=================== Episode #305: Henso =================== Crystal Tokyo 5 March 3035 "At 00:05 Crystal Tokyo Time, an American naval vessel, the A.C.S. Winnipeg, was heading east at approximately ten knots off Attu Island, en route to Prince Rupert. According to American officials, an SOS was received by listening stations at the time. The message, also received by Crystal Tokyo sources, stated that they had been hit by a combined laser and torpedo attack, were down several meters at the head, and required assistance immediately." Sailor Cassiopeia looked up from her notes and into the packed briefing room. Half the faces were unfamiliar to her, probably Russian or American journalists who'd been in the region and had raced here to hear Crystal Tokyo's reaction. She couldn't blame them. "Rescue planes were sent out from Vancouver and Crystal Tokyo, but no survivors have been recovered as of yet. All hands are presumed lost. "At about 00:55, we received a statement from the Russian Confederation government in Odessa. They claimed responsibility for the sinking, and claimed that A.C.S. Winnipeg was in Russian waters. They categorically ruled out any apologies. "And three minutes ago, at 01:21, the American Confederation government in Vancouver issued a demand for an apology, stating that, and I quote, 'this most grievous attack upon AC interests demands an apology. Odessa will atone for its error, or else the American Confederation will be forced to respond swiftly and decisively. The failure of President Rostov to heed this will result in the gravest consequences.' "Her Majesty has been kept abreast of the latest developments, and has prepared the following statement. 'Crystal Tokyo extends its condolences and deepest sympathy to the families of those lost aboard A.C.S. Winnipeg. I counsel the leaders of the American Confederation and the Russian Confederation to stop and consider their actions before proceedingany further. Neither I nor my subjects have any wish to see any more lives lost. "'Towards this end, I invite President Ronowski from America and President Rostov from Russia to meet here at the Palace to discuss matters further in a peaceful setting. "'I, along with the interconfederational community, hope that a peaceful resolution can be found, and soon.' Signed, Neo-Queen Serenity. Any questions?" A forest of hands went up, and Sailor Cassiopeia sighed. *** "This is like a nightmare," said Sailor America, punching the off button on the handlink. "Russia and America starting a war?" "It's happened before," said Sailor Orion. They were on the express shuttle to Earth. Almost all of the two dozen or so passengers were senshi, with only three exceptions. They were all nervous, both at the recall orders and the latest news from Earth. "Yes, but . . . I've got a brother who was thinking about joining up with the army, and if he were to-" "Call him. Call him and talk him out of it." "Will there be time? Kami-sama, it's only been a day and things are already going to hell!" That morning, even as Sailor Cassiopeia was pleading for calm, a Russian aircraft carrier was nearly rammed by an American ship under the pretext of rudder difficulties. Both sides knew what it was really about, however. Satellite surveillance showed military buildups in Alaska and the Chukchi peninsula, on the opposite side of the Bering Strait. Even more frightening, the confederations were already choosing sides. The last few wars had been simple affairs, but this one had all the signs of going global. China was leaning towards supporting the AC, probably because of the recent trade agreement between the two. SEAA was following China with reservations; Prathachulthorn probably knew that China would be more than willing to beat the hell out of SEAA's mainland territories otherwise. The Arab Union had yet to show any signs of support for anyone; it seemed content to wait things out and see who was most likely to win. Europe was leaning towards support of Russia, for the same reasons SEAA was supporting China. None of this was public; most was just conjecture, with a bit of what Sailor Orion knew about geopolitics thrown in. In public, all the leaders showed nothing but shock for the recent events, but actions spoke louder than words. The armies of the world were mobilizing, and the only calm spot in the world seemed to be Crystal Tokyo. No-one knew how long Crystal Tokyo's neutrality could hold out with two warring powers right on her doorstep. For her part, Sailor America didn't know how long she could hold off on the most important decision of her life: whether to return and fight for the land of her birth, or carry out her duties as a senshi in Crystal Tokyo. "The first round of peace talks will be tomorrow," said Sailor Orion, pulling out a