Nene and Ryu were in the throes of passion when Ryoko 
stuck her head up through the floor.  "Hmm.  Oh wait, it's the 
middle of the night...well, hi, anyway!"

	They both froze in place.  "I...uh...thought you'd be here 
tomorrow,"  Ryu said, grabbing the sheets and pulling them to 
better cover everything important.  

	"Don't stop on my account."  Ryoko turned around.  
"Anyway, I forgot to factor in time zone differences.  If this was 
Jurai, it would be morning.  Well, if this was the Imperial Palace."

	Nene said, "Can you...um...come back in an hour?"

	"No problem.  I'll go see if I can catch Macky and Manami in 
the act."  Ryoko said.  "Are you already packed?"

	Ryu nodded.  Ryoko didn't do anything.  He realized why a 
few seconds later.  "Yes, Mom."

	"Okay.  I'll be back!"

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

Symphony of the Sabers:  
Nene's Big Adventure

by 

John Biles

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

	It's very cold in space.  Not that Nene could feel it; she was 
safe and warm inside Ryo-ohki, who was zipping across the 
universe with her, Ryu, Sasami, and Ryoko.  Manami had wanted 
to come, but she had class, and Ryu didn't.  He'd finally 
graduated.  Everyone had come to his graduation a few weeks 
earlier, and they'd laid the plans to bring Nene back to meet 
Emperor Azusa.  

	Nene was scared out of her mind.   The emperor sounded 
scarier than Wasyuu from the stories they told.  Although Wasyuu 
really wasn't that scary once you get to know her.  Dangerous yes, 
scary no.  

	Sasami said, "Okay, let's go over the ritual greeting again."

	Nene groaned.  "I can't remember all this stuff!  I've been 
working on it for weeks, and it just runs out through my feet when 
I'm not looking.  All I can remember is to always address him 
with respect and to stand on Ryu's right, since I'll be the Right 
Hand Wife."

	That made Nene proud.  The Right Hand Wife's job was to 
handle security and protect the Emperor.  Ryoko was Tenchi's 
Right Hand Wife, and Misaki, Aeka and Sasami's mother, was 
Emperor Azusa's Right Hand Wife.  It made Nene feel heroic.  
The bad part about it was that there was gonna be another wife.  
Nene still wasn't comfortable with that.  She didn't WANT to 
share him with another woman.  But there was no getting out of it.  
Ryu would be Emperor one day, and the Emperor had two wives.  
It was Juraiian law.  She had to accept this, or forget about him.  
And she didn't want to forget about him.

	Sasami nodded.  "Well, I planted a small radio in the formal 
garb we had made, so I can prompt you.  Just do your best, Nene-
chan."  She thought a moment.  "If you don't know what to do, 
just be silent.  As long as it is clear you are trying and are polite, 
most people will make allowances."

	Ryu nodded.  "You'll be fine, Nene."

	"Just remember to not shoot him in the head if he aggravates 
you, and you'll be fine."  Ryoko said.  "And don't mention 
Tribbles.  Ever."

	Ryu laughed.  "I was surprised he ever let Manami out of her 
quarters ever again."

	"Yeah, I never should have given her the little furry thing, 
but I didn't know what they were like,"  Ryoko said.

	"YOU were the one who gave it to her?"  Sasami said.  

	"I plead the fifth."  

	"Too late for that," Ryu pointed out.

	"I'll plead the sixth, then," Ryoko said.  "And the seventh 
while I'm at it."  She got out a flask from a storage compartment.  
"Or maybe just drink a fifth."

	"Not while we're in flight you won't!"  Ryu said.

	"Stop me."

	Ryoko ended up wearing the fifth.

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

	Somewhat later, Ryu and Ryoko were off on one side of the 
command center arguing about navagation routes and some 
disastrous family trip from about eight years earlier, while Sasami 
and Nene talked quietly.  "Are you married, Sasami?"  Nene 
asked.

	"I've been seeing Lord Citrine from the Gemworld for a 
while now, but I'm not married, or even engaged.  I think my dual 
life scares off a lot of potential suitors."  She sighed.  "Usually the 
first time I say something that indicates I've been around for 
25,000 years, they panic."

	Nene blinked.  "What?  Oh, Tsunami...what exactly is the 
relationship with you two?"

	"Tsunami and I are one being...sort of.  With two souls.  Or 
something.  We're bonded, the way many Juraiians bond with 
their ships, but at a deeper level.  Actually, it's sort of like two 
souls with three bodies:  Me, Tsunami in human form, and 
Tsunami the ship.  Four if you count my 'Pretty Sammi' form.  
Well, five if you count the...anyway.  Tsunami and I aren't quite 
the same being, but we're...blended.  I guess, it's closer to multiple 
personalities, except they're both real and Tsunami's been around 
for millenia.  I guess I can't really describe it."  

	Nene decided to quit while she wasn't totally confused.  "But 
this Citrine guy doesn't mind?"

	"I still scare him sometimes, but he loves me enough that it 
doesn't matter."  She smiled.  "Tsunami has had many lovers over 
the years, but he's one of the few I've ever had.  He's really sweet.  
You should get to meet him.  He's the Gemworld's ambassador 
right now."

	"How old are you anyway?"

	"My Tsunami self is a little over 25,000 years old.  I was 
born in 1280 AD, but I spent most of the next seven centuries in 
coldsleep while we cruised around searching for Youshou.  Let's 
see...we came out of that in 1995 and now it's 2035, so that is 
forty years, and I was eight when I went into cold sleep, so...I'm 
48 in terms of how long I've actually EXPERIENCED."  She 
looked twenty five at most.

	"You people live a long time,"  Nene said.

	"You will too.  You have centuries to look forward to, Nene.  
You'll almost certainly be bonded to a ship, in which case you'll 
live more than a millenium.  Youshou looks old, but his real self 
is still young, and he's eight hundred.  Father is over eleven 
hundred years old.  So is Mom."  She glanced over at Ryoko.  
"And Ryoko is so old, she'd turned into a mummy when Tenchi 
found her."

	"HEY!  I heard that!"

	"Old and withered, dried up and..."  Sasami was giggling, 
then whispered, "Take cover."

	Nene dived as Ryoko charged, chasing Sasami around the 
room.  Ryu teleported over to Nene, sitting down by her.  "Five 
will get you ten that she bumps some control and we end up 
halfway across the galaxy."

	"You're on."

	Nene won, since it was only a quarter of the way across the 
galaxy.

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

	Once the riot was over, they eventually got back on track, 
and finally made the jump to Jurai.  Most ships couldn't end a 
jump inside a system, but Ryo-ohki was substantially better than 
the average ship in many respects.   

	Jurai's sun shone brightly off to starboard, two more planets 
barely visible closer to it than Jurai itself lay.  One of them clearly 
had three rings.  They were not like the rings of Earth's sister 
worlds, however, for they did not lie in the same plane.  One was 
red, one yellow, and one blue, and they each lay at a 120 degree 
angle to the other two.  The planet itself was pitch black, utterly 
dark, despite lying at such an angle relative to the sun and the ship 
itself that it should have been at least partly lit.  

	Nene stared at the planet; she couldn't take her eyes away 
from it.  "Why is that planet pitch black?"

	"Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of years ago, a 
race called the Sidar settled the Jurai system,"  Sasami said.  
"They turned that planet, Niglai, into a prison planet.  Nothing can 
escape, not even light.  The ultimate penalty in the Juraiian justice 
system is to be banished to Niglai.  Somehow, those rings keep 
anything from escaping.  No one knows the fate of those who 
enter for sure, only that the rings warn any who approach that 
'none who pass may return' and that it was a prison planet for evil 
kamis they captured."

	Nene turned to Sasami.  "They were able to capture kamis?"

	"The Sidar were vastly powerful, one of the first races to rise 
to glory and wisdom in the years when the universe were new.  
But they somehow destroyed themselves through excessive time 
travel.  Or perhaps some menace destroyed them and the survivors 
escaped through time travel.  Only ruins and texts we usually can't 
read survive."  Sasami sighed.  "And wonders which often serve 
no purpose.  For example..."  She stood up.  "Ryo-ohki, display a 
chart of the Jurai system."

	A hologram appeared, floating in the air, displaying the 
twelve worlds of the Juraiian system.  Most were ice worlds and 
gas giants, but four were marked habitable; given that one of them 
was in the middle of the gas giants, Nene was a little surprised.  
Two of them...were in the same orbit.  "Here's Jurai, and what's 
this other world?"

	"Shalai.  It's an exact physical duplicate of Jurai, right down 
to the same species.  Apparently created by the Sidar.  We only 
know which one is the original by conducting geological tests.  
Shalai is only 500,000 years old.  Give or take a few thousand.  
But enough of geography lessons.  It's time to land."

	They went to the window, and Nene could see Tsunami the 
ship flying up to meet them.  Jurai spread out below them, a great 
blue and brown and green sphere.  It had more land than Earth, 
about fifty/fifty, although it looked like even less water at first 
glance.  A closer look would reveal the vast number of lakes 
which balanced things out.  Huge green forests stretched over 
much of the planet, with agricultural belts along the rivers and 
coasts, studded by huge geometric cities themselves studded with 
dots of green.  

	Dozens of space stations circled the planet, including a vast 
shipyard, and hundreds, maybe thousands of ships flitted about 
through the orbital space of Jurai.  Ryoko turned and said, 
"Welcome to Jurai, Nene.  Aeka should show up and chew us out 
for being late in about thirty seconds."

	Fifteen seconds later, Aeka's ship came into sight, and Aeka's 
head appeared on one of the viewscreens.  "YOU'RE LATE!"  she 
bellowed.

