========================= Episode #111: Bon Voyage Reel 1 ========================= Sailor Orion examined herself in the mirror. This was the most important day in a week full of them. Today, she finally got to command Pleiades out of the solar system. As the maiden voyage, it would be specially attended. All planetary Senshi except Venus would be in attendance . . . assuming that Sailor Pluto would come as promised. Very little was concrete on that matter, or on what she was to do. Usually, a captain had received orders at this point before departure. She had none. She gave her chest bow a slight tug to put it in the proper position, and then went to one of the communications panels to ring to the bridge. "ETA on the send-off party?" "Twenty minutes, sir," came the answer. It sounded like Kim, which meant that the threesome upstairs had rotated positions once again. Just once, she would like them to keep the same post for more than two consecutive days. Today, Kim was at communications. Tomorrow, she might be at astrogation. Then maybe environmental. It got distinctly annoying, but it worked well, which was the main reason why she hadn't issued any orders in that regard. If it ain't broke . . . "Very well. Captain out." She pushed another button. "Engineering, Captain. Current lighting status?" "Interior lighting at daytime standards, exterior at 20%." "Ah. Increase to 50%, all exterior window and running lights at standard levels." "Aye, sir." There was another click, and Orion was almost alone with her thoughts. Almost. "You know, I could have done that for you." "Shut up, you silly bucket of integrated circuits." "You're too kind." "Am I?" "Yes." Inasmuch as it was possible for a computer to sigh, Antares sighed. "You're going to have enough to worry about soon to putter around with turning on lights. Trust me." *** Sailor Orion had found one of the chief advantages of a small crew was that it was generally easy to speak to them all at once, face to face. The 'generally' should be emphasized, since a small crew usually corresponded to a small ship. There was only one place on the ship where all two hundred or so personnel could assemble at once, and that was the main shuttle bay. And because of the pageantry associated with the first cruise of a ship, everything had to happen there, in front of the entire crew: the arrival of the Fleet's top brass, the playing of the anthem, the raising of the colors, which in a weightless vacuum, required considerable ingenuity, and so on. Therefore, a few hours earlier Pleiades had made her first self-propelled voyage under Orion's command. The fact that it was just a few thousand kilometers from the shipyard to the L5 point was to Orion irrelevant. Equally irrelevant was who she was standing next to. On the platform that overlooked the bay and the ship's crew stood the highest ranking officers on Pleiades. She looked at her watch, and found that she had stood next to Sailor Moon for a full fifteen minutes without a fight breaking out. A good omen. Then, in a motion that seemed unrehearsed, but definitely wasn't, the bay door slid open, revealing the hard connection between the L5 station and the ship. On the other side was a whole horde of senshi. She focused her attention on the one in the center, and the husband who stood beside her. Orion turned to the chief mate and gave the signal. At her command, the ship's band, which was a glorified term; they were actually the two dozen people who could carry a tune on various instruments including a few violins and a tuba, struck up the National Anthem of Crystal Tokyo. Or tried to. "I always love this part," said Sailor Moon to her immediate superior, which surprised Orion. "You know, the interruption," said the pink-haired woman by way of explanation. At this, Orion nodded. Officially, the anthem was a slight variation of the main theme to Bruckner's Ninth, except with words, and a bit more emotional. However, it had been tradition for several decades to interrupt the first few bars with a more upbeat tune, based on an old Japanese song called "Sayonara at the End of the Dance." By now, everyone expected it, and no-one had actually played the official anthem all the way through since the Second Sailor Wars. The strings kicked off the anthem, and in due fashion, the horns interrupted it as all 229 crew members in dress whites sang along. "Gomen ne sunao ja nakute, Yume no naka nara ieru, Shikou kairo wa shotto sunzen, Ima sugu aitai yo, Nakitaku naru you-na Moonlight, Denwa mo dekinai Midnight, Datte junjou dou shiyou, Haato wa mangekyou." Many had questioned, over the years, exactly why those words were more upbeat than the words to the official anthem, but there was no denying that the music was more