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Episode #116:  Decompression 
Reel 1 
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	In Queen Selenite's audience chamber, the ruler of the Dark Kingdom
looked disapprovingly at her head general, whom she only referred to as
Number One.
 
	"Number One, you have conducted two attacks on the Earth ship, and
both times you have failed to destroy it.  Indeed, you haven't even managed
to do any substantial damage."
 
	Number One merely bowed his head lower in shame.  "I know this, my
Queen.  I apologize for-"
 
	"I don't want apologies, Number One, I want results!"  She rose from
her throne and strode towards him, her mane of gray hair trailing behind. 
"I have placed a great amount of trust in you over the past few years,
Number One." She extended a hand and slowly stroked beneath his chin.  "A
*great* amount."
 
	Abruptly, she brought her other hand around and slapped him full on
the cheek.  He went down and sprawled on the floor without a sound.
 
	"See that you do not disappoint that trust again, or you may find
Number Two to be your replacement!  And you do not want to be replaced,
believe me!"
 
	Number One rose slowly, rubbing the spot where he'd been hit.  "I
understand, my Queen.  In fact, I have already taken steps to insure the
destruction of the Earth ship.  Thus far, they have only had to deal with a
single axis of attack, and they seem quite good at parrying such assaults."
 
	He resumed his fully erect posture, his confidence returning. 
"However, I feel that if confronted with an attack along two vectors, they
will find the might of the Dark Kingdom insurmountable."
 
	"Two ships?  Number One, may I remind you that while my advisors are
cheap, my ships most certainly are not.  You have already lost two ships
that were help carry out the invasion of Earth.  Do you mean to lose two at
a time now?"
 
	"I pray thee, my Queen.  Have faith.  This plan shall work, I swear
it."
 
	"It had better, Number One.  Very well.  You may proceed.  But I
remind you once again: my ships are a most valuable resource."
 
	"Of course, my Queen." 
 
*** 
 
	It had been a week since they had left the orbit of Katsuragi II. 
Pleiades continued to motor away, looking for any signs that would lead them
to the Dark Kingdom's base.
 
	The crew's spirits had sunk since Katsuragi II.  First the discovery
that intelligent life had made that term an oxymoron by destroying
themselves, then the destruction of what was left of its civilization.  So
much had been lost.
 
	Perhaps Sampson had it the worst, although Orion would disagree with
that.  Sampson, a doctor and budding xenologist, had been force to toss
aside the most important biological find of that or any other century, and
she was taking it hard.
 
	It was for that reason that Orion was making her way to the
infirmary, to console the doctor.  She wasn't sure that she herself wasn't
in need of some consoling herself, but she was the captain and morale was
her job.
 
	Thus she entered the infirmary, and was struck by how empty it was. 
There had been no real injuries lately, and apparently the nurses were
elsewhere.  Hanasu had been moved to long-term care in one of the small
cubicles off in the back.  Poking around, the captain saw the lights off in
Sampson's office.  That left one other place.
 
	She went around a corner to a closed door, which lead to the CMO's
quarters.  It had been decided that putting her room next to the infirmary
was a good idea.  Looking through the window in the door, Orion saw Sampson
staring at a display screen.  She knocked.
 
	"Who is it?" 
 
	"Sailor Orion." 
 
	There was some indecipherable grumbling, and then, "Come in." 
 
	Orion entered to see the usually tidy Sampson's room in total
disarray. The woman lay on her bed, looking at a display screen.  Upon
closer inspection, it proved to be some of the video that had been recorded
on Katsuragi II.
 
	"Dr. Sampson?  Dr. Sampson, are you all right?" 
 
	Sampson slowly rolled over.  "Oh, I'm fine, sir.  I let a huge find 
through my fingers, but other than that, I'm fine, really." 
 
	"Oh, glad to hear it."  Orion pivoted on a heel and made as if to
walk out the door, but Sampson stopped her.
 
	"No, don't go.  Not yet, at least."  Sampson sighed.  "Have a seat." 
 
	Orion did as asked, noting something that rankled.  "Your room is
bigger than mine!"
 
	"Yes."  The hint of a smile crossed the doctor's face.  "In dire
conditions, this room can be used for extra patients, so it has to be a bit
larger than usual.  In fact, it's the biggest residential room on board. 
But that's not why I want you to stay."
 
