Makoto was hardly ever without the Power-key Staff these days. He 
spent the days in the Royal Library, searching through ancient tomes 
about the Eye of God, or staring up at the giant weapon. Night saw 
Makoto stalking through the halls of the palace, as if he spent so much 
time looking for something, he did not know what to do when he stopped. 
Shayla Shayla and Nanami knew what Makoto was looking for, and 
they also knew he was killing himself trying to figure out how the Eye 
of God worked. The two of them confronted Makoto in the garden, after 
the third hour of night. Makoto just looked past Nanami, and around 
Shayla Shayla, staring at the Eye of God with blank eyes as they 
harangued him. Something had to be done. Mr. Fujisawa was too busy 
trying to evade Meez to be of help, and he was just about the only one 
who Makoto might listen to. Just about that is.

	"Princess, you have to help us. Just look at him. Makoto is 
wasting away, pining for her and trying to figure out a way to use the 
Eye of God to go after her," said a red-headed Priestess of Mt. Muldoon, 
and a young Earth girl to elder princess, Lune Venus.
	"I am aware of Mr. Mizuhara's condition, but what can I do? I 
forbade him from actually experimenting with the Eye until he figures 
out some other way how to control it; the Eye is just too powerful to 
let him try without understanding it. I cannot command him to sleep, and 
I will not take away his access to the Library. I doubt I could, he 
would sneak in and look there anyway."
	"All we are asking is that you talk to him Princess. Makoto 
respects you. He will listen to you, and to your advice. Just talk with 
him, we ask you," asked the desperate duo.
	"We will do as you ask, because he is dear to us, and it pains us 
to see him so," the princess spoke, invoking her position by using the 
royal 'we'. 

	Late in the afternoon, Makoto Mizuhara was summoned for an 
audience with Her Royal Highness, the princess Lune Venus. "You wished 
to speak with me princess?" asked Makoto dully.
	"Makoto Mizuhara, earlier today Shayla Shayla and Nanami Jinnai 
came to me for help. They are worried for you." Lune paused, giving 
Makoto a sympathetic look. "How will you find her if you kill yourself 
to do so? I could not order you to take care of yourself, but I ask you 
on behalf of your friends, and as a friend: give yourself a rest. What 
would Ifurita say if she saw you like this?"
	Makoto leaned on the Power-key staff as he listened impassively to 
Lune Venus. When she finished, he said heavily, "May I go now? There was 
a promising book I wanted to see in the Royal Library." 
	The princess nodded and half-heartedly waved Mizuhara off. Makoto 
blinked slowly then left as he realised he had been dismissed. Lune 
Venus sighed as she saw Makoto's slumped back leave the audience 
chamber. After Makoto left, the princess summoned Dr. Schtalunbaugh.

	Makoto made his morning pilgrimage from his chambers to the Royal 
Library, but this time he ran into Dr. Schtalunbaugh. The doctor spoke 
excitedly. "Makoto, you must help me with this. It is an artefact we 
have just unearthed. We believe it to be a recording device from the 
ancient El Hazard culture, and it came with several storage devises, or 
so we theorise. With your special abilities, you could help us find out 
much about the Ancients. Please Makoto, please."
	Mizuhara broke out of his private thoughts long enough to listen 
to Schtalunbaugh. Makoto was about to dismiss the request when 'ancient 
El Hazard culture' and 'records' hit him. There was a possibility that 
some of these records might contain something about the Eye of God, 
something that might give him enough of a hint on how it worked to allow 
Makoto to use it. A chance, but better than what he had now. 
	"Okay doctor, I'll help you. Where is it?"
	"Not now boy. The way you look now you would be no help to us. Go 
and get some rest today. We will start tomorrow morning, and if you 
don't rest, then I will bar you from the Library." Makoto looked shocked 
at this. Schtalunbaugh frowned angrily at him and continued, "I will 
not have you jeopardising this because you are tired, and right now you 
look ready to drop. Now go back to bed! If I send somebody to check on 
you, and they don't see you there sleeping, do not think for one second 
that I will hesitate to ban you from my books!"
	Makoto knew Schtalunbaugh had him beat, and he also knew that the 
Dean was right, so Makoto acquiesced and trudged slowly back to his 
room. Schtalunbaugh nodded to himself with a satisfied air, turned 
around, and went to give a report to the princess, Lune Venus.