	Ryu said, "I'm sorry, we took it slow so we would have more 
time to brief Nene on etiquette."

	Aeka fumed a little longer, then said, "Good.  Making a good 
first impression will be CRUCIAL if we want to get the nobility 
to accept you, Nene.  Even more than my father, at least some of 
them have to support this match; if they decide you are unfit..."  
She sighed.  "I will help you garb yourself.  I think I've picked out 
the perfect outfit to go with your hair."

	"Is Duke Ryalin still complaining about that legal 
judgement?"  Ryoko asked.

	"Yes,"  Aeka said.  "But the High Council passed it, so 
there's not much he can do.  He should have waited for his wife's 
inheritance to be settled peaceably instead of trying to seize half 
of House Volospin's lands."  She sighed.  "If only we didn't need 
him to keep order in the Spinward Marches.  He should have been 
executed for treason."

	Nene's eyes widened.  "He overran another house's lands?"

	Ryu nodded.  "The problem was that House Volospin 
entailed their lands six generations ago; all of it is supposed to 
pass to a single heir.  But Lord Blaen, the father of Anatalia, 
Ryalin's wife, was in the process of trying to break the entail 
because he wanted to leave half of the lands to Anatalia, since he 
disliked his eldest son, Naede.  But the bill to break the entail 
failed to pass the Great Council of Jurai--which is our legislature--
because the Low House rejected it.  Many of its members are the 
heirs of nobles who can't sit in the High House because they 
haven't inherited yet.  So they had obvious reasons to oppose it.  If 
the first Volospin hadn't been crazy enough to get the entail 
passed by the Great Council...but that's another story."

	Sasami took over.  "Blaen was trying to have it thrown out in 
the courts when he died.  Ryalin abused his position as Warden of 
the Spinward Marches to seize the half of Volospin's lands that 
would have gone to his wife.  The man's a bit of a nutcase, but 
he'd never gone THAT far before.  The case went up before the 
High Council, and he was forced to hand back the lands.  He 
should have been convicted of treason for abuse of his powers as 
Warden of the Spinward Marches too."

	"So why wasn't he?"  Nene asked.

	"Because it then turned out that House Volospin was 
harbouring pirates, the same ones who have been wrecking havoc 
in the Spinward Marches.  To be more precise, Naede had been 
planning to use them as the core of a private fleet once he took the 
throne of house Volospin.  He lost a lot of sympathy in the High 
Council when that came out, and Ryalin managed to make it look 
like he had just gone after the pirates."  Aeka sighed.  "So the 
second oldest son, Tyfi, inherited House Volospin's lands, Ryalin 
got off with a warning, and Naede was last seen shouting defiantly 
as he was exiled to Niglai for committing treason by maintaining 
a covert private space fleet."

	"Welcome to the world of Juraiian politics, Nene,"  Sasami 
said.  "It's not all as bad as it sounds right now."

	"Some of it is worse,"  Ryoko said.  "But if anyone threatens 
you, I'll just point a finger at them, and they'll run away.  Are we 
cleared to land, Aeka-chan?"

	"Yes, PRINCESS Ryoko.  You're cleared to land."  Aeka 
smirked as Ryoko jumped and fumed.  She hated being called 
Princess.

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

	The Imperial Palace of Jurai is huge; there have been cities 
of historical importance that were smaller.  The docking facility 
alone was larger than most famous palaces; you could lose the Taj 
Mahal in one of the broom closets.  It floated in geosynchronous 
orbit above the palace; from it, one was then teleported down to 
the palace, sorted by social status.  This had sometimes led to 
problems, as the computers had a tendency to assume anyone they 
didn't know qualified for the service entrance.  A major war had 
broken out centuries ago when this happened to the Kzinti 
emperor due to a computer glitch.

	There were no errors this time; Aeka had given Nene 
'Octarine' clearance, the second highest possible, which enabled 
her to enter the lower level of Imperial suites (only the Emperor 
and his wives could beam directly into the upper level) directly 
from the boarding station.  The receiving lounge was lined with 
iridescent rainbowwood which shimmered in the soft light from 
the glowstones set in the ceiling.  The walls were curved and 
polished smooth with the grain of the wood still showing; it 
looked like it had been carved inside a still living tree.  The 
furniture, a collection of chairs and couches, grew up out of the 
floor, the rigor of the wood cushioned by high tech slip covers in 
pastel shades which made hardwood feel like soft pillows.  

	One wall had several communications screens; Aeka sat near 
one, reading something on a portable computer terminal when 
they arrived.  She looked up, stood, and bowed.  "Tenchi is 
informing Father of your arrival.  Ryu, you should go to him; he'll 
help you garb yourself properly."

	"I'm old enough to dress myself!"  Ryu exclaimed, looking 
embarrassed.

	"Nene, come with me.  I'll go over a few final things and then 
we'll get you dressed as well."  She clapped her hands.  "Let's go."

	Ryoko said, "I'll go with you, Ryu.  We'll get you dressed up 
just fine, we will."  She grinned evilly.

	Aeka, who was already starting to lead Nene off, said, "If he 
shows up in a Metallica T-shirt, I will personally feed Ryo-Ohki 
LSD-laced carrots just before your next flight."

	"You're no fun."

	"Hmm.  That's an interesting idea,"  Ryu said.  "I wonder 
where you would end up."

	"Let's not and say we didn't,"  Ryoko said, grabbing him and 
vanishing with a quick flash of light.

	Nene followed Aeka down the hallway, "So what did you 
need to tell me?"  Sasami trailed along behind them, looking 
faintly distracted.

	"There's going to be an assassination attempt on you."  Aeka 
sighed.  "So I've beefed up security.   You're safe in the Imperial 
Quarters, but once you leave them, things will get dangerous, 
possibly.  My agents in the Assassin's Guild learned someone has 
hired an assassin to hit you, but not who did the hiring.  Or to be 
more precise, who employs the person who did the hiring."  

	The hallway was lined with doors, most of them circular or 
rounded.  Indeed, the whole place was marked by the absence of 
sharp angles.  It was slightly disorienting, although the cheery 
light of the glowstones, a soft white light, helped.  The iridescent 
wood had given way to what looked like, but probably wasn't, oak 
paneling.  

	Nene ran a finger along the wall; it was incredibly smooth.  
She was starting to get nervous and needed a distraction.  "Why 
would anyone want to assassinate me?"

	"We don't know, which is part of the problem.  Duke Harig is 
the leader of the opposition to this marriage in the High Council, 
but he's not the assassinating type.  He might suddenly try to 
strangle you in a fit of aggravation, but if he wanted you dead, he 
would do it himself.  Grand Duke Kodos loves to have people 
assassinated, but he's now so paranoid, he won't come out of his 
bedroom, and his son, Kyri, is trying to improve his family's 
reputation during his stint as regent."  

	Aeka stopped at a door, which opened for her.  Inside was a 
huge dressing room, with two long racks of clothing at the far end, 
and an array of grooming tools and makeup worthy of a salon off 
to the right of the door.  The walls were a soft blue, the lighting 
brighter than usual.  "Do you have any good ideas for what we 
can do with her hair, Sasami?"

	"Hey, what about the assassin?"  Nene said as she came in.  
"That's a bit more important than my hair!"

	"We have people watching for assassins and myself, Ryoko, 
Sasami, Ryu, and Tenchi will be with you every second when 
you're out of the Imperial Quarters.  It doesn't get much safer than 
that.  I could go on listing possible candidates,  but you don't 
know any of them and most of them are just wild guesses anyway.  
No one REALLY has a reason to kill you yet."  She sat down on 
one of the chairs next to the grooming equipment and pointed to 
the one nearest the mirrors.  "Sit here, Nene."

	"I have a good idea,"  Sasami said.  "It won't quite be as good 
as it would if she had longer hair, but I'll do my best.  Luckily, I 
had a hair growth stimulator installed, assuming it works better 
than the last one."

	Nene had a bad feeling.  "Wasyuu didn't make this, did she?"

	"Has she shown you this already?"

	Nene contemplated screaming.

**********

	Nene had rejected hairstyle #1, especially since it would have 
involved putting a small building on her head with a squirrel 
living in it.  Even after being assured it was a trained squirrel, she 
still vetoed the idea.  After several other bad ideas, she had finally 
ended up simply gathering most of her hair in back into a pony-
tail which arced upwards, then spilled downwards in a loose 
cascade, while her bangs remained largely the same, other than 
being parted wider than usual to show off the simple gold tiara 
upon her brow.  

	Her clothing was more elaborate, the eight layered kimono-
like garment commonly worn by the nobility of Jurai.  It was 
called a 'kabi' and was covered with one's house symbol and 
colors.  Nene's had been decorated in the colors of her hardsuit, 
and the sigil they had chosen for her was a computer monitor with 
four crossed swords on the screen.  

	The outfit was soft to the touch, and quite comfortable, 
except for one problem; it was rather hot wearing eight layers of 
clothing.  She wouldn't be moving very quickly in it, either.  The 
dark purple slippers were far more comfortable and supporting 
than she had expected, though.  

	She wore three pieces of jewelry.  One was a pair of earrings, 
gold studs connected to a tiny golden chain from which hung tiny 
Saturns made of multicolored gems with silver rings.  They 
doubled as the subspace anchor for her hardsuit (stored in 
subspace from which it could be retrieved with a word) and as a 
radio receiver.  The second was a golden medallion with a 
diamond set in the pupil of a carven eye.  It also doubled as a 
radio transmitter if need be.  The third was a silver ring carved to 
look like a dragon treading on its own tail.  One eye was a tiny 
ruby, the other an emerald.  It doubled as an engagement ring.