	"Listen, Emma, if it's about the planet-" 
 
	"No, Sailor Orion, I'm over what you did.  If you hadn't blasted those
youma, us two wouldn't be here.  It's just . . . why is that us humans always 
mess things up?" 
 
	Orion smiled wryly.  "You mean like the environmental crises of the 
twentieth century?  And the Second Sailor Wars?" 
 
	"Exactly!  Why is it that our worst enemy is always ourselves?  I'm a
doctor, I try my best to help people, and-" 
 
	"Sailor Orion, please report to the bridge.  Sailor Orion, please
report to the bridge immediately."
 
	Orion looked up at the ceiling with a look that would melt steel. 
The ceiling was mostly synthetics, though, so Pleiades was lucky there.  "On
my way," she muttered to herself, and left Sampson alone with her thoughts.
 
*** 
 
	"Status?" snapped Orion as she came onto the bridge.  She
impatiently waved off Kim, who was about to go through the entire 'Captain
on the bridge' routine.
 
	"Abnormal readings dead ahead.  Two of them.  We think-" 
 
	"-It's the Dark Kingdom, yes."  She went to her seat and sighed,
massaging her forehead with her left hand.  "Who did we expect, Tim Noran?"
She leaned forward.  "Okay, sound general quarters."
 
	The usual mayhem resulted.  Orion was about to tell Engineering to
prepare for a Gertie attack when Sammy spoke up.
 
	"Sir, we're getting a transmission from the enemy ship!" 
 
	As one, the rest of the bridge crew shouted.  "WHAT?" 
 
	She reeled under the noise, but rallied.  "Yes, they identify
themselves as Selenite's Ship Cerebus." She turned to Sailor Orion and
managed to keep a straight face.  "It's for you, sir."
 
*** 
 
	On the bridge of Cerebus, Number One stood, tapping his foot.  This
was his own personal ship, and as such got its own name.  He looked at his
communications officer.  The officer nodded in return.  "I remind you," said
the officer, "that the ship is to be destroyed, and no prisoners taken."
 
	"I am aware of our orders," Number One replied.  "But I have my own
uses for that ship.  Put me on."
 
*** 
 
	On the largest of the six screens on the forward bulkhead, their
enemy appeared to the crew of Pleiades.  He was tall, with swarthy black
hair and sharp facial features.  His black eyes glinted from some unknown
light, and he wore a deeply ingrained frown.  His gray uniform was taut
across his chest, and yellow epaulets graced his shoulders.
 
	"I am Number One." 
 
	Silence filled the bridge. 
 
	"Err, that's nice," was the first thing Orion blurted out.  Sailor
Moon resisted the urge to smack her captain in the back of the head.
 
	"Sir," said the pink-haired sailor with all the calm she could
muster, "I believe that's his name."
 
	"Ah."  She stood.  "Well, I am Sailor Orion, captain of Her
Majesty's Ship Pleiades, and representative of Her Majesty Neo-Queen
Serenity.  I presume you have been behind the recent attacks on my ship?"
 
	"Yes." 
 
	A thought occurred to Orion, one that should have come to her
earlier. "Wait, you're speaking Japanese?" He was, and she hadn't noticed. 
It was a rather archaic dialect, much like how Shakespearean English sounded
to twentieth century listeners.
 
	"Yes," he said with a smirk that was worse than his frown.  "We have
more in common than you would think, Sailor Orion."
 
	"Hmph."  She adjusted her glasses.  "So you admit to attacking my
ship?"
 
	"Yes." 
 
	She was at a loss.  She had expected some kind of excuse.  "And why
did you do this?"
 
	"Because my master wants you destroyed." 
 
	"And your master is?" 
 
	"Queen Selenite." 
 
	"Never heard of her." 
 
	"That is understandable." 
 
	"Sailor Orion, a word please?"  Moon pulled Orion aside and
whispered fiercely in her ear.  "Sir, what the hell are you doing?  The more
you talk with this guy, the more flippant you get!  In case you haven't
noticed, he's got two ships pointing weaponry at us, and we're just sitting
here and shooting the breeze?"
 
	"Shh!  Everything's under control, Sailor Moon.  Trust me on this."
She turned back to the screen.
 
	"Very well, Number One, you-" 
 
	"Sailor Orion, I give you two options.  Either surrender your ship
to me, or die."
 
