I have a message from another time...

                     Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
                               presents

                UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT
                   - SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD No. 3 -

                          Gunboat Diplomacy

                         Benjamin D. Hutchins
                           with Anne Cross
                           Kris Overstreet

                (c) 2002 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited


        Putting a starship into spacedock for repairs was, Utena
Tenjou reflected twenty-seven hours after wrapping up action against
the rogue Klingon cruiser Amar, a much more complex process than she
would ever have suspected.
        But it was done now, and Zefram Cochrane and his team had
promised that the Valiant would be back in shape by Wednesday.  Which
left her only the after-action report, the accounting of ship's
personnel, and the session with the Board of Inquiry concerning the
incident before she could leave the IPO Yards at Zeta Cygni II and do
something else with her day, assuming there was any of it left.
        If I'd known there was this much work involved in being a
space captain, she told herself wryly, I'd have become a bus driver.
        She didn't mean it, of course; she'd had far too fine a time
commanding her ship in battle.  She thought she had acquitted herself
well, and she was proud of the way her impromptu crew had responded.
She said so in her report, praising the ship's doctor for his quick
action on the intruder alarm, the engineering staff for their grace
under pressure, the ship's company in general for their swift and
decisive response to the Klingon boarding party, and her helm and
weapons officers of the time, the Kaoru twins, for their coolness
under fire and their talent at the stations they found themselves
manning during the crisis.
        Then she repeated all this for the Board, which was chaired by
the Chief Engineer of the Fleet, Captain Nadia Davion, and consisted
of two other officers pulled at random from the flagship's command
staff, executive officer Commander Lore Soong and captain's yeoman
Lieutenant Ruri Hoshino.  With such a small fleet, there wasn't really
any way of convening a board whose members didn't know any particular
commander - after all, at this point, there were only five.
        In this case, it was largely a formality anyway; the
particulars of the incident had been known to Command since just after
it happened, and if Fleet Captain Hutchins had harbored any
dissatisfaction with the way the Valiant's crew had handled the
situation, he hadn't mentioned it.  Gryphon wasn't the type to reserve
that sort of thing, so Utena felt fairly confident that he was as
pleased with her ship's performance as she was.
        The Board heard the evidence, deliberated for a few minutes,
and returned with a verdict of satisfactory performance and a few
minor bits of advice for the future (most prominent among them, "Be
mindful of your own personal enemies as well as those of your force
when assessing a potential threat").
        Her command confirmed, Utena left the conference room where
the impromptu hearing had been held with a pleased aspect, then pulled
up short in surprise when she saw who was waiting for her out in the
hall.  One of them she wasn't -too- surprised to see; she knew the
Fleet Captain was hanging around, waiting to see how things turned out
with the Board (not that it was ever really in doubt).  However, she
wasn't expecting to see His Excellency Zargh Thalekh, the Honourable
Ambassador from the Klingon Empire to the Babylon Foundation.
        His face rigid with seriousness (but when was it ever not?),
Zargh stepped forward as soon as she emerged from the room and
presented himself at attention, saluting smartly with the open palm of
his right hand, Avalonian style.  Surprised again, Utena returned the
gesture, mainly out of reflex.
        "Captain Tenjou," said Zargh gravely.  "I have been instructed
by Chancellor Krojaar and the High Council to convey to you personally
my government's assurances that the attack on your vessel by a ship of
the House of Klavaar's private forces was in no way sanctioned by the
Defense Forces or the government of the Klingon Empire, and that we
will expend every effort to find and punish the rogue Klayvor
vestai-Klavaar for his criminal actions."
        "I... thank you, Ambassador," said Utena, slightly taken
aback.  "I never thought the Council had anything to do with it.  As
for Klayvor, well, finding him shouldn't be too tough," she added
wryly, but then Gryphon shook his head, looking frustrated.
        "I've had a sensor-and-telepath team from one end of that damn
ship to the other.  We've torn apart every crawlspace, searched the
J-tubes, looked in every void we can find.  He's not aboard.  He's
just plain vanished, and that really ticks me off."
        Utena blinked.  "Vanished?!"
        Gryphon nodded.  "Like he was never there.  All we wound up
with were some spent tricorder power packs, sore necks, and a very
creeped-out telepath.  That'll bear looking into - he says there are
echoes of something -very- nasty on board that ship, but he couldn't
pin it down any more specifically than that."
        "Hmm.  Imra mentioned something similar when we were looking
for him," said Utena thoughtfully.  "She didn't know what it was
either, but it gave her the willies.  But - how can Klayvor be -gone-?
Commander Kraal said he left the bridge right after we took control of
their master computer, and I think he was straight with us."
        "He was," said Zargh, nodding.  "Kraal, son of Korrg, is known
to me.  He is a fool who grants his allegiance too freely to the wrong
sorts of leaders, but he is no liar.  We must assume that Klayvor had
some secret method of escape, and that, like the coward he is, he used
it to elude capture."
        Utena lookd dubious.  "Kraal was pretty sure he was heading
down to the engineering deck to try and deal with us."
        "A coward's ruse," snorted Zargh dismissively.  "A pathetic
effort to save face with his crew when his attempt to self-destruct
his ship failed."
        "Hmm... maybe.  But how did he get away?  All the escape pods
were accounted for, and the small craft.  There wasn't another ship in
range he could transport to."
        "His house owns several B'rel-class vessels - Birds of Prey,
you would call them - which are equipped with cloaks.  It's possible
one of them plucked him from the jaws of defeat.  Amar's sensors were
offline and your vessel's were busy keeping an eye on Amar.  They
might have gone unnoticed.  At any rate, we are looking into it; the
Defense Forces have seized House Klavaar's private dockyard at Praxis
and are conducting a thorough investigation.  My brother Ektaar is
handling the situation personally.  He is a Chief Investigator for the
Imperial Criminal Pursuit Force.  If Klayvor still lives, my brother
will find him," Zargh promised angrily.
        Utena nodded.  "Well - keep me posted, huh?  I feel like kind
of an idiot letting him get away from me like that."
        "We Klingons have a saying," replied Zargh.  "'There is no man
so wily as a coward fleeing justice.'  The reflection is on him, not
you.  Have no fear, we will find him - and when we do, his life will
be yours."
        "Uh... thanks," said Utena.  "What happens to the rest of his
family?" she wondered.
        Zargh chuckled mirthlessly.  "They wasted no time in
distancing themselves from Klayvor's actions.  They paint him as a
rogue, headstrong and beyond the advice of his kin, obsessed with
revenge for the humiliation the sutai-Ausa gave him last year.  Ektaar
is seeking the truth of that, as well.  If they are proven to have
supported Klayvor's actions, they will face harsh punishment - the
dissolution of their noble house, for a start, and probable exile for
the remaining elders."
        "That's harsh, all right," Utena agreed.
        "We have reason to believe, from certain things Kraal and
others have told our investigators, that this was more than just an
attempt at revenge for a personal slight," Zargh explained as the
three of them started walking down the corridor toward the docking
area.  "It seems the vestai-Klavaar's plan was to collect his niece,
murder the rest of the Valiant's company, and destroy the ship - and
then pretend, when IPO reinforcements arrived, that Amar had sped to
your -rescue- after receiving your surprise-attack distress call, only
to arrive 'regrettably too late.'"
        Utena's eyes widened.  "That son of a... " she murmured as she
followed the trail of events the rest of the way.
        Gryphon nodded.  "Next would have been all the public
hand-wringing - if only the IPO's leadership were not so foolish as to
send these poor children into a dangerous situation in which they did
not belong, et cetera.  The Irregular Projects Department, the whole
Space Force, and I personally would have been discredited, galactic
confidence in the experiment shaken.  We figure Klayvor's ultimate
intent was to drive a wedge between the Klingon Defense Forces and the
IPO."
        The Klingon ambassador smiled, not entirely nicely.  "Instead
he has accomplished just the opposite.  The High Council and the
Defense Forces High Command have been mightily impressed by your
achievement, Captain.  To defeat a Klingon warship in combat, after
suffering a dishonorable and cowardly surprise attack - AND to repel a
professional Klingon boarding party! - is a feat few non-Klingons can
boast of.
        "Where before there were voices in the Admiralty and on the
Council saying to Chancellor Krojaar, These fools are doomed to fail -
we should withdraw our support before they make us look as foolish as
they are; now they are saying, If the IPO's untrained -children- have
such talent, if their ships have such strength, that they can
accomplish -this- in their second week in space, then truly they are
warriors, and they deserve our support in their noble cause."
        "Well," said Utena, "that's good, anyway.  Nice to see
-something- positive come out of this mess."
        "Indeed."  They arrived at the entrance to the small-craft
dock; here Zargh put out a hand, stopping the three of them short of
the door, and turned to face Utena again.
        "I have one other task to perform before my work here is
complete," he said.
        Utena gave him a curious look.  "Hm?" she said.
        Becoming stiffly formal again, as he had been at the beginning
of their conversation, Zargh intoned, "Utena vestai-Tenjou, captain of
the International Police Starship Valiant: For your bravery, courage
and skill in your command's engagement with the rogue Klingon ship of
war Amar, in defeating an enemy of superior firepower and defensive
strength while repelling boarders, and in storming and seizing the
said Amar by force of arms, I am charged by His Excellency Krojaar
epetai-Korgoth, Chancellor of the High Council of the Klingon Empire,
and by the Lord Admiral Lo'kang, son of Morg, Supreme Commander of the
Klingon Defense Forces, to present you with the Targ's Claw First
Class with Blood Crescent for Valor."
        Utena stood there and blinked at the Klingon ambassador in
open astonishment as he ceremoniously hung the medal - a nasty-looking
bronze talon encompassing in its curvature a crescent enameled in deep
lavender - around her neck on a black satin ribbon.
        "qeylIS the Unforgettable smiles on your prowess and your
achievements, Captain," declared Zargh, who then came to attention and
saluted her again.  "Kai the vestai-Tenjou!"
        Utena lifted the heavy medal and regarded it for a moment.
"Wow," she said.  "Thanks.  Never won a -medal- before... "
        Gryphon grinned and saluted her.  "Congratulations, Captain."
Then, dropping the pose, he told her, "Now, unless I miss my guess,
there's one last ordeal you have to pass through before you can really
call this whole mess over with."
        Utena rolled her eyes.  "God, -now- what?"
        Gryphon's grin remained, tinged with a sympathetic overtone,
as he reached for the activator for the docking bay door.
        "Now, my dear Captain," he said, "it's time to meet the
press."
        And indeed, as the door hissed and rolled back, a small crowd
of reporters and photographers awaited on the other side.
        "Captain Tenjou - "
        "Look this way, please - lovely - "
        "Jack Dixon, New Avalon Cornet-Scientifer - "
        "I'm with Sphere Magazine - "
        "Just one more - "
        "Have you an official statement - "
        "Just a few words - "
        " - the Klingon situation - "
        " - your untried crew - "
        " - must be very proud - "
        " - Avalon This Afternoon - "
        Gryphon let that go on for a few moments, then smiled and
waved a hand.  "OK, OK, you guys, c'mon.  It's all in the statement
the Press Office released."
        "Sure," said Jack Dixon from the Cornet-Scientifer (New
Avalon's most popular paper, a 'serious tabloid' with good sports
writers and a format that was easy to read on the train).  "We just
want to get a few words from the girl of the hour herself.  Y'know?
Captain, how does it feel to have proven the doomsayers wrong in such
a spectacular fashion?"
        Utena grinned a little sheepishly.  "Pretty good, but I
wouldn't be complaining if we'd had an uneventful week, either."
        "Althea Gale, Avalon This Afternoon.  Fleet Captain Hutchins,
how does this incident affect the rest of the Valiant's mission?  I
mean, you've proven your point about the ships and their capabilities.
Is it really necessary to send Captain Tenjou and the other children
back into harm's way for the rest of the summer?"
        Utena scowled.  "Excuse me, I'm right here," she said testily,
pulling the reporter's attention away from Gryphon.  "Look, I can't
speak for Command," she went on.  "If they want to cancel the rest of
the mission, that's their call - but they'd damn well better have a
more compelling reason than 'it's too dangerous for your pretty little
head' if they want me to give up these bars without a fight," she
added, angling a thumb at the rank pin on her dress tunic's shoulder
strap.  "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
        Jack Dixon hooted with satisfaction.  "I guess she put -you-
in your place, Althea," he said, drawing a glare from the TV
reporter.
        "The general operation plan for Valiant remains unchanged,"
Gryphon said, catching Utena's eye with a sly little grin for a
moment.  "Obviously, some rearrangement will have to be done to
accommodate the repair time, but the basic plan is still the same.  A
revised itinerary will be available when the band's manager finishes
making the required adjustments."
        "And you'll be staying with the same crew?" Gale persisted.
        "Do I look like I want a punch in the mouth?" Gryphon replied,
to roars of laughter from Jack Dixon and several of the other print
reporters.
        "Strange way to run a space force," Gale retorted.
        "That's the idea," said Gryphon placidly.  "We're trying out
some new ways of doing things.  So far I'd say they seem to be working
out pretty well."  He became more serious and went on, "Now, we've
discussed this topic as much as we're going to.  I'm not going to hear
any more about replacing the Valiant's crew.  They're not draftees and
I think they've proved amply that they know what they're doing.  The
subject is no longer open for discussion.  Does anybody have anything
-else- they want to talk about?  Captain Tenjou and I have to get to
New Avalon - we still have business at HQ."
        "Tz'kmil O'Connor, Avalon Tribune," said the Andorian-looking
girl in the eye-bending tweed checked suit.  "Assuming the tour works
out pretty much the same as before, what stop are you most looking
forward to, Captain?"
        Utena grinned.  "Can't you guess?" she replied.  "Earth!"

        When the reporters finally let her go, Utena exchanged cordial
(for Klingonese) goodbyes with Ambassador Thalekh, told Gryphon she'd
see him at HQ, then climbed aboard the Swordfish II (thoughtfully
offloaded from Valiant's tiny shuttlebay by Zefram Cochrane before the
ship went into dock) and flew from Zeta Cygni II out to the sphere
surface and the Avalon pseudocontinent.  She was tempted to detour by
the old asteroid field and do a spot of gunnery practice, but Gryphon
would beat her back to HQ - he was using the transporter relay network
to get back - and she didn't want to keep him waiting longer than
necessary.  For that matter, she was getting hungry, and so she wanted
to get whatever remaining business they had taken care of and get
something to eat as soon as possible.
        She landed the red racer in the IPO dock at the two hundred
seventieth floor of the Entire State Building, rode the express
elevator down to street level, and crossed Gibson Square to the IPO's
old-fashioned headquarters building, a forty-story red-brick tower
that looked positively miniscule amid the megatowers of downtown New
Avalon.
        Gryphon was waiting in his office up on the thirty-ninth
floor; as she entered, he grinned and waved to the comfortable chair
facing his desk.
        "One last little thing and then you can go," he said, and
tossed a sheet of paper casually across his desk.  Utena picked it up
and examined it.

