=================================================== Episode #115: To Seek Out Strange New Worlds . . . Reel 1 =================================================== "Sir, we're getting reports back from the probe." "Excellent," said Sailor Moon. "What do you have, Vanessa?" "Um, spectrographs . . . seventy-eight parts nitrogen, nineteen parts oxygen, two carbon dioxide, one trace gases. Lots of dust. Visual light . . . the night side is completely black . . . wait a minute!" Sailor Orion walked on the bridge and sauntered over to Vanessa's station, where Sailor Moon was already standing. The two looked over Leeds's shoulder as the data came in. "It looks like ruins on the day side. No lights whatsoever on the night side." "None?" Orion adjusted her glasses uneasily. "Not even forest fires? Is it *completely* lifeless?" "It appears so. Infrared coming in . . . kami-sama!" The three looked at the data again to make sure they hadn't misread it. "Five degrees Celsius. At the equator." Moon's voice was eerily flat. "Average temperature, minus twelve degrees centigrade," added Vanessa. The entire bridge crew snapped around at that. "Radiation." It wasn't a question, but Vanessa answered it anyway. "Pretty cold, now. Depending on the strength of the yields, it must have been between fifty and a hundred years ago." "Great." Orion walked to her chair and slumped down. "Well, we've finally seen proof of intelligent life. "And they already committed suicide." There was a very long pause. "Right, I think we can spare a detour. Helm, plot and execute a course to the planet. We need a name, and I'd rather it came from whatever is left down there. I'll be in my quarters." She left without another word. Kim, who happened to be astrogator at the moment, gave a string of numbers and letters to the helmsman, who then translated them into a course. In a couple of seconds, Pleiades was on her way to a planet they knew as Katsuragi II. In their headlong rush to find out what the Dark Kingdom was up to, Orion hadn't forgotten their original task: that of finding and cataloguing new planets. However, there had been a serious lack of them until they'd found this particular star and its six planets. The star had been called Katsuragi, making the planet Katsuragi II. Orion didn't like the name any more than anyone else, and one of the reasons she left was to think up a better one. But the main reason was to cry. In her cabin, she flopped down on a bed and did just that. "It's to be expected." Orion took off her glasses and began cleaning tears from them. "Antares, did I ever call you a cold bastard?" "No, not really." He sounded unfazed. "But given everything else, I don't think this is worth shedding tears over." "*Not* shedding tears? Antares, in the nearly fifteen hundred years since the invention of the nuclear weapon, they have been used *twice* in warfare. TWICE!" "Hiroshima and Nagasaki." "Yes. And you, *you* have the temerity to say 'don't cry,' when you find out that as awful as humanity has been, it can still be worse?" "That's exactly what I'm telling you," he replied. "You should be proud of Homo sapiens, not mourn for whatever species wiped themselves out. We made it, and they didn't. There's no point in crying over something that they brought upon themselves. The best you can do is to work in the opposite direction." "And how do you propose doing that?" "By remembering as much as we can about these people. With a dig." "A dig?!?" She leapt up and started pacing, which relieved Antares to no end. When Orion paced, something was going to get accomplished, which was definitely not going to happen if she just lay on her bed and sulked. That was acceptable behavior for any other eighteen-year-old, but certainly not for her. Not now. "Antares, I'm a historian, not an archaeologist!" "I'm sorry, Sailor Orion, but you're the closest thing to one that we have." "Great. Just great." "It could be a great learning experience . . . ." "Whatever." *** In the end, the exploration team consisted of Orion, Dr. Sampson, Kim, and a couple of extra science personnel. While they struggled with their environmental suits, Sailor Moon whined. "Come on, Orion, you can't mean to go down there yourself! Who knows what's down there!" "A civilization that's been dead for centuries. Why?" "Captain, I'm not going to allow you to put yourself in that kind of risk." "Why, suddenly decide to start caring about me?" "No, I don't feel like