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-- File: VVCVteaser.txt



	Zack whistled quitely as he looked straight up through the 
perfectly clear bubble of the path's roof.  Outside, a gigantic 
tree sixty miles long floated motionless half a mile away.  A 
number of lights dotted the trunk as it stretched over his head 
and away, lighting the shadow caused by a large Juraian destroyer 
docked in the middle, a little to the right of his own position.  

	He could see people, quite small at this distance, moving 
through small gardens, homes, and corridors much like the one he 
was currently in.  The structures wrapped all the way around the 
monstrous trunk, and many private homes disappeared below the 
thick bark.  Only some of the bark was covered in buildings, much 
of it was left bare, interrupted only by the single corridor that 
stretched from one green, leafy end of the tree to the other, 
which also sported greenery.

	In the Forest Ring, trees have two crowns.  

	
	It was Jurai's oldest colony, located a mere light year 
away from their home planet.  Long, long ago, when their first 
three sluggish reaction ships left the planet on a mission of 
exploration, the early explorers found a system unlike any other, 
a gigantic ring of breathable atmosphere without benefit of land.  
Gases had escaped from one of the system's few planets, and each 
molecule of air had its own orbit around the system's binary 
stars.  Strangely enough, there were enough air molecules in 
roughly the same orbit to result in an impossibly huge ring of 
atmosphere, thousands of times bigger than any planet and home to 
all manner of unusual life, living in weightless space.

	Much to the delight of the early explorers, one of the most 
unusual, and common, forms of life were the giant space trees 
that floated through the ring, arranged around the sun like a 
spokes of a wheel and giving it its name.  These trees not only 
provided shelter and a place to land, their ecosystems provided 
food and drink, and gravity of a sort.  The home planet collapsed 
under the weight of its population and civil turmoil before any 
more progress was made in colonization, but those first explorers 
were still there, growing, expanding, and learning.

	Strangely, the people of the Forest Ring found themselves 
at peace.  Squabbles were few and uncommon, mostly limited to 
concrete disputes over food ('Hey!  I called dibs on that bird 
wing first!'), space ('I was sitting there first!'), and mates 
('You've been cheating on me, haven't you?!').  Something in the 
Juraian genetic memory associated trees with comfort and safety, 
and suddenly all the important political and philisophical 
questions of the universe were reduced to finding the next mate 
and a bannana.  It was probably a side effect of having evolved 
from monkeys.  

	Fascinating properties were also discovered about the trees, 
such as their abilities to draw upon some unknown energy source 
and use strange abilities to fly to more hospitible areas of the 
system.  Their unusual leaves also seemed to create their own 
light and direct it at each other, narrow beams of scintillating, 
rainbowed light that they used to keep track of the other trees 
in any one grove and align themselves in the most efficient and 
least competitive fashion, and also to kill the few herbiovores 
that posed a real threat to them.

	These wayward Juraians were so moved by this example of 
power and cooperation that they formed a religion out of it, 
which still remains in a modified form.  This is one of the rare 
cases where a religion was based on a true science, not to 
mention a real deity.  Later, as they progressed, the trees were 
mutated into new strains, and the first Treeship was grown.  
Using powers tapped from the newly discovered layers of subspace, 
these Treeships could live in vacuum, and linked to the people 
that had developed along with them, could fly at faster than 
light speeds through space.

	Even now, a hundred thousand years later, after over a 
hundred planets had been colonized and Jurai had been restored 
from total devastation, over a third of all Juraians lived in the 
Forest.

	
	Zack hated it, of course.  While he could admire the scope 
and harmony of the colony, it still represented the people who 
had destroyed his own in a feirce, if somewhat one-sided, war a 
little over six centuries before.

	Zack was not a Juraian.  However, he would have quickly 
slit anyone's throat who knew what he really was.  He had skin 
just a few shades paler than the average Juraian, with short, 
spiky brown hair which also wasn't common among true Juraians.  
His features, though, were simian enough that all it took was a 
pair of inert contact lenses, which changed his eyes to brown, to 
enable him to pass unnoticed.  Although a head higher than 
average, he looked like any of a billion other inhabitants of the 
Forest.