handlink and typing out a memo to H.M.S. Seiza. "If anyone can get Russia and America to back down, Serenity can." "You think that's why we've been recalled?" asked Sailor America, still pondering matters. "To fight a war that hasn't started yet? Probably not. Intelligence probably got a hint of something and decided to take precautions." "Yeah," America slouched in her seat. "Her Majesty'll probably want to stay out of this whole mess anyway. We won't fire a shot." "I hope you're right." She punched a button and watched the screen of text disappear. "Earth can't afford another global war." *** "Earth cannot afford another war, Ronowski-san." "We realize that, Serenity, but at the same time we can't ignore the facts." The president of the American Confederation looked frazzled: tie loosened, suit wrinkled, the rings of sleep deprivation around his eyes. It was a reminder that he and several others had been working almost around the clock to avert a war. "An unprovoked attack was made upon one of our assets, and we must act to protect our own interests." "But why *this* way?" Sailor Mercury leaned over the circular table, around which sat Serenity, Sailors Mercury and Neptune, President Ronowski, President Rostov, and a half dozen assorted aides. She didn't look fatigued at all. "Why are you dragging the rest of the world into this?" "We aren't!" protested Ronowski. "Our quarrel is with Russia alone. We haven't asked anyone to assist us. Hong Kong and Wellington are acting of their own free will, and we would be foolish to refuse their offers." "But you would be foolish to go through with this at all!" Sailor Neptune nearly pounded her fist on the table in frustration. She turned to President Rostov, hoping the Russian would be a bit more receptive. "Don't you see that there can be no favorable outcome from this war?" Rostov sighed. "We've been through this before. While the AC was within its rights to annex South America, the latest allegations of human rights abuses cannot be ignored. Frankly, I'm rather surprised that Her Majesty hasn't taken action of her own," he said, gesturing to Serenity. "If you had been willing to come to us with your evidence, Rostov-san, you would have found us much more amenable than we are now. We were already considering economic sanctions against the American Confederation, and-" "Now wait just a minute, you-" "Serenity was speaking," said Sailor Neptune in the coldest voice she had ever used. "Please don't interrupt." "I'm sorry," said Ronowski, evading Neptune's glare. "I've been under considerable stress lately." "We all have," said Mercury. "That's why we're here." Rostov stood abuptly. "I apologize, but as long as the American Confederation refuses to admit to wrongdoing in South America, these talks can do no good. I have other matters to attend to. Good day." He bowed and headed for the door, his aides following, ignoring the pleas from Sailor Mercury to stop and talk. "Serenity? What do you plan to do now, eh?" Ronowski's dark eyes glittered. "Are you going to let him carry on with his aggression? With his unprovoked attacks on my ships and my people? Is *this* the love and justice of Crystal Tokyo?" Sailor Neptune made as if to respond, but was stopped by a gesture from Serenity. "Ronowski-san, be assured that I am keeping a close eye on this situation. However, you must realize the position I am in. I did not act when your forces overran South America. I can scarcely do differently now. At the moment there is no reason to treat this differently from any other interconfederational conflict. I shall continue my efforts at peace, but if you want military assistance, you shall *not* have it from Crystal Tokyo. That, if you like, is love." Ronowski regarded Serenity for a moment. "So that's how it is, eh?" He began to put away the various papers that had accumulated over the day's session. "Well, thank you for your efforts, Serenity. But your assistance shall not be necessary any longer. The American Confederation takes care of its own, peace or war. Bye." Ronowski stood and left, leaving his aides to pick up after him. Serenity sighed and leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands. "I must stop them. There is no alternative. Otherwise the destruction will be unimaginable." "Neutrality?" asked Neptune. "No, that will not do anymore. I cannot stand by and watch the world destroy itself. Something must be done." Sailors Neptune and Mercury shared glances. If their ruler had one fault, it was her stubborn determination to save everyone, even at the cost of her own life. Tt was their job to keep her from doing so; one can only come back to life so many times, after all. "Something must be done." *** A week later, and despite all the diplomatic efforts the buildup