filing the report on your death." "I'm touched. Really." She finished pulling on the helmet, and shoved up the faceplate. Nudging her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose, she continued. "Now, we've been though this. Anything alive down there isn't much above the lichen stage, okay? Now, the suits should protect us against any lingering radiation, and they'll definitely keep us warm. "The shuttle will bring us down to the most intact cluster of ruins. The environmental techs say that it's in what used to be the temperate zone, before the nuclear winter threw the climate out of whack." "Right," said one of the techs who was accompanying her. The nameplate on the suit read D. Temako. "Right next to an ocean, and on a river delta. Must have been a really happening city, back then. Unfortunately, radiation levels there are pretty high. Either somebody really wanted it taken out, or it was in a fallout pattern, or there was a meltdown, or something, or-" "Yes," said Moon, cutting off the tech before she could spring into a detailed explanation of wind vectors. "But suppose something *is* animate down there? The captain of H.M.S. Pleiades is not going to die on *my* watch." "And do you propose that you go in my place?" "Exactly! You're seeing the light!" "Sailor Moon," said Orion, "I need you up here. If the Dark Kingdom should attack while we're down there, it'll be up to you to defend the ship first, and defend the planet second. Is that clear?" "But-" "Is that clear, Sailor Moon?" "Very well." Moon managed a smile. "Let the record show I obeyed my commander's orders: under protest." "So noted." Orion followed the rest of the suited companions to the hatch of the shuttle. "Please don't break the boat, okay?" The pink-haired XO snapped off a salute. "Aye aye, sir!" She went inside, and the hatch closed. *** Back on the bridge, Sailor Moon leaned over Sammy's shoulder. "Nothing out of the ordinary?" "No, sir." "Good." *** "Fifteen hundred meters and dropping." "Good." There was another thing about Kim that Orion hadn't known: she could fly a mean shuttle. "Now," she said, turning to Temako, "what can we expect down there?" "Well, there's a nice high-pressure system going. Clear, but very windy, with highs around minus twenty-one centigrade." She looked up from her handlink with a smile. "I'm not going to tell you the wind chill." "Thank heavens for small favors," muttered Kim from the helm. She made flying a shuttle in one hundred thirty kilometer per hour headwinds look easy, but it certainly wasn't easy in practice. "One thousand meters." "As I said, radiation's a bit higher than normal, but okay. The main problem will be the wind." "Mmm. What was that, Kim?" "Uh, nothing sir." "Hmph. Could have sworn you muttered something. Anyway, Doctor, you'll be in charge of collecting any biological specimens. Use your own discretion as to a need for quarantine, okay? On the same page, everyone? Good." "Five hundred meters. Four hundred. Two fifty. One hundred. Fifty, forty, fifteen--sorry about that--five, four, three, two-" A mind-shaking thud. "Zero. Sorry about that, folks." "It's okay, Kim, really. Signal Pleiades." *** "Sailor Moon, Shuttle-1 says that they have touched down, and are preparing to disembark." "Very well," she answered, looking around the bridge. "Keep me apprised of anything new." "Um," began Sammy, "you said that two minutes ago." "Did I?" "Yep." "Oh. Carry on." Sammy wished to herself that she was an anime character. A facefault would work nicely right now. *** After depressurizing the cabin, Dr. Sampson did the honors of opening the hatch and letting the Katsuragi II air in. The winds certainly felt colder than advertised, even through the pressure suits. "After you, Captain," said Kim over the radio. "All right, then." It was, of course, the Captain's privilege to be the first to set foot on a new planet, regardless of the fate of its previous inhabitants. She looked out over the landscape. As far as she could see, the ground was gray, with a hint of red. She guessed that this had been a grassy field before the nuclear war. Now it was dust. On the horizon were the tallest remains of what must have been a great city once, standing against a blue-green, mostly cloudy sky. There were no trees, no birds, no animals, no plants. The only sounds she could hear were the breathing of the others over the radio and the howling of the wind. She took a deep breath. "I, Sailor