	There was something different about Makoto this morning. Maybe it 
was a certain life in his step, or a spark of brightness in his eyes. 
Quite possibly it was the day and the night of solid sleep, but Shayla-
Shayla and Nanami believed it was a step towards healing.
	Makoto arrived at the Dean's workshop. On top of a table cluttered 
with papers was an empty spot. In the middle of this spot lay a device 
which looked similar to the device Makoto thought was an Ancient El 
Hazard CD player. Beside the device was a stack of thin disks. 
Schtalunbaugh merely gestured for Makoto to use his power on the device, 
and Makoto did, first putting one of the disks into the small machine.
	The machine came to life, spinning the disk around quickly as 
Makoto kept his hand touching the player. The translucent image of a man 
appeared above the player, facing Makoto. The image was thirty 
centimetres tall, and dressed in cream pantaloons, and matching turban; 
a shirt of purest white, and a deep royal blue vest with intricate gold 
trim along the edges. The cuffs of the pantaloons matched the colour of 
the vest, down to the pattern of the trim. On the image’s feet were a 
pair of sandals, deep brown, and of fine quality. 
	The image bowed, touching its forehead, mouth, and heart with a 
single flourishing motion, while saying something. Makoto frowned 
momentarily, and then there was sound to accompany the image. "...-kum. 
In the name of Amir Amalik ibn al Musa the seventh, who rules most 
benevolently under Allah the Merciful, I, Ammar ibn al Imfari do give 
you this record of our greatest achievements, and something of their 
histories. 
	"I begin with the djinni, artificial, roughly humanoid constructs 
used to free us from dangerous jobs, such as deep mining operations, 
undersea exploration, and such. New areas both on and off El Hazard can 
be explored with no loss of human life."
	The image of Ammar flickers and is replaced by that of humanoid 
shapes with arms ending in tools, or pincers, and weird sensory 
apparatus instead of eyes or ears, performing various tasks, such as 
mapping the ocean floor, or refueling a craft outside of a space 
station.
	Ammar reappears, and begins to talk again, the former images 
having disappeared.
	"Of course, the models you have just seen were relatively simple, 
single-purpose ones; we are now several generations away from these, 
having made more life-like ones."
	Images of handsome men and beautiful women flash by, dressed in 
clothes which are both revealing and covering at the same time.
	"These djinni have more interaction with people, so it was decided 
that we try to make them look more human. We have found that this makes 
them easier to be around, and by making them beautiful," Ammar smiles, 
"it makes them much easier to be around."
	The image of Ammar flickers again. He is still wearing the same 
clothes, but lines are starting to mark his once youthful face. 
Obviously, this part of the recording has been made several years after 
the original.
	"Salaam aleikum, my friend. Ten years have passed since my last 
entry on the djinni. Now, I am wazir to his most gracious Amir Amalik 
ibn al Musa, whose slightest frown causes his enemies to quail in fear, 
and his smallest smile his friends and subjects to rejoice for one full 
seven-day. Enough of me though, for I have the job of recording our 
greatest technologies. 
	"The uprising of the Northern Quarter in the last five years has 
caused us to make many new generations of djin. The latest generation 
now have the ability to make creative decisions to effectively complete 
their tasks, not relying totally upon programmed instructions anymore. 
As such, these newer models are often used for covert missions instead 
of humans. The success rate of these missions have increased five-fold, 
as the new generations now learn from their past actions.
	"The latest model djinni is the Efreet class, currently a 
prototype, developed at the Arhiman testing grounds and laboratories."
	A three dimensional representation of Ifurita, with her Power-key 
Staff, appeared and began to slowly rotate in a full circle. Makoto 
shook at the sight, almost losing contact with the player. Makoto’s eyes 
became more intense as he looked upon the Ifurita’s form. The image was 
quickly replaced by Ammar, who began to talk again.
	"The Efreet class is meant to be our elite force in our armies. In 
terms of raw power, the Efreet is one of the most powerful of djinni, 
but its ability to duplicate any force which acts upon it means that 
each unit will only become more powerful in time. The Efreet is the 
first to use a new type of processor, largely organic in nature; 
