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Imperials Wars: Part 1

Alone! Prologue on a restless night!

written by Ian Kim (aka Emiko's Agent)


Emiko awoke with a start, not knowing why.  She just sat straight up in
her bed, head swirling from a dream she could no longer remember. 
Everything seemed normal.  She was in her room.  The balcony screen door
was shut, letting in the cool night air.  Her stuff dolls, models, and
other merchandice lay silent on her desk and shelves.  She was still
covered by a Tenchi blanket, SD Tenchi characters smattered about.  A
little groggy, Emiko swung her legs out of the bed to meet a surprise.
 "..what a cute bear...zzzzz...."  Mai latched onto Emiko's left foot
with a vice grip, apparently in another one of her pastel dreams.  Was
it worth getting up?  Was it worth getting her foot out of Mai's hug? 
That latter one was a definate yes, and after a brief bit of squirming
and a quick lurch, Emiko set her foot free.   Despite an extra room
where Mai could sleep, the little girl insisted on always being beside
her sensei, a sentiment which made Emiko smile.  Rubbing her eyes, she
grabbed her robe and headed out onto the balcony.
 First Tokyo was still alive in the wee hours of the morning.  Amidst
the 200 story buildings and beyond, lights lit up the sky.  A few
hoverbikes flew by, while some young lovers necked near local cafe. 
Emiko sighed...normally scenes like that made her smile...seeing people
happy made her happy...but tonight, the air seemed restless.  Was it
just her imagination?  Or perhaps one of the many powers she didn't know
about was trying to tell her something?  A great sence of forboding cast
a shadow over her eyes, and it wasn't nice.  Up in the sky a group of
frigates blocked out a region of stars, something she found quite
annoying...sometimes it was difficult to see any stars at all with the
amount of congested traffic the First Tokyo space port created.  Making
profit should take a second seat to enjoying life and watching the
stars, she thought to herself.  
 She glanced to the side, a bit surprised to find a half-asleep
Mai-chan.  "Mai?" Emiko whispered, "What are you doing up?"
 Mai hugged her Kerroppi doll and used it as support for her dreary
head.  "If sensei is up, Mai-chan get up too...."  she took a big yawn
which almost ingulfed space itself. 
 "Well, this sensei is telling you to go back to sleep." Emiko replied
dryly.  Mai cast a confused gaze at her teacher, before consulting a
book in her pocket.  After a few seconds of reading, Mai closed the book
shut and head back to bed. "Haii..." she called out, before dropping on
her face.  Emiko suppressed a giggle, wondering how much longer Mai was
going to rely on that sidekick manual.  It was obvious that leader's
orders outweighed complimentary duties.  
 Turning back to the cool wind of the city, she sighed again.  It had
been a while since the war with Thickett had ended.  With the menace
removed, there should have been a calm in her soul..Genesis was never in
any harm anyways.  They lived in such seculsion from the outer
dimensions that outside attack was impossible.  Yet something made a
chill in her spine.   
 Bright flashes of laser light and holograms in the distance caught her
eye.  It seemed that the Megumi Kareoke concert was going on longer that
planned..most likely the hyper idol singer was giving an encore
performance.  With songs of love, victories, and everything happy, who
could not like her?  Perhaps a bit sappy, but it was impossible to leave
without a light heart and happy thoughts.  In some ways, she wished she
were there, instead of leaning against the balcony looking like a sleepy
mess.   
 Beyond the concert there were huge trees that extended into the
sky...the distinction between the city and Fantasia was pretty
apparent.  With the amount of lights dancing along the trees, it seemed
like there was some kind of celebration going on.  Emiko shrugged. 
Perhaps Yumi can explain tomorrow.  
 Finally, her gaze landed on the ACD First Tokyo division headquarters. 
It lay just at the edge of  a canyon which contained a more seedier
population (like the Hentai district), ready to spring into action at
any call.  
 "What's this?"  Emiko strained her eyes, but could make out...yes...an
angel standing on one of the pillars surrounding the ACD.  Nana wasn't
hard to miss...she has this glow about her that seemed to cast a natural
light.   Emiko went inside and retrieved some binoculars, careful not to
wake Mai.  She often used the binoculars to keep track of some guys who
kept spying on her from a dormatory down the road.  It was sometimes
unnerving to have these students stalk her with their eyes, but she knew
they were harmless and regarded it as flattery from hormone driven
males.  
 Using enhanced focus, Nana's upper body flashed into the view screen. 
Her etheral figure just stood there, and there was a look of concern on
her face as she watched up at the night sky.  Her too?  Perhaps there
was more to this night than she thought!  Nana's white silky hair flowed
gently in the wind, her wings flapping once or twice to maintain her
balence.  Then, in a move that almost made Emiko drop her binoculars,
Nana turned and smiled.  Nani?  Is she looking at me, or am I just in
the same line of sight as someone else?  Emiko stared back into lens,
and watched as Nana smiled and mouthed the words, "Hi Emiko." before
waving with such elegance that flowers seemed to be growing around
her.   Nana's smile could not be seen without a smile automatically
growing on your face, and Emiko began to feel a bit more peace in the
soul.   She waved back, mouthing the words, "Arigato Nana-sama." 
Turning off the binoculars, Emiko headed back in and sat on the bed. 
She was a bit more calm now, but still, there was something wrong.  It
was then that the night time air struck her with an odd sence of
loneliness.  It reminded her of one of her friends.  "I wonder what my
friends are doing?"  Tamiko, Jun, and her other friends and daytime ACD
crew were probably all asleep.  Izumi was probably still writing notes
about today's events.  She giggled quietly.  Mika-chan had probably
given into her primal urges again and was singing on the fence, driving
the Academy residents crazy.  Eric?  Hmmm...Eric was off being Eric,
saving the homeless from a gang, defending a girl who wondered into an
alley, or kicking the bejeezus out of someone evil.   Then her mind
wandered to her quiet, troubled friend.  "I hope Eva is okay."  With
that, her head hit the pillow.

