Prologue: Chrono/Kaino Trigger


	There was only one word to describe the bridge of Mihoshi's shuttle, the 
*Un-no-fubuki*: mess.

	Junk food of all types was strewn across the bridge, in some cases 
spilling out onto the controls. Assorted wrappers blew across the floor, 
where they mingled with empty cans. The owner was sitting sideways on the 
command chair, tears welling up in her big blue eyes as she looked at the 
woman who had just finished raking her over the coals.

	"Kiyone... " she said. "It's all my fault. I should have realized that 
there was a chance that you might survive your brave sacrifice. I should 
have made Lady Akane take us back and look for you. I should have known 
you were alive! We swore kin-oath..."

	"I can't think whatever possessed me to do so," Kiyone muttered.

	"What was that, Kiyone?"

	"I said, I can't imagine what makes you think so."

	Mihoshi sniffled and looked up. "You really mean that?"

	"Oh, what the hell," her partner mumbled. "Sure!"

	Mihoshi smiled.

	Kiyone reached into her bag. "Here. When I got back to our station, they 
told me, 'Hello, I see you're back from the dead after three years; 
please take this on to your partner along with her rebuilt ship.'" She 
handed Mihoshi a box wrapped in a wildly batiked furoshiki.

	"A present for me?!" Mihoshi hastily unwrapped the box, opened it, threw 
wads of packing lather out on the floor to join the rest of the trash, 
and removed the contents.

	It was a mobile. Crystal figures hung on fine gold chains from a gold 
hoop, which itself hung from four heavier chains that came together in a 
hook. The crystal figures represented Emperor Azusa, Funaho-kouhi, 
Misaki-kouhi, Mihoshi's great-great-great-great-grandmother (the 
then-head of the Galaxy Police), President Yakage of the Galaxy Academy, 
and assorted rulers of various subsidizers of the Galaxy Police at the 
time the mobile was made. And from the center, there hung a carving of 
three figures back-to-back: Sasami or Ryohko could have identified them 
as grown Washuu, humanoid Tsunami, and Tokimi.

	"Ohhhh," Mihoshi said. "It's from Minagi. She sends me a birthday 
present every year. Isn't it pretty?"

	Kiyone was quietly freaking out. "Mihoshi," she said. "That's one of the 
treasures of the Stellar Alliance of Mayrenn. It's been missing ever 
since the space pirates Yuugi, Minagi, and Konoha raided the place a year 
and a half ago. There's an eighty-thousand credit reward for its return."


	"Really? Wasn't that nice of Minagi to send it to me, then?"

	Kiyone sighed. She took the treasure from Mihoshi and carefully packed 
it away again. "Since when have you been friends with a notorious space 
pirate?"

	"We're not friends, exactly. She sends me birthday presents, is all. 
She's done it ever since you sacrificed yourself to save us."

	"Funny -- she didn't mention anything of the sort to Inspector 
Tientsin."

	"Who's Inspector Tientsin?" Mihoshi asked.

	Kiyone sighed. "Inspector Tientsin Kenji? The guy whose kidnapping was 
responsible for my spending three years at the back end of the galaxy?"

	"Oh, him. How is he?"

	"He's doing fairly well. He keeps capturing Minagi. Then she keeps 
escaping, and he goes out and captures her again. He's about to make 
promotion again, and in the one sensible act of his career he got himself 
engaged to Sasami."

	"Engaged to Sasami-chan? She hasn't said anything about being engaged."

	"Not Princess Sasami. Sasami. You know, the one who used to be our 
gofer? She was taking the entrance exams to Galaxy Police when I left. I 
will admit that since they look a lot like each other and have the same 
name, it's a natural mistake."

	"Look like each other? Oh my goodness, you're right! They look like each 
other!"

	Kiyone stared at Mihoshi. "You only just noticed that? God, Mihoshi, 
sometimes I wonder...."