Orion, as a duly elected representative of Neo-Queen Serenity, and Crystal Tokyo which she rules, do hereby announce our presence on this planet. We come in peace." It was a set speech, and it was required to be said in the event of first contact on a new planet. There was no-one to placate here, and it lacked the appeal of "One small step for man," but it worked. She put a booted foot out and became the first human ever to walk on the surface of Katsuragi II. And the first person to sink knee-deep into the surface of Katsuragi II. "Aaaaaahh!" Sinking in, she fell headfirst and was nearly buried. "Sailor Orion!" "Are you all right?" "Are you okay?" "Fine, fine," she said, thanking heavens for her helmet. Otherwise she'd be spitting out dirt. "Temako, first note. There's a nice layer of ash around here, and it's damned thick." Temako stooped to pick up a handful of the stuff, and adjusted her visor. In a pinch, it could be used to see other electromagnetic bands, and as a *very* crude means of chemical analysis. "Um, this isn't ash." "It isn't?" "Nope. It's snow. Very dirty snow." "Snow." She got up and stood, the snow being swept from her suit. "All this is snow?" "Yes." "Then why hasn't it started forming dunes? Kami know there's enough wind for it!" "Definitely," said the other tech, named Hitonoyuki. "But apparently there's a crust of frozen snow on top of the powder you fell into. The pressure from your feet cracked the crust." "Great. Please say we've got snowshoes in there?" *** Some time later, the five snowshoe-clad women trekked across the barren landscape. Every once in awhile, Sampson would run off, only to return empty handed. Occasionally she would mutter about bacteria, but beyond that she showed no signs of disappointment. Hitonoyuki continued to point out meteorological and geological curiosities, while Temako mentioned any archeological artifacts they found. Frustratingly, they were few and far between. Once, she found what appeared to be a bottle. The label had long ago washed away, but the discovery of green glass bulked up their spirits. Whoever had been on this world had about the same tastes as humans. It had been duly placed in the sample carrier Kim was lugging long. Another time, they found a key bit of evidence: a plow. "No doubt about it," said Orion as they gathered around the agricultural implement. "Very similar to the plows used in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There are only two or three refinements you can make to a plow, and this has one of them. See, this little bit here is for cutting tough, hard sod." She looked up with triumph. "This means that the climate here must have been a lot like that in Northern Europe: cold and rainy." "If you assume that this, or the plans it was made from, predate the war," objected Sampson. "Another explanation is that after the war, this spot was still relatively intact. No fuel means that you have to go back to archaic methods. This design might have been the only thing they knew to make, from long ago." "Possible, but I don't think it's likely." She looked around. The odometer inside her suit said that they'd come twelve kilometers. "Come on, take some pictures and let's move on." As they neared the city, they found more and more of the detritus of civilization. Old wheels. Tires. More farm tools. A plastic something that looked like some kind of toy: that went in the sample trunk. They found a road, and cracked as it was, it was better than continuing to use the snowshoes. "It's a shame there aren't more papers around here," lamented Orion. "A newspaper, even a history book . . . something to figure out what they were like! Right now, it's like trying to figure out what we're like from what we carry in our pockets, but worse!" "There's the little matter of language translation," said Kim. "That's no problem," she replied. "Antares could probably figure it out in a few minutes. But that's irrelevant without a language sample." They walked on. *** This planet spun far more slowly than Earth, so even at 19:00 there was broad daylight, or what passed for it, cloudy as it was. As they began to enter the ruins of the city, more and more artifacts were found. "No bodies, though," said Sampson. "Either everyone bugged out, or there's some really quick decomposers at work here." "Or," suggested Orion, "there's some taboo against dying in public. Or the dead may have been buried, or died in their homes. Dammit, there's