cheerful. The references to the Moon didn't hurt either. As the crew reached the second verse, they turned to salute the flag, and the Admiral who carried it. Sailor Mars was officially Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Fleet, a title that rotated among the Planet Senshi. The purpose was mainly to make sure that no one Senshi got too much power for too long. Sailor Mars's term would be up in a couple of years, and then the post would go to Sailor Jupiter. After her, it would go to Sailor Saturn, then to Uranus, and so on until it wrapped around to Mercury. Sailor Moon would never be DepCinc for a very good reason. She was *the* C in C. Not the Princess, mind you. The Queen. Serenity retained the title of Sailor Moon, but since she rarely used her naval rank of Fleet Admiral, Princess Usagi had been allowed to be Sailor Moon, as opposed to Chibi-Moon as she had been during training. After all, the whole point of making up a position like Deputy Commander-in-Chief was so that Serenity could worry about more important things. Mars, as DepCinc, took care of most of the administrative tasks involved in keeping the Fleet running, and she would be quite glad to give Jupiter the job. Following Mars was that same Sailor Jupiter, as heir-apparent to the flag, and then came Sailor Moon. Her fuku had changed very little since the First Sailor Wars, except that she had decided to ditch the wings; they often got in the way. The only real addition was that, if seen in the right light, she appeared to be wearing a crown. At Sailor Moon's side was her husband Endymion. If there had ever been a more apt example of a "fifth wheel" than he, then it would come as a surprise to all those assembled. Serenity handled pretty much everything, leaving Endymion with an honorary rank in the Crystal Tokyo Army. It was even more honorary since the Army hadn't actually fired a shot since the Formation Wars. It had even remained silent during the Black Moon invasion, for reasons that would take several volumes to explain. After him came the rest of the planet Senshi save . . . none. Orion boggled at this, and she knew that at her side the rest of her command staff was similarly shocked. It was made a point that all Planet Senshi *never* be assembled at the same place at the same time. To do so was to invite some disaster that could completely wipe out the Crystal Tokyo chain of command. After quite a bit of bowing and exchanging of pleasantries with the crew, the Planet Senshi ascended to the platform with Pleiades's command staff. After the usual bows, Sailor Moon spoke first. "Sailor Orion. It is a pleasure." "The pleasure is mine, sir." "Sailor Moon." The elder paused a moment before speaking to the younger. "You cannot imagine how much it pleases me to see you in your position . . . and at the same time, I cannot tell you how frightened I am." She drew up a bit and looked straight into Orion's eyes, seemingly unfazed by the slight glare the overhead lights were causing in Orion's spectacles. "I trust that you have prepared the briefing room?" "Yes, sir." On Sailor Moon's request, an anteroom had been set up behind the platform. It was actually a storage chamber, but the engineers on Pleiades could seemingly work miracles. "Right this way, sir." *** The whole body, once they managed to squeeze into the conference room, came up to seventeen. On one side of the oblong table sat Sailors Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the rarely seen Pluto. On the other side were Sailors Orion and Chibi-Moon, Kim, Vanessa, Sammy, Dr. Emma Sampson (Chief Medical Officer), and Lieutenant Commander Gustav Bennington (Chief Engineer). Endymion stood against the wall, overlooking them all; he had no power here, and he knew it. Even the blonde Sammy outranked him. The door closed, and unconsciously Sailor Moon breathed more easily; she had been assured that the room was soundproof. "Sailor Orion, you and your crew are undoubtedly wondering why all the planet senshi are currently sitting at this table. You are probably thinking that it must be something serious. Something bad. "You are correct." This came as no surprise to Orion; she had been expecting trouble. After all, when one's love is left on Earth while one gallivants about the galaxy, one tends to look on the more pessimistic side of life. "Sailor Orion, I have your orders." She produced a sheaf of papers in yet another antiquated naval custom and pushed them over to Pleiades's master. At the same time, Moon pressed a button on the table before her. A screen dropped down from the ceiling at the head of the room, and a diagram showing all royal colonies appeared. "Here are our colonies. The ones blinking in red indicate colonies with which we had