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Episode #302: The Wild Wild West
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San Diego, California District, American Confederation
4 January 3035

	Kelly Grain was twelve.  She had been born and raised in what had
once been and now was again San Diego.  Her life had been wholly
unremarkable since her birth in 3023: she'd gone to preschool and elementary
at the proper times, watched the usual programs, and like most young girls
and not a few boys, she absolutely adored Neo-Queen Serenity and Sailor
America.

	She watched the anime exported from Crystal Tokyo, a children's show
that purported to show the day-to-day life and misadventures of the Neo-
Queen herself, along with the darling of the Western Hemisphere, Sailor
America.  It was wildly popular among American children and children in the
other nations it was shown in, and the related merchandise sold like
hotcakes.  It would be safe to say that their popularity exceeded that of
the current president, David Ronowski.

	All this explained why she was sitting under a blanket at the
intersection of 18th Street and 5th Avenue, trying to gather heat from the
small heater she was sharing with the rest of her family, all under the few
stars that shone brihgtly at three in the morning.

	Kelly Grain was sitting alongside the route that would be taken by
Serenity in her first appearance on the North American continent, and that
made it a rather valuable piece of real estate.

***

	A few kilometers away and a couple of hours later, Neo-Queen Serenity 
was watching the news coverage of her visit.  All the nets were still 
replaying the tapes of her arrival the previous evening, even as she awoke 
early to prepare for the day's activities.

	Yawning, she watched herself step down from the plane, flanked by
Sailors Mars and Mercury.  She had waved to the crowds that had gathered,
smiling as a contingent of Sailor Scouts had handed her a bouquet of
flowers.  The Sailor Scouts were the American thirty-first century
equivalent to the Girl Scouts, named because some enterprising youth worker
realized the fascination the senshi held for American children and decided
to cash in on them.

	Serenity's smile had been especially big as she had looked upon
their uniforms, which were more modest versions of the sailor fuku worn by
her protectors, with skirts that reached down to the knees, and without the
tiara.  Jupiter had insisted that it was a mockery of the sailor senshi, but
Serenity didn't mind too much.  In her opinion it was better than burning
them in effigy, which had been known to happen before.

	On the screen, the image of Serenity walked down the steps, still
waving happily and clad in her formal white dress.  She had reached the
bottom of the steps where she had met the President.  The light-haired man
had smiled and bowed in the Japanese style, which managed to win a smile
from Sailor Mercury.  Serenity had bowed slightly as well, and then
surprised the President as well by taking his right hand and shaking it
firmly.  The media people just ate it up.

	"Enjoying the show?" asked Endymion, just stepping out from the
shower and putting on a robe.  He wouldn't be going with his wife on the
parade; he was scheduled to do a couple interviews instead.

	"Yep," she replied.  "Those scouts are so cute, are they not?"

	"Erm . . . yes, Usako."  A thousand years had made him very good at
dodging difficult questions from his wife.  He went to a drawer and began
dressing.  Today he'd go with the black pants, and perhaps the Order of the
Crescent Moon.  It always looks better on camera, he supposed . . . .

	"Perhaps we could form a similar group in Crystal Tokyo?"

	Endymion was saved from a potentially embarrassing situation by a 
knock at the door.  It opened to admit Sailor Cassiopeia, the future head 
of Her Majesty's Department of Public Relations.  She had just flown in 
that morning from Crystal Tokyo, and she looked it.  Only the natural 
composure that came with being a senshi kept her from looking like the 
frazzled PR secretary she should look like at the moment.

	"Your Majesties," she said with a bow.  "Serenity-sama, you're
needed down at the parade route.  Half the continent's media force is down
there begging for poses, and I had to give them to a few.  I think it'd be
nice if you were to come down."

	Serenity smiled.  She smiled a lot, but this particular one was a
smile of appreciation.  It would seem that in Cassiopeia's tutelage under
Sailor America a bit of the brunette's familiarity had rubbed off.

