(Rating: PG-13)

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Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Orion  
A kinda original fanfic by LeVar Bouyer  
Episode 404: Standing Alone  
=======================================  
  

*** [title sequence] ***  
  
	Jen turned her head and coughed away from the mouthpiece of the  
phone.  "How soon?"  
  
	"Yesterday at around 22:00," replied the voice on the other end.  
  
	She shook her head and started walking along the sidewalk to school
again.  "I assume this'll be added onto the colonial debt?"
  
	"Right."  
  
	Jen closed her eyes for a moment.  She didn't particularly care
about the colonial debt; it was the Crown that paid her senshi expense
account, and how long it took her world to be fully self-sufficient was of
no concern to her.  Self-sufficiency had been a major goal since before she
had arrived, though.  For the governor to toss it away, things must be worse
than she thought, and if there were things going on that she, as interim
second-in- command of the planetary defense force, didn't know, that spelled
trouble.
  
	At school she found things remarkably normal.  
  
	"Stand!" said the class representative as she entered her first class of the  
day.  Jen frowned slightly; the room seemed warmer than usual.  She took 
off her dark green jacket and draped it on her chair, leaving her white 
blouse, small burgundy bow, and pleated gray skirt.  
  
	It was a slightly smaller class than normal. three absences in a  
class of twenty.  Jen wondered how many of those were due to parents who  
had decided to flee the city.  She didn't blame them.  If it weren't for  
her obligations in Nagano-2, she would have left for the less populated  
southern continent as well, and she knew the same went for a lot of 
people. 
  
	"Good morning, class.  I don't know what your other teachers will be
doing today in light of what happened a couple days ago, but here it's going
to be business as usual.  Now, if you'll pass your homework to the front of
the room . . . ." She trailed off and pulled the day's outline from her
briefcase.  She liked to keep her pocketspace free of such things.
  
	Jen turned her back to the class and began writing on the
blackboard.  When she had gone to high school, she remembered, there had
been no true blackboards, just a dynamic computer-operated screen at the
front of the room.  At the university that was the case as well.  In this
high school, however, it was back to the chalk and chalkboard system that
had prospered for over a thousand years.  She liked chalk for some reason,
liked the dust that clung to her fingers and got under her nails, liked the
satisfaction she got from wiping the eraser in broad swipes across the
board, making room for the next set of notes.
  
	She finished writing the first part of the outline and turned to  
the class to pick up the papers.  A quick count: five missing.   
Subtracting three absences . . . .
  
	"Tonomi-chan, Gennosuke-kun, where are your papers?"  
  
	Tonomi stood and bowed in apology.  "I'm sorry, Sakachi-sensei, but
with all the excitement lately I didn't get a chance to finish it, and-"
  
	"What's your address?"  
  
	"33 East Sakura Street."  
  
	"Hayashi district?"  
  
	"Yes."
  
	"That was far enough away from the affected zone, there should have
been no difficulty at all.  One hour detention after school. 
Gennosuke-kun?"
  
	Tonomi sat in defeat, while the teenage boy who was actually taller
than Jen Gennosuke stood.  "Sakachi-sensei," the soccer player began in his
deep voice, "I apologize for not doing the assignment, but honestly I didn't
think we would be alive to turn it in, so-"
  
	"You had all of yesterday to finish it.  That's not a good enough
excuse."
  
	"But I was in terror and-"  
  
	"You were in terror?  Good, then you can write about it in detention
for one hour."
  
 	"How can you know what I felt!"  
  
	A silence.  Jen put down the chalk and papers and walked to
Gennosuke's desk.  "How?" She reached into nowhere and pulled out an item
that was far too familiar to her, and only slightly familiar to him.  "This
is how!" She held the henshin stick in front of his eyes for a long moment,
then returned it to nothing.  "One hour detention after school, every day
for the next week."
  
	"Sakachi-sensei!"  
  