REPUBLIC OF ZETA CYGNI                         DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
                   INTERNATIONAL NAVAL PRIZE COURT

Klingon privateer vessel Amar
Captured by: International Police Organization
                IPS Valiant
                Tenjou, Utena CPT cmdg
Date of capture: June 7, 2406
Place of capture: Savruat system, Lucas sector

Ruling of droits: The prize, a privately owned ship of the House of
Klavaar, was taken after initiating unprovoked action against the
capturing vessel.  It is the decision of the court that the Amar was
acting as a pirate vessel and is, therefore, a proper prize and Droit
of War under the Interplanetary Prize Treaty of Standard Year 1851.

Ruling of value: Despite battle damage, the court finds that the
vessel can be restored to full working order with the replacement of
one warp nacelle and various minor repairs.  Court therefore values
prize at cost of construction of vessel, less depreciation for age,
less cost of repairs by purchasing agency.

Cost of construction, D-7K cruiser              Cr50,000,000
(Depreciation)                                   (30,000,000)
(Estimated cost of repairs)                       (5,000,000)
Prize money awarded                               15,000,000

Share for fleet/government (IPO)                   7,500,000
Share for flag officer cmdg
        (FCPT Benjamin Hutchins, CINC IPO)                 0 (declined)
Share for captain cmdg
        (CPT Utena Tenjou, IPS Valiant)            3,500,000
Shares for officers, commissioned and              1,875,000
  warranted
        Chief Warrant Officer Corwin Ravenhair,      208,333
          chief engineer
        Commander Zefram Cochrane,                   208,333
          propulsion engineer
        Sub-Commander Klaang tai-Kalaan,             208,333
          science officer
        Phlox, chief medical officer                 208,333
        Lieutenant Gudrun Truemace,                  208,333
          security officer
        Vice Admiral Edward Wong Hau                 208,333
          Pepelu Tivrusky IV,
          sysadmin
        Rear Admiral Ein, sysadmin                   208,333
        Janice Barlow, IPO-CID liaison               208,333
        Imra Ardeen, IPO-PB AEGIS liaison            208,333

Shares for crewmen, enlisted and                   1,875,000
  volunteer
        Kaitlyn Hutchins                             104,116
        Juri Arisugawa                               104,116
        Sergei                                       104,116
        B'Elanna Torres                              104,116
        Wakaba Shinohara                             104,116
        Sumire Shinguuji                             104,116
        Miki Kaoru                                   104,116
        Kozue Kaoru                                  104,116
        Kyouichi Saionji                             104,116
        Elizabeth R'tas Shustal                      104,116
        Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan                      104,116    
        Anthy Tenjou                                 104,116
        Mia Ausa                                     104,116
        The Hon. J. Maurice MacEchearn IV            104,116
        R. Dorothy Wayneright                        104,116
        Carl Witwicky                                104,116
        T'Barr                                       104,116
        Keryl Dekken                                 104,116

        Utena read it, then read it again, then read it again.
        Then she looked over the top of it at Gryphon, who beamed at
her.
        "You'd forgotten about that part, hadn't you?" he said.
        "Is this for -real-?"
        "You bet."
        Utena looked at the paper again and blinked.  "THREE AND A
HALF MILLION CREDITS?!"
        "Normally that'd be the admiral's share," Gryphon replied with
a smile, "but I don't need another boat."
        Utena read the paper one more time, then whistled.  "Do the
others know yet?"
        "Nope.  I figured you'd want to tell them yourself.  Well, I
think Zed and Klaang know - they've been in this game for a while now,
they know the prize regs.  The others, though... "  Gryphon flipped a
hand.  "It's not every day you get to announce a windfall."
        "No kidding."  She chuckled.  "Who wrote up this crew listing?
I notice Sergei gets a share of his own."
        "Hey, he helped repel the boarders," said Gryphon.  "Anyway,
I'm pretty sure the actual paperwork was submitted by Ed Tivrusky,
which is why she and Ein are on there as officers."
        Utena scanned the list once more and laughed.  "Well, they
deserve it," she said.  "Without them we'd have had a hell of a fight
taking the Amar, if we could even have done it.  With their help, the
takeover was practically bloodless."
        Gryphon nodded; then he took his feet off his desk and leaned
forward in his chair, his face becoming more serious and personal.
        "Listen - I don't think I said this before, in the middle of
all the official stuff, but I want you to know, for whatever it's
worth, that I am -damn- proud of you and the others.  I knew, and so
did you, that you might end up in a fight sometime over the course of
the summer, but I had no idea it'd be like that - so early in the
mission, so far from help, against such a powerful enemy.  And you
handled it without killing any more of them than you absolutely had
to.  That's just the way the IPO's supposed to do things."
        Utena smiled.  "We aim to please, Chief," she said, standing.
"But I wasn't lying when I told the guy from the Scientifer I wouldn't
complain if the rest of the summer was quiet," she added with a wry
grin.
        "We'll see what we can do," Gryphon replied.  He got up as
well, came around his desk, and stuck out his hand.  "Damn well done,
Captain Tenjou."
        She took the hand, and then, because she felt like it and it
was that kind of day, looped an arm around him and kissed him on the
cheek.  "Thanks," she said.  "Was that insubordinate?"
        "I think I can overlook a few minor breaches of discipline,"
Gryphon replied with mock stuffiness.  "For the good of the service,
you know."
        Utena nodded.  "Well, good."  Turning to go, she paused at the
doorway to look back with a grin and say, "See you later, Dad!" before
trotting off through the outer office and away.
        Gryphon stood in the middle of his office giving the inside of
his door a perplexed look for a moment.
        "... 'Dad'?" he mused aloud.
        "Congratulations," said Ruri's bored-sounding voice on his
desk intercom.  "Teenage girls are now adopting you as a surrogate
father figure.  Will you let your hair go a bit grey now?"
        "Secure it, Ruri," grumbled the IPO chief as he returned to
his desk.  "And type something, will you?  We're paying for this
stuff." 

        Elsewhere in New Avalon, the rest of the ship's company, save
for the engineers, were getting settled in.  The timeframe for the
repairs meant that they had four days in New Avalon without a lot to
do.
        Well, most of them didn't have a lot to do.  Juri Arisugawa
had all but taken over Kate's father's office at the family home in
Crescent Heights, using its extensive communications systems to
rearrange the Art of Noise's now badly disarrayed tour.  She undertook
this herculean task without complaint or, in fact, any indication that
she was in any way discommoded by it - but she did say unequivocally
that, while she was occupied with it, she was not to be disturbed.
The others were wandering around New Avalon sightseeing, or lounging
about their rooms at the Imperial Hotel Monolith.
        Those who hadn't seen New Avalon before, or had only visited
it briefly around New Year's, took the opportunity to get to know it
in early summer.  It couldn't really be said that there was a -bad-
time to visit New Avalon, but early June was held by many people to be
one of the best - sunny and bright but without the heat that could
occasionally get a bit much in late July and August, with cool, crisp
nights that were perfect for walking around and taking in the city in
all its light-cloaked glory of an evening.  During this impromptu
vacation-within-a-vacation, New Avalon made several new friends.
        One in particular was Kozue Kaoru, who had never seen anything
like the City in the Sphere before in her life.  There were cities in
Cephiro, of course; some of them were great cities, two boasting more
than a million residents.  One of those - Zantoku, the capital of the
great industrial nation of Autozam - was a teeming, bustling,
automated metropolis, full of factories and powerplants that supplied
much of Cephiro with electricity.  Zantoku was the place Kozue, who
had been there once as a little girl, always used as her mental
touchstone in comparing places in Midgard to her personal experience.
        New Avalon blew Zantoku clean off the map - not only because
it was -huge-, not only because its buildings reached up until it
seemed they must crack the very sky itself, not only because its skies
were filled with airships and small craft heading this way and that on
mysterious errands and spangling the golden-black nightglow with
scarlet, but also because it was -clean-.  Zantoku, and indeed all of
Autozam, was a dirty place by Cephirean standards, especially the
standards of someone from one of the relatively rural countries like
Nihonia.  The steam-powered technologies that made its trains run and
its factories work burned coal, and coal, in Kozue's experience, meant
soot.  Nothing in Autozam was ever really clean.
        New Avalon was like everything cool about Zantoku amplified
and cleaned up.  It glittered, it soared, it towered, and it captured
Kozue Kaoru's imagination like nothing else she'd encountered on land
in Midgard had.  She'd taken to spaceflight with an affinity that she
wouldn't have thought possible six months before (and which had rather
surprised her brother), but New Avalon was the first -place- in
Midgard to really make her feel that this was a place where she wanted
to be.  As she settled into her room at the Monolith, she found
herself going again and again to the window to look out and marvel at
the place in which she found herself.
        She wondered, as she tore herself away from the spectacular
view to unpack her toilet bag, if she could prevail on Corwin to show
her around a bit before they had to leave, or if he would be too busy
seeing to the ship.

        Indeed, as Valiant's nominal chief engineer, Corwin found his
own responsibilities keeping him at the shipyard for about as long as
Utena's kept her in the front office.  There'd be no worries about
missing the rest of the crew's time in New Avalon, though, since
Cochrane had told him in no uncertain terms to stay the hell out from
underfoot during the repairs, an instruction that suited Corwin just
fine.  He Gated from the shipyard complex to Headquarters and met
Utena in the lobby when she at last came down from the thirty-ninth
floor.
        "Hungry?" he inquired.
        "Starving," she replied.  "Ideas?"
        "Well, we're in downtown New Avalon," he said with a wry
grin.  "I think we can probably find -something- to eat."  He looked
around her as if expecting to see someone else come out of the
elevator, then asked, "Where's Anthy?"
        "She went with Kate and Juri up to your dad's place in the
Heights," Utena replied, then grinned and added, "It's Friday, after
all."
        Corwin blinked.  "Huh.  So it is.  I'd -completely- lost track
of what day it is."
        "Oh, so had I," Utena agreed as they went through the
revolving door of IPO Headquarters' Art Deco lobby and out onto the
sidewalk of Allard Boulevard.  "I only remembered because Professor
Cochrane reminded me.  Hey, I know - let's try that Kumbari barbecue
place Hikaru was telling you about last week."
        "Sure, that sounds good - if I can remember where it is... "
        "You could call Hikaru and ask."
        "I could, that's true.  Except I'd have to get past her
brothers.  I really feel for the first guy who decides to ask her
out... "

        Late lunch at the Star of Kumbaria went well; they were just
finishing when Corwin's mobile phone peeped.  Keying it on, he
answered,
        "Hello.  ... Oh, really?  That's cool.  No, we're just
finishing lunch.  Or dinner.  Or whatever this is.  Anyway, we can be
there in... hmm... ten minutes, if the trains cooperate.  Uh-huh.  OK.
You told the others?  Great.  OK.  See you there.  Bye."
        "Who was that?" Utena asked as he put the phone away.
        "Dad," Corwin replied.  "Aeka just called from the hospital.
Achika looks like she's starting to come around."
        "Oh!  Great!  Uh, waiter - check, please?"

        There was a large group in the waiting area of the Boyce
Memorial Medical Center's Critical Care Unit when the two of them
emerged from the elevator.  Achika Shannon had a lot of friends, and
most of them had been closer to the hospital than the north end
(naturally) of Salutown.  Hearing the elevator ding, many of them
turned to look; upon seeing who was emerging, most turned back, but a
couple didn't.  One in particular took special notice of the arrivals;
a pretty girl about Corwin's age with short black hair, dressed in
black cargo pants and a green tank top bearing the logo of the New
Avalon Fire Department, stared intently at them for several seconds,
the expression on her face entirely unreadable.
        Then, without warning, she suddenly launched herself forward,
crossing the thirty feet or so from the waiting room to the elevators
in a single improbable bound.
        "You SON of a BITCH!" she declared, then belted Corwin square
in the mouth with enough force to send him crashing noisily back
against the just-closed elevator doors.
        "HEY!" said Utena and about a dozen other people in
involuntary unison.  The black-haired girl looked like she was more
than willing to charge in with another attack, but before she could,
there were two others - one redhead and one blonde - in front of her,
one holding back each arm.
        "Buttercup, what the HELL are you doing?!" the redhead
demanded.  "You can't hit people in a hospital!"
        "You ESPECIALLY can't hit CORWIN in a hospital!" squeaked the
blonde in one of those glass-cutting voices Utena had always thought
people only had in the movies.
        "Lemme go!" snarled Buttercup, straining against the others'
hampering hands.  "He deserves it and WORSE!  This is all his fault!
Dammit, lemme GO!"
        A thoroughly displeased-looking woman in a white lab coat
strode over and scowled at the lot of them - Utena included, which she
felt was patently unfair, since she wasn't doing anything but standing
here wondering what the hell was going on.
        "I'm going to have to ask you to leave," said the doctor in an
angry whisper.  "We simply can't have this kind of behavior in the
hospital.  Really, I'd have thought you would know better."
        Buttercup glared at her as if to ask if she wanted some too,
then subsided, her furious glare disintegrating into an ashamed look.
"I'm sorry, Doctor," she said, looking at the floor.  "I just... I
won't do it again.  I promise.  I'm sorry."
        The doctor - "ROSE ABERNATHY MD FFCS", according to her
nametag - put her hands on her hips and continued scowling at
Buttercup for a moment, then relented.  "Well, all right, you can
stay," she said in a slightly softer tone.  "But one more outburst and
you're off the ward."  She turned to Corwin.  "Are you all right,
young man?"
        "Uh... fine, thanks," said Corwin as he rose to his feet,
dabbing gingerly at the corner of his mouth with a knuckle.
        "Remember what I told you," said Dr. Abernathy harshly,
sweeping her gaze over the group (and unfairly including Utena again);
then she turned and strode off down the hall.
        "What the hell did -I- do?" wondered Corwin when she was gone.
        Buttercup glared at him and said, "I can't talk about it right
now.  I'll just get mad again and we'll all get thrown out.  Come on,
Achika needs her friends."

