura asked. Ryoko shook her head.

"Sometimes you're way too inquisitive, Sakura-chan." She said frankly. "And don't take this the wrong way, but you and I don't exactly come from the same world, do we? I don't think you'd really understand. Besides, I shouldn't be letting it get to me. It's not like it's even important...so forget about it. I plan to."

"Hrm." Sakura frowned, eying the pirate carefully, and Hiroshi shook his head slowly.

"Sakura, give it up." He advised. "The girl doesn't want the third degree. Besides, she's probably right. What do we know about being an alien, anyway?"

"I know that aliens have feelings, just like you and I do." Sakura objected. "Ryoko, even though we're not from the same planet, you can talk to us. We're your friends too, you know. Yours as well as Tenchi's, now. You can trust us."

"Sakura?" Ryoko stared at the other girl for a moment, then she smiled. "Yes, I know that. And I'm glad. But really, it's nothing important. What's much more important is us getting out of here and having a wild night on the town! Tenchi, have you found that damn wallet yet? Because birthday or not, my money is only going to stretch so far and you promised to buy me at least one drink this evening!"

"I'm wondering if I left it back in the mountains." Tenchi poked his head around the doorframe, almost knocking Hiroshi headlong as he pushed the wood panel back. "Whoops - sorry Ikeda. Didn't see you there."

"How, exactly, did you miss me?" Hiroshi objected. "Masaki, sometimes, I swear..."

"It's not back at the shrine. You had it here an hour ago, and I sure haven't done anything with it in the meantime." Ryoko shook her head. "Oh, for heaven's sake...let me look, okay? You take far too long and I'm thirsty - I'll phase through your cabinet and dig it out. I bet you knocked it flying somewhere when you were changing, that's all."

"Probably." Tenchi acknowledged, looking rueful as he dropped down next to Sakura on the couch. "All right. Thanks, Ryoko. I'm sorry. I was sure I'd put it down safely, but we were a little later arriving than I planned."

"That's trains for you." Hiroshi remarked, and Tenchi shook his head.

"Ryoko brought us. The train was cancelled." He replied. "But I spent most of this morning going over principles for our exams next week, and I lost track of time. It was a bit of a scramble to get here in time to greet the two of you."

Ryoko rolled her eyes, flickering her form and disappearing from the living room as she did so, and Tenchi sighed.

"She's on edge, Tenchi." Sakura said softly. "Did something happen between you two - are you fighting?"

"No, we're not fighting." Tenchi looked startled. "Why? What did Ryoko say?"

"She just doesn't seem quite herself. That's all." Sakura shrugged. "Normally she's the life and soul of any party, but tonight she seems quiet and withdrawn. It's not like the Ryoko we've come to know, so I wondered if she was okay."

"Hey, Masaki, she isn't...I mean, you didn't..." Hiroshi faltered, and Tenchi stared at him.

"She isn't what, Ikeda-kun?"

"Well, you and she have been shacking up in this place all year long, so far." Hiroshi scratched his head awkwardly. "The girl isn't pregnant, is she?"

"Pregnant?" Tenchi's eyes almost fell out of his head, and Hiroshi shrugged.

"Just a question." He said hastily. "I mean, honestly, she's a pretty girl, and you're only human, right? You and she must have...being alone here and all..."

"Ikeda, stop being so crass." Sakura scolded, as Tenchi's cheeks reddened uncomfortably at his friend's innuendo. "Tenchi and Ryoko's relationship isn't any of your business. Maybe if you got a girlfriend of your own, you'd stop obsessing about his!"

"I'm not obsessing! I'm looking out for a friend!" Hiroshi held up his hands, looking indignant. "Babies are expensive, and Tenchi's still in college!"

"Being nosy, more like it."

"Look who's talking, Miss 'Are You Okay, Ryoko?" Hiroshi objected. "Reality check for you, Ito-san. Tenchi's an adult male, Ryoko's a very hot adult female. They're engaged to be married, and spending half of term time living together. Who knows what they might have gotten up to in the meantime? It's our duty as good friends to be there if we're needed, that's all!"

"Or to pry into their private lives?"

"If necessary, yes." Hiroshi nodded unrepentantly. "Masaki, you know you can tell us, if that is it. I mean, you can trust us, right? And well..."

"Ryoko is not pregnant!" Tenchi exclaimed, banging his hands down on the table. "Will you drop it already? It's none of your business what we do and don't do, Ikeda, and I'm getting fed up with you trying to find out! It's like Sakura said - Ryoko and I, our relationship, it's private!"

"Woah, chill out!" Hiroshi stared at him in consternation. "This is your birthday party, Masaki...did you forget that?"

"I'm sorry." Tenchi sighed, sinking back in his seat. "But I am serious. Leave our relationship alone...we're not fighting, and Ryoko's not pregnant. Everything is all right. Okay?"

"And Ryoko?" Sakura looked pensive, glancing towards the doorway of the room. "She's all right, too?"

"Yes, she's all right."

"Funny." Sakura rested her chin in her hands. "She seems almost unhappy, somehow. Like something is eating away at her inside."

"I can't really explain it." Tenchi sighed again. "It's not something that...well, I don't think she'd like me to...it's complicated. But it has nothing to do with our relationship, or what we do or don't do when we're alone. It's something else completely."

"I see." Sakura pursed her lips. "Something you don't think we'd understand, because we're just ordinary Earthlings, huh?"

"Don't be like that." Tenchi rubbed his temples. "It's more something that Ryoko would probably rather I didn't speak to you about, behind her back. And in any case, it's like Ikeda said. This is my birthday party, or it will be. Let's drop it, okay? It doesn't matter right now."

"Amen to that." At that moment, Ryoko re-materialised in the centre of the room, holding the missing wallet in her hand. "Here you go, Tenchi-kun. It was lodged down the back of your unit, so no wonder you couldn't find it. It would have been hard for you to reach, anyway."

Her eyes twinkled with mischeif, lighting up her sombre expression, and Sakura got to her feet, offering her a smile.

"Then let's go." She suggested. "While the night is still young."

"For sure." Ryoko nodded decidedly. "I mean to have the world's best time tonight, you guys. And Tenchi, I know how much cash you have in this, so you better not be feeling stingy. I'm in need of a good night out, if you know what I mean. So make sure you treat me, okay? To celebrate the special occasion?"

"I promise." Tenchi looked amused, reaching out to take the wallet and grasping her hand at the same time. "So let's go already. First round is on me."