	"Do I look regal?"  she asked nervously.  Even fighting 
boomers didn't normally scare her this much.

	"You'll be fine!"  Sasami said.  "Now, help me suit up for 
battle."  She grinned.

	"I wish it could be that simple," Aeka said.  "That all I had to 
do today was have my daily fight with Ryoko and try to figure out 
what Tenchi really feels."

	"Those were happy days,"  Sasami said.  "No point in pining 
away, though.  And it's not like you're miserable."

	Aeka laughed.  "Not at all.  Most of the time, I enjoy it all.   
However, I hope I never start enjoying the assassination 
attempts."

	"This happens often?"  Nene asked nervously.  

	"No, not really,"  Sasami said as Aeka began to brush her 
hair while she worked on her own nails.  "There's only been three 
attempts on anyone in the royal family in the last century, and the 
most recent one was twenty five years ago.  And none of the 
attempts succeeded.  But assassination is a real hazard for the 
nobility."  

	Nene looked around nervously.  "Any idea what the assassin 
looks like?"

	"The Assassin's Guild employs just about every kind of 
creature you can think of,"  Sasami said, finishing one nail and 
moving on to the next.  Aeka was still at work on Sasami's hair.  
This was a long task--it was like trying to tame a landslide.

	Nene suddenly realized that she hadn't seen any servants; 
surely a royal palace would be swarming with servants.  She 
didn't want to say anything for fear of sounding like a snob.  
"There seems to be a lot of space up here for just a few people."

	"The Royal Family varies in size a lot,"  Aeka said, then 
grunted very faintly as she tried to untangle a snarl in one lock of 
Sasami's hair.  "Some emperors had thirty or more legitimate 
children.  And one emperor used most of this level as a harem."  
She sighed.  

	"There's been some bad emperors, like the ones of the 
Warlord Period, who were encouraged to act like animals so they 
wouldn't notice they had no real power.  Normally, there would be 
a lot of servants running about, but due to the possibility of an 
assassination, most of them are being screened by Security to 
make sure none of them are secretly members of the Assassin's 
Guild.  Sasami and I got used to doing without servants on Earth, 
so it's not so bad for us, but Mother and Funaho-sama are not very 
happy about it."  The snarl finally untangled, and the steady brush 
strokes resumed.  

	Nene nodded.  "So how soon do we go?"

	"As soon as we finish,"  Aeka said.

**********

	They all met back at the meeting room.  Tenchi and Ryu 
were dressed in elaborate tabis, black and gold for tenchi, red and 
gold for Ryu.  Even Ryoko was wearing one in black and red with 
her sign, three gold dots in a triangle, prominently displayed all 
over it.  She smiled.  "You look good, Nene.  Just remember, don't 
try to seduce the emperor."

	Nene blushed.  "Speaking from experience?"

	Now Ryoko blushed, and everyone laughed.   She took 
Nene's hand.  "Stick to me like glue.  If worse comes to worse, I'll 
teleport to Ryo-ohki with you."

	Tenchi nodded.  "Ryu and Sasami and I will deal with any 
assassins, Aeka will alert security, then assist us, and Ryoko will 
get you to safety.  The dangerous part will be while we're on our 
way down to the throne room.  It's shielded against teleportation, 
so we have to take the transport shafts.  Once we're in it, we'll be 
fine."

	"What if they cut the elevator cable?"  Nene asked.

	"It doesn't use a cable,"  Ryoko said as she began to tug Nene 
along.  "You just concentrate and fly up or down; it negates 
gravity and uses mentally controlled telekinetic tugs.  Mom 
explained the technical stuff to me once, but it was so boring, I 
fell asleep."

	"You'll get the hang of it pretty fast, Nene,"  Sasami said.

	Just don't think about falling, she thought.  Or it probably 
will make me fall.  Trying to NOT think about something wasn't 
easy.

***********

	She was fine for the first twenty seconds, then suddenly 
plummeted, unable to get the image of falling to her death out of 
her mind.  Before the others could do more than cry out, she 
smacked into something fleshy at high speed, which was rather 
painful.  Given that the airspace had appeared to be empty, this 
was quite a shock.

	While she couldn't understand what it was saying, it was 
clear from tone of voice that it was cursing.  Something that was 
clearly a gun, although it looked like it was made from spun 
candy and driftwood, flew away from the impact point, and the air 
shimmered briefly in the shape of a humanoid.

	A second later, Ryu and Ryoko were by her side, and the 
others were speeding down the shaft.  Another second later, 
Ryoko was grappling with it, and a second after that, it vanished.

	Ryu said, "Nene, are you okay?"

	"I'm fine!  What was..."

	"The assassin,"  Aeka said.  "With improved cloak 
technology.  These things are supposed to scramble that sort of 
signal," she said, waving vaguely at the transport tunnel walls as 
she swiftly descended.  "Ryoko should be able to handle him."

	About five seconds later, Ryoko reappeared with the assassin 
over one knee, being spanked.  "Now, you're going to tell us who 
sent you."

	He was a huge blue-skinned reptillian man, marked with the 
three green tattoos on his arm that identified members of the 
rather illegal, yet well patronized, Assassin's Guild.  His solid red 
eyes were hard, but also showed the beginning of panic.  He wore 
a dark green body suit studded with tiny grey circles over his 
torso, groin, and legs, with black grey-studded boots over his feet.  
One of the sleeves was torn off, probably by Ryoko, but the other 
went down to his wrist, and he wore gloves as well.  The tattered 
remnants of a hooded mask hung down in the back.  "I can't.  You 
know we all get conditioned to not be able to reveal secrets."

	Aeka pulled out a small cylinder and slammed it to the bare 
arm.  There was a faint hiss.  "We've found a counteragent.  In 
about three minutes, your conditioning will not only be broken, 
you will sing like a baby.  In fact, we should be able to break the 
Assassin's Guild for about fifty years or more with what you're 
going to tell us."  She smiled evilly.  "We haven't forgotten the 
Alpha Cygni incident."

	"I wasn't even BORN when that happened!"  the assassin 
protested.

	"That's what they all say,"  Ryoko said darkly.  "We'll see 
what you say in two minutes."

	For the assassin, it was the longest two minutes of his life.

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

	The Emperor of Jurai sat upon his throne.  His wives lurked 
to the left and right of the throne, smiling enigmatically as usual.  
He, on the other hand, was frowning.  I wonder if there's 
something in my genes that causes all my descendents to make 
my life difficult, or if they inherited it from my wives.  He 
glanced over at Funaho.  "Shouldn't they be here already?"  he 
whispered.

	Her lips barely moved, but he heard her clearly.  "There was 
an assassination attempt in the transport shaft."

	For a moment, anger flashed in his eyes.  He couldn't blame 
the High Council for being opposed to this marriage.  It would 
wreck some of his own plans, and only Ryu promising he would 
let his father choose his other bride had gotten the emperor to 
even consider approving this engagement.  Assassination, 
however, was going too far.  Whoever had tried this would find 
out that those under the protection of the Emperor of Jurai were as 
sacrosanct as he was.  "Why didn't you tell me?"

	"I just found out."

	Various nobles milled about, whispering among themselves.  
One of them was likely to blame, the Emperor thought.  They're 
undoubtedly whispering about how an offworlder made the 
Emperor wait, and what a shame it is and the like.

	The doors slammed open at the far end of the hall and an 
angry, elaborately dressed redhead stormed in, followed by Ryu, 
Sasami, and Ryoko.  The nobles whispered among themselves, 
speculating on what would happen next.  One or two took a 
moment  to appreciate the clothing the woman, whom they 
presumed was the potential bride of Prince Ryu, wore.  She had 
been dressed well, even if she was an outworlder.

	Nene stormed into the middle of the room.  Funaho began to 
speak.  "Greetings, offworlder.  Welcome to..."

	Nene shouted, "WHERE THE HELL IS DUKE RYALIN?  
THAT MONKEY TRIED TO HAVE ME KILLED, AND I 
WANT HIS HEAD!"  Her face was red with uncharacteristic 
anger.

	For a moment, the room went silent.  No one had screamed 
in the presence of the Emperor during a formal audience in two 
hundred years.  The last person who did it was still in exile on the 
frozen world Dryco III.  Excited whispers of speculation spread 
like  wildfire.

	Ryoko quietly pointed to a blue haired man in elaborate 
dyiljo robes.  "There."

	Duke Ryalin was tall and thin, his blue hair starting to turn 
grey and arrayed in a mass of curls that spilled out from beneath 
his turban, which was topped with a large sapphire.  He wore a 
tabi of black and silver with his house sigil, a flaming sword, 
worked into ornate Escheresque patterns.  His master key hung 
from his belt, made of red and blue woods.  Cold, hard green eyes 
turned to stare at Nene.  

	Funaho said, "No one is allowed to raise their voice in the 
presence of the Emperor."

	"No one is allowed to try to kill me!"  She stormed over to 
the  Duke.  "I'm challenging you to a duel.  NOW."

	The Duke blinked.  "Insolent child.  You have no proof, nor 
am I honor bound to fight a duel with an offworlder woman for 
any reason."

	Ryoko laughed.  "In other words, you're guilty as hell, but 
you think we can't prove it and you're too cowardly to fight her."

	"I will not be addressed in such manner!"  Ryalin said.

	"Going to challenge me to a duel, your ugliness?"  Ryoko 
asked.

	He paled.  Then Tenchi and Aeka entered, dragging the 
assassin by his arms.  Tenchi tossed the man down onto the 
ground.  "Speak."