        Contrary to the standard expectation in such cases, Achika
Shannon did not wake up with a headache.  In fact, upon regaining
consciousness, she felt perfectly fine.  She might as well have been
waking up from a nap, except that instead of being on the couch at
home, she was on a rather uncomfortably starched bed in a white room
crowded with people.  Most of them she recognized; she didn't know the
Tenctonese gentleman who stood at the end of the bed frowning at a
clipboard, but it was pretty obvious who he had to be if you thought
about it for a minute.  Aside from that, most of the faces surrounding
her were familiar.
        There was, of course, her twin brother Tenchi, fretful as
usual; Hiroshi Morisato, studious and distracted, looking as if he
wished he could be anywhere else; her parents, standing hand in hand
and trying to decide whether they should look happy or worried; the
three Utonium sisters, Blossom looking pleased, Bubbles shifting
nervously from foot to foot, Buttercup disgruntled about something
(big surprise); Corwin, peculiarly bruised and disheveled; Utena
Tenjou, who seemed uncertain whether she should be there; Kei Morgan,
who seemed uncertain whether the -others- should be there.
        Fuu Hououji was there, and Hikaru Shidou; Nall and his
girlfriend Umi from Fontainebleu Academy, and the Mui twins, Chip and
Reiyna.  Achika noted abstractly that Chip didn't have his camera with
him, and decided Reiyna must have threatened him with dismemberment if
he brought it.  Over in the corner, staying out of the way, were the
Morgan twins, Priss and Guy, and Sylvie Daniels.  Eiko Rose hovered
near them, not wringing her hands now but looking as though she'd been
doing quite a bit of it.
        Quite a crowd, anyway, for such a small room - but amid all
those faces, there was one very distinctly missing.  Slowly, Achika
blinked, then looked around the room again, carefully checking to make
sure she hadn't overlooked him - but no, he wasn't there at all.
        "What... what happened?" she asked.  "Where's Len?"
        Unfortunately, in the uncomfortable silence that ensued, the
first person who replied was Bubbles Utonium, who produced the
following in a single unbroken torrent of chirpy blondeness:
        "Weeeeeeeeeell, first you and Len had an accident in the dojo
and they took you to the hospital but I guess you knew that 'cause you
were there for the accident and you're in the hospital now so
obviously they took you to the hospital after the accident right?  And
you were really really sick but the doctors fixed you up and now
you're gonna be A-OK!  But Len felt really bad about what happened and
that's understandable I mean I feel bad when I have an accident like
the time I broke the Professor's favorite mug and I tried to glue it
together and the Professor made coffee and the glue hadn't dried and
his lip got stuck to the cup and I felt really really bad about that.
        "So Len got all sad and gloomy and he ran away from home which
is stupid because he didn't do anything wrong, it was an accident, I
mean if I ran away from home every time I had an accident I wouldn't
be here would I?  But it's okay because Len met this weird old guy at
the spaceport but he must be nice 'cause he's helping this guy Stanley
find his cup that's been lost for four hundred years.
        "And now they're gonna go off until Len gets happy again which
shouldn't take long I mean I never stay gloomy for very long and
neither does Blossom but Buttercup stays gloomy all the time but
that's okay because the Professor says the world would be a boring
place if everyone was the same.  I never understood that I mean Vulcan
is a really boring place and everyone isn't the same there I mean they
try and all but no matter how much they frown and squint they all look
just a little bit different so it shouldn't be as boring there as it
is at least I don't think so."
        At last Bubbles paused, a thoughtful look on her face.  "Where
was I?" she asked.
        Buttercup opened her mouth to interject, but Bubbles
brightened as she picked up the thread (at least in her own mind) and
concluded triumphantly, "Oh yeah! So you're gonna be OK and Len will
be too once he stops being stupid and finds Stanley's cup and he'll be
home soon so we can all tell him how silly he is for running away.  The
end!" 
        There was a long, awkward silence, in which everyone in the
room stared at Bubbles in blank, unspeaking horror - except Buttercup,
who stood with her face in her hand (the little black storm cloud
almost visible over her head) and Dr. Stone, who checked Achika's
pulse with brisk, sublime unconcern for outside distractions.
        "Um... " said Achika slowly with an I-don't-think-I-like-this
look on her face, "... would someone like to translate that, please?"
        For a moment, nobody spoke - everybody just stood around
looking uncomfortably at each other while dread and annoyance fought
for primacy on Achika's face - until finally Buttercup struck Corwin
in the middle of the back with her open hand, sending him stumbling a
couple of steps forward to collide with the footboard of Achika's
hospital bed.
        Thus elected, Corwin did the translation; and it must be said
that, having been elected, he didn't shrink from the unpleasant duty.
He didn't equivocate, he didn't dress it up, and he didn't flinch from
the hard parts.  Like telling her that Len wouldn't be back from his
little sabbatical for years, and if his luck didn't hold, might not
come back at all.
        Achika took it all in without interrupting, without
commenting, without even seeming to react much.  Her face was
curiously expressionless as Corwin finished his explanation.
Actually, he didn't finish so much as run out of things to say; his
voice trailed off into another uncomfortable silence as he stood, hand
behind his head, next to her bed and gave her a look that combined
great sympathy with a complete absence of any more words.
        Achika looked down at the corrugated surface of the
hospital-green blanket that covered her lap and legs for a moment,
then looked up at all her friends and loved ones who had gathered to
support her in this difficult moment.  She felt grateful for the
gesture - even from Hiroshi, because she knew him well enough to know
that his obvious desire to be anywhere else was born of an utter lack
of conviction that his presence was helpful to her in any way, not
because he felt he had better things to be doing.
        But as it happened, she agreed with him on that point.
        "I think," she said quietly, her voice deceptively calm, "I'd
like you all to leave now."

        "Well, that's the old Royal Jyuraian gratitude for you,"
grumbled Buttercup Utonium as she and her sisters walked away from the
medical center on Boyce Boulevard.
        "Buttercup!" chided Blossom.  "After all she's been through - "
        "Yeah, yeah, I know," said Buttercup, holding up a
conciliatory hand.  "I'm just griping, don't mind me."
        "I don't think she liked my explanation," said Bubbles
disconsolately.
        "Don't worry, Bubbles, it wasn't that she didn't like it,"
Buttercup told her.  "It's just that she couldn't understand it.  That
happens a lot when you try to explain things.  You'd think you'd get
used to it."
        "I was only trying to help!" Bubbles squeaked.  "You know -
get her to look on the bright side, show her that it isn't so bad... "
        "Yeah, which is -fine-, Bubbles," Buttercup interrupted
impatiently, "except that it -is- so bad.  Y'know?"
        "Buttercup, stop it," said Blossom crossly.
        Buttercup sighed.  "What-EVER, jeez."  She noticed the
deepening sad frown on her blonde sister's face and sighed again, with
less impatience and more concern this time.  "OK, OK, c'mon, don't
cry.  Let's get some ice cream."
        "... OK," said Bubbles slowly.  Then she looked puzzled and
said, "Anyway, why'd you hit Corwin?"
        "I don't wanna talk about it," Buttercup grumbled.
        "Oh.  OK."
        That was one nice thing about Bubbles - she dropped things
quite readily when asked to.  Buttercup supposed it was a side effect
of being so scatterbrained to begin with.

        The next day being a Saturday, most people would have expected
it to be quieter.  In fact, it was quite busy, with several things
happening at once.
        Foremost among these for many was the fact that Achika was
released from the hospital.  With her regenerative coma complete,
there was no reason to keep her there; all the healing she had to do
was done before she regained consciousness.  If anything were going to
go wrong with the process, it would have gone wrong during the coma
itself; now that it was over, there was nothing more to see.
        There was only one potential complication of an induced
regenerative aging freeze: the possibility of Edgerton's Syndrome.
Occurring in born Detians (as opposed to those made Detian in
adulthood by the Omega-2 retroviral treatment) whose RAF occurs
spontaneously prematurely thanks to a life-threatening injury,
Edgerton's manifests as an absence of the normal Detian ability to age
willingly from the point of aging freeze, and backward to it if so
desired later.  The Edgerton's victim is stuck at whatever physical
age at which they underwent premature freeze - which, depending on the
timing, could be quite unfortunate.
        In Achika's case, this had been avoided; her aging freeze had
been induced deliberately, and by the best Detianism specialists in
the field.  It had been carefully controlled and had come off
perfectly.  She would continue to grow to adulthood as if nothing had
ever happened.  Physically, she was unharmed - unchanged, except for
her now-active regenerative abilities and enhanced powers of
biocontrol.
        Mentally and emotionally, though, that was another matter.
Upon emerging from the hospital, she went around seeking out all the
friends and well-wishers she'd chased away from her bedside and
apologizing for doing so.  She still didn't want to be crowded - she
felt that she had to work through the initial stages on her own - but
she wanted to make certain she hadn't alienated anyone with her
brusque request for space.  She knew that a time would come soon when
she would need her support network, and she wanted to make certain it
would be there when that time came.
        Her friends, many of whom had been so since birth, understood
that - well, except for Bubbles, but she had accepted the whole
situation with such equanimity anyway that it didn't matter if the
details escaped her.
	So, instead of worrying about it, Bubbles gathered her sisters
and badgered them into going down the street to see what was going on
at 105 Morgan.

        Kozue Kaoru slid the mask over her head, mirroring her brother
Miki's motions, and picked up her foil.  The twins saluted each other
across the open space of the Hutchins-Morgan family dojo; then Juri
Arisugawa snapped from the sidelines, "Begin!"
        The twins lunged together, clashed, drew back, and whipped
their foils toward each other in an eerily similar fashion.  For a
good minute, they surged back and forther across the floor, the only
noise the rattle of foil on foil, their heavy breathing, and the
squeak of their shoes against the floor as they danced.
        "Wow, look at them go," a soft voice murmured at Juri's elbow.
She glanced down to see that Corwin, accompanied by three girls in
pink, green and blue that she didn't know, had just entered.
        Juri looked back at the twins.  With their faces obscured by
the fencing masks, their similar build and almost identical fencing
styles, the only immediate difference between the two of them was
their clothing - Miki in his white Ohtori Academy councilor's jacket
with blue trousers, Kozue in the new Tenjou double-breasted black with
white pants.  A closer look at them would reveal that the one in black
was not quite of identical configuration any longer - but at first
glance the cut of the jacket kept it from being obvious.
        Then, with a lightning-fast riposte and thrust and a terrific
sound of cloth tearing, Kozue staggered back, hand to her chest.  Miki
flipped his helmet off and grinned at her.
        After a moment's recovery, she flipped the mask off her head,
dumped it on the floor, and demanded of her brother, "How the hell do
you fight in this thing anyway?"  For illustration she held up her
right sleeve, which, having torn free at the shoulder, had slid down
around her wrist and the grip of her foil.
        Ten minutes later, with the twins washed and their hair combed
(though it seemed little could be done for Kozue's sleeve), Corwin
introduced his friends to each other over tea and cookies.  Kozue, who
hadn't seen him since the day before at the spacedock, wondered where
he'd come by the slowly purpling bruise on his jaw.
        The girl with the red hair who had been quietly impressed by
Miki and Kozue's duel was Blossom Utonium.  Her sisters were Bubbles
and Buttercup.  Upon introduction to Kozue, Buttercup looked her up
and down and said, "Well -you- sure look like a refugee from a band
camp," in a slightly raspy, sardonic tone.
        Kozue raked the black-haired girl in the green FDNA tank top
and black trousers up and down with her eyes, and then shrugged.
"You're not exactly dressed to Revolutionize the World yourself," she
said, matching Buttercup's sardonic smile with one of her own.
        Miki choked on his tea; Corwin nearly snarfed his cookie.
        "How long are you guys going to be in dock, Corwin?" Blossom
asked, jumping into the conversation to head off the sniping war
before it could really get going.
        "At least 'til Wednesday.  I assume we'll be leaving as soon
as the ship's ready to go, but that's up to the captain... "
        "Don't you -dare- go running off without us again," Buttercup
growled.
        "Yeah, you didn't share -any- of the fun," Bubbles pouted.
        Corwin raised an eyebrow.  "You guys have a weird definition
of fun, but I knew that already."
        "You want another punch in the mouth?"  Buttercup raised her
fist slightly.  Corwin winced with slight comical exaggeration.
        Kozue blinked.  "What did he deserve the first one for?" she
asked.
        "He's been ditching us -every- weekend for the past two
years."  Blossom blinked at her sister, while Bubbles just looked
bewildered.  "And as if that wasn't enough, then he took off for the
whole last term of the school year AND didn't bother coming home for
the summer!  If he'd been around, looking out for Len the way he
-should've- been," Buttercup continued, "then Len wouldn't've gone
pelting off to the Rim like some stupid-idiot BOY."
        "Uh-huh," Kozue said, leaning back in her chair.  She sensed
an opportunity to poke a bit of fun at her black-haired friend, who
was staring at Buttercup as if she'd grown a second head.  "And if
Corwin'd been around, he could've stopped Len exactly -how-?"
        "They live - excuse me," Buttercup sneered, "-lived- in the
same house.  Nobody else was home, but if Corwin hadn't been off
having wild adventures, he wouldn't've put ideas in Len's head."
        Corwin began spluttering, and Kozue laughed outright.
        "Uh-huh.  Well, if my past experience is any kind of judge,"
(she shot Miki a look that made him grin,) "Corwin's being there
would've made about as much difference as a sack of wet concrete.
Maybe less."
        "Yeah, c'mon, give him a break, Buttercup," Blossom pointed
out.  "He's an inventor, just like the Professor - you know he'd've
been down in the basement working on something and paying -no-
attention to Len anyway."
        "Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Bubbles chirped in.  "And anyway, you never
listen to us when you're mad, so why should Len listen to Corwin when
-he's- mad?"
        Buttercup looked sullen, and went back to sulking, so Kozue
shrugged and looked down at her ripped sleeve, and then at the two
boys.  "Well, if Corwin's persona-non-grata right now, maybe you girls
could tell me where a stranger from another world could get a change
of clothes?"
        Blossom's eyes gleamed, and Bubbles bounced up in her chair.
"Shopping - ooh, we haven't been -really- shopping in ages."
        "(Not since last week,)" Buttercup grumbled under her breath,
though when she glanced up, she had an interested look in her eyes too.
        "Well, I think we definitely can help you there," Blossom put
in.  "I mean, we're supposed to protect the citizens, right?  And if
we let you go into the Mall on your own, you might end up eating at
the food court."
        All three girls shuddered in unison, and even Corwin looked a
bit green at the thought.
        "So where do you suggest?" Kozue inquired.
        "The Cheesecake Factory!" chorused all three of them, and then
they all dissolved into giggles.
        Miki eyed his sister a little warily, though he was smiling.
"Don't you dare think you can drag me along on this," he said firmly.
"I don't need any new clothes."
        "Nah, you'd spoil the fun anyway," Kozue agreed.  "Boys are no
good at shopping."  She gave Corwin a wink, and he gave her a grateful
smile before beating a strategic retreat alongside Miki.
        "Coward," Buttercup grumbled.
        "You'd only make him carry the packages," Blossom pointed out,
"and he'd spend the whole time looking long-suffering."
        "Definitely not fun," Kozue agreed.  "OK, let me swipe one of
Corwin's T-shirts and we can get down to business."