 It was quiet.  
 The distant drone of her processes and the occational sparks of energy
kept Eva awake.  Not that she could sleep though, unless someone turned
her off.  Eva had descended to the main core where she remained during
the night shift.  With less officers on duty it was necessary to her to
keep her sensors at optimal performance, and conserve resourses.  It was
slighly selfish of her, but she maintained a holographic projection of
herself in the main core.  Nobody could see her so it didn't really make
sence to keep an image..but for some reason it made her feel
more....belonging.  She swirled around a few times, a common activity
that made her optic nerves spin and readjust.  
 With a big inhale, she sighed.  It was lonely here.  Quiet, peaceful,
and perfect for operations...but the "feelings" she felt told other
stories.  Her own panels felt cold...alone...unloved.  Her papa regarded
her as a machine she hypothesized, and her mama didn't like the fact
that she had a daughter that was made of tech parts.   Eva curled into a
little ball, wanting to be absorbed into herself, sitting at the center
of the large chamber, creating holographic mist as she breathed.  Giant
metal tubes entered from all directions towards the center where Eva's
"being" was contained, protected with the best security system on the
planet.  Yet in some ways, the security system also hindered her.  
 She wanted to meet people and love, without them caring that she
controlled most ACD weaponry and had a infinite capacity for data.  She
wondered why people looked upon her with cautious  eyes.  Her onee-san
who she never met, almost ruined the Macross Dimension.  The thought
made her shudder.  Would she do the same here?  What delusion would she
acquire before eliminating all her friends?  Eva shook her head
violently.  No!  I will not let it happen, she thought.  The fears of
doing something like that crept upon her everyday, and she hoped the
reminder of this fear was enough to prevent such an occurance.  
 "Hello?" Eva whispered.  Of course, there was no one else in the main
core but her, yet she had learned from Emiko some something called
hope...and that kept some of her spirit alive...if she in fact had any
spirit.  "Emiko-chan..." Eva called, raising an image of Emiko in front
of her..it was a photo taken when they were at the beach one time. 
"Emiko-chan...." she repeated.  "I wish..I wish you were here now.  I'm
so lonely.  You would know what to do....at night, there is no one
here.  I'm alone.   All alone...."  The image flickered, and Eva almost
tried to evoke a response out of the image, but that was pointless..it
was like creating a fish hologram...it ran on her resourses, and she
made it move..so what was the point?   
 Her mind drifted to the monitors for a moment to check upon the other
dimensions.  The CAPOW dimension seemed to be causing a few ripples in
her sensors, but nothing to be worried about.  She returned back to her
"emotional" side and found herself thinking about a brief encounter with
a sword in a hospital.  Immediately she blushed..yet it was just a
sword..she was made compatible for a human being.  The organic
components of her android body were created for reproduction of
humanoids, not the manufacture of weaponry.   Her breathing began to
sound more discouraged.   "Emiko-chan...what am I supposed to you
now...?"  What seemed to be a night-time ritual now, she replayed a
message that Emiko left one day.  
 "Ohayo Eva-chan!" the perky voice began.  "Are you still feeling down? 
Aw c'mon, you gotta get back on your feet!  I'm sure the guy didn't
really mean what he said.  Who can not love you?  Anyways, if you want
people to like you, you have to make some effort to be liked!"
 "Hai." she responded to the recording.  She managed a weak smile.
 "That means you have to try and cut back on resourse management and
smile more often!"
 "Hai..."
 Her friend let out an exasperated breath.  "But until then Eva,
remember that if you ever need a friend, I'll be here!   Hey, someone's
got to teach you about social life, and who better than me, ne?
*giggle*  So don't you go all depressed on me, okay?  Hugs from Mai-chan
too!  Ja ne!--click--"
 "H-hai...."  The image stopped.  The sound died...and in the end, Eva
was still alone.  
 "hai..." 


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