so much we don't know about these people!" She broke off from the group and headed for one of the more intact looking homes. It proved that there were only so many ways to build a house: sloping roof, windows, doors. It appeared to be made from some unknown substances, but it was easily recognizable as a house. Inside, so much was different that she didn't know where to start. Flipping on the flashlight mounted to the side of her helmet, she set her cameras to auto-record. Everything she saw would be recorded and sent back to the shuttle. The chairs, tables . . . everything was so different. For one, there were no chairs per se: only stools and benches. No obvious fireplace, but no ventilation ducts either. No television, or any other electronic devices, but there seemed to be plug-like contraptions hanging from the high ceilings. She heard the house creak and decided that it was time to move along. Spinning, she tripped over at first glance looked to be a lamp. It looked like it, but there was no obvious bulb. That was irrelevant, though. The upshot of Orion's fall was that she hit her head on what turned out to be a door. Behind it, she saw the bodies. "SAMPSON! GET IN HERE, STAT!" Seconds later, all four of the others raced in. Temako took one look and turned away, Kim and Hitonoyuki just stared, and Sampson let out a laugh of pure joy. "YES!" She bent over to inspect them. "No decomposition, none at all! Did you touch them, sir?" "No, of course not!" "Excellent!" She began speaking into her suit's recorder. "Two specimens. Presumed to be male and female. Can't tell which is which. Height of first specimen, 204 cm. Second, 247 cm. Appear to be bipedal, digitigrade as well. Fur on almost the entire body, and . . . a tail! Gods, this is magnificent! A full-blown tail, with bushy fur, appears to be a full meter long! Fur color red-brown on both specimens. Slight discoloration near the joints, especially between the legs, maybe genital markings? Eyes closed, so's the mouth. I'm not going to touch them without proper equipment, they might be so desiccated as to shatter on contact. Overall form . . . I believe Vulpes vulpes is the best match, along with Homo Sapiens." She wheeled to face the others. "What a find!" At least they had found something. *** "Sir, I've found something! Unidentified object, bearing zero-four-five mark zero-zero-zero, range four light seconds and closing fast. Wait . . . sir, I tentatively identify as a Dark Kingdom vessel." Sailor Moon sighed and slouched in her chair. "Thank you, Lieutenant Leeds. Once more into the breach, dear friends." She sat up and cracked her knuckles. "Sound general quarters." "Aye, sir!" As Vanessa began repeating the order throughout the ship, Sailor Moon turned to Sammy. "Lieutenant Porter, contact the team down there and tell them to get to the shuttle as soon as possible. We'll advise them later as to when it's safe to come up." "Sir, we have a positive identification of a Dark Kingdom ship, designate target Sierra-1, bearing . . . sir! It's going for the planet!" "What?" *** "What?" "I say again, Sailor Orion, you need to get your people to the shuttle NOW! We've got a DK raider up here, and they're heading for the planet. We'll try to hold them off, but-" "I understand, Sammy. Good luck. Orion out." She turned to the others. "People, we've got problems. The Dark Kingdom's here, and we're moving." "What? "We're leaving, Dr. Sampson. Come on!" The black woman might have been crying. Orion couldn't tell. "But . . . but . . . the bodies? We're just going to leave them here?" "What do you propose, that we put them in the sample container? It's already full, and I doubt even one would fit in it empty. We've got enough running to do as it is! Now come on!" "No." "What? Are you crazy?" She was screeching, now. "I gave you an order, Doctor. Now come on before we all get killed!" "I'm not leaving the most important find in the past three thousand years. You go on without me, I'll stay here." "Kim, Tameko, Hitonoyuki, get to the shuttle as fast as you can. If it gets too hot, leave. Understand?" "Y-yes." "Good. Now move!" They moved. "Now, Sampson-san, are you going to come along or do I have to use force?" "Force. I'm not abandoning these bodies! Do you have any idea just how much we can learn from an autopsy? I can tell you cause of death, mode of diet, answer millions of questions that biologists and biochemists have had for centuries . . . ." "Yes. I know exactly what I'm giving up. The chance to chronicle the history of an entire civilization from start to finish." She leaned against the doorjamb. "This is the stuff that dream dissertations are made of. Do you really think I want to leave? But there's an attack going on out there, and-" She was interrupted by the three she had just sent out. Kim spoke, panting from lack of breath. "Sir, the way to the shuttle is blocked. About a dozen thingamabobs, youma, I think. I don't think they saw us, but they saw the shuttle." "Which means that they mean to trap us on the way back. Very well." She squared her shoulders and went to the door, stopping before leaving the house. "Sampson, you have a choice. You can either stay here until we manage to send back for help, or you can come with us. Be advised that help is in no way guaranteed. Choose wisely." Thus filled with bravado, she raced out into the street, with Kim, Tameko, and Hitonoyuki following close behind. *** Once outside, and a few kilometers away, Orion allowed herself a bit of panic. "Pleiades, this is Orion. What the hell's going on up there? Do you know they've got ground troops down here?!? How could you allow this?" "Uh. I-I don't know, it-" "Sammy? Sammy, put Moon on the channel. Now, before--oh shit! DUCK!" Their little group dove behind a crumbling building as a volley of arrows flew by. The suits were supposed to protect against any type of shrapnel, but she wasn't inclined to take chances. "Sailor Moon here," said her XO, as if she were a secretary answering the phone. "Moon! What the hell are you doing? I'm under fire here, and the last time I checked I had *no* support whatsoever!" "Orion, if you haven't noticed, we don't have any weapons. Unless you feel that a blast from the ginzuishou would do you some good? And there's the little matter of *our* being under attack too?" "Dammit! Just make sure no more youma decide to pull a paratrooper, okay?" "I'll try. And I dOBidn't realize how difficult this whole gestalt thing was." "You're using the gestalt? Is there any damage to the ship?" "No, not really." "Great. Just hold off the baddies, okay? Orion out." She peeked her head over the pile of rubble, and quickly went back down. "Okay, we need a diversion. Kim, when I give the signal, throw the sample container as far to the left as you can." Kim gulped, but otherwise showed no signs of fear. Which was better than what Orion was managing. "Yes." Orion peeked again, then took a deep breath. If they didn't take the bait . . . "Okay. NOW!" The white box flew, and the youma chased it, letting go with covering fire as they went. "Dumb, but not quite stupid," muttered Orion, but she had no complaints. Now that the youma weren't blocking their path, she could proceed with part two. "Orion Nebula . . . " A familiar cloud began to form about the distracted youma, who began to stumble about, lost, but . . . . Damn! She forgot to give the additional order! She couldn't say anything else at that point, or her concentration would be broken and the cloud would disperse. Without the Gertie, it didn't look like she could hold out very long anyway. Fortunately, Kim had seen this before, and knew what would happen. "Okay, people," she cried, "get to the shuttle!" The other two needed no further encouragement. They raced towards the shuttle a few hundred meters away. Orion followed them, but slower. She had to keep facing her quarry; otherwise, her little nebula could drift away. Then again, the fact that the light hydrogen hadn't floated away in the high winds was encouraging. The only odd thing, she noticed, was that it seemed to be larger than it should . . . could she be drawing on the shipboard Gertie, she thought? She was a few meters from the shuttle when she heard Sampson scream over the headset. "Don't leave me! I'm coming!" "Emma?" said Kim from inside the shuttle. "In the flesh!" And indeed, there she was, barreling her way towards the ship, and carrying . . . "The alien?" "I had to take one, Kim!" "But . . . DOCTOR! You're not going to make it! You're too slow!" The doctor wasn't exactly a track star to start with, and the body she was lugging with her wasn't helping. It was clear that she wouldn't make it out of range of the upcoming blast. In fact, it looked iffy that the shuttle would, despite the fact that Kim was already warming up the engines. "You've got to drop it!" "Never!" Orion had her own opinions on the