	"Well, we must not keep the public waiting, must we?"  She turned
and gave Endymion a kiss on the cheek.  "See you soon."

***

	About one light-second away, two others were watching the events on 
the net.  The cameras were presently showing the outside of the hotel where 
Serenity was staying, and the crowds that surrounded it.

	"Don't you wish you were there?" asked Sailor Orion with a smile.

	"Nope," said Sailor America.  "Cassiopeia is welcome to that headache."

	"Aw," said Orion playfully, "you know you miss being in the thick of 
things."

	"Yeah, I miss it like I miss a missile launch."  She floated back to
her red cushioned seat.  The shuttle was about half full with tourists and
naval personnel, most of whom were towards the back of the craft.  Orion and
America were alone in their row, and a lone woman in a rumpled naval uniform
was the only one in the row behind theirs.

	"How do you think she'll handle things?"

	"Pretty good, I think," said Sailor America.  She pulled a handlink
from nowhere and started leafing through news coverage of the visit.  "She
reminds me a lot of myself, actually.  She'd make a good American." 'Yes,
she'd make a damn good American,' the brown-haired senshi thought.  'That's
why she was given no time to prepare, no time to talk things over with me
before leaving, no time to do anything but board the plane half asleep and
go to work on no rest at all.  After all, Americans are used to being in a
hurry, right?' "It's so damned unfair!"

	"Hm?"  Orion looked up from her own handlink from which she had been
reading a few memorandums.

	"Whoops."  How much of that did I say aloud?  "Oh, nothing.  Just
thinking a few things through."

	"Wanna talk about it?"

	"Nah," America replied, matching Orion's painfully forced Midwestern
accent.  "I'm all right."

	"Are you sure?  I'm sure you could take some medication or something
if you're feeling queasy . . . ."

	"Oh!  Oh, no, I'm fine, really."  Obviously Sailor Orion thought her
problem was related to her latent fear of space travel, or more properly her
general feeling of being uncomfortable.

	'Perhaps I should tell her?  No.  She's got enough to worry about as
it is.  I'll have time later'.  She turned back to her handlink, leaving
Sailor Orion to her thoughts.

	The redhead had plenty of them.

	'Okay, so Lieutenant Ijiri will have to be transferred from
engineering to life support because Yuhara is going on maternity leave. 
That leaves a total of five positions to be filled in engineering. 
Personnel is going to balk if I ask for anyone higher than G-3 status, so
I'm going to be stuck reviewing files and making sure that the potential
choices will work out well.  I can't leave that to the chief engineer; he's
not really a people person and he wouldn't know what was good for his own
self.'

	She sighed deeply.  Together with all the other openings, that made
a total of thirty-six headaches to deal with alone, but she would handle
them.  She had to.  She was Sailor Orion, and dammit, she was not allowed to
fail.

	But some sleep would be so much nicer . . . .

***

	"Mr. President."

	"Your Majesty."

	The two met in a small anteroom a few meters from Serenity's waiting
procession.  A short distance away stood Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, and two
corresponding bodyguards for the president.  Other than them the room was
empty.

	"Your Majesty, I regret that we must part ways so soon after your 
visit, but as you know I have many pressing obligations.  Running the 
largest confederation on Earth is hardly an easy task."

	"Of course," said Serenity, looking and sounding sincere.  Mars
could barely contain herself; something *had* to be up.  If she was in
Ronowski's place, she wouldn't leave the queen unattended like that for a
second.  "We shall meet again at . . . ."

	"Chicago, I believe.  I think you'll like it; the view of Lake
Michigan is rather nice, especially at low tide.  You can see the old
buildings of Evansville peeking up from the surface if you arrive during
spring tides."

	"I look forward to it," said Serenity politely.

	"As do I.  I must be off.  Sayonara."  He bowed, pivoted, and walked
out.  His black-suited bodyguards bowed as well and left.  Sailor Mars let
out a sigh of relief.