lost contact with during the past year." She produced a pointer from nowhere with an adroitness that made Orion envious. She could only hope to have that sort of command of her pocket in a few years. "This green diamond that you see is the Sakurada colony. Population thirteen thousand. A supply ship arrived there a few months ago. The crew found that every single colonist on the planet had been killed." She plowed through the gasps from the Pleiades officers. "Not by radiation poisoning, not by contaminated food. Every one of the bodies had been found to have been subjected to extreme energy loss. Every joule had been sapped from their systems, until nothing was left but a desiccated husk." Sailor Orion looked positively ill, as did Vanessa and Sammy. Sampson and Bennington looked horrified, and Kim was, with Chibi-Moon, merely looking surprised. Orion managed to recover. "Sir, what you describe sounds very much like the energy-draining tactics used by Beryl's forces during her offensives in the twentieth." Moon chanced a grim smile. "Yes, especially when the supply crew found this." Again from nowhere, she pulled out a chunk of greenish-brown crystal about the size of a fist. She tossed it on the table, where it landed with a satisfying clunk. "Sailor Mercury's people have already done analysis of this and other samples, and have determined that it matches, to within .0001%, readings taken on Dark Kingdom crystals back in the twentieth. "I do not think that the importance of this needs to be explained. Any questions so far?" Sammy raised her hand. "Sir, do you mean to tell us that the Dark Kingdom is back?" "In spades." "Aw shit. Oh, sorry sirs!" Engineer Bennington clapped a hand over his mouth, quite shocked that he would blurt out something like that. "It's okay, Gustav," soothed Orion. "I think all of us were thinking that in one way or another." She turned to Mars. "How long have you known of this, sir?" "A few months, give or take. It took awhile to get confirmation, and even longer to decide to tell you." "Ah." She fell silent for a moment, then rallied. "So, you mean for us to go out there and check things out?" "Yes," answered Mars, to the shock of the rest of Orion's top officers. "You cannot be serious!" "What are you talking about?" "This is not a ship of war, sir!" "We're all going to die . . . " "QUIET!" roared Sailor Jupiter. Orion's crew shut up. "Now, that's better. Ladies and gentlemen, the decision has been made. Pleiades will search out any further signs of Dark Kingdom incursion and report such intelligence to headquarters. Now, I see Sailor Orion has something to add?" "Yes." She appeared to be far calmer than those under her command; from the moment Serenity had mentioned the attacks on the colonies, she had known that in some way, their mission would be far more dangerous than just charting star systems. "Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, I would like to know precisely how you came to this decision." So that I can figure out how to dissuade you from throwing us to the lions, she didn't add. "I figured something like this would happen. Sailor Uranus?" At this, Uranus stood and walked to the screen, tapping a couple of buttons on her handlink as she did. A map of all human-inhabited space appeared. "This, as you can see, is the Crystal Millennium. Twenty-seven colony worlds, supporting a total of over eighty billion people. That, as you know, doesn't include all the ships traveling between them, or the various research outposts, or Earth itself. All told, the last Royal Census gave a total of," here she looked expectantly at the ceiling, "84,574,908,542 people under Serenity's rule as of . . . now. Thank you, Antares." "Any time. I live to spit out population estimates." "Eighty-four billion, all of whom are currently under the threat of attack from the Dark Kingdom. And just so you know, we know nothing about them this time. There haven't been any generals spelling things out for us. For all we know, it could be Beryl back from the grave. But in any case, when we found this out, there were two options, which you no doubt already know." "Yes," answered Chibi-Moon. "Either mobilize every ship in the Navy on a massive offensive to seek out and destroy the DK's new base, or pull them all in and circle the wagons, so to speak." "Exactly. Your days training under Sailor Mars weren't wasted. So as she said, we had two options. We chose the latter." This drew a gasp from Sammy and Kim, and a slap to the forehead from Vanessa. Orion remained unmoving. "Does this shock you?" asked Uranus, raising an eyebrow. "Would you rather leave Earth almost completely unprotected? Sailor Orion, you read your history books, don't you? You undoubtedly remember what happened