subject, but she was occupied with other matters. "Sampson, drop the body, or you will die!" There came something like a sob, and then Sampson tossed the body aside. A few seconds later, she went past Orion, who was now standing in the door. "Captain, I'm going to take off, now!" She could only nod in response. She could sense that they were approaching the maximum range of her powers, it would have to be now . . . . " . . . COLLAPSE!" She fainted into the arms of Temako and Hitonoyuki, and then all three rolled to the back of the cabin as Kim blasted away. The hatch didn't close, and so they saw the terrific flash, and felt the rush of hot air as Orion's star went off on the surface of Katsuragi II. Riding the shock wave, they hurtled into space. *** A couple hours later, Orion was on the bridge. She had ordered a probe to go down and check conditions on the planet after the attack, and things weren't going very well. "Any difficulty dispatching the DK ship, Sailor Moon?" "Nope. Easy as one two three. And I didn't wipe out any cities, either." Orion sighed. She really wasn't in the mood for another fight. "Damage?" "None." "Good." She ran a hand through her hair. "Vanessa, do we have that sensor data in?" "Yes, but I gave it to Environmental for analysis." "Hmph." As if on cue, Temako entered the bridge. "Sir," she saluted to Orion, "the report you wanted." The captain took the proffered handlink, and began reading. About halfway through, she dropped it and ran, crying, to the ready room. "What the hell?" "What does it say?" "Why did she collapse like that?" Sailor Moon said nothing, but made a silencing motion to the Bridge Brigade and picked up the handlink. Sparing a quick glance at Temako, who looked positively ill, she began reading aloud. "'This episode has provided great insight into the physics of stellar formation. The effect of Sailor Orion's attack upon the ten youma in question (see section 53-r) can be likened to the detonation of a thermonuclear device. The destructive power unleashed was roughly equal to,' . . . to . . . , '30 gigatons of TNT.'" There were gasps all around. She continued. "'This is, of course, far beyond the yield of any known nuclear device, and rivals the destructive power of the Royal Star Navy's experimental antimatter warheads. Any comparisons to the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs is irrelevant, as the two are as incomparable as likening the Big Bang to a child's sparkler. "'Predicted effects upon Katsuragi II. These are easy to predict, and some evidence has already been observed to bear out our predictions. They are numbered below. "' 1) A crater approximately twenty kilometers in radius has been created at the blast site. We are unable to see the bottom of it, as smoke totally obscures it. We assume that the mantle has been reached, and that the magma beneath the crater is exposed to the air, burning it. "' 2) Greatly increased tectonic activity. Groundquakes, volcanism, etc., are at extraordinary levels, and appear to be increasing. It is the opinion of the department that the topography of the planet will be completely unrecognizable within a year. Of course, this will result in the erasure of all signs of civilization. "' 3) Completely unpredictable weather. A good portion of Katsuragi II's atmosphere has been ionized, and the remainder is extremely turbulent. We have lost four probes due to weather conditions (see section 2-c), and are reluctant to lose a fifth. "'Conclusion. It is the determination of this department that the surface is completely inimical to any artificial or natural artifacts, such as cities, vehicles, plants, and animals. All will be wiped away by the cataclysm, and it is unlikely that things will calm down for at least a billion years. The only life that could possibly survive on Katsuragi would be some sort of heretofore undiscovered species of Moneran, as no known species could cope with the rapidly changing conditions. End of report.' Mother of Serenity." She looked up, ignoring the fairly strong oath she had ended with. At the moment, her pink hair was a shocking contrast to her ashen face. "Good work, Temako. Dismissed." Moon turned to the rest of the crew, which had fallen completely silent, save for a couple of people silently weeping. "No wonder she's upset. Who knows what questions will go unanswered forever about these people? "How would you like to know that you've destroyed an entire planet?"