continued. Sailor Orion was spending most of her time at Earth headquarters watching the correlation of forces. The situation maps of Northeast Asia showed Chinese and SEAA ground forces gathering in Manchuria, probably to avoid a desert conflict. With winter giving way to spring, no-one wanted to be out there. Further north, Russia showed no signs of giving way. Its army, reinforced with European and Arab regulars, was massing just north of Manchuria, and on the Kamchatka peninsula as well. The Americans were building up in Alaska, prepared for a hard Arctic battle. With all these hostile parties preparing to kick off a major conflict just a few hundred kilometers away, Crystal Tokyo was keeping a close eye on things. Even as Serenity and the planet senshi, now pressed into diplomatic service, conducted marathon conference calls at all hours of the day and night, computers tracked the movements of millions of troops and thousands of aircraft. "Rather odd that they picked Manchuria for a meeting spot," she said idly. She was on the floor of the cavernous room, but had swiveled her chair around to face the crow's nest that overlooked everything. Up there was Sailor Altair, who had a more or less inside track on how things were doing, and it was Altair that Orion was speaking to over a headset. "Yes, perhaps. But it isn't the only spot. Things are stating to look hot in the North Atlantic as well, especially off Newfoundland and Ireland. The Arab Union is starting to make some moves on India too, and SEAA won't be terribly happy about that." "Yes." Sailor Orion stared at the main map for a long moment. Then she turned and began punching away at the computer. "Okay, what are you up to?" asked Sailor Altair, looking over the railing at Orion's typing. "What's Africa doing in all this? I mean, sure things are seriously screwed there, but not one of the confederations has tried to make an alliance. Hell, that one pretender in Kenya made a public offer of support for Ronowski and got ignored." "Hm . . . I'll relay that to the higher-ups. Are you willing to back this up?" "Not yet," said Sailor Orion. "I'd have to go through the numbers a bit more. It *is* interesting, though." A few minutes of relative silence passed. "Any news from upstairs?" "None. They're still talking, I suppose." "Then I hope they continue." *** Upstairs, Sailor Mars was in her office, sorting through pages of analyses. The AIs were good at scrounging up data and correlating it, but prioritizing was something that was still best left to a human. She looked at another handlink. This one noted that on 3 February, while Prime Minister Mina Cabot had been giving a speech in Nantes, France, EU, a woman looking remarkably similar to her had been spotted in Calgary. By itself this meant nothing, as the AI which produced the report had pointed out. But there were similar occurrences with increasing frequency. Looking back over the past year, there was a definite pattern. It appeared as if the six leaders of the world had been meeting over the past two years and tried to keep it secret. Why? She looked at the clock. Serenity was due for a lunch break. Might as well call a senshi conference and bring this up. Then the phone rang. "Yes?" She listened for a few moments, and then put down the handset, hands trembling. It was definitely time for a meeting. *** Admiral Bailey paced back and forth aboard the flagship of the Southeast Asian Alliance Navy, growing increasingly nervous while the ship did manuvers off the Phillipines. It seemed impossible that they should have made it so far, but there they were. Six days until Dagger and Spinal Tap began, and Crystal Tokyo still showed no signs of knowing anything was amiss. He had to admit that at the beginning he hadn't had much hope for success. There was simply no way that something so huge could be covered up for long. Even with all the precautions they had taken, it seemed inevitable that something had to be leaked. It seemed even more likely now. More and more of the military was being told their true objective and now knew that their enemy was neither Russia nor America, but rather Serenity and Crystal Tokyo. It was a psychological campaign of immense proportions, getting the military in the proper mindset to fight a war they weren't expecting. Sometimes even he got caught up in the ruse and began acting snappishly at his Russian counterparts. There were some days when he read the papers and found it hard to believe that he *wasn't* about to blast the hell out of Russia. "Sir." His adjutant knocked on the door of his office before entering, breaking in on his thoughts. "We've just gotten word from the Sakhalins. C Force is ready to move into position." "Good, very good. Thank you." The adjutant saluted and made for the