	"I will not surrender this ship." 
 
	"Come now, Orion, look at your situation.  You stand no chance. 
Frankly, how you were able to defeat the other two ships is beyond me. 
Surrender, and I promise that you will come to no harm."
 
	Sailor Moon stepped forward and crossed her arms on her chest.  "I
thought Selenite wanted us dead?"
 
	"She does."  The smirk was back.  "But I have other plans for you."
The smirk turned into a sneer.
 
	Orion trembled for a moment in fear and anger.  Then anger took over. 
 
	"Sailor Moon, get to engineering, tell them to warm up the Gertie." 
 
	"Aye!"  She raced out the door. 
 
	"We're taking you down, Number One.  En garde!" 
 
	Astonishingly, Number One chuckled.  "A challenge!  How amusing. 
Very well, I have not had much entertainment today." He looked to the side
and said three words of a guttural tongue, and his face was replaced with a
view of the two ships that they were up against.
 
	Orion swiveled her seat to face Sammy.  "Ready three probes and set
them to self-destruct."
 
	"Aye, sir.  Wait . . . ships turning, sir!  Now bearing
zero-zero-zero mark zero-zero-zero, range five million kilometers, and
closing fast."
 
	"Evasive maneuvers." 
 
	A pencil-thin beam of light appeared from one of the ships. 
Instantaneously, Pleiades rocked to port.
 
	"We've been hit!  Port side, deck seven, moderate damage . . . no
injury reports as of yet!"
 
	"Bastards.  What the hell is Chibi-Usa doing?!?"  The bridge crew
pretended not to hear her use of the familiar name.  She flipped up the
cover on the Gertie controls and looked angrily at the red light.  "Come on,
dammit, turn green!"
 
	It is unlikely that the light bulb understood Japanese, but it went
green anyway.
 
	"Great!"  She activated the Gertie and set her sights on the
trailing ship, which she figured to be Number One's flagship.  "Helm, come
right to zero-four-zero and hold for ten seconds.  I'm going to try to get a
passing shot in."
 
	"Aye, sir."  Pleiades roared forward, jinking up and down to avoid
the enemy fire.  Orion concentrated, then spoke.
 
	"Orion Nebula . . . " 
 
	The cloud formed, and Orion paused, waiting for the right moment
before putting on the kill.
 
	Number One didn't cooperate, however.  As the crew looked on in
horror, the ship veered out of the cloud, leaving Orion with a split second
to make a decision.  She made it.
 
	"Disperse!" 
 
	As quickly as it had appeared, the hydrogen cloud vanished. 
 
	"Dammit!  At least the other two had the courtesy to stand still! 
Sammy, do you still have those probes ready?"
 
	"Yes!" 
 
	"Shoot them.  Target at will!" 
 
	"Aye, sir!" 
 
*** 
 
	On his ship, Number One laughed to himself.  The fools!  To expect
the mighty Dark Kingdom to fall for the same trick three times in a row?  He
had clearly overestimated their fighting abilities.  Why, if he had
commanded that first scout ship, Pleiades would have been space junk long
ago.
 
	"Sir, they're firing . . . some kind of projectiles." 
 
	"Projectiles?" he asked incredulously. 
 
	"Yes.  Shall we withdraw?" 
 
	"No!  We follow the quarry!  I feel this hunt will soon come to an
end, and we do not run away now. Fire countermeasures."
 
*** 
 
	On Pleiades, the screens showed their three probes being picked off
with lasers.  Orion sighed and squared her shoulders.  "Okay, I need some
ideas, people."
 
	Silence. 
 
	"And where the hell is Sailor Moon?" 
 
	"Incoming!" 
 
	There was a deafening boom, and everything went dark. 
 
*** 
 
	"Sir, the missile scored a direct hit!  Excellent choice of weapons,
sir!"
 
	"Of course," said Number One.  "Orion, I have you now!" 
 
*** 
 
	Slowly Orion picked herself up, rubbing her head.  She had been
slammed into one of the metal columns that were haphazardly arranged around
the bridge, and as a result she now had a hell of a headache.  Scrabbling on
the floor, she managed to find her dislodged glasses and put them back on. 
Dimly, she was aware of various sirens, bells, and alarms going off,
including . . . oh no.
 