	He continued his journey up the tree.  The small colony 
transport ship he'd arrived on had docked at the weightless 
middle of the tree, where most of the docks were located.  This 
forced Zack to walk on a moving sidewalk about ten miles before 
he reached the nearly deserted out-quarter, the poorer section of 
the tree.  Poverty wasn't really a problem in the Forest, but 
those who could afford it generally settled the half of the tree 
closest to the tiny star in the center of the system.  

	Zack resisted the urge to whistle aimlessly as he wandered 
the corridors, purposely taking as winding a route as possible, 
even going as far to slowly circle the giant trunk before getting 
back to the side facing the tree he'd seen when he originally 
arrived.  Eventually, he found what he was looking for.

	It was a small public garden, a dome-shaped atrium filled 
with sprawling succulents of many varieties, all edible.  Fruit 
dominated, because it could be eaten raw, but there were enough 
vegetables to make a truly exotic salad, chosen for both taste 
and color.

	Zack crouched to the dark brown dirt and picked a red fruit 
reminiscent of a zucchini and bit deeply into it with a cruch.  
The peel was tough, but the inside was watery, juicy purple pulp.  
It tasted like a mixed fruit punch.  Swallowing, he glanced 
around to make sure he was alone.  Seeing no-one, he looked up to 
gauge the distance, then jumped so hard he left footprints four 
inches deep in the packed dirt.

	Most other beings would have slammed headfirst into the 
clear dome, but Zack simply phased through it, a minor exercise 
of power he was sure would be overlooked by the sensors watching 
for unauthorized use of power.  His jump quickly carried him 
clear of the limited gravity generated by strips buried beneath 
the floors of the corridors on the trunk, leaving him on a free-
fall trip through the air between the trees, streaking toward the 
opposite trunk.

	The only likely danger was that someone from the tree he 
just left would look up and spot him.  Questions would be asked, 
and eventually certain future events might be connected with him.  
Zack wasn't worried, though.  He intended to be long gone by then.

	Zack doubled his body and spun, now falling feet-first 
toward the tree and still munching on his fruit.  There was only 
a single, unoccupied corridor running the length of the trunk 
before him, and he intended to hit right beside it.  His target 
destination was owned by a fantastically rich man who defied 
conventional wisdom by living in the outside crown of leaves.  

	The view was gorgeous, here alone between trees.  
Atmospheric haze made everything farther than a few miles away 
fuzzy, but he could still see distant trees over eighty miles 
away.  Zack felt dwarfed by the scale of it all.  He ate the last 
bite of pulp and let a hard scrap of rind fly away into open air, 
to be eventually swept from the sky by the massive, broomlike 
ends of the trees.

	The bark rushed at him and he hit with a thump, quickly 
acting to dig his incredibly strong fingers in the spongy wood so 
that he didn't bounce back into the air.  The corridor was only a 
few tens of yards away.  

	Zack started to climb over to it, but the temptation to 
view the ultimate prize was strong.  Deciding that it couldn't 
hurt, he quickly adopted a four-limbed run and climbed around the 
tree, traveling nearly half a mile before he reached the other 
side, where an identical corridor ran the length of the tree.  

	Docked between the opposite tree and the tree he was own 
was a ship.  A _made_ ship.  Thirty miles long and ten wide with 
a distinctly unaerodynamic shape, it was clearly never ment for 
planetfall.  Not a single space tree had been used in its 
contruction, and it had a metallic gleam in the dim light from 
the neutron star.  It was the fastest, most powerful, most 
spacious ship in the surrounding hundred galaxies.  Armed to the 
teeth yet fantastically luxurious, it was the cruise ship to end 
all cruise ships, meant to visit the surrounding galaxies with a 
load of rich tourists.  Even the most powerful pirate or hostile 
navy would balk at attacking it.

	Zack smiled.  The Souja was a truly amazing ship, and it 
would be even more amazing when he got through with it.  But 
first, a few last minute design changes needed to be fed to the 
construction crew.