the last time such an idea was attempted." Sailor Mercury bowed her head. Like it or not, the RSN had been under her command during the Black Moon War, and she mainly blamed herself for the ensuing events. To her, it was irrelevant that at that time, the RSN consisted of a handful of ships that couldn't even Fold: she had been DepCinc, and she should have been able to do something. Uranus's remark wasn't intended as a personal barb, but it was clear that Outer-Inner relations still had a ways to go, even after a thousand-odd years. "Nice one, Uranus," muttered Venus. Orion looked around sharply at that, and decided that Venus's position at the far end of the table, across from Orion and furthest away from Sailor Uranus was the only thing keeping things from going downhill. "In any case, we have reason to believe that despite rather clear pointers, the Dark Kingdom cannot locate Serenity or Earth." "What? With all due respect, Sailor Uranus, how do you *not* know where Earth is?" "It is possible," insisted Uranus. "We are . . . uncertain . . . as to the means Beryl used to travel between stars, and there is the possibility that their drive systems prevented spatial location." "Really? Uranus, that is the worst load of bull I have ever heard. And coming from a historian, that's pretty bad. Do you expect us to believe this?" "The facts are not available at this time, and-" "You mean that you'd rather not say." "It comes from a very privileged and reliable source!" She was starting to get steamed. "Is that so? Did you consult a crystal ball? Or maybe Sailor Pluto decided to be nice and tell you?" There was dead silence. Orion thought things through a bit, and arrived at a conclusion that she didn't like at all. "Kami-sama. She did tell you." She swiveled in her chair, facing the green-haired Senshi. "How could you . . . after all you've said about not changing the timeline?" "Sailor Orion. We were discussing threat estimates of the Dark Kingdom, not the methods we used to arrive at them." Orion pounced on the cold reprimand from Sailor Mars. "Threat estimates? I'm sorry, Sailor Mars, but precisely what good are estimates going to do my crew? Do I go out there and tell them, 'sorry, but we've got to go out and fight a war. Never mind that we've got no weapons to speak of, are hopelessly undermanned, and have no combat training whatsoever?' That, sirs, is lunacy! Why not dispatch a single warship? Oberon is just sitting around collecting dust, a dozen battlewagons are rusting in lunar orbit, and you send puny Pleiades out? How do you-" "Sailor Orion, you will find that a threat estimate also includes your own capabilities. Therefore, I will tell you now that you will be suitably defended." "Will I? By whom?" "Yourself." Orion decided that this was just too much and flopped back in her seat. "Fine, go ahead. I'm game. Please explain." "Very well. Sailor Orion, you will find on the bridge a certain panel, unknown to the rest of the crew. You may use this panel to activate the gestalt." "We've got a Gertie aboard?" "Yes." The GEstalt Refocusing CrysTal AsseMbly (GERCTAM, or Gertie for short) was certainly not a standard feature on a survey ship, for good reason. With a Gertie and a sufficient power supply, such as a single standard fusion generator operating at full power, a Senshi could redirect her latent attack through a vacuum to a target. The advantages were numerous. Range was increased from a few meters for a physical attack like the Venus Love Chain to tens of thousands of kilometers, power was increased by terawatts, and with computer guidance, accuracy approached inhuman levels. A Gertie was on every warship in the Royal Star Navy, and with good reason. If they had been around during the Black Moon fiasco, the war would have been over within hours. On the other hand, it was to a large degree because of the Gertie that the Second Sailor Wars lasted as long as they did, instead of ending within a week or so. "So, you've got a Gertie onboard," continued Orion, "and you didn't tell me?" "If you'd known, then you would have known that something was up, and you'd have never accepted the position." "Oh?" She stood. "And precisely what is stopping me from resigning now?" "The fact that if you resign, the Earth is doomed." "Oh no," interjected Chibi-Moon, "don't even try it!" Orion turned to her first officer, surprised that she would leap to her defense. "Don't tell her that 'you're the Earth's only hope' stuff, okay? There are lots of other Senshi that can do just as good a job as her, with superior firepower." "Are there, Chibi-Moon? As I recall, we chose Sailor Orion to command this particular ship months in advance. Do you not think that we have been over this?" "Yes," added Sailor