        Early Saturday evening found Achika in the meditation hall
behind her family's home, putting it to its eponymous use.  She sat in
seiza, hands folded on her knees, trying to clear her mind of all the
extraneous thoughts and feelings and get down to what she was really
experiencing.
        That was a difficult proposition, since the extraneous
feelings were so intense, the extraneous thoughts so -loud-.  More
than anything, what she wanted to do was get up, go pack her things,
go find Leonard, and give him a good, solid wallop - like the one
she'd been told Buttercup had given Corwin in the corridor outside her
hospital room.  (She'd been building up to that for a while, but it
wasn't the best of places for it - but then, that was Buttercup all
over: bad timing and no finesse.)
        The more she tried to push this idea away as impractical, the
harder it pushed back into her consciousness.  It wasn't so
impractical, really.  After all, wasn't Len doing it?  If he could
manage to vanish to the Rim, then surely Achika could find him.
        And what about school? she wondered, but the plan had an
answer to that, too: It's early June.  You'll find him before
September, surely.  You go and get Len back; Corwin's coming back to
Koopman High; by the start of the next school year things will be back
to normal.  Back to the way they used to be... 
        Achika's eyes opened, her face set in a look of firm
determination.  Now was the time to - 
        Someone was sitting opposite her, tucked into a matching
seiza, regarding her silently.  Achika was trained in the physical and
mental disciplines of the Jyuraian royal family's way of combat - she
was very hard to sneak up on - but she hadn't the faintest notion that
Kaitlyn Hutchins and Sergei had entered the meditation hall until
she'd opened her eyes and seen the girl sitting there with the tiger
lying next to her.
        To her credit, Achika didn't react outwardly to this shock,
except that it wiped the look of determination off her face and
replaced it with one of mild surprise.
        "Kaitlyn!" she exclaimed softly.  "What are you doing here?"
        Kate gave her a sad, quiet look for a moment, then replied, "I
c-c-came to ask you a d-difficult f-f-favor."
        Achika cocked an eyebrow at her visitor.  "What's that?"
        "Don't g-g-go after him."
        The half-Jyuraian girl's eyes widened.  "What?!" she replied,
aghast.  "-You- of all people tell me - "
        Kate held up a hand, palm outward.  "S-slow down," she said
softly.  "Th-th-think.  You sh-should know b-b-better than any of us
w-what his ag-greement with Master G-Gajic means.  W-would you
interf-f-fere with th-that?"
        Achika skidded to a mental halt just looked back at Kate for a
moment, reprocessing.
        Kaitlyn was right, of course.  The Jyuraian way of battle owed
ancestral debts to the weirding ways of the royalty of ancient
Atlantis and the Jedi Knights of olden times.  Even its name - Jei -
harkened back to the days of the Old Empire.  Achika -should- have
known better than anyone else in her immediate circle what it meant to
be selected as the student of a Jedi Knight.  It was a great and
wonderful thing, a thing of ancient honor and righteousness.  It meant
that Gajic had seen in Leonard the potential to touch the mystic
energy field that pervaded the universe - which the Jyuraians also
call the Jei, but which the Jedi, with their simpler ways, merely
called "the Force" - and use it to bring light to the galaxy.
        And hadn't Achika always known there was something special
about him?
        Kate watched all this play across Achika's face and smiled
slightly.  "I kn-know it's h-hard," she said.  "I s-s-struggled with
it m-myself.  The imp-p-pulse to go and f-find him - even j-j-just to
s-see him, n-not necess-s-sarily to b-bring him home - is almost t-too
s-s-strong to b-bear."
        Achika nodded, looking down at her hands on her knees.  In a
curious reversal, -she- was the one who didn't trust herself to speak.
        "B-but... "  Kaitlyn paused as if gathering her thoughts; her
lower lip was trembling, which would make it even -harder- for her to
say what she had to say next.  But she had known Achika for the
latter's entire life, and what she had to say needed to be said; so
she took a deep breath, centered herself, concentrated, and said,
slowly but clearly,
        "But if we love him, then we have to bear it."
        Achika looked up, inhaling sharply, the weight of Kaitlyn's
words made that much greater by the effort the elder girl had expended
to say them.  For a moment they looked at each other in silence as
everything else Kate would have said if she'd had the verbal bandwidth
for it poured through Achika's mind anyway.
        Leonard is as safe as he's going to get where he is right now.
If we rush after him, seek him out, invade his space, to satisfy our
own selfish desire to see him, hold him, reassure ourselves that he's
all right, yell at him, whatever - we'll be doing it for ourselves,
not for him, and most likely at his expense.  We'll be disrupting his
training in a psionic discipline that depends far more on emotional
tranquility and balance than either of our own.
        For that was the Achilles' heel of the Jedi tradition.  Using
the Force, the Jedi could do wondrous, almost -miraculous- things, but
the price could be a dreadful one.  Tapped by the Jedi techniques, the
Force reacted to the darker emotions - anger, fear, enmity - as
readily as, perhaps more readily than, to the lighter, more peaceful
ones.  The Jedi philosophy held that this was a property of the Force
itself - that it had a bright and a dark side.  The Dark Side was
dreaded among followers of the Jedi way, spoken of almost as a living
and malevolent thing, a vicious near-intelligence lurking forever in
the background of a Jedi's mind, waiting for his conscious serenity to
slip so that it could lunge in and take control.
        Personally, Achika thought that was a load of crap, a
psychological limitation imposed upon the Jedi themselves by their
misinterpretation of the Force.  Both Katsujinkenryuu and the way of
the Jei used the dark emotions as well as the light to fuel their
warriors' powers, and their practitioners didn't seem to have any
great tradition of becoming sadistic sociopaths addicted to sowing
chaos and terror.  True, the full fury of an aroused Jei master or
Katsujinkenryuu samurai could be a chaotic and terrible thing, but the
people on the receiving end generally deserved it.
        But there it was, anyway, and if Len was going to be studying
the Jedi way, he would be subject to it.  He would have to wrestle
with his conscience and see if he came out standing in the light - and
having his sister or his childhood sweetheart barge into his space,
seething with a conflicted mixture of anger and love, wouldn't help
him at all.  It could, at particularly delicate junctures of his
training, -destroy- him.  Admittedly, it wasn't so likely that he was
at that stage just yet - he'd only been out there for a few days - but
the principle remained.
        If we love him, we can't call him back from the road he's
started down, and we mustn't block his way, Achika thought.  We have
to let him go down it... and hope it brings him back.
        Let him go... 
        Achika clenched her fists until her fingernails made her palms
bleed, scarlet drops leaking out to stain the knees of her pale blue
hakama.  Then she opened her hands, turned them over, and watched the
tiny wounds heal and disappear through a blurry veil of tears.
        She blinked them away and raised her eyes to Kaitlyn again.
The elder girl nodded, her own eyes shining behind her round glasses.
        "I kn-know," she murmured.  "B-but th-there's n-nothing else
we c-c-c-can d-do.  N-not... "  She stopped again, looking down at her
own hands, gathered herself up again, and said in a barely audible
whisper, "Not if we love him."
        Achika nodded miserably.  "And we do," she husked.  "We do... "
        Kate took off her glasses, laid them carefully aside, then
rose up on her knees and drew the younger girl into an embrace.  The
two cried on each other's shoulders for a while, then sat back, dried
their tears with their sleeves, and sat in quiet for a few moments.
Serge, sensing the moment, pushed his head under Achika's hand; she
laughed weakly and obliged him with a good skritching.
        "W-we'll be g-g-going b-back on t-t-tour next W-Wednesday,"
said Kate quietly.  "If y-you'd l-like to g-get away from here f-for a
w-while... "
        Achika smiled.  "I might take you up on that," she said.  "But
I don't want to decide tonight."
        Kate nodded.  "T-take your t-t-time."  She put her glasses
back on, then rose to her feet.  "Th-thanks for l-listening... "
        Achika got up as well, giving Serge one last scruffle, and
replied, "No, thank you.  It... well, I won't lie, it doesn't really
make it any easier to take... but it makes it easier to bear taking,
if you follow the distinction, to know that there's someone who
understands."
        Again Kaitlyn nodded.  "I im-magine," she said, "th-there are
q-quite a f-f-few of us who do... "
        "Yeah," said Achika with a wry chuckle.  "And I think I'll
call a few of them up and see if they want to go out for comfort
food.  Interested?"
        "I am, b-b-but I've g-got other p-plans.  Anyw-way, you
sh-should p-probably be w-with your own c-crowd now... "
        "Mm, I suppose," replied Achika with something like her old
mischievous grin.  "We'll do better without old practically-college
ladies chaperoning us."
        Kate slugged her gently on the shoulder as they left the dojo,
laughing.

        Corwin lay on his bed in his room at 105 Morgan Lane, idly
rubbing the sore spot on his jaw and wondering if he'd ever understand
women.  He wasn't really able to give the subject the attention it
deserved, though, thanks to the noise coming from across the hall.  He
wasn't entirely sure, but it sounded like the twins and Sylvie were
playing basketball over there.
        A moment after that thought crossed Corwin's mind, his door
popped open, admitting a small, slim, redheaded form which promptly
slammed the door behind it, then leaned back, pinning the door shut.
From outside came a rather painful-sounding thump and some muffled
curses, followed by what sounded like the lady of the house, Kei
Morgan, laying down the law.
        Corwin sighed.  Maybe I should get a place of my own, he
thought.  I can certainly afford it... 
        Then he sat up, crossed his legs for stability, and regarded
his younger half-brother, Gai Morgan, who still leaned against the
door, panting.
        "Guy," he said, "not that you're not welcome anytime, you
understand, but what the hell are you doing here?"
        Guy held up a hand, still panting for air; then he raked a
hand through his long, thick orange hair and replied breathlessly, 
        "Sorry.  Had to... get away... for a minute.  Priss... is in a
mood.  Upset about... Len.  Taking it out... on me... as usual."
        Corwin sighed again, pushing his hands through his own jagged
coal-black mop, and shook his head.
        "Guy... how old are you now?"
        "Almost 13," Guy replied, puzzled, his composure starting to
return.  "I'll be 13 in August.  Don't you remember my birthday?"
        "It was a rhetorical question," Corwin replied patiently.
"Work with me here.  You're almost 13, and so is your sister."
        "Uh, we're twins?"
        "I -know-," said Corwin.  "And Sylvie - "
        "Sylvie's the one who starts everything," said Guy irritably.
He folded his arms and leaned back against the door again, this time
casually instead of by way of barricading it.
        Corwin chuckled at the sight of him - that shoulders-back,
one-foot-against-the-wall stance was one that Guy's mother used when
she was annoyed about something - and nodded.  "She's the youngest of
your group.  That's her job.  Anyway, look - this is going to get
worse before it gets better.  Trust me, I know where I'm coming from
here."
        "Oh, wonderful.  Thanks, I feel so much better," said Guy.
        "Uh-huh, well, if you'd let me finish one of these times,
maybe you'd be able to find out where I'm headed... "
        "Sorry."  Guy looked genuinely contrite.  Corwin chuckled
again, lay back with his hands behind his head, and said, "I think
it's time you asked your Mom and Dad for your own room."
        Guy blinked.  "My own room?" he repeated.
        "Yeah.  You know, a space you can call your own.  A door you
can lock when you want some peace.  I know, I know," Corwin went on,
raising an open hand before Guy could interject, "a lock won't keep
them out if they're determined - but it's the -message- in a locked
door.  Priss and Sylv aren't -totally- insensitive.  I think if you
had your own room you'd be able to define a zone they'd respect.  It'd
take some getting used to, but... "  He shrugged.
        "But... the only rooms we aren't using are up on the third
floor.  You know, down the hall from Kate's.  They've all just got
random stuff in them.  I dunno... I mean, I'd like to have my own
space, but to move all the way up -there-... "
        Corwin sat up again, giving his sibling a look.  "Guy, we're
not talking about moving to Tomodachi here, just up the stairs."
Seeing the dubious expression unabated on Guy's face, he sighed.  "OK,
fine.  You can have -this- room.  You'll be right across the hall.
How's that?"
        There were two other alternatives - making one of the unused
upstairs rooms the guest room and giving Guy the present guest room,
right next door, and giving Guy the room at the end of the hall that
was now Sylvie's second room and making her move what stuff she didn't
keep at her nominal home next door into Priss's room - but Corwin
decided not to go into those; they might be too complicated to get
past Guy's current state of consternation.  Technically, Len's room
was also available, but anyone who tried to change a thing in there
would be drawn and quartered by Kei if Kaitlyn didn't get them first,
so that wasn't even on the table.
        As it was, the redheaded boy looked confused for a moment,
then said, "Uh... where would -you- sleep then?  Upstairs?"
        "Actually, I've been thinking about moving out," Corwin
replied.  "I'm a man of the world, after all," he said with a
sarcastic smile, "got my own way to make and all that.  Dad and Kei
are busy enough with -you- lot," he added, his smile becoming a wry
grin.  "They don't need me underfoot."
        "But with Kate not coming home this summer, and going off to
college next year, and... and Len... "  Guy made a gesture, unable to
say the rest, then picked up after it, "It's just going to be me and
Priss... and Sylv when she's around... "
        "Yeah, I know, but the age you guys are getting to?  You'll be
enough," said Corwin, still grinning.  "Anyway... I dunno, it's just
an idea I had.  I can afford it, and it'll get me out from underfoot.
I can still stop by, but... "  He shrugged.  "I don't really know how
to explain it, I guess.  It's just something I want to do."
        "Have you mentioned it to Mom and Dad yet?  Or -your- mother?"
        "Not yet.  Like I said, I've just been thinking about it.
Hadn't really decided yet - but if you need your own space... "  He
grinned again, slightly conspiratorial, and said, "Besides, I know
this room.  I can trick out the door a little for you before I go,
give you a little extra security from the she-wolves.  'Course, you
might eventually decide you don't want to keep 'em out, but that's not
-my- responsibility... "
        Guy's cheeks went a little red.  "Corwin, c'mon, don't joke
about that," he said.  "I mean, Priss's my -sister-."
        "Yeah," said Corwin; then he got to his feet and added dryly,
"Now don't you wish -she'd- realize that?  Anyway, kid, that's the
best I can offer you.  I haven't got time to do it now, but first
thing in the school year, I'll get this stuff out of here and you can
have the room.  OK?"
        Guy looked thoughtful for a second, then said, "Well... if
you're sure you're going... OK.  But... "
        "What?"
        "... Well... things are really bad right now, because of Len
and everything... so... when you guys leave to go back on your
tour... can you take me with you?"
        Corwin blinked.  "Whoa, cowboy.  You're gonna have to take
that up with Dad and Kei.  I don't think they'd be too happy about the
idea of another one of their kids taking off, especially after Len."
        "Yeah, I know, but... I've just got to get away for a while.
Before... before one of us does or says something that we'll really
regret for a long time.  You know?"
        Corwin didn't, first-hand - he doubted anybody could who
didn't have a twin - but second-hand, he knew -exactly- what Guy was
talking about.
        I wonder, he mused to himself, if Miki and Kozue would have
hit this point eventually -anyway-, even without that whole mess with
the piano.  I wonder if it comes to all twins someday.  Tenchi and
Achika don't act as though anything like it's ever happened to them;
neither do Chip and Reiyna... but who really knows apart from them?
        He smiled and ruffled Guy's hair.  "OK, OK.  I'll talk to Dad
about it.  He probably won't like it, but he might go for it anyway."
        Guy grinned.  "Thanks, Corwin."
        "Don't thank me -yet-," Corwin replied, opening his door and
looking around in the hallway.  "OK, coast is clear.  You probably
want to make yourself scarce for a while.  Go hang out with Aunt Eiko
or something."  He glanced at his watch.  "I gotta get down to
MacCready's.  Big sorry-it-sucks-to-be-you dinner thing for Achika."
        Guy nodded.  "Good idea.  Uh... would you tell her I'm... you
know, thinking of her?"
        Corwin smiled, nodding.  "I'll do that.  And I'll talk to Dad
when I get back.  We'll see if we can't get everything squared away.
Oh - I suppose I should run it by the Cap'n, too - after all, she's
supposed to be in charge and everything."
        They went down the stairs together, Guy's face clouding with
fresh worry at this new wrinkle.  "I hadn't thought of that.  Should I
have asked her instead?  I would have, only... I don't know her very
well, and she's... kind of scary."
        Corwin blinked.  "Scary?  Utena?  Nah.  She's a sweetheart as
long as you don't get on her bad side, and -you- couldn't do -that- if
you tried.  She's a better judge of character than that."  The young
god clapped his half-brother on the shoulder and said, "Just be your
usual painfully honest self and you won't have anything to worry
about.  Utena's big on honesty.  Lay it all out for her straight and
she'll back you up."
        "Mm.  I... yeah, I'll do that.  Is she here?"
        Corwin refrained from asking how he was supposed to know that,
having been in his room half-asleep when Guy barged in a few minutes
ago; instead he looked at the mat by the front door as he got his jean
jacket out of the closet and said, "Well, her shoes are.  Probably up
in Kate's room or Dad's office helping rearrange the tour."
        Guy nodded.  "OK... I'll talk to her."
        "I'll check in when I get back and see if I still have to run
it by Dad," said Corwin as he tied his boots.  "Knowing Utena, she'll
want to get it all squared away with as fast as possible, and it'll be
all taken care of by the time I get back.  Anyway - I'll sleep at
Mom's tonight, so you can try out my room, OK?"
        "OK.  Thanks, Corwin."
        "Don't mention it.  Oh - there is one favor you can do for me,
if you want," said Corwin.  "I imagine Anthy's up there too - will you
tell her I'll be back tomorrow morning, in case she wants to do our
usual Saturday thing a day late?"
        "Your usual... ?" said Guy, puzzled, but Corwin only grinned.
        "She'll understand," he replied, then opened the door.  "If
Priss and Sylv break in, try to take the fight outside so none of my
models get broken, OK?"
        "OK," said Guy again.  "Have a good time... "
        Corwin chuckled, not quite without bitterness, and replied
sardonically, "If I can help it... " before closing the door behind
him.
        Man, he thought to himself as he walked down Morgan Lane
toward what passed for the business district in Crescent Heights.
When did I become the wise big brother type?