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


	Several hours later, Zack whistled happily to himself as he 
walked the corridor on another, more populous tree in a grove 
that served as a spaceport.  Massive crusiers and cargo ships of 
all sorts lined its length, including Zack's own little runabout.

	His mission completed, he prepared to leave.

	A tasteful holographic sign caught his eye as he neared the 
checkpoint, advertising drink and companionship.  Zack slowed his 
purposful strides as he neared the opening to what he saw as a 
large, claustrophobic orchard.  The companionship didn't interest 
him in the slightest, but it had been a long time since he last 
had a drink of something besides water or juice.  In fact, he'd 
never actually been in a bar before.

	It was certainly not something he would do while on a 
mission.  He was far more professional than that.  But...  His 
mission was over, and it had been a long, strenuous life.  The 
Goal was all-consuming, as it was supposed to be, but couldn't 
there be a little time to relax?  The Juraian authorities weren't 
likely to find the mess he'd left behind in time to do anything 
about it.

	Giving a little shrug, he entered the bar.  It was a 
surprisingly gloomy place.  True night was unheard of in the 
Forest Ring, but anything from being in the shadow of the trunk, 
on the opposite side of the system from the big second sun that 
actually provided light to the system, or under a thick, leafy 
canopy such as the roof of the bar could make any place look dark 
and foreboding.

	A polished wooden counter with a number of stools in front 
of it cut off the lower end of the orchard, leaving the rest 
filled by tailored fungoid growths and sculpted fruit trees which 
combined to make tables and surprisingly comfortable seats.  Only 
about a dozen people nursed drinks in the gloom, and they all had 
a sullen, depressed look.   

	Zack ignored these, chosing instead to sit alone at the bar.  

	A disinterested female bartender ambled over, wiping her 
hands on a pale apron stained brown in a number of places.  She 
was slightly overweight and a little taller than average, with a 
greasy look about her.  Most of the time she kept her eyes on a 
flickering holographic screen at one corner of the bar, the only 
source of artificial light in the place.  She glanced at him and 
grunted what might have been a question.

	"Beer," he replied gruffly.  He'd had beer before, many 
years ago.

	"What kind?" she asked tiredly, never taking her eyes of 
the screen.  She seemed to resent the extra effort his one word 
answer required from her.

	Zack fought the urge to look bewildered.  What kind?  There 
were more than one?  "What you got?" he asked cautiously.

	She sighed and turned her full attention to him.  "Hedge-
Blossom-Heimlik-Bapst-Genius-Muff-Shining-Willer-and-Whipped," 
she said in a rapidfire voice.  

	Zack blinked.  Ordering a drink seemed more daunting than 
breaking into a heavily guarded facility and tearing a few 
Juraian heads off with his bare hands.  He recovered his 
composure quickly, however.  He'd just done the latter without 
trouble, so the former couldn't be too bad.  "I'll take a...  
Hedge," he offered.

	Her hands dropped below the level of the counter, out of 
sight.  Her arms shifted slightly for a few seconds, and then she 
casually dropped a foaming mug on the counter in front of him.  
Her attention had already returned to the screen by the time he 
started reaching for the handle.

	The first drink did not immediately give him an 
appreciation for fine Juraian beers.  It was thin and watery, 
with too much of a malt flavor to really sit well on the tongue.  
Still, it beat the hell out of water.

	As he drank, he turned his head toward the holographic 
screen to see what was so fascinating.  TBA was written in red 
letters on the bottom right of the screen, and two obviously 
drunk guys were fighting each other with energy blades in an 
arena that bore more than a passing resemblance to the bar Zack 
was currently sitting in.

	Zack sniffed disdainfully at their sloppy fighting style 
and took another drink.

	"Sound is two creds," the bartender said offhand.  "You 
might want to pay attention, they've been showing reruns of the 
big fight Princess Ayeka was in a few days ago."

	Zack snorted foam and jerked his head back up, a question 
forming on his lips.

	"Yeah," she drawled to his unspoken words.  "The first 
princess finally slipped up and was seen in a bar on Mariposa."

	"The first princess?!" he choked out.  "She's been missing 
for almost a year!"  I should know, he added mentally, because 
I've been trying to find her, and I'm good at it.