	"Nervous?" asked Sailor Venus, smirking.

	"Not at all," muttered Sailor Mars.  "Just because we're taking
Serenity into the public of a country which three hundred years ago put a
*death warrant* on her head is no reason to be upset!"

	"Three hundred years is a long time, you know.  There aren't a lot
of people around who were alive then."

	"*I* was."  Venus blew a sigh.  The awkward moment was interrupted
by Sailor Cassiopeia, who chose that moment to burst into the door.  In a
sudden attack of precognition, Sailor Mars had the fleeting impression that
the senshi would be making a habit of this.

	"Your Majesty, the procession is about to begin.  If you could come
down, please?  We have to take care of some preliminaries first . . . ."

	"Okay."

***

	Neo-Queen Serenity stepped into the limousine.  It was of a special
design: open-topped to allow maximum visibility, yet with a clear casing to
thwart snipers.

	Then again, with the painstaking effort put into security, it was
unlikely that anyone within a kilometer had so much as a water gun
available.  That went for the President's security detail as well, something
argued over for the past year.  The senshi had been adamant on the point,
however; it would only take one psychotic security guard with a bullet and a
clear shot, and then all bets were off.

	This meant the senshi had to take over guard duty and crowd control
for the now-impotent AC regulars.  The brightly-colored sailor fuku were
everywhere: on the rooftops, along the route, alongside the limousine.  The
exact number there was classified; media estimates were anywhere between
twenty and a hundred.

	They were all necessary.  A couple million people crowded the city
for the occasion, and the number alone made Sailor Mars and some others
cringe.  The number of senshi made many in the AC military cringe; they were
sailor soldiers, after all, and one doesn't allow a large military force
into one's country without sweating it out a bit, no matter what the reason.

	But of course, there were extenuating circumstances.

***

	On the Moon, shuttle passengers were adjusting to lunar gravity
after landing.  There had been occasional proposals to give the moon a full
gee of gravity, but they were always struck down.  There seemed to be a
natural charm in having a nearby satellite with a gravity one-sixth that of
Earth.

	If there was such a charm, Sailor America was blind to it as she
hopped about a bit in the terminal.  The ceilings were a bit higher to
accommodate those who might not have been on the Moon before, and the
brown-haired senshi was using every centimeter of it.

	"Don't worry," said Sailor Orion, "you'll get used to it."

	"If you say so."

	They made it to a set of couches, Sailor America bouncing all the
way.  Sailor Orion added it to the list of things she had to ponder: why was
her lover acting as if she'd never been here before?  Stress, or was it
simply psychosomatic?

	The television screens were showing more video of Serenity. 
"Parade's starting," said America, trying to appease her stomach.  "This
should be fun."

***

	"My, this is fun," said Princess Usagi Small Lady Tsukino from her 
purple-upholstered armchair.

	"Hm?" asked Sailor Mercury, who hadn't been paying attention.  
Instead, she had been reading an English language AI trade journal.  
It would have been childishly simple to get the Japanese 
language version, but she liked to stay sharp.

	"Sitting here.  Watching television.  Not seeing the crowds."

	"Security," said Sailor Altair from the window.  They were in a hotel 
room acrossd the city from the parade, and almost equally as far from 
Endymion.  "If something should happen to your mother and father, you'd be 
in charge, you know."

	"Yes, yes, but how likely is that?"

	"As long as there is the possibility that-"

	"If you're so worried about possibilities, why did you let Mother 
even come here?"

	"Because she wanted to," Sailor Mercury said softly.  "We were all
against it.  Your mother thinks that her presence can change things here,
and so as long as she's got that hope it's rather hard to say no to her."

	"Well then, if you'll allow Mother to go out there, you can
certainly allow me!"

	"That's precisely why we *can't* allow you to go out there," replied
Altair.  "We're taking a fantastic risk having her parade down a major city
like this, and we'd rather avoid compounding that!"

