FIRST CONJUNCTION

Ken Bradley did not want to be here. He hated visiting relatives, especially in hospitals, but when his mother received the letter from the Iso's, she insisted that he go.

Oneda may be a modern city, but it was no San Francisco. Ken had a passing command of Japanese (again, thanks to his mother), and managed to obtain a room number and Pass from the desk nurse. Might as well get this over with, he thought.

In the hallway, Ken passed an open waiting room door and, whoa! Back up now, peripheral vision caught something strange in there. Inside were five of the island natives, clad in elaborate ceremonial garb. Embarrassed, Ken waved hello and quickly continued on. Kind of Hare Krisna looking dudes, he thought. Maybe this place was a bit like home after all.

Room one nineteen. Okay, here we go. He rapped lightly, then opened the door.

"Kenji?" Came a soft voice. "Ken Bradley?!" It was Kyoko Iso. On the bed lay Uncle Matsu, eyes closed.

"Hai. It's been a long time, Kyoko," Kenji smiled, then looked to Matsu. "How is he?"

"He is very pleased to see you again, Kenji Bradley!" Matsu's eyes opened, and a wry smile crept across his face.

"You old scalawag!" Ken laughed. "What's supposed to be wrong with you anyway? You faking us out again or what?"

"Kenji, please," began Kyoko. "Our uncle is indeed quite ill."

"Not too ill to visit with my family," Matsu spoke playfully. "Tell me now, how is your dear mother doing these days? I cannot help but remember how hard it was on her when your father passed away."

"My Mom's doing well, uncle. She has taken a small apartment near mine and we visit often. And now, she's sent me all the way here, so tell me, how can I be of aid to you?"

"You cannot," snapped Kyoko. "I am sorry, Kenji, but I never asked my parents to call for you. I need no help in this affair, and you have no business here."

Ken didn't know what to say. He was already well acquainted with the young lady's legendary attitude, and was unwilling to make matters worse. Besides, he thought; she really has become quite a looker!

"Kyoko! Have you been in the jungle so long you forget how to behave like a lady?" Matsu asked, smiling. "You two should learn to get along together, a kiss hello would be a good start."

"Uncle!" Kyoko blushed.

"I agree," said Kenji. "We should cooperate. What would our parents say to see us quarreling so?"

"All right, uncle," Kyoko relented, flashing her pretty smile. "I will relate what we have found to Mr. Bradley here, but I'll thank you not to go making suggestions about whom I should be kissing in the future."

"Um, uncle Matsu?" Ken inquired.

"Just a moment. I'm thinking about it," the old man replied playfully.

Later. Ken and Kyoko sat in Ken's small rented cottage by the shore, sipping tea. The seabirds whistled, calling on the coming of the night. Ken could tell Ms. Iso was still uncomfortable having him here, reluctantly agreeing to accompany him back to his place for a debriefing. He couldn't help thinking; he would have preferred the kiss. "Kyoko, I'm still having some difficulty with all this 'prophecy' jazz."

"Oh, which part?" She asked flatly.

"Which...oh boy. Okay, how about the part where the stars are lining up with these island temples you've been researching for the past three years. How this island is at the center of that configuration. And that unless the Koshida manage to heal their lake of the damage my father wrought on it back in nineteen fifty nine, they fear the monster is going to return to finish what it started forty years ago."

"Oh, that part," the anthropologist replied. "Look Kenji, it was all there in my notes before I even came to this island. But it was not until Matsu told me of the prophecies that I saw the truth."

"Which is?"

"That when those distant stars align, they form three patterns. Patterns which converge..." from her pack she withdrew a small chart. "Right here. That's the Obake's shrine back at the village, Kenji. That is where they pray to the monster."

"Yeah. Varan the Unbelievable. The Obake from the lake," Ken leaned close to her. "I've read all the headlines, the correspondence, the documentation. But those were our parents who experienced that stuff. It all still seems like a scary story they would tell me as a kid. Now that I'm grown up, it's not easy to have to suddenly take it seriously."

"Ken Bradley, I don't think I really care just how you take it anymore."

Uh oh, Ken thought. Here it comes.

"I indulged you this far for Matsu's sake, but you seem to have as little faith in my findings as you do in the testimonies of our parents!"

"Kyoko..."

"I would prefer not to hear it, Kenji." Kyoko finished her tea and rose, gathering her things. "I will be quite busy for the next three days. The first conjunction is coming, and I must negotiate to gain access to the lake."