	The bartender nodded, a faint smile of wicked glee sneaking 
onto her otherwise apathetic features.  "Yep.  Seems she got in a 
squabble with the space pirate Ryoko over some cute little 
barbarian and wound up on a short leash."

	Zack nearly fell off his stool.  "Sound, quick!"

	Smiling smugly, she tapped a holographic key with one 
finger.

	The grunts and electric crackle of energy from the fight on 
screen filled his ears, followed quickly by a short scream that 
indicated the end of the fight.  Statistics were soon displayed 
on the screen.

	"Who is this 'Ryoko'?" he asked out of the corner of his 
mouth, never looking away from the screen.

	She glanced at him.  "You've never heard of Ryoko, the 
galaxy's most wanted space pirate?"

	Dumbly, he shook his head.  

	"Damn..." she said with a whistle.  "Have you been living 
on a derilict space station for the last decade?  She's had the 
number one spot on our list of famous criminals for the past five 
years!  She's amazingly powerful, and she flies the Ryo-Ohki, one 
of the rare cabbits."

	Zack shrugged. 

	"She disappeared almost a year ago, something to do with 
the Galaxy Police."  The large woman hmmed to herself.  "Actually, 
she disappeared about the same time Princess Ayeka dropped out of 
the news.  While she was gone a newcomer took her spot, but she 
showed up on Mariposa three days ago."  She chuckled evilly.  
"Guess who she had on a leash?"

	"Princess Ayeka of Jurai," Zack finished drily, turning to 
look at his hostess.

	She nodded enthusiastically.  "And this cute young 
barbarian from some pre-contact planet or another."  She winked 
at Zack suggestively.  "Damn! he was fine.  I could tie that 
little bit in my bedroom and _ravage_ him till there wasn't 
nothing left."  Caught up in her own fantasy, she slid one hand 
down her stained apron and grabbed her crotch hard.

	Zack shuddered and looked away.

	"This is TBN, The Bar Network, bringing you the best in bar 
to bar entertainment," announced a fresh young man sitting on a 
bar stool.  "Next up is a replay of the now famous Space Pirate 
Ryoko/Princess Ayeka showdown, brought to you by the Hardwood Bar 
on fabulous free planet Mariposa.  Next time you're looking for 
an adventure, visit the Hardwood Bar, a regular hangout for the 
best this Galaxy has to offer in crime."

	"Fight's up!" the bartender called to the rest of the bar.

	Immediately there was a scuffling and punching for sound, 
as well as private screens at individual tables.

	"This fight not only marks the return of both our missing 
star, Ryoko, and that of our missing Princess Ayeka, it also 
gives us remarkable insight into their private lives."  The 
announcer looked quite pleased with himself as he stated 
everything in a lightly conversational tone.  "First, a little 
pre-fight background.  So, Riku, what can you tell us about these 
combatants that we don't already know?"

	The view shifted, showing a grizzled old man with a half 
empty mug in his hand sitting at a table.  He cast one baleful 
eye at the camera, took a drink, and belched.  "Well, Tsuri, 
everyone that ain't got'is head stuffed up'is ass knows at least 
SOME about both of these fine hellraisers."

	Zack ignored the elbow jab from the bartender.

	"Ryoko, better known as the dread space pirate Ryoko, the 
most wanted criminal in the galaxy, is something of an enigma."  
The old man disappeared, replaced with a slow spiraling view of 
Ryoko in a victory pose, her red energy blade held high.

	Zack studied the picture intently.  She looked familiar, 
somehow.  Her features weren't too different from the average 
Juraian, although possibly a little sharper.  Her long hair 
seemed to clump together in spikes, something that reminded him 
of his own necessity of keeping his hair so short his similar 
problem wasn't noticable.  

	"No one knows who she really is or where she comes from, 
but Ryoko has made a name for herself on The Bar Network as the 
most beautiful, powerful, ferocious pirate to ever raid the 
shipping lanes.  Her recent ten month disappearance led to a 
brief fall from grace when Hirame, currently number two, stole 
her number one spot with a number of daring raids on industrial 
complexes."