        As expected, dinner at MacCready's Burgers and Chili down near
Fritz Koopman Memorial was a rather strained affair.  The Ragnarok
Wave and friends, self-confessed prime clique of the Class of 2409,
were all gathered in their usual corner booth - all but one - and in
trying to guide the conversation around the absence of one of their
number, the others only made the hole in their ranks more glaringly
obvious.  Buttercup Utonium was still a bit sullen, giving Corwin
occasional dirty looks, but at least she didn't hit him again.  Tenchi
Shannon was torn between trying to be solicitous to his sister without
crowding her.  The others were all so occupied by dread of saying the
wrong thing that they couldn't seem to say any of the right things.
        As so often happened at times like this, it was Chip Mui who
gave the misfiring machine of their conversation the kick it needed to
straighten up, or at least stop thrashing about quite so unsteadily.
During one of the many awkward lulls in the table talk, after the
flavored Cokes arrived but before the fries and burgers came, he said,
        "I think we should wish Len luck."
        The others all turned to stare at him, scandalized that he'd
come right out and spoken the -name- of the Missing Man, dragged out
into the open that which they had all been trying to conceal and
dumped it unceremoniously on the table like a sack of mail.  Either he
didn't notice or he didn't care about the looks he got, because he
went blithely on as if no one had reacted,
        "I mean, sure, he was an idiot to take off the way he did, but
still - what he's doing now is a good and great thing.  If he pulls it
off, and I'm pretty sure he will, I might even be so bold as to say
it's worth it.  Until we do see him again, I think we ought to give
him our best wherever he is."
        There was a distressed silence for a moment; then Corwin threw
in his five cents and said, "Yeah.  I'm with that."
        There were a couple more, somewhat more tentative, agreements;
then Achika broke the silence she'd spent most of the evening in by
lifting her glass and saying quietly,
        "You're right, Chip.  It's a noble undertaking.  He deserves
our support."  She raised her glass higher and said in a stronger
voice, with something like her old cheerful strength in it, "Clear
skies to Leonard and Master Gajic!"
        "Confusion to the French!" Corwin added, which caused Achika
to give him a heartwarmingly old-times-like, smiling, weird look as
they all tapped their glasses together in the center of the circular
booth table and drank to Leonard's good fortune.
        "Besides," said Chip as Achika was still quaffing her vanilla
Coke, "how are we supposed to scream at him if he never comes back?"
        Achika choked, an explosive laugh trying to get out at the
same time that vanilla Coke was trying to get in; the result was a
spectacular beverage explosion that had unfortunate consequences for
Achika's brother Tenchi and poor, hapless Bubbles Utonium, the two
nearest targets.
        "You - did that - on purpose!" Achika gasped out between
body-convulsing laughs as Tenchi sputtered and Bubbles blinked in
startled bemusement through the rivulets of caramel-colored foam
making their way down her face.
        Buttercup slid down into the booth, laughing too hard to
remain upright.  Corwin, who had ducked to avoid the blast, remained
down for similar reasons.  Hiroshi Morisato took off his slightly
spattered glasses, but was laughing too hard to polish them on his
shirttail.  Only Blossom Utonium, who alternated between giving
Buttercup irritated looks and trying to clean Bubbles up with a stack
of paper napkins, and Reiyna Mui, who was glaring with long-suffering
irritation at her brother, remained straight-faced; the rest all broke
up and stayed that way until the burgers came.
        When they all had calmed down and Chip had made not-terribly-
convincing protestations of innocence, Reiyna sighed and said, "Well,
Achika, I have a little something for you that might help offset my
brother's sad excuse for a sense of humor."  She reached into her
jacket, rummaged around a little, and came out with a folded bundle
which she handed across to the still-giggling Jyuraian princess.
        Achika unfurled it to discover that it was a knitted scarf in
the scarlet and white colors of Koopman Memorial High, with nicely
tasseled ends and more than enough length and width to keep a person's
neck warm in grand style during the colder months.
        "It's lovely," said Achika.
        "It's a little warm for a scarf this time of year, though,"
mused Bubbles.  "Unless you can fly," she added, brightening.  "It
gets pretty cold at high altitudes, even in summer!  You'd be
surprised what a difference twenty thousand feet makes in - "
        "Bubbles, Achika can't fly," said Buttercup wearily.
        "... Oh.  Yeah.  Well, I guess you'll have to wait until
winter then."
        "Or," Chip suggested cheerily, "you can keep it handy to tie
Len to something sturdy with the next time you see him."
        Reiyna gave him another one of those long-suffering looks, but
with the original brittle mood shattered by his earlier quip, Achika
now seemed in a mood to laugh at that.  She thanked Reiyna for it
again, then tucked it away in her own light jacket.
        The rest of the dinner was almost like old times -
surprisingly nostalgic for Corwin, who was only beginning to realize
how much he'd missed this crowd amid the mad scramble to get Cephiro's
World-Engine built in the last spring term, and then the build-up to
the Valiant's tour.  Not that he'd miss the tour for the world - but
it would be good to get back into the swing of his normal life again
come September.  It'd be weird without Len around, but... 
        They went their separate ways after polishing off apple pie
and ice cream, content with the knowledge that Achika's good humor had
been as restored as they could make it without bringing Len back for
her.  Most of the youngsters returned to their homes, but Chip Mui,
noting that it was Saturday and the evening was yet young, decided to
head off to Crescent Heights' premiere entertainment center, the
immortal (if puzzlingly named) Ten Minute Walk, to work off some
aggressive tendencies.  Lacking anything better to do, Reiyna went
with him.
        As the Mui twins walked alone down the street, she asked her
brother, "Chip... why didn't you want anyone to know that -you- made
that scarf?"
        "Ah, well, y'know," said Chip offhandedly.  "Who'd expect it?
Dad's one of the meanest SOBs around when he gets riled.  One of our
godfathers is Duke Newcomb.  Does anybody expect me to know a girly
skill like knitting?"
        Reiyna rolled her eyes.  "I see.  You want to preserve your
macho image.  News flash, though: You don't have one."
        Chip laughed.  "You've found me out," he said; then, becoming
more serious, he added, "Besides - I wouldn't want to give the
impression that I'm... you know, moving in on Achika.  So I had you
give it to her."
        Reiyna digested that, then nodded.  "Well, when you put it
that way... it was a pretty nice gesture."  She smiled and put a hand
on his shoulder.  "Sometimes you surprise me."
        Chip grinned.  "Does that mean I can have my camera back?"
        "Maybe after the arcade."
        "Aww... "

        Corwin returned to 105 Morgan to find the house relatively
quiet and Anthy Tenjou sitting in the living room, reading a book.
        "Evening, Anthy," he said as he took off his jacket.
"Anything going on?"
        Anthy marked her place and put her book down, then replied,
"Utena is in conference with your father about the possibility of Guy
joining the Valiant's crew; Juri is working on the tour; Kaitlyn is
asleep.  Are you tired?"
        The young god ran an internal diagnostic and replied, "No, not
particularly.  Why?"
        Anthy got up and smoothed the green sweater she was wearing
(even in June, the nights in Avalon tend to be cool).  "I'm feeling a
bit restless," she replied.  "I thought if you weren't headed straight
to bed when you got home, you might like to take a walk with me."
        Corwin paused with his jacket half on a hanger, took it off
again, and shrugged back into it, grinning.
        "Sure," he said.  "Love to."

        Crescent Heights was so named because it was the district
encompassing the crescent-shaped highland at the edge of the city,
the last suburban area before the dwellings and streets gave way to
the forested hills of the northern Avalon pseudocontinent.  Behind the
last of its streets, the loop of Morgan Lane, the woods were full of
pathways and trails that led here and there and everywhere, perfect
for losing oneself amid nature and forgetting one's proximity to one
of the tallest, most bustling cities in the galaxy.  Nothing dangerous
lurked in these woods, at least nothing that people like Corwin and
Anthy would find dangerous; and so they walked up into the woods, to
a ridgeline clearing Corwin had found years ago.
        From here, at the highest point in the Heights (the highlands
sloping away again behind them to the Oxbow River valley), they had a
nice view of the neighborhood in the foreground - and a spectacular
vista of downtown New Avalon for a backdrop.  At this hour, almost
eleven at night, the streets of the Heights were deserted and many of
the houses dark.  Most people were in bed, and the ones who weren't
were mainly down in the city enjoying the downtown nightlife, not
sitting at home with the lights on.  In the skies above the city
proper, the airship traffic was thinner than during the day, but it
never stopped entirely.
        Corwin sat down on a large boulder, where he'd often sat to
look at the city and think, and asked Anthy in a soft tone appropriate
to the quiet scene below:
        "So - what do you think of Midgard so far?"
        Anthy smiled and seated herself beside him.  "It's wondrous,"
she replied.  "I've only been here a short time, and already it seems
more like home than the Academy ever did.  I love it."
        Corwin nodded.  "Good.  I'm glad."  He put his hand behind his
head and added a bit sheepishly, "Though as you've seen, it can get
kind of... busy, sometimes... "
        Anthy patted his arm, still smiling, and told him in a
pleasant tone, "If one more person apologizes to me for last week's
adventure, I'm going to scream."
        Corwin chuckled.  "Sorry.  Not for that - " he added hastily,
before she could make good on her threat, " - but for assuming it
bothered you.  You're so... peaceful... that it's easy for people to
forget how tough you are.  Hell, even Utena does it."
        Anthy nodded.  "I know, and I'm used to it.  It's even an
advantage under certain circumstances... but it does sometimes get
frustrating, being treated as if I'm made of glass.  With you and
Utena and the rest in it, my life will never be a boring one, and you
may not believe this, but I truly -relish- that knowledge."  She
chuckled.  "I guess what I'm trying to say, Corwin, is that I just
want to be part of the crew - literally and metaphorically."
        That drew a laugh from the young man.  "I don't think you need
to worry about -that-," he said.  "I already have a hard time
believing that there was a time when I didn't know you."
        Anthy looked at him - in the golden nightglow of New Avalon he
could just make out the look on her face, a surprised, thoughtful
smile - in silence for a moment.  Then she said quietly,
        "Thank you."
        Corwin grinned.  "You're welcome.  Besides, it's the truth."
        It was her turn to surprise him, then, by sliding across the
rock until she was right next to him, taking his arm, and resting her
head on his shoulder.
        He blinked, then smiled and relaxed, enjoying the undemanding
closeness.  They sat together and watched the lights of the city's
aircraft move among the towers for a few quiet minutes.  Then Corwin
chuckled as he noticed the six-stories-high multifunction beacon atop
the Entire State Building (not to be confused with the aircraft
warning lamp on the communications mast) changing from white to a
steady red.
        "What does it mean?" Anthy wondered.
        "The Knights just won their game tonight," he replied.  "That
doesn't happen too often.  Calls for a celebration.  Want to get some
ice cream?  I know a place down in Salutown that's open all night."

        Kaitlyn Hutchins was having a peculiar dream.  It wasn't a bad
one, particularly - just odd.  In waking life, she couldn't think of a
reason why she'd ever pilot a giant robot, but in the dream she was,
and not doing too bad a job of it, either.  She had just finished
demolishing some sort of enormous insectoid thing when something
shifted underneath her and she tumbled out of her sleeping mind's
fantasy and back into the real world.
        The dream dissipated, the cockpit of the giant robot replaced
by the dark, familiar comfort of her bedroom on Morgan Lane.  She
blinked into the darkness, making a soft, querulous noise - not the
way a Katsujinkenryuu master was supposed to awaken, perhaps, but her
instincts told her that she wasn't in any danger.
        "Sorry," a soft voice replied to her interrogatory sound.  "I
didn't mean to wake you."
        "nn... 's all right," she mumbled groggily.  "juri?"
        "Who else?" the voice of her lover replied in a wry murmur.
        "might've been serge... "
        Juri chuckled.  "OK, I'll grant that, but Serge is on the
floor tonight.  I nearly tripped over him."
        Kate blinked, shook her head, then reached to her bedside and
turned on the lamp.  That action got a slight but amusing startled
reaction out of Lesser Mazinger, who had stationed himself next to the
lamp; he took a half-step back and regarded the light with body
language that obviously said, "Whoa!  Where'd -that- come from?"
        That got a soft laugh out of his mistress; she looked at him
(fuzzily) for a few moments, wondering why the sight of the little
robot made her memory itch slightly, then shook her head and let it
go.  The light was on, but she still couldn't read the clock without
her glasses on, so she asked in a more wakeful-sounding voice,
        "W-what t-t-time is it?"
        "Almost midnight.  I just finished reworking the tour."
        "Oh g-good," said Kate; then she looked a little worried and
asked, "How'd we d-do?"
        "Surprisingly well," Juri replied.  The redhead looked
satisfied with her day's hard labors as she arranged herself under the
covers and went on, "First, we have an extra show here in New Avalon -
tomorrow night at the Upstairs Downtown.  I understand you've played
there before."
        Kate nodded.  "Mm, but n-not for a c-couple of years.  Since
b-b-before the l-lineup changed.  Ought to b-be interesting... "
        "Aside from that, some of the dates have changed, but we've
only lost two outright, Celadon and Ghioghi Prime.  There's just no
way to fit those two in, not and still make up the Kane's World show
without ending up with an off weekend in the middle of this month."
        Kate looked impressed.  "Wow.  B-b-better'n I exp-pected."
        "I do have my uses," replied Juri with a dry smile.
        Kate giggled a little, switched off her light again, and
snuggled up next to the redhead with a contented little noise.
"You're a m-marvel," she murmured; then she paused for a moment and
went on, "A t-t-tense marvel.  I t-told you n-not to work too
hard... "
        Juri shook her head.  "No, it's not that," she said.  "It's
just... well... I feel a bit odd.  I mean, this is your parents'
house, the room where you lived as a little girl... your parents are
even -home- right now... "
        Kate tsk'd softly.  "You k-keep expecting them to r-r-react
like you f-figure y-YOUR p-parents would," she pointed out, hugging
Juri a little harder.  "B-but they w-won't.  They j-just love me and
w-w-want me to be h-happy."  She hesitated, struck by the way that
must have sounded, then went on in a quieter, embarrassed tone,
"Um... not that I m-m-meant to imp-ply your p-parents d-don't love
you... "
        Juri put her arm around Kaitlyn's shoulders and gave her a
gentle squeeze.  "I know what you meant," she said, ducking her head
to kiss Kate behind the ear.  "And I know it's not rational.  It's
just that I feel a little strange about it."
        "I c-can get D-Dad to open up one of the r-rooms down the hall
f-for you t-t-tomorrow," Kate offered.
        "No, no," said Juri hastily.  "No, that's not - I just... I'll
have to get used to it, that's all."  She chuckled again, settling in
and doing her best to relax.  "They're amazing people, your parents."
        Kate laughed sleepily.  "I c-could've done a lot w-worse," she
agreed wryly.  "B-but then I say the s-same thing ab-bout you."
        "I do have my uses," Juri repeated, with a warmer, softer sort
of wryness this time, and the two of them went to sleep.