"Come on, Kyoko! If you really believe in this prophecy of the Koshida, then let me join you. I'm the one who's supposed to heal the lake, remember?"

"And your also supposed to have a perfected version of a failed, forty year old experiment ready to use in less than three days," Kyoko strode briskly to the door. "That's the part where my doubts lie." The door slammed behind her.

"I've got news for you, pretty lady," Ken thought, watching her from a window. "I've already got it."

Three nights later.

"So, Mr. Bradley, that is your proper name, correct?" The name plate on the officer's desk read Ichiro Goro. He wore the bars of a captain.

Ken had made a mistake. A biggie. He had managed to infiltrate the lakesite's perimeter, and lie low in the bushes until dark. There were still far too many guards about for him to make his move and, well, he sort of fell asleep there. Things may have still worked out all right, if only he had not begun to snore. "Yes sir, that's correct."

"And what exactly were you going to do with these then?" The soldier asked firmly, holding forth one of Kenji's chemical filled cylinders.

"I..." Ken began.

"Yes?"

"I am an American citizen and I don't have to say anything until I contact my attorney."

"In that case, I will take the liberty of informing you of our positions, from my perspective. You my friend are Mr. Kenji Lawrence Bradley from San Francisco, USA. You hold honorary degrees in chemical engineering from three stateside Universities. Your mother, Mrs. Anna Bradley, widowed. Your father, the late Major James L. Bradley, a one time special military liaison stationed here with the Japanese forces as commander of operation Shuzuka back in nineteen fifty nine. That project was designed to test an experimental chemical desalinization compound in Obake lake. A compound your father himself had developed. How am I doing so far, Mr. Bradley?" Asked the captain, pacing about.

"Um, quite well actually. Please, continue."

"Domo. That operation, as you know, was a tragic failure. Instead of desalinizing the lake water, it became toxic, and remains so to this day. And then of course, there was the monster." The soldier paused to light a cigarette, offering one to Ken which he declined. He sat then, and continued.

"This base has been maintained as a contingency against the creature's return. A contingency which may need to be called upon very soon.

"I was recently contacted by a young anthropologist named Kyoko Iso. She came to me on behalf of the Koshida, claiming to have uncovered a prophecy which dates the monster's return, as of tonight. She also informed me of your arrival here."

"What?" Ken exclaimed.

"Yes, Ms. Iso was quite clear in her opinion of your activities. She warned me that you might attempt to unleash your own destructive formula into the lake, albeit in what she claimed was 'a misguided attempt' to undo the harm caused by your father."

My God, Ken thought. She set me up.

"I assured the young lady, as I assure you now; there is no way I will allow this island to become a proving ground for anyone's unauthorized experimentations."

She set me up! Ken was stunned, thinking how he could have ever found her attractive.

"Military police have been sent to your residence to confiscate any more of this compound you may have hidden there, and for the next twelve hours, at least, you will be held in custody until the appointed time of the conjunction has passed." Captain Goro stubbed out his cigarette and reclined, obviously quite pleased with himself. "After that, we may just release you, provided you agree to leave this island as quickly as you arrived."

"You don't have to worry about that, sir. I only came here to try to help a friend. That help has been rejected, and there's nothing I'd like more than to get out of here now!"

A lone woman sits by the shore of a lake on a not so lonely island. She watches, the only movement a pattern of stars, shifting slowly out of alignment.

"Kenji. How can I have done this awful thing? My ambitions may have caused me to sacrifice a friend, and for what?" She lamented. "The hour is past, the first conjunction has ended, and the lake remains still and lifeless. How could I have been so stupid as to lose my objectivity, to believe these old superstitions? And worse," she thought, gathering her things for the trek back to the village. "How did I allow myself to betray you?"

Kyoko Iso's footsteps fade slowly from the sand, disappearing into the darkness of the jungle trail home. Yet, as one sound fades, another one builds. It is distant, a series of slow, rhythmic impacts. Building, building, coming closer. Offshore, the sea begins to writhe and boil. The surface breaks, cleaved by an immense serpentine tail. Triple rows of huge abstract dorsal plates rise slowly from the waves, reaching higher, until with a final shrug, the great reptilian head emerges. Eyes scanning, fangs dripping with foam. It seems the monster from the lake should not have caused such great concern after all, for rising now from out of the sea, is the monster Godzilla!