	The Illusan assassin pointed at Duke Ryalin.  "I swear before 
the sacred body of the Emperor that he was the one who hired 
me."

	The Duke frowned.  "Will you take the word of a ruffian and 
an outworlder over the word of a Duke of the Realm, descended 
from the Twelve servants of the First Emperor?"

	Sasami spoke quietly.  "I will."

	Tenchi said, "I will stake the honor of my line upon her 
word."

	Misaki had been watching quietly.  She turned to face the 
duke.  "You stand accused before the throne by a Prince and 
Princess of the Imperial Line, bearers of the Sacred Blood.  How 
would you be tried?"

	Ryalin frowned.  None of the options available to him were 
good.  Still, there was one way out, even if it was humiliating to 
fight such a one.  "The young whelp challenged me to trial by 
combat.  So be it.  Name a time and place."

	"Right now."  Nene said.  "I have a busy day planned and I 
want to get this over with."  Sasami whispered something in her 
ear.  "The Royal Dueling grounds."

	A gasp ran through the audience.  None could even enter the 
Royal Dueling grounds unless they possessed Royal blood or 
belonged to the three highest ranks of the nobility, descended 
from the Twelve (at least in theory.  Given that in twenty five 
thousand years, the Twelve had a ton of descendants and many 
genealogical records had been lost multiple times, faking a 
connection to the Twelve wasn't too hard).  The Duke laughed.  
"And how do you propose to enter without breaking the law?"

	"I am Nene of House Romanova, heiress to the Sacred line of 
the Romanovs, Emperors of all the Russias, Grand Dukes of 
Moscow, Grand Princes of Russia, Kings of Poland, Defenders of 
the Sacred Faith and Protectors of the Patriarchate of Moscow. 
Shall I pile more titles on you, or is that enough for you?"  Nene 
smiled.

	Everyone turned to look at the Emperor.  He quirked his lips 
in a smile.  "I extend a royal welcome to Her Most Royal 
Highness, Princess and Heiress of House Romanov.  Be ye 
welcome in this place.  By Imperial Decree, I acknowledge your 
right to enter the Royal Dueling Grounds and the validity of your 
titles within the realm of Jurai."  Chew on this, Ryalin.  You've 
been causing me trouble for a long time, he thought.  I just hope 
she's a lot tougher than she looks.

	The crowd soon adjourned to the viewing chambers to 
observe the duel.  The Duke concentrated and assumed battle 
garb, preparing for the battle.   Nene shouted something in an 
alien tongue few of those present understood.  The air shimmered 
around her and a red and pink battle suit appeared around her 
from subspace.  She shouted something else and a shimmering 
white blade appeared in her right hand as the duke summoned up 
a sword with his master key.

	The audience stared in awe.  Someone whispered, "The 
Radiant Hawkwings."  Tenchi blinked in total surprise.  He 
glanced over at Ryoko, Sasami, and Aeka, who had now joined 
them, then over at Ryu and Manami.  Ryu was smirking

	He sidled over to Ryu and whispered, "Are you doing that?"

	Ryu whispered back, "Not all that glitters is gold."

	Tenchi blinked, then laughed.  So it just looks like one, he 
thought.  It's not like there's a really good way to tell.

	The nobles watched nervously as Nene proceeded to charge 
Ryalin. The swords met and his shattered to bits.  Nene then 
kicked him across the dueling grounds into the wall.  A spray of 
laser fire from her left hand sent him scampering.  For about 
twenty minutes, she chased him around the room.  Sword strokes 
that missed him cut huge holes in the floor.  Finally, she trapped 
him up against the wall.  "Yield, or die."

	The Duke contemplated dying, but he couldn't muster the 
pride.  He hung his head in shame.  "I yield."

	The nobility stared in shock.  Duke Ryalin had never been 
beaten in a duel before.  Who was this Princess who had come 
before them?  No one had known her homeworld, but now 
speculation ran rife.  Servants were sent scampering to consult 
Galactic Atlases.  Already the rumor was spreading that she was 
from some off shoot of the house of Jurai.  It was not otherwise 
possible that she could wield the Radiant Hawk Wings.  Perhaps 
she was not an outworlder at all.  The political wheels began to 
turn.  Nene had reached the eighth row and been promoted.

	The Emperor smiled.  Perhaps this will work out better than I 
thought.

**********

	The rest of the formal audience went rather better than it had 
started.  The hardest part was staying awake through long 
formalized speeches which took thirty minutes to say, 'Welcome 
to Jurai.  We hope you like it.'

	The next step was the state dinner, which Nene was rather 
looking forward to.  The smells hit her before she reached the 
room, and they made her mouth water, even though many of them 
were unfamiliar.  The aromas of spices and honey and cooked 
breads and meats swarmed around her, nearly pulling her along 
physically.  She managed to not drool when anyone was watching, 
but it wasn't easy.

	The dining hall was vast, easily capable of seating hundreds 
at over 2 dozen tables.  The largest table came complete with 
three thrones at one end; it was easy to guess who that was for.  
Nene, to her surprise, was seated at that table to the left of 
Youshou, who was to the left of Funaho, perhaps on the 'put the 
Earthlings by each other' principle.  Ryu sat to her left.  Across the 
table, Aeka sat to the right of Misaki, with Tenchi to her right.  
Ryoko sat to the right of Tenchi, as Sasami was next to her.  
Various Juraiian nobles who Nene didn't know the names of were 
spread further down the table.

	The table itself was smoothly polished, unpainted wood, a 
soft red in color, with elaborately carved legs and its edges carved 
to resemble a water fall.  The chairs were elaborately carven of a 
darker red wood with soft green cushions.  

	One of the many nobles stood and delivered a short prayer to 
the Celestial Emperor.  Short in comparison to the Book of 
Common Prayer, the Bible, or the combined texts of the Gitas, 
anyway.  After a while, Nene was beginning to wonder if it was 
necessary to praise 20,000 kamis before dinner.

	The first course was bread and fruit with various kinds of 
honeys, jams, jellies, butters, and preserves to spread on it.  Nene 
had never seen any of the kinds of fruit before, except for 
swoofberries, which Wasyuu grew in a corner of her laboratories 
inhabited by a race of tiny blue people she claimed to have 
created.  Swoofberry jam went well with Islaca bread, which 
tasted somewhat like a rye/barley hybrid.  Nene had to strain to 
not gorge herself, since she was sure more food would be coming.

	It helped that Funaho decided to talk to her.  Indeed, she got 
the impression that Funaho clearly wished Nene was sitting by her 
and not Youshou; why she hadn't arranged things to her liking, 
being the Empress, Nene had no idea.  "I understand you do 
programming," Funaho said.

	"Well, I work for the ADPolice.  But my real talent is hac... 
programming," Nene said.  Best not to confess to any crimes at a 
state dinner, she thought, trying to be genteel as she stuffed a 
swoofberry jam covered piece of bread into her mouth and 
chewed as subtly as possible.

	"So how are you enjoying your trip?"  Funaho continued.  
She seemed to be able to eat without actually having to make any 
chewing motions, or perhaps she simply had a knack for not 
letting people notice her when she did.  Either way, she made 
Nene feel crude just by being alive.

	"It's all been pretty fun except for nearly dying."  Nene said.  
"But I'm used to that.  I've been one of the Knight Sabres for four 
years now, and we risk death on a regular basis.  I've been in more 
combat than the average cop.  Of course, so have most other 
ADPolice officers."  Munch, munch, chew, chew, swallow.  "Do 
people use those transport shafts for suicide much?"

	Funaho blinked.  "Yes.  You just think about slamming into 
the ground and...what makes you ask?"

	"They operate by reading minds, right?"

	"Basically.  They scan brain patterns and manipulate your 
personal gravity to match your desires.  There's supposed to be 
safeguards, but they often don't work very well.  I tend to take the 
stairs myself."

	"So what would happen if you put a bug on someone that 
projected a false brainwave pattern, stronger than theirs, which 
was signalling 'plunge me to my doom'?"  Nene shoved the last bit 
of bread away.  Wait for the next course, she told herself.  Don't 
be a pig.  The scents were incredibly tempting, though.

	Funaho cocked her head slightly.  "It's been done.  Although 
in theory, the safeguards should kick in and stop you.  It's the mid-
air collisions, rather than falling to your death, which they have 
trouble preventing."

	"Unless you also disabled the safeguards.   You see, I found 
this," she flicked a bug onto the table, "in my bug-pocket when I 
changed back to normal after my fight.  My transformation thing 
removes stuff like this and stores it for me when I go back to my 
normal clothing.  But I don't have the equipment to tell what it 
does..."

	Funaho scooped it up.  "This is bad."  She glanced over at the 
Emperor, who was talking to Tenchi and Aeka and Misaki.  "I 
will attend to this after dinner."  

	"What I really want to know is why Duke Ryalin tried to kill 
me," Nene said, then started.  "That smells really good!"

	It looked really good too.  The second course was a fragrant 
light orange soup with some sort of blue fish in it, along with 
some vegetables.  It was warm, but not too hot, and Nene soon 
came close to forgetting the assassination attempt in the joy of 
eating it.

	Between bites, Funaho said, "Did Ryoko tell you about the 
current political situation like she was supposed to?" 

	Youshou laughed and spoke for the first time in the meal.  
"Do you really have to ask?"

	Ryoko sneezed into her soup and looked embarrassed.  

	Nene said, "What political situation?"

	"Have you been taught very much about how our 
government works?"  Funaho then asked after eating a little more 
soup.