door. "Oh, one more thing. Any more news on Heartbreaker?" The adjutant sighed. "More news, sir, but none of it's good. America insists that they need two more weeks before the mass produced units are ready for shipment." "And the plan doesn't provide for our using the handful of prototypes we have, does it?" asked Bailey rhetorically. "No matter, I feel quite confident at this stage. We've got the two weeks' surprise I wanted; we can win." "Yes, sir." *** Two days later, Sailor Cassiopeia raced into the room. It wasn't called the war room yet, not by anyone, but it had the atmosphere of one: in a subbasement of the Crystal Palace, just a couple levels above RSN Earth Headquarters, the walls close and imposing, the lights harsh and garish. It was there that Sailor Cassiopeia saw her sovereign for the first time as anything less than kind and composed. "Your Majesty, sirs, I came as soon as I could." In actuality they'd caught her while in the shower. She'd transformed while still dripping wet, and was simply hoping that when she detransformed that night she would be dry. Sailors Mars, Neptune, and Jupiter were there, along with Serenity and Endymion. Cassiopeia tried to hide her surprise; he was almost never present at the crisis meetings that were a nearly hourly occasion. "Your Majesties, I mean," she quickly amended. "Glad you could come," said Endymion. "Let's get to business." Sailor Mars looked slightly ill. "We've had some new developments, and one of them concerns you. So as soon as we can-" The door opened again, and Sailor America entered. "Your Majesty . . . er, Majesties, sirs," she said, bowing. "You sent for me?" "Yes," said Mars, slightly chilly now, "as I was saying we've got serious business to attend to." Sailors America and Cassiopeia sat together at the far end of the oblong table from Serenity and Endymion. At the head of the room, a screen lit up with the faces of the other planet senshi. Sailors Mercury, Venus, and Uranus shared one screen on the moon, and Saturn's screen showed her to be a couple floors down at Earth HQ. Sailor Moon appeared to be in transit. "I'll be brief," began Mars. "This entire thing, from the sinking of the American ship onwards, has been a sham." "WHAT?" half a dozen voices roared at once. "A sham. A ruse," she spat out. "We're still trying to figure out how long they've had this planned . . . suffice to say this is the biggest failure of our intelligence department since the attempted takeover a couple years ago, and quite possibly the worst ever. "At the moment, we have fairly hard evidence that Russia and America aren't as at odds as we thought, and we've virtually confirmed that SEAA and Russia are cooperating. We've intercepted a couple communications between them . . . by the way, Serenity-sama, I'm requesting that the techs who engineered that miracle get the Golden Crescent; without that bit of information we might still be taken in by this ruse. In any case, they're in cooperation. And once that's taken into consideration . . . ." "It becomes a lot easier to see why Russia chose now to pick a fight with America, and why Manchuria is suddenly a popular place." Endymion ran a hand through his hair, proving that he wasn't just a fifth wheel in the Crystal Tokyo military. The army that he commanded may lack respect around the world, but his mind for tactics and strategy was a force to be reckoned with. As if to prove this, he was in the Royal Army uniform which he almost never wore. It was closely modeled on the uniforms worn by his four protectors thousands of years ago, when he was the Prince of Earth, and he had fallen in love with a young beauty from the Moon. "You bet," said Sailor Jupiter, who looked like she was ready to go out and take on the entire world by herself. "If all the other confederations were so eager to jump in . . . ." She trailed off, and Sailor Cassiopeia almost thought she could smell a hint of ozone in the air. "The only thing this doesn't answer is why, though," said Sailor Mercury. "And no, Jupiter, I won't accept the standard 'they're out to get us' deal. That doesn't answer why they picked *now*." "I don't know, perhaps a new technological breakthrough? We didn't hear anything before, but if something this big could leak through . . . ." "Fine," said Sailor Uranus, "I think we've talked enough about what happened. What we need to decide now is how to act." "I shall contact President Ronowski immediately," said Serenity. "Good," Saturn Saturn agreed, "he seems to be the most powerful of the six right now." "Your Majesty," began Mars, "you know what I'm going to say. While it's perfectly noble to try and sue for peace, we must be realistic. The armies of six confederations are right on our doorstep, and we have very good reason to believe that