	But I'm the princess!  If I say I want something, it's got to be
done!  Usagi very nearly said that.  But she didn't.  She'd learned that
lesson quite a long time ago.  With power came responsibility, and she knew
that she couldn't do anything she wished.  There were expectations. 
Obligations.  Commitments.  Trappings.  She sighed.  No wonder her mother
had always wished for a normal life.

	"Fine, I'll stay here."

	"That was never in question," said Sailor Altair.  Sailor Mercury
gave the black haired senshi a warning look, and Sailor Altair bowed her
head in submission.

	"It's okay," said Sailor Mercury.  She turned to Usagi.  "Remember,
you'll have plenty of chances to grab the publicity before this is all
over." Sailor Mercury then found it her turn to receive a glare.  "It's not
all publicity, you know.  There's the actual idea of seeing the country? 
Mingling with the natives?  You know, stuff that tourists are supposed to
do?  You'll have time for that too.  Beginning in . . . Reno, I think."

	"Yes."  Usagi's attention returned to the television.  The parade
was now turning a corner and winding its way down towards the bay.  The
waters of the bay were bluish-gray, with only a few sparkles as sunlight
struggled to get through the thin high clouds.  The crowds paid it no mind,
though.  After all, the real action was happening on the streets.

***

	"Look at them.  It's about to rain, and they don't give a damn!"

	"Um, actually sir, I believe the rain won't begin for another
thirty-six hours according to the meteorological department."

	General Jeffrey Black scowled at his adjutant.  "Bloody meteos,
never get anything right anyway.  You ask me, it's their fault it's always
so cold." He sighed.  "That's not the point, however," he continued, toying
with his thick mustache.  "The point is that that bitch is too popular."

	Lieutenant Aaron Lewin looked a bit apprehensive.  "Sir, aren't
standing orders-"

	"You know as well as I do how much standing orders are worth.  I'm
the supreme commander, I think I get a bit of leeway.  Don't you?" The
threat was clear.

	"Um . . . yes, sir."

	"Good."  The man with salt-and-pepper hair turned back to watching
the screen.  His office was a rather cold and utilitarian room.  It had one
wall of glass that overlooked the Cave, a rabbit's arren of chambers,
tunnels, and bunkers that lay somewhere beneath the Rocky Mountains and
north of the Columbia River.  It bore a slight resemblance to the United
States's old NORAD headquarters in Colorado, but since the destruction of
that base in the Formation Wars American military planners had bad memories
of the area.  So when it came time to build a new headquarters, they had
chosen some place further north and then took the further precaution of
building two decoy bases, making sure the three were widely spaced.  As if
that had not been enough, the locations of none of the three were made
public.

	It was the most secret room in the world, or at least as secret as
anything could be in the world of the thirty-first century.  Of course the
planners had known that the location would be found out; it would be
underestimating any potential enemies to assume otherwise.  So they had
taken a further precaution and lined the entire thing with layer after layer
of concrete, lead, rock, water, and whatever could be found to insulate
against any imaginable force.  General Black felt the truly frightening
thing was the protection was also there to protect the outside world from
whatever might be unleashed inside.

	"Too much power, I tell you, and we're inviting her right into our
midst."

	"The plan accommodates that, sir."

	"The plan never works.  If three thousand years of military history
hasn't taught us that, nothing will . . . but no matter.  Are the Calgary
papers ready?"

	"Um . . . ."  Lewin went to a terminal and started tapping away. 
"Fraunhofer's team is still working on their estimates, but everyone else is
ready, sir."

	"Good.  I hear Calgary has some nice local restaurants?"

	Lewin, a Calgary native, smiled.  "Best in the world, sir.  Barbecue
that has to be tasted to be believed."

	"I see."  He chanced a smile.  "Perhaps we should get there a bit
early?"