	Ryoko disappeared and was replaced by a tasteful, very 
formal still picture of Ayeka in royal dress, posing for the 
camera in front of a fountain.

	"Princess Ayeka certainly needs no introduction," continued 
Riku.  "As she herself would put it, our princess is gifted with 
great beauty, intellect, and power.  There aren't many people in 
the galaxy that would dare to take on someone as daunting as our 
number one princess."

	The picture of Ayeka was replaced by another sill, this 
time just of her legs, the rest obscured by the edge of the 
fountain and the spray of water she kicked up as she entered.  
Ryoko floated in mid-air nearby, holding a sign which read 'Ayeka 
sure is clumsy, isn't she?'

	Everyone in the bar chuckled, Zack most of all.  He liked 
this Ryoko already.

	The picture shifted back to the old man chuckling quietly.  
"Well, as you can see, Ryoko is one of those people.  She and 
Ayeka have had an ongoing public rivalry for most of their lives, 
the exact origins of which only they know."

	"Huh.  That's interesting."  Zack took a pull of his beer.

	"Apparently, during their mutual disappearance, the two 
have been at it again, this time over the hand of a young 
barbarian named Tenchi."

	Tenchi appeared on screen, wearing only a tattered scrap of 
fur as a loincloth.  He looked very put-upon as he stared through 
the camera.

	"Ook ook," muttered the bartender.  

	Zack shook his head.

	The old man reappeared.  "And this time, it appears 
Princess Ayeka has lost.  When Ryoko entered the Hardwood Bar, 
she had the barbarian in tow and Princess Ayeka in an energy 
collar and harem silks.  Ryoko declared her to be a Pleasure 
Slave, a claim that our princess could not bring herself to 
dispute."

	The image changed to a six-second clip of Ryoko walking in 
boldly, Ayeka and Tenchi on her heels.  Tenchi was the spitting 
image of a sullen barbarian slave, and Ayeka kept her head down, 
humbled embarrasment written on her face.

	"However, it seems that a princess of Jurai does not submit 
easily, even when captured.  Witnesses report that the first 
Princess not only mocked and teased her captor, she also tricked 
her into drinking Sweetwood wine."  Riku smirked.  "Twice."

	The bartender groaned sympathetically, and several people 
chuckled.  Seeing Zack's confusion, she leaned over and whispered 
an explaination.  

	Zack winced accordingly.

	"Matters came to a head when, with the support of the bar, 
Princess Ayeka destroyed her collar and challenged her mistress 
Ryoko, winner take all."

	Zack watched the fight in awe.  The princess was powerful, 
that much was true.  She was also a skilled fighter, giving as 
good as she took for several moments.  He would expect no less 
from a princess of Jurai, she who had the blessing of all the 
Juraian space trees.  But Ryoko...  Ryoko was poetry in motion.  
She slashed, she teleported, she flew, she spun, and in the end, 
it was she who tugged Ayeka's harem pants down and administered a 
hard bare-hand spanking to the royal tush exposed for all to see.

	Zack became uncomfortably aware that he was incredibly hard. 

	"Yeeaah...  That's the stuff," breathed the big woman 
beside him.  This time, he was forced to agree.

	He watched in a mix of arousal, approval, and admiration as 
Ryoko held her arms out to the embarrassed princess, now 
surrounded by the jeering, cruelly laughing crowd.  Her will 
broken, Ayeka rushed into her mistress's arms for comfort.

	The camera zoomed in for a closeup as Ryoko held her pet 
and gave a victory sign to the crowd.

	Zack gaped in astonishment.  Her eyes!  Yellow, catlike 
eyes!  They were exactly like the ones that stared back at him 
when he looked in a mirror, a feature he took care to disguise 
when traveling in the Juraian Empire.  And now that he knew what 
to look for, he saw it.

	"Princess..."



	Vice Verse Chorus Verse 

	A Tenchi Muyo TV series adventure by Nugar.  

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

	All characters and situations copyright their creators, 
Hiroki Hayashi and Masaki Kajishima, and AiC and Pioneer and are 
used without permission.  This is a nonprofit work only.









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