traditional processor types do not have the flexibility needed to 
utilise this class’ unique abilities."
	Ammar flickers in and out of vision, and then reappears, perhaps 
three years older. 
	"Further addendum to the notes on the Efreet class. The Efreet 
prototype performed beyond all expectations, and was more powerful than 
we were prepared for. The prototype Efreet is single-handedly 
responsible for taking out two major rebel cities, along with many bases 
and such. Mention of her coming was enough to cause seven different 
cities to surrender before she arrived; I say her because the 
prototype’s form was female, I really should say it. A failing of mine 
that I often refer to them as I would a human. 
	"There is a problem with the Efreet however. Near the end of the 
quelling, the djinniyeh began to develop some glitches. The opinion of 
the developers that the prototype began to develop some form of 
emotional response. The Efreet will still obey orders, that was 
hardwired into her, but this emotional response may hinder its 
effectiveness. 
	"Maybe it is not a failing of mine to refer to her as a human.... I 
digress though. A decision was reached to place the prototype Efreet 
into storage until such a time as our researchers find a way to control 
the emotional response side-effect. Further units are not to be made 
prior to solution of this problem. Instead, we will continue to use the 
traditional inorganic processors for our djinni."
	The player stopped, the disk was finished. Makoto looked up at Dr. 
Schtalunbaugh, who was brimming over with delight. 
	"Marvelous! Simply marvelous! Oh, fortune has smiled on us today 
Makoto Mizuhara!" Dr. Schtalunbaugh ended up dancing a little jig, 
unable to contain the joy of recovering this storehouse of knowledge.
	"Let’s see what the next disk has on it doctor," said Makoto 
eagerly. Quite possibly there was information on the Eye of God, 
especially after what Ammar had said at the beginning of this disk.
	"No," said the Dean simply. "We have to record this knowledge 
ourselves, and make sure we do not overlook anything. I made a few 
cursory notes," Schtalunbaugh waved a sheaf of about twenty pages, then 
continued, "but they were rather brief. Now, take a break, and when you 
return, I will have a few artists here to take sketches, and a scribe to 
transcribe what Ammar dictates; and Makoto, I want no arguments from 
you, you gave your word after all. Tomorrow we will try another disk."
Schtalunbaugh waggled his index finger at Makoto in admonishment.
	"We don’t want to overload ourselves after all, and we must be 
thorough. Now run along, before I have to call Shayla and Nanami to drag 
you out of my workshop!"
	Makoto actually barked a short laugh as he left the workshop, 
heading for the gardens. Dr. Schtalunbaugh chuckled to himself as he 
watched Makoto’s retreating form, then he looked at the player and 
laughed out loud at the find. The doctor, after Makoto had left his 
sight, went to get the artists, and the scribe; more importantly though, 
he went to tell Princess Lune what had happened.

========================================================================

Well, what do you think? This is the first (and I mean very first) 
version. There is some research I need to do for Ammar and his society 
(and someday I might even do that). 
Spelling and grammar are other points I need to address, so if anyone 
wishes to help me with those, you are more than welcome (hint, hint, 
nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
What I would really like to know though, is what you think of the basic 
idea? I plan to basically do two more disks, on the Bugrom, and on the 
Eye of God; most likely this is a three part story (although the story 
really just links the disks together, and is, as such, a fairly 
background thing). 

On a different note (C sharp! Sorry, had to do that, force of habit), 
this is one of the last stories I’ve started, and yet the first one to 
be posted (or made the attempt to). Probably has something to do with 
changing the perspective or format on some of them two or three 
different times, or just not really knowing where to stop writing and 
post a part, but that’s me. 
Just out of curiosity, why are you still reading this? Why not go on to 
the next message, and/or reply to this one? My e-mail address you say? 
You want to know where I can be reached so you can comment on this? Why, 
aren’t you just the nicest of souls! Of course I’ll give it to you. Here 
ya go: 704867@mail.ican.net (maybeso@mail.ican.net might also work too, 
I suppose...).

	Matt ‘damn, now I’m no longer a lurker’ Lewis