	Lewin wisely overlooked his commander's slip in using Japanese. 
"Yes, sir.  In fact, I could recommend-"

	"Attention, attention.  General Black, would you please come to
section W immediately.  General Black, would you please come to section W
immediately.  That is all."

	The PA fell silent, as did the two men.  "Project Heartbreaker."

	"Yes, sir.  You don't suppose anything's gone wrong?"

	The general stood and walked briskly out the door and down the hall
with a speed that made him seem younger than his sixty-two years.  "Of
course something's gone wrong," said Black to his adjutant, who was
struggling to keep up.  "You know those scientists: never happy unless
they're screwing things up!"

***

	"Stop the car."

	The driver blinked, as did the senshi around Neo-Queen Serenity. 
"What?"

	"Stop the car, please," Sreenity repeated.

	The driver, a civilian whose extensive training and high speed
evasive driving had won him the spot as chauffeur for the trip, looked at
Sailor Mars for advice.  Mars nodded her head slightly, if not a little
reluctantly, and the car stopped, as did the rest of the procession a couple
seconds later.

	"I would like to get out, please."  She held up a hand; she could
see that the other senshi in the vehicle were aghast.  "I have to attend to
a matter of foreign relations." Sailor Mars was the only one ready to
complain now, and the expression on her face showed that she had plenty she
wanted to make clear.  "If you like, you can come with me."

	Sailor Mars sighed; was there no hope?  For the sake of the kami,
why did Serenity insist on seeing how far she could push her umbrella of
security?  If she hadn't known the queen for a thousand years she'd swear
Serenity had a death wish.

	"Very well.  But we'll all come with you."

	The doors opened, the shield came down, and Serenity stepped out,
her senshi flanking her and trying to look calm.  Serenity had no need to
try to look calm; she knew what she was after.  She made a beeline for the
edge of the route.  With a gesture, two guards removed the barricades that
blocked the crowd from the road.  For their part, the people in the crowd
were stunned that the most powerful person in the world was just a few
meters away and drawing closer.  There was no need for the senshi to hold
them back; the crowd was doing a good job of that itself.

	Serenity noticed none of this; she was looking at one person in
particular.  She found that person, and without the slightest hesitation
crouched down to look at her in the eyes.  "Hello," said Serenity in
accented English.  "What is your name?"

	Somehow the girl managed an answer.  "K-Kelly Grain, Your Majesty,"
she said.  She started to curtsey, then stopped in the middle of it, unsure
of whether or not she should have done so.

	Serenity smiled that famous smile.  "No need for that," she said,
gently helping Kelly up to full height and brushing back her chestnut hair. 
"Just call me Serenity."

	"Yes . . . I mean, yes, Your Majesty!" she exclaimed, finishing in
Japanese.

	Serenity smiled even more broadly at that.  "You are a very cute
girl." she asked in Japanese.

	"If you say so, Your Majesty."  The Japanese came as a struggle to
Kelly, but she managed it.

	"They teach them so young," she said in an aside to Sailor Venus,
who smiled in return.  She turned back to the girl.  "You . . . you remind
me of my daughter when she was your age," Serenity said in English again. 
"You are a good girl for your parents, are you not?"

	"Mm-hm," she replied, nodding.  Her mother and father positively
beamed with pride behind her.

	"Good.  Keep it up, okay?  Good luck."  On impulse she gave a hug
that couldn't have been done for any better visual effect if it had been
choreographed, and that would be flashed on every news network on a dozen
planets within a couple of days.

***

	"Ha," said Sailor America from her vantage point on the moon. 
"Sailor Cassiopeia's job just got a lot easier," she said with a smile. 
"You can't *buy* PR like that.

	"Orion?"  She looked over at the redhead.

	She was fast asleep.

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Begun: 16:15 17 April 1998
Finished: 18:36 6 May 1998
Final draft: 22:43 27 May 1998
Final edit: 22:31 15 February 2001