	The Galaxy Police district station was one of the oldest in that part of 
the galaxy and one of the smallest in all of it. It was known mainly for 
two things.

	Firstly, many years ago when it was new, the present Emperor of Jurai 
(before his ascension) had stopped off there in disguise with a girl he'd 
abducted and ordered the chief of the station to marry them. The harassed 
station chief had said 'Well, we're busy just now trying to capture an 
extradimensional being belonging to a Tokimi Somebody who kindly informed 
us of its escape. Help us capture this Kain thing, and I'll be glad to 
help you." 

	After a short but frantic chase, which culminated in Kain trying to eat 
the Earthwoman while she pounded on it with a gun (not knowing how to use 
it), the extradimensional creature was sealed in the station, and the 
couple got married and went to break the news to his people.

 	Secondly, it was the district station where Inspector Tientsin Kenji 
was stationed. His meteoric career had been followed with interest by the 
tabloids and the gossipier members of the Galaxy Police. Half-Jurai 
himself, he had been chosen by Lady Akane, princess of one of Jurai's 
supporting planets, as her fiancee. Then, when Lady Akane (who ran a 
quasi-legal business in "finding" stolen artwork; i.e., if the pirates 
couldn't unload it anywhere, she'd buy it for *just* over what they'd get 
if it was broken down and then return it to the owners for a stiff fee) 
had a falling-out with the space pirate Minagi, Minagi had kidnapped 
Inspector Tientsin and then promptly fallen in love with him.

	Lady Akane had just as promptly co-opted Officers Kuramitsu Mihoshi and 
Makibi Kiyone to follow Minagi. Aided by their gofer Sasami (name kanji: 
supple/field officer/beautiful) they had tracked down Minagi and 
Tientsin. Then Officer Kuramitsu had let Minagi go for some reason 
probably only intelligible to her, and the space pirate had repaid her 
trust by re-kidnapping Tientsin and heading for her employer's secret 
base.

	The four girls had followed, and discovered it to be the lair of the mad 
scientist Washiba, who planned to destroy the universe. When one 
princess, one space pirate, one inspector, one officer, and one gofer had 
returned, they told conflicting stories that only agreed on the point 
that Officer Makibi had perished in the line of duty. From the aftermath 
of that one, Minagi got a sentence which she promptly evaded, Lady Akane 
got a slap on the wrist, Sasami got a bonus, Mihoshi got a commendation, 
Kiyone was awarded a posthumous medal, and Tientsin got the continuing 
attention of the tabloids.

	His one sensible move since was to get himself engaged to Sasami, who at 
least picked him up when he was down. Now, he was in the process of 
capturing Minagi for the sixteenth time in three years, and hoping to God 
that nobody would come along just now.

	"Tientsin... " Minagi crooned, her arms around his neck. "Why are you 
still into that Galactipork stuff? Come away with me. There's nothing to 
tie you down out there. You'll be the master of your fate, the captain of 
your soul... we'll be king and queen of the universe out there, because 
nobody's pressing us down... and I can give you such a *nice* time..." 
She was breathing into his ear now, and Tientsin was sweating like crazy.


	"Minagi. May I remind you that I am now engaged to Sasami?"

	"Sasami? Sasami? Oh, *Sasami*. Well, that's no problem -- we can take 
her along to cook for us. I think there's room on the ship for a second 
bedroom."

	Inspector Tientsin gulped.



	In the depths of the district station, lights were quietly blinking, 
monitoring all sorts of things that the Galaxy Police dealt with. All 
except on one terminal, back in the corner. If the outpost had not 
automatically run short, sharp currents of air and mini-vacuum suction to 
take care of such things, it would no doubt have been draped with cobweb 
analogues and thickly covered with dust. The presence of three small, 
steadily glowing lights ensured that this terminal was still functioning 
correctly -- for the moment.

	In one of the three small subspaces a little outpost like this rated, 
something was stirring. Of course, it had been stirring for a long time, 
but this time something was different.