	"I know it's a monarchy, and you've got a kind of Royal 
Council and then there's a legislature of some kind with nobles in 
it.  And that you've got nobles, and some of them seem to have 
their own armies or something."  Nene looked around and noticed 
most of the people weren't eating very much, so she tried to slow 
down.  Indeed, the initial servings were pretty small, although the 
servants quickly refilled the soup for anyone who clearly wanted 
more.  I wonder how many courses there are, she thought.

	The emperor himself turned from his conversation with 
Tenchi and Aeka to Nene.  "The central problem is that I cannot 
revoke the decrees of my ancestors without the consent of the 
Great Council of Jurai.  My own decrees, I can revoke during my 
lifetime, but the decrees of those who went before me are beyond 
my power alone.  Over the years, many emperors have granted 
offices for life or even hereditarily to those who have served them 
well.  The result is that I am stuck with many officeholders who 
are idiots, incompetent, or downright criminal, but I cannot 
remove them from office unless the Great Council approves it."  
Whispering burst out further down the table.  The emperor smiled 
faintly.

	"This rarely happens unless the person is either universally 
hated or does something truly, blatantly criminal, such as 
destroying a city, murdering multiple people personally, or the 
like."  He sighed.  "Even if they are convicted of treason, the 
office simply passes to their heir, unless the Great Council 
approves the reversion of the office to my control."

	"And there's a lot of offices like this?"

	"Many past emperors have had to sell offices hereditarily in 
order to raise money in desperate times, since the Great Council is 
always reluctant to vote taxes.  I haven't had to, but I've had a 
reign that was largely peaceful and prosperous, so I've been able 
to build up the crown's personal resources.  Duke Ryalin is one of 
the people who holds a hereditary office.  He is Warden of the 
Spinward Marches, which means he has the right to command the 
military forces stationed in the frontier zone on the spinward side 
of the empire."

	"The what?  Spinward?"  Nene asked.

	"In the direction the galaxy is slowly rotating," the emperor 
said.  "The result is that the Duke is very, very powerful in the 
affairs of the empire.  He is also very conservative, and highly 
disapproves of many of my policies, my wife Funaho, my son 
Youshou, and the fact that I haven't started any wars of conquest 
in his area of the Empire.  Never mind that Jurai is surrounded by 
neighbors who would unite against us, or that the Khunds are 
starting to cause trouble on the Coreward Marches.  I suspect we'll 
have to fight a war with the Khunds sooner than I would like."

	Youshou nodded.  "Khundia is focused on conquering its 
weaker neighbors for now, but they'll turn their attention to us 
soon enough, probably within the next hundred years."

	Nene blinked.  It was going to take a while to get used to 
people who spoke of something that might not happen for decades 
as happening 'soon'.

	"We have no need for conquest, anyway.  There's enough 
worlds to settle inside the empire to keep us busy for centuries.  
But it's rather easier to conquer and plunder quickly than to slowly 
build up settlements, and I fear we have lost our taste for the 
efforts that colonization takes,"  the Emperor said.  "For years, 
Ryalin has been pushing for a marriage between Ryu and the 
Princess-Heiress of Dyre.  Which just coincidentally, happens to 
border the Spinward Marches.  And has a long-term enmity with 
three trigger-happy neighbors who would likely panic and invade 
if the heiress to the throne married someone likely to succeed to 
the throne of Jurai."

	"Giving him the war he wants,"  Nene said.  "So he thinks 
that if he kills me, you might actually go along with his plan."

	"I'd never marry Princess Yurell,"  Ryu said.  "Her family 
has abused her kingdom so much, it's probably going to explode 
the second her father dies.  And she beats her servants."

	"I suspect that spite for his loss of the lands he seized and his 
case's defeat in the High Council also played a major role.  I think 
he's realized Ryu won't ever marry Yurell, but I also think he 
wanted to get even.  And normally, he would never have been 
caught, or at least it wouldn't have been provable.  Until we 
discovered the cure to the latest conditioning method used by the 
Assassin's guild, we couldn't have made him talk.  Now, we'll 
likely wipe out most of the Guild and it will take them a good 
thirty to forty years to find another method we can't break through 
in a few months of research."  Funaho sighed.  

	"The problem now is that Ryalin's son may try to get even.  
His father is being exiled to Niglai for committing treason by 
hiring an assassin against someone under Imperial Protection.  But 
Dyalis will inherit his title, since the High Council will probably 
refuse to strip him of it, since this assassination had nothing to do 
with his job as Warden, directly."  Misaki frowned intensely.  
"We'll do our best to keep you safe during your visit, but we will 
likely have to cut it short."

	"I'd like you to breakfast with me and Misaki tomorrow,"  
Funaho said.  "Azusa will be heading out to the Coreward 
Marches for a few days to deal with business there, but we have 
matters to attend to here while he is gone, and we'd like to get to 
know you better."

	They brought out the main events of the meal:  some sort of 
huge roasted animal and enough noodles and vegetables for a 
horde of Amazons.  Nene filled her plate.  "Sounds fine to me!"

**********

	Azusa looked at his wives on his way back to their quarters.  
Funaho looked somewhat cross, while Misaki was pretending not 
to be.  "What did I do this time?" he asked.

	Funaho mimicked him, "'Over the years, many emperors 
have granted offices for life or even hereditarily to those who 
have served them well.  The result is that I am stuck with many 
officeholders who are idiots, incompetent, or downright criminal, 
but I cannot remove them from office unless the Great Council 
approves it.'"  She shook her head.  "I can't believe you said that at 
a state dinner with everyone listening.  You didn't name any 
names, but..."

	 "I tire of mincing words," he said.  "And she must know the 
truth if she is to do Jurai any good.  If what she will face will 
break her, then I want to break her now before we MUST put our 
trust in her.  Plus, it made a good way to subtly express my 
displeasure with various individuals without naming names.  I was 
not so reckless as to mention that all of the Marcher Dukes need 
to fall into black holes, for example."

	Misaki looked around, then said, "You didn't have to do it at 
dinner."

	"I wanted to.  This should put the Marcher Dukes on their 
toes.  I hope that Illigidus hears of this and quakes for his title.  
Then perhaps I'll be able to get him to stop provoking the Kzinti 
and the Daleks.  Not that it takes much to provoke the Daleks."

	"Perhaps the sun will be purple when it comes up."  Misaki 
said.

	"And it will rain water on us," Funaho said.

	"I cannot entirely blame the man; the Kzinti did kill his son.  
Of course, they killed his son for shooting the Kzinti 
ambassador..."  he sighed.  "Let us hope that Dyalis shows some 
common sense."

	"Not unless you ask Professor Wasyuu to install some in 
him," Funaho said.

	"Don't tempt me."

**********

	Nene would come to think of her breakfast with the 
empresses as the breakfast from hell.  It was like trying to take a 
final exam and eat a feast simultaneously.  The meal was 
sumptuous, more like a dinner than a breakfast, full of meats and 
fruits and breads and even soup.  There was enough food for five 
people, although Misaki ate enough that it all worked out in the 
end without any wastage.

	The rapid fire questions, combined with several bone-
crushing hugs from Misaki, kept Nene too busy to eat much.  
They'd already discussed her childhood, her education, her Knight 
Sabre training, and whether or not some ice cream shop still 
existed when they got to the heart of the matter.  "Nene, are you 
prepared for the fact that you're going to have to share Ryu with 
another woman?"

	"As prepared as anyone could be.  I just hope I get along 
with her."  Nene picked at her food.  She hated the idea, but it was 
the only way to marry Ryu at all, and she loved him enough to put 
up with it.  At least, she thought she did.

	"You won't," Misaki said.  "At least not all the time.  Funaho 
and I get along as well as any two Imperial wives ever have, but 
we still have times when we want to kill each other.  You may end 
up having to share him with some woman you hate."  She fell 
silent because she couldn't eat a pastry the size of her fist and talk 
at the same time.

	"Most likely, it will be a Juraiian," Funaho said.  "And quite 
likely a close relative, since that strengthens the bloodline without 
giving preference to any major noble family, which could anger 
the families not chosen."  As at dinner, she somehow ate without 
anyone ever actually seeing her touch her food or put it in her 
mouth or chew it.  Nene found it to be surreal.

	"How many close relatives does he have?"  Nene asked.

	"His closest unmarried relatives are Sasami, Manami, 
Meylia, and Celia.  And Macky, but he doesn't count," Funaho 
said, laughing a little.  

	"Well, Manami is dating Macky, sort of," Nene said.  
"He...he  really could marry his sister?"  She took a deep draught 
of tea.

	"Only full siblings can't marry under Juraiian law," Misaki 
said.  "Most of his other close relatives are married.  So which of 
those four would you rather share him with?"  She cocked her 
head, like an owl observing prey, though her voice was still 
cheerful.

	Nene boggled.  "I'll have to think about it."  As if any of 
them would want to marry him, she thought.  This is just insane.

********* 
	
	After breakfast, Sasami took Nene for a walk.  "Would you 
like to see the nursery of the Great Trees?"

	"Sure!  I'd love to."

	"Good.  Once your marriage to Ryu is approved, we'll need 
to select a tree for you to bond with, so this is a good chance for 
you to learn more about them."

	The thought of having her own personal space ship was 
mindboggling to Nene.  "Wow."

	"There are several first and second generation seedlings who 
should be close enough to maturity for the bonding rite," Sasami 
said as they turned a corner and headed towards the nursery.  

	"First and second generation?"

	"Of descent from Tsunami.  She is the master tree from 
which all others descend.  Youshou's ship, Funaho, named after 
his mother, was a first generation ship.  Ryo-oh, Aeka's ship, was 
second generation.  The first and second generation are the most 
powerful."