	"SIR!" screamed Sammy, who had been the first to recover, "HULL
BREACH!"
 
	Orion wobbled to her seat and sat, wishing desperately for a
painkiller.  Around her, humans and computer screens flickered back to life. 
Orion signaled for the alarms to be turned off.  "Sammy, you've got to calm
down!  I need more info here!"
 
	"S-sorry, I'll try sir."  She began punching buttons.  "Hull breach,
deck fourteen, section four-i.  The section's been closed off, and-"
 
	"Good, all I needed to know.  Engine status?" 
 
	"One moment . . . Bennington say you can have full power in two
minutes."
 
	"Tell Bennington that we'll be dead by then.  I need 110% *now*! 
And for God's sake, tell the infirmary to get some painkillers up here!"
 
	"They're a bit busy, sir.  Twenty injuries, and they're still coming
in."
 
	Orion muttered a very bad word.  "I need someone to find Sailor Moon
and get in here, okay?"
 
	"Taken care of, sir." 
 
*** 
 
	On deck fourteen, section four-i, Sailor Moon was fighting for her
life.  She had been on her way back to the bridge when everything had gone
white, and just as suddenly went black.  She had had no time to think,
simply grabbed on to the handhold that was in the corridor.  She had always
thought them useless, but she had to admit their value now.  It was the only
thing keeping her aboard.
 
	The DK missile had blown a hole twelve meters wide in the ship's
hull, and it happened to be right across from Sailor Moon.  She had gotten
through the most violent part, when all the air was being sucked into the
starry void, and now she was going through the hard part.
 
	Breathing. 
 
	Her mother had taught her well on the abilities and limitations of
the ginzuishou.  She was relatively sure of just how far she could push its
powers.  She had never considered the possibility of it keeping her alive in
total vacuum, but that was the case.
 
	With a bit of concentration . . . 'Amazing,' she thought, 'how the
mind can focus in a crisis,' the ginzuishou was keeping up enough air
pressure from her exhalations to prevent her body from rupturing in the
vacuum.  Unfortunately, this brought up another problem.
 
	There isn't any oxygen in space. 
 
	She had thought this minor before setting up her little shield, but
now it became critical, as she had now gone ten seconds without a breath. 
If she had a bit more training, she could have used the crystal to generate
some more, but that was still beyond her.  Her only hope was to get to one
of the emergency cubicles set aside for just such an situation.
 
	'Okay,' she thought, 'first step is to get away from the hole.'  She
yanked herself away from the hole and found herself flying through what was
left of the corridor.  It was far faster than she'd expected.
 
	'Damn!  The gravity must be out!'  She continued floating until she
bounced off the section hatch.
 
	'Can I open it?  No, I'm running out of time.  Besides, that door is
the only thing keeping the rest of the ship's air from flying into space.' 
She slowly turned back around to face the hole. 
 
	'It looks so calm and peaceful,' she thought, looking out into the
void.  'It would be so easy to just let go and . . . no!  I can't do that! 
Must be the lack of air talking.' She tried to focus again.  She couldn't
shake her head or slap herself; such actions took oxygen she didn't have.
 
	'Okay, Princess, concentrate.  Every forty meters of this ship,
there's a tiny cubicle with enough room for one person and enough air for
five hours.  You've got to find it.  Now.  So, what does it look like? 
Damn, I never bothered to read the manual on that!' Fighting off the sleep
that threatened to envelop her, she slowly floated down the hall, searching
for anything that might be it.
 
*** 
 
	"Right, I can't wait any longer."  Pleiades had narrowly escaped
several near hits, and it was plain to everyone that Number One was just
toying with them.  Orion definitely didn't like that.  *No-one*
underestimated Jennifer Sakachi, no matter how short her skirt may be. 
"Helm, plot a course as close to the flagship as you can."
 
	"Course laid in, sir." 
 
	"Very well."  She fingered the Gertie controls once again, and then
made a fist.  "All ahead flank!  110% now!"
 
	The ship lurched forward, swerving to escape the occasional shots. 
Orion rested her head on her clasped hands; there was nothing more to do. 
She consoled herself with the fact that even if her plan failed, their
suicide attack would take at least one of the ships with them.
 
	They neared the flagship, which was now moving to evade Pleiades. 
But it couldn't accelerate nearly as fast as Pleiades, and so the distance
between them waned.
 