        One of the questions repeatedly asked by Earth sociologists in
the early days of the Contact Era (1999 to roughly 2040) was, "What
does Earth have to offer Salusia that's worth what Salusia has given
Earth since First Contact?"  This was a popular question among Earth's
more paranoid fringe elements as well as its social scientists,
although it had a rather different slant when asked by the paranoid
fringe.  When asked by the latter group, it was more along the lines
of, "What do these advanced aliens want from us so much that they'll
give us technology, sponsor us into the interstellar community, and
give us the tools we need to (eventually) supercede them as a galactic
superpower, in return for it?"
        On the weirder bulletin boards and Usenet groups of
early-twenty-first-century Earth, the theories ran rampant, and each
one was stranger and more dire than the last.  They were, by and
large, hopelessly ludicrous.  Conquest?  Salusia could have conquered
Earth as early as 1985 (when, as it happens, the -real-, if
unofficial, first contact took place), and there wouldn't have been a
thing Earth could have, or any other state in the galaxy would have,
done about it.  Enslavement?  Salusians hungry for new experiences
moved to Earth and joined the workforce in droves.  Some of the odder
theories centered around the Salusian birthrate being in decline
following the Zardon Wars (it wasn't) and the need for humans as
"breeding stock" (they weren't).
        The Salusians, for the most part, ignored all this.  Only one
figure of any importance in Salusian circles of power ever commented
on it, and though that was no less august a personage than Her
Imperial Salusian Highness Asrial, Crown Princess of the Realm, her
remark was not usually taken seriously.  Asked the question, with all
its most desperate what-are-you-furry-bastards-up-to connotations, by
an isolationist Earthman at a dinner party, the Princess had laughed
and disarmed the man entirely by replying,
        "Why, your ice cream, of course."
        And it was true.  Somehow, incredibly, mainstream Salusian
culinary technology had never come up with anything like ice cream,
and when it was first brought to the Crown World by Princess Asrial's
Contact Team in 1998, it was an immediate sensation all over Salusia.
So avidly had the people of Salusia adopted the frozen treat from
Earth that, in many corners of the galaxy, it was thought of as a
typical -Salusian- food by the early 2200s.  Ice cream companies by
the dozen were bought up by Salusian conglomerates following the
ratification of the Open Trade Agreement with Earth in 2022, which led
to the peculiar spectacle of shops and outlets all over the galaxy
with Salusian management and very un-Salusian names.
        So it was that Corwin Ravenhair and Anthy Tenjou found
themselves sitting at a table on the sidewalk in the heart of New
Avalon's Salutown, being served sundaes by a trimly uniformed Salusian
waiter whose apron proudly proclaimed him an employee of "The Original
Toscanini's Ice Cream (Cambridge, Saenar, New Avalon)".
        "So," said Corwin, "I've been thinking."
        "I understand you do that a lot," Anthy replied, straight-
faced; he gave her an odd look for a moment, drawing a mischievous
little smile from her, and he laughed.
        "Too much for my own good, at times," he said.  "But
seriously, I've been thinking - I don't feel right about calling this
summer's trip the one I promised Utena I'd take you guys on.  I mean,
for one thing, I'm not taking you anywhere - Utena's the captain,
she's running the show.  I'm just along for the ride.  And for
another, it's not the purpose of the trip... know what I'm getting
at?"
        Anthy considered for a couple of bites of her sundae, then
nodded.  "I think so - but you shouldn't worry about it on -my-
account," she said.  "You don't owe me anything.  Just being here,
being welcome, is enough."
        Corwin smiled.  "I figured you'd say something like that, but
I don't feel right about it.  I promised I'd show the two of you the
beauty of this galaxy, and aside from sending you to Titan for a
couple of days I haven't delivered.  But!  I have a cunning plan."
        Anthy laced her fingers over the top of her sundae glass and
leaned forward, her eyes amused and intent, paying very close
attention.  "What," she asked with a smile, "is your cunning plan, Sir
Corwin?"
        "Well," he said, "We all get two weeks off at Christmastime,
right?"
        Anthy nodded.  "Provided your school's Christmas holidays line
up with ours."
        "They do, I've checked," said Corwin.  "Last day of classes,
December 22; first day back, January 8."
        "Well, there you are."
        "Mm."  Corwin nodded.  "And that time of year... "  He paused,
his cheeks getting a little pink, and went on a bit hesitantly,
"... well, it's historically been kind of a special one... you know,
for Utena and me.  We met on the twenty-second of December in '04, and
her birthday's just a few days after that... and the holiday itself,
well... "  He trailed off, making kind of a vague, awkward gesture.
        Anthy sighed, but only internally - had she done it outwardly,
he'd have taken it wrong - and reached across to pat his non-gesturing
hand.  "Yes," she said with her quiet smile.  "I know what you mean."
        Corwin gave her a grateful little grin and plunged on, "Well,
anyway, I thought maybe that would be the time to do it.  Just throw
our stuff in the One-Hit Wonder and hit the spacelanes.  I haven't
done all the math yet, but I think with the metagate network we'll be
able to get a good bit of sightseeing down in two weeks.  I'm not
going to calculate everything to a strict itinerary or anything - I
hate trips like that, they're totally against everything a vacation's
supposed to stand for - but I've done a bit of general... "
        He stopped, noticing that she was giving him that merrily
indulgent look again, and rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish
grin.  "Sorry.  It's just that I've been thinking about it a lot... "
        "I can see that," said Anthy, smiling.  "Well, it's a very
cunning plan, indeed, and I can't see a thing wrong with it - except
that the others may not like us abandoning them for the holidays that
way," she added, knowing as she did so that he'd already have thought
of that.
        "Oh, we'll be around for the high points," said Corwin with a
grin, justifying again her faith in him.  "Titan on Christmas Eve and
morning, here in New Avalon for New Year's.  I can figure out a route
that'll hit both of those without regimenting everything else, you'll
see."
        "I have no doubt of it," said Anthy firmly.  "And I think it's
a marvelous idea."
        Corwin slumped a little in his chair, looking relieved.
"Great.  Now all I have to do is sell it to Utena... "
        Anthy chuckled.  "Corwin, I sincerely doubt you will ever have
to 'sell' any idea of yours to Utena.  Besides," she added with a
grin, "if you and I have both agreed to go, what -else- will she have
to do with herself?"
        Corwin laughed.  "You may have a point there," he said.
        When they were finished with their ice cream, Corwin paid the
check and walked back to Morgan Lane with Anthy.  They parted at the
bottom of the stairs with a promise to do their usual Saturday things
(staff work and dinner, mainly) on Sunday instead, and then Corwin,
alone in the living room, turned toward the window.
        His brand had just started to glow when his father entered the
room from the kitchen, a glass of something blue in hand, and said,
"Oh, Corwin, hang on a second."
        Corwin paused, turning, then blinked.  "I've never known you
to drink alone, Dad," he said, gesturing to the glass.  "Something
bothering you tonight?"
        Gryphon looked in puzzlement at his beverage, then laughed.
"No, no - it's just that blue raspberry lemonade stuff.  I think they
made it this shade on purpose," he added, grinning.
        "Oh.  Phew - for a second I thought something else had gone
wrong," said Corwin.  He sat down on the end of the couch and went on,
"What's on your mind?"
        Gryphon lowered himself into an armchair and said, "Well,
Utena and I had a little meeting with Guy tonight... "
        "Yeah, I told him he ought to do that," said Corwin, nodding.
"How'd it go?"
        "Depends on your definition," Gryphon replied wryly.  "Looks
like Kei and I are only going to have Priss and Sylvie to keep us
company this summer."
        "I think it's probably for the best," said Corwin honestly.
"They're at kind of an awkward age.  Especially since the girls are
growing up so much faster than he is."
        Gryphon nodded, eyes rolling slightly.  "Believe me," he said
dryly, "I've noticed.  Hopefully he'll catch up to them some this
summer.  He's about due for it.  Anyway, while we were talking, he
said you were thinking about moving out."
        "Well, yeah, I've been playing around with the idea."
        "Mind telling me why?" asked Gryphon - not confrontationally,
just with the air of a man who'd like to know something.
        "No, I wouldn't mind - only I don't exactly know," said Corwin
a trifle sheepishly.  "It's just an idea I've had.  Get a space of my
own, come and go without bothering anybody... free up some space for
Guy in the process, without making you fool around with the upstairs
rooms.  I think maybe," Corwin went on thoughtfully, "I got a taste of
the independent life in my term at Tenjou Academy, and I liked it."
        "Do you want to go back there?" Gryphon inquired.  "Or
transfer to DSM to be with - Kate?"
        (In his mind, he could almost literally hear Ruri Hoshino's
utterly deadpan voice: "Woo.  Nice save, Chief."  It was so real that
for a moment he wondered if she was linked into his Lens and had
actually said it - but Ruri wasn't a voyeur.  She only -acted- bored
enough to do things like that.)
        Corwin didn't seem to notice, though; he only shook his head.
"No, I'm going back to Koopman.  I think Buttercup'd -kill- me if I
didn't," he added wryly, "and anyway, I've been looking forward to
life getting back to something like normal."
        Gryphon considered this, then nodded.  "Well," he said,
"there'll always be a place for you here if you want it, you know
that.  But what the hell - you've passed your Trial, that makes you an
adult in Asgard's eyes, and who am I to contradict -them-?  Will you
keep your room at your mother's house, at least?"
        Corwin grinned.  "Think I could get away with not?"
        "True," said Gryphon with a laugh.  "Anyway, Corwin, if that's
what you want to do - then go to it.  I just wanted to make sure you
didn't feel like you -had- to.  You know, after Kate left, and with
this whole business with Leonard, I'm a little paranoid... sometimes I
wonder if it's something I'm doing that's driving you all away... "
He sighed, and before Corwin could object, put up a hand.  "But that's
just an old man's paranoia."  He shook his head and chuckled.  "God.
You and your friends... you do make me feel old."
        "Well... sorry... " said Corwin lamely.  "We don't mean to.
And you're -not-... subjectively, anyway."
        "Oh, I know," Gryphon replied.  "I think it's just in human
nature to feel a bit redundant when the kids get to that we're-our-
own-people-dammit phase.  And when beautiful girls start calling me
'Dad', that doesn't help," he added, grinning.
        Corwin laughed.  "She told me about that at lunch," he said.
"She was a little embarrassed about it.  Said she's done it a couple
of times and knows it must bug you, but she can't help it - what with
her and Kate and all, and our wordbinding, it's how she's come to
think of you."
        Gryphon smiled.  "Well, I'll have to let her know in the
morning that it doesn't bug me.  I just like to put on the I'm-an-
old-man schtick for fun.  Actually, I think it's kind of an honor.
She's a very special young woman."
        Corwin nodded.  "I had noticed," he said without a trace of
irony.
        The elder man nodded in return.  "I know you had," he said.
There was a bit of a pause, but then, to Gryphon's relief, his son
smiled again.
        "Anyway, that's the way she means it," he said, "as an honor.
She really admires you, you know.  The way you've handled all that's
gone on with Kate and everything... I could be more specific if I
wasn't so tired," he added with a slightly weary grin.
        "Mm, yeah," said Gryphon, rising.  "I'm about ready for bed
myself.  Another sign I'm getting old," he added.  "Time was I'd just
be sitting down to supper now."
        Another laugh from the younger man, who then looked at his
watch and said, "I'll get to Tomodachi just about in time to see Mom
off to work in the morning."
        "It's summer," said Gryphon.
        "Yeah, but she's got some kind of thing going on in the lab.
She and Rhinox.  Some kind of field polarity experiment."
        "Ah.  Well, give her my love.  If I can manage to get the
datanet to leave me alone for two days, I'm going to try leaving the
ship in Lore's hands and heading over to see her this weekend."
        "She'll like that," Corwin said.  "Always complaining that
there are no men in her life... "
        Gryphon snorted.  "Last time I checked, Rhinox was single."
        Corwin gave his father a very weird look, and then both of
them broke up laughing.
        "Anyway," said Gryphon.  He finished off his lemonade, put the
glass down on the end-table by the chair he'd been sitting in, and
repeated, "Anyway, good night, Corwin.  If you want, tell me what sort
of place you're looking for and I'll see if I can line up some
possibilities for you to take a look at while you're gone."  He
smiled.  "If I can get simsense recordings, you can shop around from
on tour and have everything squared away by the time you get back!"
        "Hey, that's a cool idea," said Corwin, grinning.  Then, more
soberly, he said, "Listen - thanks for understanding about the whole
move-out thing."  Chuckling, he added, "Even if I don't, really."
        "Just don't party your grades away," said Gryphon with mock
sternness.  "I mean, if you're going to bother going back to school
after your Trial, you might as well at least show up and work," he
went on with a grin.
        "Heh, yeah," Corwin replied.  The two men embraced; then
Gryphon clapped his son on the shoulder, gave him a nod that
encompassed a number of sentiments, and went on upstairs.
        Alone again, Corwin turned to the window and concentrated on
his portal to Tomodachi.  Gating was a terribly convenient way of
getting around, but it was, he reflected, harder than his mother and
aunts always made it look.  Hopefully it became easier with
experience, and they weren't just better at making it -look- easier.