	"And I get one of those?"

	"Of course.  You will be the Right Hand Wife, in charge of 
Security.  You will need a powerful ship."

	Nene thought for a moment.  "What happens if the person the 
tree is bonded to dies?"

	"The ship picks a new person to bond with, usually, though 
sometimes they become suicidal.  Tsunami has been bonded with 
hundreds of people through the years."

	"Do I get to name my ship, or do they all already have 
names?"

	"They have three names.  One you give them.  One they 
choose, and a secret name given them by their mother tree."

	"Cool."

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

	Funaho and Misaki sat in a secure room, unattended so they 
would have maximum security.  Funaho said, "House Flaem may 
be the doom of us."

	"A pity," Misaki replied.  "They were stalwart supporters of 
the Imperial Restoration.  But all things end in time.  Do you think 
Dyalis will strike at Nene?"

	"Not any time soon, not on Jurai.  He's no fool, and the 
Assassin's Guild is in the process of breaking into tiny bits.  But 
he will not forget either.  Many of the lesser houses, on the other 
hand, have swung over to support her.  Duke Ryalin had many 
enemies, both those jealous of his power and those he has hurt in 
the past.  They will support Nene to spite his memory."  Funaho 
sipped a glass of tea.  "And others will believe her to have the 
blood of Jurai after seeing the Hawk Wings.  That should help."

	"How long dare we keep her?"

	"Just long enough to let everyone get to know her a little, I 
think.  She's safer on Earth for now, and it will be centuries before 
Ryu rules, and likely even before he is crown prince.  Time 
enough for her to have a somewhat normal life a while longer," 
Funaho said.

	"I sometimes wonder what that would be like," Misaki said. 

	"I no longer remember, except for snatches," Funaho said.  
"But I was glad to leave mine behind.  Perhaps it is different now, 
though.  Aeka, Youshou, and Sasami all enjoyed living on Earth.  
Once Asuka retires, perhaps we could try a normal life, just to see 
what it would be like."

	Misaki smiled.  "I think you'd swiftly go mad.  Juggling the 
destiny of worlds is in your blood as much as it is in mine or our 
husband's."

	Funaho smiled, and nodded, drumming her fingers on the 
table.  "But is it in Nene's?  For she will surely go mad if she does 
not enjoy it, as well as simply doing her duty."

	"I don't know, and I'm not sure the best way to find out," 
Misaki said.  "Time will tell."

	"The problem is that you never know if it will tell you a 
comedy or a tragedy," Funaho said.

	"True."

***********

	The Great Nursery of the Trees of Jurai was a huge shaft of a 
room, full of platforms and intertwined walkways, hundreds of 
feet across, and a good quarter mile tall.  Trees in stages of growth 
from tiny seedlings to apparently fully grown stood in small 
islands of dirt surrounded by narrow bands of water, themselves 
surrounded by light yellow walkways of a material Nene could 
not identify.

	She followed Sasami up and down the many ramps, feeling 
just a bit nervous about how far it was possible to fall in this 
chamber.  Soon, they came before a fifty foot tall tree with golden 
leaves shot through with silver veins.  Blue-gray bark shimmered 
faintly in the dim light.  "I think this one would be good for you."

	Nene stepped across the water and put her hand on the tree's 
bark.  It was warm to the touch, and for a moment, she heard the 
word 'hello' in her mind.  "I'll name you...Sergei."

	Sasami blinked.  "Sergei?"

	"He was a man who saved one of my ancestors when she 
escaped from Russia," Nene said.  "Is that name okay with you?" 
she asked the tree, and felt it pulse an affirmative to her.  "Now 
what?"

	"Well, we can't have a formal bonding until the marriage is 
approved, but I can tell you some more about the trees."

	"Okay," Nene said, sitting down by Sergei.  "Sock it to me."

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

	Rooting through the subspace correspondence of House 
Flaem was strictly prohibited by law, which was why Ryu had 
gotten his mother to help him.  The Imperial spy service had 
already broken the latest 'key' to their mail, so he'd quietly made a 
copy of it, and now he and his mother were up in orbit in Ryo-
ohki monitoring Flaem's communications frequencies.

	It wasn't very exciting, as House Flaem didn't exactly chatter 
their secret plans twenty four hours a day over those frequencies, 
and much of the important stuff would be off in Flaem's holdings, 
not here.  "We should have started spying earlier," Ryu said.

	"Misaki probably has a report sitting on her desk, but has 
forgotten how to read again," Ryoko muttered as commodity 
prices spilled across the view screen.  "You'd think the Empress of 
Jurai would be required to be sentient."

	"She's faking being an idiot to throw people off guard," Ryu 
said.  "And she probably is not letting us see the information so 
you don't try to blow up their homeworld or something."

	"Hrmph.  My own son makes fun of me."

	"Am I wrong?"

	"Double hrmph."  She tapped her fingers.  "Is them spilling 
the beans too much to ask?"

	"Probably."

	"Triple hrmph."

***********

	Funaho sat quietly and listened as the High Council went 
about its business.  In theory, it consisted of three hundred and 
sixty five nobles, but in practice only about twenty to forty usually 
attended, unless the issues at hand were highly important to them.  
This was due to the fact that much of the work of the High 
Council was judicial, rather than legislative, and unlike the Low 
Council, it met most days of the year.  The bulk of the High 
Nobility usually gave their votes to another member to cast as 
their proxy.  There were a good two hundred and fifty of them in 
attendance today, which surprised her somewhat.  She had 
expected most of them would go home once they had gotten a 
chance to see the potential Imperial Bride, but they had defied her 
expectations.  

	She wasn't sure whether to be glad at the high nobility taking 
their responsibilities seriously, or to fear this augured some 
unexpected trouble.  Usually, when the high nobility showed up in 
mass, they feared for their privileges, or hoped to exploit some 
crisis to extract more.  

	At the moment, all they were doing was to confirm Dyalis of 
House Flaem as Warden of the Spinward Marches and his 
inheritance of a seat on the High Council.  She only half-listened 
to the ancient rite, stepping forth and speaking on the Emperor's 
behalf as his proxy, reciting ancient words, while a micro 
computer built into her hairpiece quickly ran over her political 
database, trying to find any patterns in the attendance of the day's 
session.  
	
	She quickly concluded that there were far too many 
possibilities, even just considering the issues most recently 
debated in the Council.  Gut instinct told her it probably either had 
to do with Nene, or someone in the Council had come up with a 
harebrained scheme they hoped to push through while the 
Emperor was gone, such as the Duke of Ilispin's yearly proposal 
to legalize marrying one's pets, and had called in favors.  But why 
not just collect single-issue proxy votes if that was the case?

	The rite ended, and the Constable of Jurai, hereditary 
president of the High Council, called the meeting to order.  "The 
floor is open, should anyone wish to open new business."

	Duke Hiarin, an old man who hadn't liked anything that had 
happened in the last millenium, stood up.  "I move we create a 
committee to investigate the proposed bride of Prince Ryu."

	The motion was quickly seconded, and passed without 
opposition.  However, the process of appointing the committee 
turned into a virtual war, as apparently everyone wanted to be on 
it.  When the time to end the meeting for the day came, the debate 
was continuing with no sign of abating, and the meeting was 
extended three more hours, only to end by tabling the business 
until the next day.

	Funaho was quite surprised; usually such committees were 
set out fairly quickly, in part because few wanted to serve on 
them.  Nene has attracted some attention, she thought.  Hopefully 
more good than bad.

***********

	Nene had received many invitations; none of them surprised 
her more than the one she received from Lady Lorinda of House 
Flaem, sister to the now exiled Duke Ryalin.  Misaki had advised 
against accepting it, Funaho had strongly urged her to go, as any 
allies she could make inside House Flaem would be quite 
valuable.

	Lady Lorinda was a middle-aged woman with short purple 
hair who wore a wig most of the time in order to meet the 
demands of Juraiian style.  She had discarded the wig for Nene's 
visit; in fact, she was dressed about as casually as Juraiian nobles 
ever get, in a simple blue tabi with small red flames all over it.  
Nene felt overdressed in her own outfit, which she suspected was 
worth enough to buy and sell her entire family several times over.

	"Please come out on the porch.  We can have some yalo and 
you can tell me about your world,"  Lorinda said.  "Everyone is 
very curious as to where you come from."

	Nene and Ryu followed her and three male servants, who 
Nene noted were probably about half the age of their mistress, and 
rather attractive as well, out to the 'porch', which was a huge 
balcony, large enough for several dozen people, from which one 
could look out across a vast forest.  The house itself perched 
amidst the branches of a tree that Nene suspected came close to 
matching the old GENOM Tower for size.  

	Yalo turned out to smell, look, and taste rather like tea with a 
faint raspberry tinge.  Nene liked it.  "I'm from Earth.  It's...uh..."

	"It's one of the Imperial Restricted Worlds.  Funaho was born 
there," Ryu said.  

	"It must be an impressive world to produce two imperial 
brides in three generations," Lorinda said.  "So why is it 
restricted?"

	"I'm not at liberty to say," Ryu said.  "Beyond the fact that it 
is below the First Contact Technological Threshold."

	"This must all seem rather overwhelming then to you, Nene,"  
Lorinda said.  "Or would you rather I call you Princess 
Romanova?"

	"Nene is fine.  And yes, it is overwhelming at times.  I'm a 
computer programmer at home, but I've seen systems here which 
could do the work of every computer on my homeworld at once, 
and still have enough power to run the affairs of an entire world."  
Nene sipped her tea and tried an icing-covered pastry which was 
quite delicious, warm and fruity on the inside, sweet on the 
outside.  "What are these called?"