Neptune. "Pleiades was designed with this purpose in mind, for this crew and this captain." "But the first work on her was begun when I was still in junior high! There's no way you could have . . . oh damn." Sailor Moon managed a smile. "Did you not ever wonder that if our past selves participated in the invasion, then why would our older selves not take precautions against it? Do you think it was because we were lazy?" Sailor Orion rested her head in her hands. "Precisely how much knowledge of the future do you have, sirs?" "Classified," said Mars in a tone that brooked no further discussion. "Figures," said Sailor Orion. "Oh well, you sold me. Tell me what we've got to do." *** A few hours later, the bridge crew was assembled on the bridge, of all places. The main screen showed Serenity in her Sailor Moon guise, saying a few niceties about how Pleiades's voyage of discovery would benefit all humanity. Almost all of her audience didn't realize how true her words were. "Docking command says we can leave in ten minutes, thirty seconds, mark!" At the command from Sammy, who currently handling communications, the timers around the bridge started counting down. "Very well," said Sailor Orion. She tapped the armrest of her seat impatiently. She then gestured at the screen. "Can she be any more wordy?" "Yes," said Sailor Moon playfully. "You haven't seen her chew me out for a dirty room before." "Sir," interrupted Sammy, "you have an incoming call from Sailor Amer-" Orion was in her office before Sammy could even finish. *** "How'ya doing?" "Terrific? And you? Where'd you get stuck?" Sailor America's smile beamed even across the screen and millions of kilometers. "Crystal Palace, of all things. You're now looking at the CT Administration's Press Secretary!" "No way!" "Believe it! They said that I had a perfect photogenic personality! Who are they kidding?" she asked, displaying one of her trademark poses that already had made her the most popular woman on both American continents, and Japan as well. Stores couldn't keep enough Sailor America posters and T-shirts in stock. To Orion's chagrin, the Sailor Orion merchandise wasn't moving at all. Then again, she wasn't in it for the money. "That's great! I bet you love it up there!" "Not as much as I would if you were here too. God, I miss you, Jen." "Same here, Eileen." And even as she said it, she knew that the two of them had that special inseparable bond; they were the only two who could call each other by their real names even when transformed. "Wish you were here." "Yeah, well, I managed to get your time bumped up. You depart in thirty seconds." "What!" "Sorry, but I've got clout now. Call me when you defold, okay?" "You betcha! See you!" "Vye!" *** Sailor Orion bounded onto the bridge. Almost immediately, Sammy began talking to her. "Sir, docking command says that-" "-we leave in thirty seconds, yes. Engineering, bridge, stand by for ten percent thrust." "Aye, sir," came the reply. "All hands to departure stations," said Kim on the shipwide channels. "Departure in twenty seconds." "Clear moorings." "Clear moorings, aye." On the screen, Serenity finished her speech and stood back from the podium at the reviewing stand. It was Pleiades's show now. "Helm, set course to exit solar system ASAP, then to the nearest convenient Fold point." "Aye, sir," answered Vanessa. "Departure in ten seconds," noted Sammy. "Any last words, anyone?" "Nine." "No, sir," said Kim. "Eight." "Very well." "Seven." Sailor Orion buckled her seat belt. Inertial dampening might had made great strides, but she tried not to trust it too much. "Six. Engineering, warm 'em up!" Everyone looked around at Sammy. "Sorry. "Five." "Anyone else notice how archaic countdowns are?" asked Sailor Moon. "Four." "Sir, 103 alarm, sector six!" called out Vanessa. "Three." "Tell them to put the bloody thing in a cage!" replied the captain. "Two." "Aye, sir." "One." "This is for you, mom and dad!" "Zero." "Helm, ahead one-tenth thrust now!" "Aye sir!" H.M.S. Pleiades escaped from the hold of spacedock and began moving up relative to the plane of the planets. The crew watched the main screen as the half-circle of Earth passed from sight. After an hour, they had reached position, about five astronomical units above the solar plane. "Sir, Fold point has been reached." "Very well. Lay in coordinates for Dobsen's World and Fold when ready." "Aye, sir. Computing trajectory . . . and Folding . . . now!" *** The cameras outside the ship captured the moment perfectly. The ship glowed ever so slightly, crackled a bit, then faded out of existence, leaving behind a few golden sparkling motes. Several light years away, H.M.S. Pleiades dropped into existence within sight of the target world. The journey was on.