        Lateish the next morning, Miki Kaoru sat on the balcony of his
room at the Hotel Monolith, having a cup of tea and being privately
amused by the resemblance of this balcony to another of his
acquaintance.  The view from the White Tower wasn't quite as dramatic
as this, admittedly, but he suspected that he would -always- be
reminded of those days when sitting at a table on a high balcony.  He
reflected that most Student Council meetings would have been improved
by the occasional passage of a zeppelin or two.
        He was alone this morning; Dorothy was in the Heights, having
said with mock resignation that she supposed she should go and see
just how much of a disaster Corwin had let his workshop become in her
absence.  Since Corwin had spent much of the last four months absent
from New Avalon, Miki didn't suppose it could have been too bad, but
he also supposed that wasn't really the point.  If she wanted to
reconnect with her past, well, Miki could certainly understand that.
        Faintly, through the open French doors behind him, Miki could
hear a quiet knock at the hallway door.  He put down his teacup, went
to answer it, and stood in surprise, momentarily speechless.
        The person in the hallway was his sister Kozue.  He had last
seen her the day before, when she'd been on her way to do some
shopping with her new-made friends the Utonium sisters.  As such, he'd
known that she was looking for some new clothes, but he hadn't really
stopped to think about what that would mean.  Only now did he realize
that it had been literally years since he'd seen her regularly in
anything other than one school uniform or another, except for
sleepwear and workout clothes.
        Now, though, she was definitely not wearing a uniform, unless
it was for the Disgruntled Youth Army.  She had on cargo pants in grey
ripstop-grid nylon, their bulky legs bloused into the tops of chunky
electric-blue hi-top sneakers with deeply ridged soles, and a police-
blue baby-doll T-shirt ("Property of New Avalon Police Department",
said the white logo on the front) that left her slim midriff exposed.
Y-back suspenders with buttons, a Batman-like nylon web cargo belt, a
blue one-shoulder pack, black leather gloves without fingers, and a
big silver wristwatch completed the picture.
        Well, almost completed it - there were a few little touches
that Miki, in his astonishment, had to make a second sweep to fully
appreciate.  Like the silver varnish on her carefully tapered
fingernails, the little gold Star of Avalon earrings, and the tiny
diamond stud riveted into the upper arc of her revealed navel.
        He blinked.
        "Well," he said.
        "Morning, Miki," said Kozue cheerfully.  She struck a pose.
"What do you think?"
        "It's... different," he managed after a few moments' thought.
"Definitely... different."
        Kozue looked put out.  "'Different'?  That's the best you can
do?  How about 'sharp'?  Or maybe 'hot'?  Or even 'sexy'?"
        "Kozue, you're my -sister-."
        "So?  I can't be sexy because I'm your sister?  Don't be a
dope.  I think -you're- sexy.  But then, you look like me, so you'd
sort of -have- to be, wouldn't you?" she asked with a puckish grin.
"Are you going to invite me in, or just stand there in the doorway
giving me that half-disapproving-half-lustful look all morning?
Tch... I thought Azalynn had -cured- your repression problem."
        Miki scowled.  "It is -not- half-lustful.  -Or- half-
disapproving," he added when she giggled.  "As for my repression
problem, that's none of your business - and I thought -you- had been
exploring the benefits of being uptight lately," he added with a
got-you-back grin.
        Kozue laughed.  "So I'm trying to find a middle ground," she
said.  "I'm a girl and I -like- being a girl, so why not show it off a
little?  That dress-uniform stuff may work for Tenjou - she couldn't
hide the fact that -she's- a girl in a black canvas sack - but I
always felt silly, and anyway, I'd outgrown my uniforms."  She laced
her hands behind her back and beamed at him, drawing herself to her
full height and pushing back her shoulders.
        "Hey!" she added, perking up as if noticing something.  A
moment later she'd stepped right up to her brother, nose to nose -
close enough that he could smell some light fragrance or another,
though whether it was an actual perfume or just the aftereffect of a
scented soap, he couldn't tell.
        "Er," said Miki, but a moment later she backed off, grinning
even wider.
        "What do you know about that - I'm taller than you!" she
declared.  "Only a little, but still, I think this is the first time
ever!"
        "They say girls mature faster," said Miki dryly.  "Won't you
come in?"

        They went back out on the balcony to enjoy the warm, sunny
late morning, Miki finishing his tea while Kozue nibbled at some
crackers and cheese summoned up from room service.  Airships cruised
past.  Kozue grinned and waved at them, drawing hoots from some of
their horns.
        "You're in a cheerful mood today," Miki observed.
        Kozue got up and went to the balcony rail, leaning against it
on her elbows and looking out at the city.  "It's this town.  I just
love it here."  Then she turned around, now leaning back against the
rail on her elbows, and said, "Which is why I'm here, in a way.
There's something I think we ought to talk about."
        Miki nodded, uncertain as to just where his sister was
headed.  "OK... "
        Kozue returned to the table and sat down opposite him, pushing
the tray of crackers and cheese out of the way.  "I'm not coming to
Jeraddo in the fall," she said.  "I'm sorry to just blurt it out like
that, but I was up last night thinking about it and I just couldn't
think of any other way to say it."
        Her brother looked slightly puzzled, but not immediately
upset.  "Er... all right," he said.  "Why not?"
        "It's not you," she assured him quickly, raising a hand.  "So
don't think it is, OK?  It's just... well... I did a lot of thinking
last night, like I said, and one of the things I realized was that I
won't be able to graduate with you."
        Miki considered this, then said, "Well, I don't know - Miss
Anthy will be trying to get into the same class, and she's a year
behind - "
        "No, look, Miki - we both know I'm not as smart as you, all
right?  Now don't," she went on, overriding whatever he'd been about
to say.  "It doesn't bother me, it's just the truth.  Maybe I could
get into the Class of 2407 at DSM this fall, if I worked really hard
on preparing for the test all summer, like Anthy is working... but I'd
need your help to do it, and Anthy needs it more.  It's -really-
important that she graduate with Utena.  Right?"
        "Well... right, but - "
        "Besides," Kozue went on, "if everything goes right, I -am-
going to be working really hard this summer - just not on that."
        Miki looked across the table at his sister and came to the
conclusion that, as had become fairly standard in the last few years,
he didn't understand her.  When he told her so, she nodded, smiling,
and said,
        "I'm going to try for my interstellar shipmaster's certificate
at the end of the summer.  After the battle, I realized that piloting
is something I really want to do, and there's no point in training to
be a pilot if you're not prepared to be pilot-in-command.  I'm not
saying I want to be a real starship captain like Utena or Kate's dad,
but I want to be able to run small craft - go off by myself if I want
to - you know, like Corwin does on the weekends.  And you -have- to
admit that there's just no way I'll be able to to -both- in less than
three months, no matter -how- hard I work."
        The young man sat in thought for a while, then slowly nodded.
"I guess I'll stipulate that.  Not that I necessarily agree with your
claim that you're not as smart as me, but I'm not sure -I- could do
both in the same summer, so... "
        "I'm not sure anybody could," said Kozue.  "So I'll end up two
grades behind you... and if I can't graduate with you, then I don't
want to go to the same school.  It's just too much of a hassle, you
know?  'Oh, you're Miki Kaoru's sister.  We'll be expecting great
things from you.'  I'm so -sick- of that, and that was when were in
the -same- grade."
        Miki nodded again, his face still thoughtful.  "I can see
that," he said slowly.  "But... where will you go instead?"
        "Well, I was thinking of coming here," she said, gesturing at
the city.  "To Koopman Memorial, probably.  I mean, I -love- New
Avalon, and I've already made some friends here.  Besides, Corwin's
going back to his old school next year, and I already know we can
study together really well.  We got each other through the last term
at Tenjou Academy last year, when the World-Engine project was eating
most of our study time."
        Miki considered all this, weighing it in his mind; then he
smiled and said, "Well, it's your decision.  I've never been able to
tell you what to do, and I'm not about to start trying now.  I just
feel the need to warn you about one thing."
        Kozue cocked her head inquisitively.  "What's that?"
        "If one of your reasons for coming to New Avalon and enrolling
at Koopman High is to be near Corwin, tread carefully," said Miki
seriously.  "His situation is complex... delicate."
        His sister gave him a quizzical look for a moment, then shook
her head.  "Thou'rt preaching to the choir, O my brother.  Believe
me," she added with a wry smile, "I know all about -that-.  We were
roommates for most of the spring term, you know."
        Miki blinked.  "Er... no, I didn't know.  In that case, maybe
I'm basing my advice on old information."
        "No, no," said Kozue, shaking her head some more.  "I told
you, it's not like that.  He was lonely and -I- was lonely, but
neither of us were looking for anything but... "  She spread her
hands, searching for the word.  "I dunno.  Solidarity, maybe?
Companionship?  Oh, they've all been used as euphemisms at some point
or another.  Anyway, I didn't go to bed with him."  She chuckled and
added with mock indignation, "Well, I did -offer- to, once, but - can
you believe this? - he turned me down, the bastard!"
        Miki chuckled in return, nodding.  "I can believe it," he
mused.  "But it's no reflection on you."
        "Yeah... that's basically what he said.  Anyway, it doesn't
really matter.  I wouldn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming if
the opportunity arose, but it's not what our friendship's about.  Not
right now, anyway.  Maybe someday, if we ever find ourselves both on
the right page, but... "  She shrugged.  "Nowadays I just take that
sort of thing as it comes - no pun intended," she added with a grin
that somehow managed to combine wickedness and impishness.
        If she was hoping to shock her brother, she was disappointed,
but she didn't look it as he smiled his serene that-rolled-right-off-
of-me smile and replied, "So we're to be apart again, you and I, and
this time you're leaving me... "
        "Well, yeah... but I'll call.  And Corwin goes to Jeraddo
almost every weekend anyway, I'll tag along sometimes.  And we'll have
holidays together and stuff... I just... "  She stopped, thought about
what she was trying to say, and tried again.  "We were together-but-
apart for so long... and then, just as we were finding each other
again, we were torn completely apart and didn't know if we would ever
see each other again, so we had to learn to live without each other.
I used to sit alone in our room at night and wish that everything
could be like it was... but now that we're here in Midgard it's
all... different."
        She shook her head, now looking troubled almost to tears.
"I'm sorry, I'm not saying this right.  What I'm trying to say is that
when we were apart, we both learned how to be more than just half of
'the Kaoru twins', but I don't want you to think that by not coming to
DSM with you I'm denying that the connection is still there.  I'm your
sister, your twin sister, and I'll always be that.  And after high
school, maybe we'll end up in the same place again - I don't think
you'll be so hard to live up to in a college setting," she added with
a wan smile.  "But right now, I think the best courses for us diverge,
and it's not because I don't love you or I don't want to be with
you... it's just the way I think things will work out best."
        She stopped, took a breath, and then brightened herself with a
visible effort and said, "Phew!  What a speech!  Did... did any of
that make sense?"
        Miki looked thoughtfully at her for a few moments; then he
stood up, rounded the table to her side, and gestured her up as well.
Once she was standing, he turned her to face him and enfolded her in a
firm hug - one which she returned very readily for a moment, then
recoiled slightly from with a muffled "ouch."
        "Hm?" said Miki, concerned, backing up a half-step.
        Kozue gave him a rueful grin and looked down at her navel
stud.  "It's still tender," she said.  "I just got it done yesterday."
        Miki glanced at it, then nodded understandingly, went around
behind her, and hugged her from the back instead, careful to avoid
touching that particular spot.  She raised her hands to grip his
forearms where they crossed her body and made a happy little humming
noise as he rocked her a little on her feet.
        "It all made sense," he said softly.  "Wherever you feel
you'll be happy, Kozue, I want you to go there and have no regrets.
We're all of us hauling too many regrets around with us at it is.
I'll see as much or as little of you as you want - and I'm grateful
that you care enough about my feelings nowadays to come and lay this
all out for me now."
        "I'm trying to make up," she replied in a quiet voice, "for
all the times I hurt you - on purpose and just because I was a
thoughtless little whore."
        "Shh.  Don't ever say that again," said Miki.  "It's all
past.  All gone now.  If you need to hear me say it outright I will -
I forgive you."
        She relaxed a little in his embrace, and when she spoke again
the edge of tears was gone from her soft voice: "Thank you."
        "You're welcome, Kozue.  I love you."
        "I love you too, Miki.  I do."

        Both the Kaorus were in noticeably high spirits that night at
the Upstairs Downtown.  Miki plied his vintage Rickenbacker with
verve, all his usual vestiges of on-stage reserve gone completely.
Azalynn noticed it too, and the chemistry between them - and with
Dorothy behind the drum set - was almost palpable as they blended
their sounds together to back up Kaitlyn's soaring voice and Moose's
thunderous bass.
        The whole band felt the energy, and thanks to the fact that
its other pole - Kozue - was in the audience having the time of her
life, dancing and cheering and generally cutting loose, it quickly
filled the whole room.  The Art of Noise nearly ripped the roof off
that place on that Sunday night - a night when New Avalon certainly
didn't sleep, but usually at least slowed down a little.  For everyone
there - the Valiant's crew, the Ragnarok Wave, the lead singer's
parents (hanging around discreetly in the back so as not to cramp
their daughter's style), everyone - the trials of the last few days
were washed away in an explosion of song and joy.  It was, Azalynn was
to remark later, a very Dantrovian kind of night, even if everybody
-did- keep their clothes on and remain upright.
        For Achika Shannon, the high points of the night included the
reassuring sight of Corwin and Buttercup pretending to argue in the
mosh pit, the black-haired Utonium working out whatever lingering
aggressions she had with the young god (without wrecking the joint)
during the band's cover of "Somebody to Shove"; Sergei the tiger's
very amusing habit of prowling amongst the band members throughout the
show, contributing nothing directly to the music but enhancing the
atmosphere considerably; and her brother Tenchi's complete confusion
as Miki Kaoru's sister kept hitting on him intermittently between
numbers.
        The whole affair, coming on the heels of her conversation with
Kaitlyn the day before and the gathering at MacCready's that evening,
seemed calculated to make Achika feel better, and though she knew this
was only a selfish delusion, nevertheless she counted it as a
success.  She wasn't -happy- about Leonard being gone - how could she
be? - but she felt, at least, that she had achieved some measure of
peace with it.
        The little club was packed to the gills, making conversation
almost impossible even during the breaks between sets, when recorded
music was blasted on the PA system, if anything louder than the band
had been.  Over in one corner, Fuu Hououji, Hikaru Shidou and Uum'y
R'yuu-z'ky were huddled in a small group with Nall Silverclaw in cat
form on Umi's shoulder, conferring about their summer plans.  They'd
been invited to join the Valiant's tour, and they all wanted to, but
they all had other things to do for part of the summer - so they were
looking over the revised tour itinerary and trying to decide where and
when to meet up with the ship later on.  Achika, who had also been
invited but also didn't want to run off for the whole summer, went
over and joined them.
        At one end of the bar, T'skaia Vorokoshiga'ar
Ixtixtaaqitl't'chl'Vraihelt Ishkarat, Barsaivian t'skrang, swordsman,
painter and Duelist, was being regaled by Liza Shustal with the full
story of all the excitement he had missed by agreeing to serve as a
guardsman aboard an Ishkarat freighter carrying spices from the Rim to
Barsaive by way of Ishiyama.  The blue-skinned t'skrang looked
extremely downcast about having missed the fun, but he was also being
hugely entertained by Liza's retelling.  He could be heard commenting
nearly a quarter of the way into the packed dance floor, and several
people near that end of the bar had somewhat surprising encounters
with his heavy, mobile tail (since t'skrangish laughter involved
banging that tail against the floor).
        Janice Barlow had been surprised to find IPO Criminal
Investigations Division Officer Neal Krummell in New Avalon, since it
was her understanding that he was posted to the IPO office in Beltane,
the capital of Titan.  Surprised but in no way displeased; they were
now wedged into the -other- end of the bar, catching up with all that
had gone on since the last time they'd seen each other.
        It happened then that Officer Krummell fell victim to one of
those curious things that sometimes happen at large, noisy
gatherings.  It so happened that almost all the conversations in the
club hit lulls simultaneously; it further happened that this mass lull
coincided with a gap in the pre-recorded music as the player changed
crystals.  This resulted in Krummell's voice, raised to compete with a
very high noise level that was no longer there, blaring into the
sudden quiet like a public safety announcement:
        " - SAID TO THE GUY, 'WELL, HOW DO YOU THINK MY PACK-BEAST GOT
KNOCK-KNEED?'"
        There followed a sudden, almost frozen silence for about a
half-second, and then the PA system slammed down another hard-rock
track and obliterated the sound of Janice Barlow's uproarious
laughter - and that of almost everyone else in the room, too.
Sometimes, for a good joke, all you need is the punch line.
        The Art of Noise tore it up for one more set after that, then
released everyone into the New Avalon night.  Many weren't ready to
call it quits just then, and scattered into the city streets, seeking
adventure, excitement, or at least another trip to Tosci's.