	"Seven thousand meters and closing, captain." 
 
	"Steady as she goes." 
 
	"Six thousand meters!  Five thousand!  Four!" 
 
	"Sound collision." 
 
	"Three thousand!" 
 
	"Prepare the guidance lasers, set them to overload, and lock on to
the ship."
 
	"Aye, sir." 
 
*** 
 
	Sailor Moon could see it.  Through the black fringes of her vision,
she could see the yellow and black control lever for the emergency cubicle. 
It was just on the other side of the hole that had been ripped in Pleiades. 
With a burst of strength, she pulled herself towards it, floating past the
battle scene to port.
 
	This was rather unfortunate, for at that moment Pleiades jerked to
starboard.  As long as she had stayed in contact with the walls, she had
moved at the same speed of the ship, and even now she continued to move at
the same speed in a straight line.
 
	Pleiades wasn't going in a straight line any more, however.  With no
warning, she was flying away from the ship and all hope of survival.
 
	'Shit!' she thought.  And then she swallowed down a massive attack
of agoraphobia, as she looked around her.  No walls, no floors, no
boundaries, just her and the universe.  If she hadn't been fighting off
explosive decompression, anoxia, and extreme cold, she might have enjoyed
it.  As it was, she realized that she was now as good as dead.
 
	Spinning, she faced the main enemy ship.  It wasn't hard to pick out
at three thousand meters away, just a silver streak in a sable background. 
She could see it well enough to target it.
 
	Her mother had taught her another capability of the crystal, one she
had used to defeat the DK ship at Katsuragi II.  Now, without the Gertie she
wasn't sure she could pull it off, but it was better to die fighting than
just float through space.
 
	With her last reserve of energy, she concentrated and let it all out.

	And then even the scant light provided by the stars disappeared. 
 
*** 
 
	"Two thousand meters, Captain!" 
 
	"Right.  Fire lasers--wait!" 
 
	It was incredible.  From some point off to port, a white beam of
energy lanced out, scoring several sustained hits on Number One's ship.  The
other ship moved to intercept whoever was firing, but they couldn't find it.
 
	"Who the hell is doing that?  Never mind, helm get us out of this
nose dive.  Let some probes out while we're at it!"
 
	Pleiades arced away from its dive bomb approach, leaving a couple of
self-destructing probes as souvenirs.  The lead ship could take no more.  As
the screens on the bridge switched to a reverse view, they showed the ship
bursting into a gout of flame that was just as quickly snuffed out by the
vacuum.  Number One's flanking ship quickly turned tail and ran, and just as
quickly the battle was won.
 
*** 
 
	"Is she all right?" 
 
	Sailor Orion had come down from the bridge as soon as she got word. 
Her eyes glowed with exaustion and fear.
 
	"Yes, she made it just in time.  I don't know how, though."  Dr.
Sampson shook her head slowly.  "Just turned around, and there they were."
 
	"They?" 
 
	"Yeah, Sailor Moon and a little kid, maybe 9 or 10.  Pink hair-" 
 
	"-in odango, yes." 
 
	Sampson arced an eyebrow.  "You know her?" 
 
	"Not nearly as well as I should."  She looked over to the sleeping
Moon.  "How was she?" 
 
	"Pretty bad.  I'm willing to guess she was in vacuum for a couple
minutes, and that's just extraordinary.  If we could use the ginzuishou for
medical research . . . but that's the Queen's business."
 
	"Right," said Orion.  She sounded none too pleased about it. 
 
	"Well, I'd expect her to be back to work in a day or so, but until
then I want bed rest, you hear me Captain?"
 
	"Okay," said Orion, cracking a smile, "I understand.  Sailor Moon
will have a bit of a vacation today." She walked out, and the smile
disappeared from her face as more serious thoughts crossed her mind.
 
	'And when you wake up, I'm going to find out what you and that
pink-haired kid have in common, and how she can survive in a total vacuum,
and how she can almost single-handedly destroy a starship, and most
importantly, why the hell you never told us you could do that.
 
	'And when I get the answers to my questions, I'm going to give the
bill to that Selenite bitch.'
 
*** 
 
	In engineering, Eric looked over damage reports, assigning people to
fix them.  It was his forte.  He was an organizer.
 
*** 
 
	From afar, and yet near, she laughed.  Everything was going as
planned.