	Time passes oddly even in a subspace by itself. When you get to the 
hypospace network that connects them, the one thing you can be sure of is 
that nothing traveling through it will ever get there when you expect.

	The thing imprisoned in the subspace sensed an incredible burst of 
energy coming towards it -- energy similar enough to its own that it 
could *use* it. Long-dormant drives stirred within the thing.

	It reached for the energy, drinking it in. It didn't know, nor would it 
particularly have cared, that it was energy from the destruction of one 
of the galaxy's most powerful (or at least known as such) ships, the 
*Sohja*. It didn't want to know anything about what could have caused 
such a burst of energy; all it cared about was that it meant OUT.

	One of the lights on the terminal began to blink with a dull, beeping 
noise. A camera, unused for years but still in perfect working condition, 
moved into place to investigate. Assorted engine parts that controlled 
the subspace ground to a stop. The long-dark screen of the forgotten 
terminal came alive, displaying a message in Galactipolice Standard, 
which bears an odd resemblance to ancient Etruscan. The message was 
simple. In English it would be merely three words: KAIN LOCK OFF.

	The message flashed up to the main screens in the control rooms, of 
course. The operators looked up in shock. One of them hit the alert 
button, warning the entire station and all ships connected to its network 
(legally or not). Another forwarded a warning to the command center of 
the station. Deep within the outpost, the sealed entrance to the 
unimaginable *otherwhere* where the being was imprisoned tore open even 
wider, and began to draw stuff through into the subspace.

	As matter poured inward, energy exploded out from the subspace gate. 
Power blasted through the corridors of the outpost, vaporizing startled 
people at their posts.

	In the command center, the head of Engineering gasped "What the hell's 
going on here?!"

	"There's an anomaly in the subspace chamber," the head of Forensics 
answered, remaining professional as frightful destruction played across 
her screen. "Conventional spacetime is being drawn into the core block."

	"Shirei, do you think it's -- " the engineer began.

	The district station chief stared at the chart of the explosions 
occurring within the outpost. "It's him, " he said, voice laden with 
emotion. "The only one who could do such a thing... is *that* one."

	The forensics head looked up again. "Dimensional shield breached! 
Time-axis out of alignment!" she said sharply. "Into the negative; 
spacetime has begun to move!"

	"Spacetime is moving?" the station chief gasped.

	"Sir," the engineering head cried, "the subspace anomaly is out of 
control. At this rate, the entire Galaxy Police outpost will be -- "

	"Oh, shiiiit... " the forensics head muttered to herself.



	Minagi was trying to remove Inspector Tientsin's uniform jacket and 
ignoring his attempts to fend her off when the control console of her 
ship began to make noises.

	"Damn it!" she said. "What is it *now*, Mi-oh-ki?" She stalked angrily 
over to the console, passing a framed printout of the newspic of all the 
survivors of the Washiba Incident, including Ryoh-oh-ki (name kanji: 
soul/king/spirit-air) in his customary position on Cadet Sasami's head.

	Space pirates, contrary to rumor, are actually very good at certain 
forms of math -- such as calculating getaway time. Minagi left the 
console at a dead run, scooping up the picture and Tientsin on the way. 
She made her way to the smaller of Mi-oh-ki's two lifepods and slammed 
her fist down on the "open" button.

	"What's going on?" Tientsin demanded. "What's with the tiny lifepod?"

	"The bigger one's broken!" Minagi snapped back. She tossed the picture 
in and shoved Tientsin in after it, hitting the door controls as soon as 
she did so.

	Tientsin activated the "window" and stared at Minagi, locking the door 
to his small prison. "Minagi, why?"

	"Something called Kain... " Minagi said, setting the direction and 
maximum velocity codes for the lifepod. "There!"

	"What about Kain?!" Tientsin demanded.

	"I love you... " Minagi said, hitting the "eject" button.