        The following afternoon, after recovering from the revels,
Utena walked the corridors of the Valiant, dodging the various yard
dogs as they moved briskly from one repair to the next.  She chuckled
to herself wryly, noting that she needn't have worried at all about
repairs.  Ship command is more addictive than I thought, she mused as
she stepped around a trio of jumpsuited techs.
        The techs themselves were a source of amusement and wonder.
All wore the blue jumpsuits of IPO's support staff, but that was the
only resemblance between them. The trio she passed included Keryl
Dekken - one of Cochrane's personal assistants on the Defiant project,
a humanized Salusian who claimed to be lord of some drafty keep in the
Cheltari mountains - with the IPO's red star emblem on his left
shoulder. The other two were a short, almost cute Romulan woman (the
warbird flag of the Romulan Star Empire rode on her shoulder) and an
equally short Andorian with a five-pointed star on his jumpsuit collar
and the Freespacer lightning bolt on his shoulder.
        The amusing thing was that the Salusian, the Romulan, and the
Andorian were all arguing with each other in a mixture of their native
languages and engineering babble.  Linguistic differences obviously
weren't getting in the way of whatever had the three engineers so
agitated.  With a smile, Utena backed away before she could be noticed
and decided to bypass the corridor via Deck Four starboard.
        The Valiant's "basement" lay as quiet and dimly lit as ever as
Utena walked through it.  There were no techs, no sounds, no - wait,
that was a lie.  A tinny, buzzy sound echoed from the bow end of the
deck, and as Utena stepped closer she saw a bright shaft of light
gleaming out from an opened access panel.  The noise soon resolved
itself into guitars and keyboards - and Kate's voice, she realized
with a smirk.  Someone on the refit team was an Art of Noise fan.
        The light from the access hatch illuminated a pair of booted
feet, squirming back and forth as their owner wrestled with something
inside the access hatch.  Next to the access hatch, a very old
data-crystal Walkman was hooked up to a pair of worn-out computer
speakers, spitting static around every bass note.  As Utena stepped
forward for a closer look, she stubbed her toe on a projecting hull
brace.
	"Ow!  Damn!"
        "Hello?"  The person inside the access panel paused in his
squirming for a bit, and a hand reached down from the open panel to
turn off the music.  "Hey, could you hand me the isolinear circuit
tester from my kit, please?"
        Utena recognized the voice. "Mac? Is that you?"
        Mac McKenzie's feet twitched, pulling back a little bit; a
soft clunk deep within the bulkhead was followed by a curse.  "Utena?
You're not supposed to be back aboard yet!"
        "What are you doing down here?"
        "Not much without the isolinear circuit tester."
        Utena glanced around, finally noticing a large metal box with
a small repulsorlift welded to the base.  The top was open, revealing
a large and varying jumble of tools.  Utena had thought she'd learned
how to repair a ship last summer with Corwin, but many of the items in
the box seemed like alien torture devices to her.  "The what?"
        "Small black box with a long red handle.  Has three slots in
the end."
        Utena rummaged through the box for a moment, drew out an
object about eight inches long, and held it down at the opening.  "Is
this it?"
        "Yeah." A hand reached out and drew the tool into the wall; a
few moments later, sounds of satisfaction echoed out.  "Good, caught
it in time."
        "Caught what in time?"
        "During the fight you had last week, a power surge hit your
autokitchen," Mac replied.  "I've been tracing down the shorts it left
behind, and I just isolated the very last one."
        "Oh.  Is that important?"
        Mac slid out of the panel and, with a supple roll of his body,
snapped to his feet.  "It is if you wanted any ice cream down the
line.  At least, that's what Professor Ravenhair told me.  Said, 'If
you'd taken my class last year, you'd understand the importance of
Cherry Garcia at two in the morning.'  So I fixed it."
        "But..."  Utena pointed to the great dark bulkhead and sighed,
"We never use the autokitchen.  We cook."
        Mac shrugged.  "Well, now you don't have to."
        Utena decided to change the subject.  "Anyway, I thought you
were taking an internship this summer.  G'Kron told me that you'd been
accepted for the IPO -design staff- internship."
        Mac sighed.  "I volunteered for extra duty.  I need the
money."
        "Oh," Utena said.  "What for?"
        "Well, the trip to Jezebel's grand opening, for starters," Mac
said.  "And maybe tickets for the Art of Noise concert on the New
Orleans.  Will they still be playing during the Fleet Muster?"
        "Um, you'll have to ask Juri," Utena replied, shrugging.
"She's been reassembling the tour from scratch, and I haven't seen
what she's come up with yet.  I hope so."  She looked at Mac, noted
the uncomfortable fidgeting of his hands and feet, and added, "What
else?"
        "What else what?"
        "What else do you need the money for?"
        "Well," Mac said, taking a deep breath, "I'd appreciate it if
you didn't tell Liza, but I need it for-"
        "MCKENZIE!!"
        Zefram Cochrane, for whatever reason, didn't care much for
communicators.  If he could get someone's attention by shouting, he
would, even if that meant half the ship hearing the message.
        Mac looked back towards the stern and shouted, "SIR!"
        A pair of shadows emerged from the rear of the deck, Cochrane
and one of his aides - T'Barr, Utena remembered, the long-haired
Vulcan woman with the perpetual longsuffering stare.  She wondered,
not for the first time, why a Surakite Vulcan would choose to work
with a man as... as -human- as Zefram Cochrane.
        "McKenzie, aren't you finished with that autocook yet?  Davion
just redesigned the damn avionics systems again, and Nakajima's pet
Andorian says you can build avionics from scratch."
        "Have done," Mac said.
        "Have done, WHAT?" Cochrane shouted.
        "Have done, you cantankerous old slave-driver," Mac sighed.
        "That's better," Cochrane grinned.  "Smitty, call the design
office and tell 'em we're keeping their intern a little while longer,
willya?"
        "T'Barr," the Vulcan said, the faintest hint of pique in her
voice.  "It's a name.  Two syllables.  Can you say it?"
        "Sure, Smitty," Cochrane grinned.  "Just take care of things,
OK?  Me and the kid here have some deck panels to undog."  As Mac
replaced the access cover and gathered his tools back into his
toolbox, Cochrane nodded to Utena.  "Evenin', Captain," Cochrane
grinned.  "We've already got everything important fixed.  Just making
things even better."
        "Every day, in every way," Mac murmured.
        Cochrane shot Mac a look, which rolled harmlessly off the
young Freespacer, as expected.  "Anyway, when you're ready, so are we.
Just give us an hour's notice so we can duct-tape anything we missed."
        "All right," Utena nodded.  "Carry on, then."  She walked over
to the access ladder feeling somewhat relieved.  If the workers are
fixing redundant systems and taking time to redesign things, she
thought, things must be well in hand.
        Idly she wonder why Mac needed extra money.  Probably to
replace the No Bull, she chuckled.  Pity he hadn't been on board for
the fight with the Amar.  With an officer's share, he could have
bought the newest YT-3000 metaspace-equipped freighter, custom-made
from the CEC yards.
        Oh well.  She resolved to ask about it at the concert at
Liza's resort, and then forgot about it altogether as she flew back to
New Avalon.

        On Tuesday, June 13, as he did every workday, Psi Corps
Enforcement Officer Roger Tremayne, station commander of the Lunar
Colony Station, got to his office promptly at 9 in the morning.
Although his transfer to the Moon had been a punishment and his
assignment as station commander a demotion, he'd actually come to like
this job.  It was easy, for one thing; the Lunar Colony was a very
quiet place where people minded their own business and, by and large,
abided by the law.  The job didn't demand much of Tremayne's time or
energy, which left him with plenty of both to spare to his own
interests.
        His co-workers agreed that the change had been good for Roger.
Before, when he'd been a regional director for enforcement in North
America, a hotbed of blip activity, he'd gotten wound progressively
tighter and tighter until he'd finally snapped and kicked off that
embarrassing debacle in Worcester.  But the central office, ever
benevolent, had seen the cause of his failure and acted accordingly.
Rather than slapping him with some punitive assignment, they'd sent
him here to relax and get his center back, and it had worked
-wonders-.  The man was so much more pleasant to work with now, so
much less cold and distant.  He was more often than not in a good mood
now that he'd been transferred to the Moon.  Worse pay, better hours.
        Today, for instance, he was humming pleasantly to himself and
reading the morning edition of the New Avalon Cornet-Scientifer, which
had extensive coverage of the return to space of the International
Police Starship Valiant.  The previous Saturday's evening edition,
with its photo of Captain Utena Tenjou looking annoyed and the
bellowing headline "AYE AYE, CAP'N!", was still sitting on the corner
of his desk.  The new article was just as interesting, and included a
revised tour schedule for the Art of Noise.
        Good band, the Art of Noise.  Worth taking some time off when
they came to Earth and heading down to Toronto to see.

        Oddly, that same thought was also occurring to another law
enforcement officer in another post far removed from Toronto, Ontario.
        "Say, Chief," said Sergeant Martin Lucas in the inspectors'
squadroom at the Quai des Orfevres in Paris.  "D'you remember that
American girl - well, I guess she isn't really an American, she's from
New Avalon, but she was going to school in America - used to come into
the Brasserie Dauphine and play the piano sometimes?"
        "Of course I do," replied Superintendent Jules Marquette from
the doorway to his private office in the back.  "What about her?"
        "Well, her band's playing over in Canada on Saturday, the
twenty-second of July.  What say you and I and La Fontaine take some
time off, if we've nothing important on then, head over there and take
in the show?"
        Marquette smiled indulgently.  "Not really my sort of music,
Lucas," he said.
        "Oh, they play all sorts, sir.  I have a couple of their
records if you'd like to borrow them.  And it's been a long time since
we had a vacation... "
        "Sounds like a good idea to me," said Inspector Francoise La
Fontaine, leaning back in her creaky desk chair and yawning.  "I could
do with a little time away from Paris.  But you watch - it'll get to
be the day before the show and the government will fall or something."
        "Wouldn't be much we in the Murder Squad could do about that,"
Superintendent Marquette observed with a grin.  "All right, Lucas, you
win.  I'll put in the request for leave time at the chief's meeting
this afternoon and we'll see.  If nothing important comes up, we'll go
to Canada.  But you'll have to practice your English - Toronto isn't
in the French part of Canada, you know."
        Lucas grinned.  "That's all right - I think I have a better
chance of being understood in English than in what the Quebecois call
French anyway!"
        Marquette chuckled and went into his office, shutting the door
behind him.  Lucas grinned at La Fontaine, who gave him an indulgent
you're-such-an-eager-boy smile and went back to the report she'd been
working on.  The young sergeant, still grinning, snapped his copy of
the Cornet-Scientifer open again and went back to reading the articles
on page four.

        With their t'skrang restored and a new redhead on the team,
the crew of the Valiant settled pleasantly back into the routine of
living, working and traveling aboard their vessel - restored to shiny
newness even slightly improved by her five days in dock.  With Kozue
Kaoru at the helm, Utena Tenjou at the conn, and much fanfare and
press attention, the Valiant set course for the bright and glorious
future - or at least the Art of Noise's gig on New Japan.

    /*  Soul Asylum  "Someone to Shove"  _Grave Dancers Union_  */

Eyrie Productions, Unlimited            Grandfather watches the
presents                                  grandfather clock
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES                   And the phone hasn't rang
FUTURE IMPERFECT                          for so long
 - Symphony of the Sword No. 3 -        And the time flies by like a
Entr'acte: Gunboat Diplomacy              vulture in the sky
                                        Suddenly he breaks into song
The Cast
(in order of appearance)                I'm waiting by the phone
Utena Tenjou                            Waiting for you to call me up
Nadia Davion                              and tell me I'm not alone
Lore Soong                              Waiting by the phone
Ruri Hoshino                            Waiting for you to call me up
Benjamin D. Hutchins                      and tell me I'm not alone
Zargh Thalekh
Jack Dixon                              Hello, speak up
Althea Gale                             Is there somebody there?
Tz'kmil O'Connor                        These hangups are getting me down
Kozue Kaoru                             In a world frozen over with
Corwin Ravenhair                          overexposure
Theodora Utonium                        Let's talk it over
Blossom Utonium                         Let's go out and paint the town
Theresa Utonium
Dr. Rose Abernathy                      'Cause I'm waiting by the phone
Achika Shannon                          Waiting for you to call me up
Dr. Rockford Stone                        and tell me I'm not alone
Tenchi Shannon                          'Cause I want somebody to shove
Hiroshi Morisato                        I need somebody to shove
Robert Shannon                          I want somebody to shove me
Aeka Jyurai Shannon
Fuu Hououji                             You're a dream for insomniacs
Hikaru Shidou                           Prize in the Cracker Jack
Nall Silverclaw                         All the difference in the world
Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky                          is just a call away
C.P. Mui
Reiyna Mui                              And I'm waiting by the phone
Priss Morgan                            Waiting for you to call me up
Gai "Guy" Morgan                          and tell me I'm not alone
Sylvie Daniels                          Yes I'm waiting by the phone
Eiko Magami Rose                        Waiting for you to call me
Miki Kaoru                              Ah call me and tell me I'm
Juri Arisugawa                          Tell me I'm not alone
Kaitlyn Hutchins
Sergei                                  'Cause I want somebody to shove
Anthy Tenjou                            I need somebody to shove
Lesser Mazinger                         I want somebody to shove me
Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan                 Yes I want somebody to shove
R. Dorothy Wayneright                   I need somebody to shove
The Hon. J. Maurice MacEchearn IV       I want somebody to shove me
T'skaia Vorokoshiga'ar
  Ixtixtaaqitl't'chl'Vraihelt Ishkarat  (Hmm... song's too short.)
Elizabeth R'tas Shustal
Janice Barlow                           (Oh well.)
Neal Krummell
Keryl Dekken
Tsu'rin
Shran
Harcourt M. McKenzie
Zefram Cochrane
T'Barr
Roger Tremayne
Martin Lucas
Jules Marquette
Francoise La Fontaine


                      He-Who-Types-In-the-Night
                         Benjamin D. Hutchins

                   Miss Kaoru's fashion consultant
                              Anne Cross

                      Blonde language consultant
                           Kris Overstreet

                 Diner scene suggested by Pearson Mui

                      Local cantilevering device
                            John Trussell

                  With a friendly grin in memory of
                             Brian Daley

                       And the constant help of
                          The Usual Suspects

                       The Symphony will return