	"Monna," Lorinda replied.  "Strawberry flavored in this case.  
I wasn't sure what sort of food they eat on your world, but almost 
everyone likes fruit and sugar."

	"And you've been their spokeswoman for the last ten years," 
Ryu said amusedly, eating one.  "They're very good."

	Lorinda looked slightly embarrassed.  "One does what one 
must to get by," she replied.  "When my husband died ten years 
ago, I had to live in a virtual hovel due to his mismanagement of 
everything.  So I've had to take a few drastic measures to make 
ends meet, especially since my brother chose not to be of any 
help."

	"You didn't get along with Ryalin?"  Ryu asked, although he 
already knew that to be the case.

	"He was a greedy wretch, who nearly destroyed our family in 
his efforts to seize lands from his whore of a wife's family," she 
said bluntly.  "His son isn't much better, but his daughters do have 
some sense.  Of course, since they were basically sold to other 
families to cement alliances, they're not around much to restrain 
him.  And he won't listen to me; he says I'm too plebian for him, 
hawking pastries in the market and all that."  She frowned.  "I 
wouldn't have had to...I'm sorry, I'm sure you have better things to 
do than listen to me rant."

	"Well, you seem fairly well off now," Nene said.

	"Good management makes quite a difference in anything.  
And learning how to delegate and who to delegate to.  Have you 
had much management experience?"

	"That was always Celia's job."

	"Celia?"  Lorinda asked.

	"Celia Stingray, who bears the blood of Jurai.  Nene trained 
under her," Ryu said.  "As was demonstrated at the duel."

	Lorinda looked thoughtful, and paused to have a Monna.  
"Who does she trace her bloodline through?"

	"Prince Youshou.  During his time of pursuit of Ryoko, he 
fathered several families.  She is his granddaughter from one of 
them."

	Lorinda's eyes widened slightly.  "Interesting.  And the same 
for you, Nene?"  she asked.

	Before Nene could speak, Ryu said, "Youshou 'helped' her 
family about a century ago."

	"Ahh.  Can this Celia Stingray..."

	"Yes.  And her brother as well."

	"Hmm, this should stir the waters a bit when they're brought 
to Jurai," Lorinda said.

	"Indeed it will," Ryu said.

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

	Later, as they were returning to the palace in a shuttle, Nene 
said, "I can't believe you insinuated that Youshou is one of my 
ancestors!"

	Ryu said, "Since you appeared to manifest the Radiant Hawk 
Wings, it was a logical enough guess to make.  And now that one 
of the biggest gossips in Jurai has heard it, everyone will be 
wondering if it's true.  And technically, he did help your family."

	"He was Sergei?"

	"I think that's the name I heard from him, yes," Ryu said.  
"So, what did you think of her?"

	"She seemed very nice and sort of nosy."

	"She's not one of the great gossips of the nobility for nothing.  
She's gotten a lot more relaxed since her husband died; they were 
both rather pushy and tended to butt heads constantly.  I think she 
likes you, so that's one less worry.  Good gossip about you will be 
going around soon."

	"So where are we off to next?"

	"Dinner with Lord Tyfi of House Volospin.  Having gotten 
Ryalin exiled, you've likely earned his friendship forever."

	"His father got exiled by Ryalin, right?"

	"Right." 

	
***********

	"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Princess Nene," Lord Tyfi 
of House Volospin said.  He was tall and thin, with light green 
hair and orange eyes.  His skin was a darker tone than most of the 
Juraiians she had met, and he wore a purple and yellow tabi with a 
golden thunderbolt across the chest.  There was a golden 
thunderbolt pin in his hair above each ear, and he wore 
thunderbolt earrings as well.  

	Lord Tyfi had invited her and Ryu to dine at his house on 
Jurai, on one of the southern islands in the Great Sea.  She had 
had many such meals in the last few days; everyone wanted to 
meet her.  Some were clearly sizing her up, others made it clear 
they wanted to be her friend, only one, Duke Harig, had made it 
clear he opposed the marriage, although he'd also thanked her for 
getting Ryalin exiled to Niglai.  She'd begun to get the impression 
he had failed to make himself beloved.

	"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," he said.  He leaned back 
in his chair, which changed shape to match his motions; it was 
made of still living wood, carefully treated in the method which 
had made his family wealthy as well as noble.  

	The parlour was spacious, the walls painted to resemble a 
forest, the carpet a mottled green and brown like a forest floor, the 
ceiling a pattern of leaves.  A small table grew up through the 
carpet, as did the chairs; it was also living wood, and thus was a 
smooth wood grain in color.  Nene rather liked it.

	"Do you think Dyalis will cause you any trouble?"

	"He has more sense than his father," Tyfi said.  "Although 
he'll likely fight this marriage tooth and nail to honor his father's 
memory.  If he was sensible, he'd make peace, given you'll be 
emperor one day, but House Flaem has long, vicious memories for 
insults.  Still..."  He shook his head.  "I can hardly believe Ryalin 
was stupid enough to hire an assassin to try to kill you.  Although 
I suppose he was counting on assassin-client confidentiality."

	Nene felt a faint chill at the casualness with which he said 
that.

	"Are you saying you think someone used Ryalin as a tool?" 
Ryu asked.

	"Just ask yourself this.  How many nobles are dumb enough 
to personally handle hiring an assassin?  Deniability is the key.  
That way, it couldn't be traced back to you.  But he apparently did 
it himself.  Of course, perhaps he simply thought he could bull his 
way out of trouble again.  But not this time."  Tyfi smiled thinly.

	"And with him exiled to Niglai, there's no way to know who 
might have taken advantage of him."

	"Tidy," Tyfi said.  "But enough of that.  I'd like to show you 
my garden."  He rose.  "Empress Funaho has told me that the 
blood-flower of Hinagar III is known as a rose on your world; I'd 
be interested in knowing if this is true," he said as he headed for 
the door.

	They got up and followed him, leaving Nene to wonder if her 
head was in the lion's mouth, or if she'd jumped down the lion's 
throat.

***********

	"Yes, we'd thought about that, but Ryalin has always had a 
reputation for jumping into things without thinking them 
through," Funaho told Nene.

	"I just...is there some way he could have been made to do it?"  
She felt guilty.

	"Tricked or manipulated, yes.  Forced...I doubt it.  The man 
was one of the most powerful fools in Jurai," Funaho said.  

	They were in Funaho's quarters, in the aquarium room, one 
of the walls of which was a huge aquarium, full of many beautiful 
fish.  Most were alien to Nene, although the handful of normal 
Earth goldfish and a trout were known to her.

	"It could be something like X, Y, and Z were," Nene 
speculated.

	"Lord Tyfi is known to have a paranoid bent," Funaho said.  
"It could have been a shapeshifting Durlan who did the hiring, but 
then Lord Ryalin wouldn't have gone for trial by combat.  He was 
guilty, and he knew that was the only way to escape conviction 
once the assassin talked."

	"I can't believe you have trial by combat in such an advanced 
society," Nene said, then put her hand over her mouth; she hadn't 
meant to blurt that out.

	"We've been trying to get rid of it, but the nobility likes it, 
and without their support, we've never been able to get it through 
the High and Low Councils.  Our relations with the nobility is 
always a delicate balancing act.  They want us to ride herd on 
them, but only within limits.  Left alone too much, they tear their 
dominions apart with mindless feuds, but if we exert too much 
control over them, they panic and fear for their privileges.  A 
successful emperor often must guide instead of commanding, lead 
instead of ordering, and use the carrot instead of the stick."  
Funaho paused to sip her orange tea.  

	"Plus the whole business of hereditary offices."

	"Exactly.  We've had to move slowly and subtly, working to 
tame the nobility and to strengthen other elements of society that 
can balance them out.  Fortunately, we've had centuries to work 
on this, and will likely have centuries more.  We hope that by the 
time Ryu takes the throne, the Emperor will be a strong enough 
position to allow some of the real reforms we need to be pushed 
through."

	"Like what?"

	"We are stagnating.  There are thousands of worlds which 
could be developed within our boundaries, but we've grown too 
used to our comforts to develop them.  And thus some nobles 
champ at the bits for conquest, for new worlds to rule that won't 
need to be developed from the ground up.  Especially the border 
nobles who would most benefit.  They tend to cancel each other 
out, fortunately, but sooner or later, some group of expansionists 
is going to arise who will have some coherent plan for growth, 
and then we'll face heavy pressure for war."

	"I'd think every society has some people who would be 
willing to be pioneers," Nene replied.

	"Oh, we do.  New worlds are colonized every year.  But it's 
not fast enough to keep up with population growth.  The empire 
can't get any larger except through internal expansion, without 
triggering a series of bloody wars, because our neighbors would 
unite to stop us.  This is an era in which Jurai's neighbors are 
strong and increasingly paranoid, remembering some of our 
expansionist phases.  Loudmouths like Ryalin or Illigidus, the 
Duke of the Coreward Marches, who wants a war against the 
Kzinti, don't help matters.  But we've become set in our ways, and 
it's hard for us to change.  That's one reason I'm glad Tenchi is 
coming to the throne...he comes from a very different situation, 
and I'm hoping he can shake things up.  And you and Ryu as 
well."

	"I guess it must be really hard running the empire."

	"It's impossible.  Luckily, the empire mostly runs itself, and 
we just have to try to keep the biggest troublemakers in line.  Are 
you sure you want to get into this?"