	"MIIINAAAGIIIIIIII!" Tientsin screamed as the pod blasted off into space 
with incredible force. He could see that Mi-oh-ki was going through its 
undocking procedures, and that the district station was beginning to 
buckle as a result of incredible pressure from the inside.



	The station chief stood at his post as the district station went through 
its dying throes. He screamed his people's spit-in-the-face-of-death cry 
even as an explosion reached the command center itself, tearing it to 
pieces. The district station shuddered and exploded in a ball of light 
which began to expand. Then just as suddenly, it began to contract, and 
then expanded again. From the ruins of the Galaxy Police district 
station, a great dark Thing with a white, even beautiful face streamed 
off in the direction from which the energy blast that freed it had come, 
driving itself along by pulling from the invisible lines of force 
stretching between the stars.

	The destruction of the outpost was witnessed by two ships: Tientsin in 
Mi-oh-ki's tiny pod and another ship that had just come in on its regular 
route. Painted on the side of the ship was

GALAXY POLICE

SPECIAL OPERATIONS



	Meanwhile, on board the second *Un-no-fubuki*, Mihoshi was eating again 
and Kiyone had turned her attention to plotting the maneuvers the ship 
would have to go through in order to put them down at the Masaki house. 
Even if Mihoshi's grandfather had had it specially rebuilt for his 
granddaughter, it was still a new ship, and doing anything like that with 
a new ship was always tricky -- for anyone who wasn't Mihoshi, of course. 
Kiyone still didn't want to trust to luck, even if her partner was a 
living antibody for Murphy's Law. 

	The communications began to produce electronic beeps. "Why, " Mihoshi 
said with annoyance, "does Headquarters always call when I'm eating?"

	"Ah, they're probably requesting your regular report again," Kiyone 
said.

	"Attention all units!" the 'radio' crackled. "Kain, who has been in 
custody, has escap -- " It broke off.

	"Eh?" Kiyone said. She leaped over to Mihoshi's board, sweeping the 
snacks off it.

	"You've wasted all those snacks!" Mihoshi protested.

	"Come in please, Headquarters!" Kiyone interrupted her. "This is 
Detective First Class Kiyone, in the Taiyou system. Please repeat your 
last message. Over."

	There was no response.

	"Come in!" Kiyone repeated. "What happened? Please repeat your last 
transmission."

	Still no answer.

	Suddenly something large and not precisely *there* rushed past them. The 
*Un-no-fubuki* shook in its wake, causing both women to lose their 
footing.

	Kiyone picked herself up first, moaning. "What was that?" she asked the 
world in general.

	The whatever-it-was began to settle over Tokyo. People in the streets 
looked up, amazed at the diffracted light that was coming through it.

	"It's the Northern Lights!" somebody said.

	"So it is," another person responded, "but I thought they couldn't be 
seen in Tokyo?"

	"It's probably pollution," a short-haired schoolgirl in a golden jacket 
and dark skirt said. "It's finally caught up with us."



	At the Masaki household, Tenchi was coming down the stairs wondering how 
Mihoshi and Kiyone were handling their reunion. Aeka's mother had taken 
the old *Un-no-fubuki* along with her to drop off at Galaxy Police 
Headquarters for an upgrade, but he hadn't expected Mihoshi's partner to 
be the one bringing it along. Neither had he expected the whole mess with 
the Kagato clone, and the onsen, and the World-Saving Karaoke. (He still 
didn't quite understand what had been going on there, even though 
Washuu-chan had kindly explained it five times.) Now, at last, they had a 
breathing space, and the two women could catch up.

	The night sky suddenly brightened.

	"Eh?" Tenchi said, puzzled. His legs wavered under him, and for a moment 
his feet seemed to be fading out.

	"Ahhh... " he gasped in terror as his entire torso tried to 
discorporate.

	"That," as Tenchi said later, "was the first indication I had that I was 
going to vanish."