they're all hostile. We *must* prepare for the worst possibility." "Agreed," chimed in Jupiter, and Sailors Venus and Neptune nodded their assent. "Mobilize the armed forces immediately and put the senshi on stage two alert. The enemy could strike at any time." Sailor Saturn frowned. "Provoking them is just what we've got to avoid, isn't it?" "Or what?" asked Sailor America, speaking up for the first time. "They'll get mauled in the press? Trust me, they don't care how they look in the world's opinion, because they *are* the world's opinion. The only group that could possibly disapprove or impose sanctions would be Africa, and we know how much force *they* wield!" Sailor Uranus narrowed her eyes. "Thank you, Sailor *America*, but I don't believe you were called here to give your military assessment." The underlying message was clear: your country has done enough damage. Don't give us another reason to mistrust you. To the brunette's relief, Cassiopeia immediately stepped in. "Beg pardon, Sailor Uranus, but I think it does have some bearing." "Yes, and in any case it can't hurt to get Africa's assistance," chimed in Mercury. "We've been trying to revitalize the region for over a century, and this might be the best opportunity, as sad as it may be." "People," said Sailor Mars in a voice close to the breaking point, "can we stay on topic? We have to decide upon a course of action *now*. Every second counts." "Your Majesty, I think it would be best if you began conferring with the Allied leaders," Sailor Jupiter said. "But I fear that that will at best only buy us time. And while crucial, time alone won't win the war. We've got to mobilize the army. It would fall under the national defense clause. If you like, we could call it a drill. That wouldn't panic the populace, would it?" "I'm afraid it would," replied Cassiopeia. "They're already frightened over the current state of affairs." "So are we," said Saturn quietly. "But we've still got to have a call-up!" retorted Jupiter. "A partial call-up," said Sailor Moon. "Move the active divisions to Kyushu and Hokkaido, and call up the reserves on those islands as well. Do it slowly and quietly, and hopefully the public won't be overly alarmed." The senshi considered this for a moment. Serenity only needed a moment; she considered it an excellent compromise. 'She'll make a fine Queen someday,' thought Serenity. 'Better than me, even.' "Very well. We will proceed as per Sailor Moon's suggestion." "Your Majesty, I-" "That is enough," said Serenity. "No more argument on the subject. We will do as Sailor Moon suggests, I will try my best to convince Ronowski- san to avoid bloodshed, and that is all." The more militant senshi could do nothing more but nod assent. Serenity turned to Sailors America and Cassiopeia. "Sailor Cassiopeia, you have done an excellent job in the past few weeks. Your dealings with foreigners have been exemplary. Therefore, you are hereby appointed to my diplomatic staff. You and three other senshi are charged with the responsibility of making peace through words and understanding, not guns and missiles. "Sailor America." She smiled. "I think you know what you are about to do. You have held the post of Secretary of Public Relations before. I would like for you to hold it again, until this crisis is past." America gulped. To hold what was probably the most prominent post a non-planet senshi could hold? Admittedly, she didn't have nearly as much power as her counterparts; it was simply that she was more in the spotlight. Now, when it seemed that America and the rest of the world was ready to launch a full-scale assault on the islands of Japan, Serenity wanted one of the foreign senshi to represent Crystal Tokyo. Sailor America didn't need to look around. She could feel the glares of the other senshi, and she could feel the glare of her inner soul. She sighed as she realized that Jen had already made the decision for her, though. Abandoning her oath to Serenity was one thing. Being on the other side of the battlefield from Orion was unthinkable. She was no longer an American, but a sailor senshi with the faith and trust of Serenity. In that case . . . . "It would be an honor, Your Majesty." It's going to be fun explaining this one to Jen . . . . "Very good, thank you." She stood. "I think this meeting has served its purpose, and I think that I have some phone calls to make. Goodbye." She bowed and made her way out, followed by Endymion and, after a brief pause, Cassiopeia. The others sat for a few moments. "Well, you heard her," said Jupiter. "Let's get to work. We've got a nation to save!" Sailor America sighed. "Weeeeee." =========================== Begun: 21:06 13 May 1998 Finished: 18:25 16 May 1998 Final draft: 09:41 20 May 1998 Final edit: 01:48 22 February 2001