	"Not any more.  I want to marry Ryu, but all of this politics 
and intrigue and everything...it scares me."  Nene stared at the 
floor.

	"Good.  We need people who won't just conduct business as 
usual, but also have the patience to take it slow and do it right.  I 
think we have the potential for another golden age, but only if 
we're willing to work at it."  She took another sip of tea.  "Your 
tea is getting cold."

	Nene laughed and sipped some, then ate a cookie.  "I guess 
I'll have some time to think about it."

	Funaho nodded.  "If everything is par for the course, it will 
likely take six to eight months for the committee assigned to 
assess you as a marriage prospect to compile and make its report.  
It's not binding...ultimately, we can ram any marriage we want 
through the council, but it would be a good thing if it came up 
positive.  They'll want to interview you before you go."

	"Should I be afraid?"

	"Never show blood to a shark."

***********

	Nene stood on the balcony of her suite of rooms, looking out 
across the grounds of the Imperial Palace.  The complex of 
buildings stretched in all directions for nearly a mile, surrounded 
by a huge earthen palisade that served no useful purpose except to 
slow down thieves and possibly prevent flooding from the outside.  
It was a historical relic, Nene had been told, kept for symbolic 
value.  

	The palace was basically its own city, where the ministers 
and their families lived, and where the twelve Grand Dukes kept 
small palaces of their own, as was their hereditary right.  It held 
the Imperial nursery, a small space port, manufacturing facilities, 
four large parks, and hundreds, maybe thousands of smaller 
buildings surrounding the vast palace itself.  At night, it was an 
ocean of luminescence, many of the buildings lit by glowing 
lichens and plants, beautiful and strange.

	She could spy a young couple riding into one of the parks on 
horseback; horses were one of a handful of species the Juraiians 
had brought with them to Jurai millennia ago when they had fled 
the Earth in a small armada of crystal ships.  Juraiians were 
fundamentally human, though they had developed abilities beyond 
the human norm.  

	It was reassuring to watch them court; it made the palace feel 
much less intimidating.  She'd started to feel as if assassins could 
be lurking behind every corner.  Maybe I'll ask Ryu if he wants to 
go to one of the parks, she thought.  Yeah.  

	"Beautiful night," Ryu said.  "Want to go see that park I see 
you staring at?"

	She started.  "I was just thinking..."

	"That's new."

	The trip was delayed by necessary and justified 
administering of beatings.

***********

	Blue-crystal leaves and silver bark glimmered in the 
moonlight, branches swaying gently in the breeze.  Nene paused 
as she walked and knelt by a small bank of blue and red flowers 
that gave off a sweet scent like a freshly baked cherry pie.  "What 
are these called?"

	"Uilia's cheeks.  There was an empress named Uilia who had 
some sort of blue tattoos on her face and ruddy cheeks.  I'm not 
sure how she got connected to the flower; I think she had an entire 
continent on some world entirely covered with them as a 
monument to herself or some such thing."  He leaned against one 
of the trees.  "Anyway, Misaki-sama loves them."

	"I just love the smell," Nene said, laughing gently.  "I could 
use a cherry pie."

	"We've only had real cherries for about forty years," Ryu 
said.  "Aeka-san brought some cherry trees when she and mom 
and dad returned to Jurai to stay, along with a lot of other plants.  
There's a huge cherry orchard on Tol Illisea; Aeka-san and dad 
like to go there when they bloom."

	"That's another planet?"

	"A large island, about the size of New Zealand," Ryu said.  
"It's on the south side of Jurai, so we go there in winter 
sometimes.  The name means 'Island of Illisea'.  Apparently, when 
our ancestors came to Jurai, they found the word 'Illisea' carved in 
characters a hundred foot tall in the side of Mount Illisea.  Shalai, 
the counterworld to Jurai, has the exact same thing.  We don't 
know if the Sidar did it, but the weird thing is that it was written 
in the writing the Jurai brought with them from Earth.  But as far 
as anyone can tell, it was written at least 300,000 years before 
humans came to Jurai."  He paused.  "I'm rambling."

	Nene giggled.  "You could say that."

	There were four loud booms and four columns of assorted 
metal parts appeared, then collapsed inertly to the ground.  Nene 
started and fell down, while Ryu instinctively summoned his 
energy sword, only to discover there was nothing to really take a 
swing at.  "Assassin robots," he said after taking two seconds to 
assess them.  "Demolished by the teleportation jamming."

	"What if they'd been alive?"  Nene asked as she got up. "I 
mean, if they were made out of flesh, not metal."

	Ryu made a face.  "I've never seen it because normally 
people aren't stupid enough to try, but I've seen pictures.  I 
can't...surely whoever sent these must have known they couldn't 
get through."

	"It's a threat," Nene said, frowning deeply.  "Let's see if we 
can pry anything out of their heads."  She paused.  "Would they 
keep their central memory banks in their heads?"

	"We'll find out," he said, then put a hand on her shoulder.  
"It's really normally not this bad," he said.  "It's been years since 
the last assassination attempt.  Someone...I don't know what's 
going on, but I'll get to the bottom of it."

	"Let's get to hacking," Nene said, giving him a cheek kiss.

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

	"A moderately cunning, but not cunning enough attempt to 
frame Lord Tyfi," Funaho concluded once they finished analyzing 
the memory archive of each bot.  All four had shown Lord Tyfi 
instructing the four assassin robots to assassinate Nene.  
"Completely not his style, and he couldn't possibly be stupid 
enough to give you a lecture on deniability, then forget to wipe 
the bot's memories."

	"Or it could be a bluff; he might have set it up in such a way 
as to make sure we wouldn't believe the memory archive," Misaki 
countered, more serious than usual.  "Also, if it is a frame job, 
whoever set this up had comprehensive holo-imagery of Lord 
Tyfi's estate on Jurai and of him.  The voice pattern matches to a 
degree which requires very sophisticated equipment to manage.  
Most Juraiian lords could afford the latter, but getting the former 
would be tricky."  She rewound one of the files, then enlarged an 
image.  The view zoomed in on an embroidered snake on the back 
of his belt, about two inches long.  "I mean, look at this.  Most 
people wouldn't even notice this with their eyes."

	Nene frowned.  "Any progress with that bug I found?"

	Misaki shook her head.  "Off the shelf technology.  I could 
list millions of potential culprits, possibly billions.  However, I 
can tell you that there's a traitor in the palace.  The scanner logs 
have been tampered with; if they picked up where those bots were 
teleported from, it's been erased.  And they should have picked it 
up."

	"Perhaps Dyalis is trying to frame Tyfi?" Ryu suggested.  
"Tyfi's thrown his support to Nene and been organizing support 
for the marriage in the High Council.  I'm sure some of it is 
simply intended to spite Dyalis, who laughed at him in the Low 
Council when his brother was sent to Niglai."

	"Hmm...how do Assassin bots know who to obey?"  Nene 
asked.

	"Two major ways.  Some models have their owner's image 
and identity hardwired into them, so they know who to obey.  The 
more common models are hardwired to obey a fixed set of 
passwords.  This enables one to command them remotely so their 
memory banks can't be sifted to see who sent them.  These were 
the former kind," Funaho said.

	"Set to obey Lord Tyfi?"

	"Exactly."

	"No serial-numbers or the like where we could trace 
ownership?"

	"Assassin robots are illegal."

	"Hmm.  Do they have a command log?"

	"As in a log of the commands they've received?"  

	Nene shook her head.  "A...a log of everything they've done 
since some time in the past.  Such as move here, shoot this 
direction, received and analyzed this transmission, etc.  How 
much memory do they have of what they've actually done in 
say...the last twenty four hours?"

	"Yes.  But we can't necessarily trust it; it could all have been 
faked.  Their records indicate they got the orders, entered a 
shuttle, flew to ten miles from the...air space records!"  Funaho 
said.  She said, "Misaki, take over, I'm going to order up the air 
space records for the palace area.  I must be going senile."

	"They flew up to about ten miles away, then beamed into the 
palace to launch their attack.  They were primed to shoot you 
immediately," Misaki said.  "But I'm so glad they failed.  You're 
too nice to be shot, Nene."

	"They knew I would be there?"

	"Yes."

	"When were they told?"  Nene asked.

	"During the...ahah.  During the briefing, when whoever sent 
them could not have possibly known you'd be in the garden, since 
it would have taken a minimum of three hours to transport them 
by shuttle from Tyfi's estates to here, at which point you hadn't 
decided to go!"  Misaki clapped her hands excitedly.  "For that 
matter, how did they know you'd be in the garden at all?"

	"I must be bugged again," Nene said, grumbling.  "Time to 
bug sweep myself," she said.  She activated her armor, then 
deactivated it and checked the bug pocket.  She pulled out a speck 
of 'dust', laying it down on the table suspended in a field generated 
by a small 'bug-holder' produced by her bug-sweeping functions.  

	Misaki pulled out a short rod and waved it over the bug, then 
cocked her head slightly, staring at something off to the right of 
her head that only she could see.  "It's still transmitting.  Odd; it 
should have shut itself off once found."

	"This little bit of Wasyuutech," Nene pointed to the bug-
holder, "tricks it into thinking it's still attached undetected to my 
clothing."

	"Ahh.  It's transmitting towards the eighth floor security 
station," Misaki said, frowning intensely.  "Well, I can see how 
this bug got onto you, if not the one you found in the elevator."

	"Hmm?"

	"This one is made of several parts.  They fly about, looking 
for the target, then when one finds you, it sends a signal to the 
others.  They all converge and assemble themselves.  Probably 
they were sent through the air-conditioning into your closet and 
swarmed onto your