	"That's enough, Gennosuke-kun, you can sit down."  Inside she was
still shaking with fear and rage that this kid had the temerity to lecture a
sailor senshi on terror.  She sure as hell hadn't seen him put it on the
line then, and she didn't want to hear his mouth about it now.
  
	Jen returned to her usual position, sitting on her desk.  Absently
she noticed that her hands were shaking, and then she realized why.  For the
first time, she had referred to her senshi duties in class.  She felt cold
and put her jacket on again.  Unsure of how to handle this, she carried on
the class in a subdued way, her usual enthusiasm gone.
  
	At a couple minutes to nine she picked up something on the edge of
consciousness, something that nagged and told her that something was
important.  Without even thinking she stuck her right hand into her jacket
pocket, and in so doing took hold of her henshin stick.  There seemed
nothing out of the ordinary, and she tried to continue on.
  
	"So then Frederick was forced to yield to the demands of his
advisors, which lead to the Stockholm accord of . . . ." She trailed off
despite herself and by chance glanced at her watch: 8:58.  The exact time
the first message had came for her to be on guard, just a few days ago. 
Looking up at the class, she could see that they remembered the significance
as well.
  
***  
  
	Lunchtime for Jen Sakachi generally meant a bento box consumed at
her desk in the social studies teachers' planning room.  As one of the
newest teachers at Furikato High School, she got the smallest desk, a tiny
one tucked away in the corner of the room.  She knew that relatively
speaking it was pretty big, certainly bigger than the students' desks, but
it still rankled slightly.  Of the six social studies teachers on the
faculty, only two had doctorates, and the other was the head of the
department.  Then again, at least the department here wasn't nearly as
snotty as the department at the University of Hinansho.
  
	She walked into the room a couple minutes after eleven.  Her first
act was to take off her jacket and drape it over the back of her chair; the
department head always kept the temperature a bit high.  Her second act was
always the same as well: she kicked off her black high heels and tossed them
under her desk.  Her third act was then to wriggle her toes, which now
tasted freedom for the first time in about six hours. The fourth act varied. 

	Today it was a conversation with Denbe Tsukahara, another teacher
who shared the lunch hour with her and two others.  Unlike most teachers, he
wasn't at all put off by a history teacher who looked like she should be one
of his students.  "How did that refresher exam go, Tsukahara-san?" asked Jen
as she sat in her cushioned chair and massaged her feet.
  
	"Not too good," replied Denbe.  He was a middle-aged man, slightly  
balding at the temples, with a sharp expression that had struck fear  
into more than one freshman government class.  His dark green necktie was
loose at the neck.  "Two thirds flunked, the rest barely passed, not a 
single A.  Dunno what's wrong, the way I've handled this section before 
has always worked."  He opened a bottle of grape juice and took a long sip.  
  
	"Tutoring sessions?" asked Jen.  She got up and went to the small
refrigerator, emerging with a bottle of iced tea and a bento box.
  
	"I offer them.  No-one comes."  He was silent for a moment.  "How  
many absences did you have today?"  
  
	"Twenty, most in my third period class."  
  
	"How were they?"  
  
	"I think they're taking it pretty well.  Only a few people didn't
hand in assignments, most seem to want to go back to business as usual."
  
	"Even though we don't know when we'll be attacked next?" he asked  
mildly, picking up a stack of tests and flipping through them.  
  
	Jen froze; she had been about to dive into her meal.  "Who says  
we're going to be attacked again?" she asked quietly.  
  
	Denbe looked surprised.  "It's common knowledge, isn't it? 
Shioko-san and I were discussing it between classes earlier.  First the
military goes nuts, then we lose our satellites, then that . . . whatever it
was comes, and you and Sailor America have to stop it.

	"Nobody believes that was the only one, so it's just a matter of
time before you're going to have to go out there again.  Can you teach with
that possibility?"
  
	"Tsukahara-san," said Jen calmly, "my being a senshi has never  
been a problem in the classroom.  Why do things change now?"  
  
	"Because we're at war, Sakachi-san."  The third voice surprised  
the two teachers.  
  
	At eighty-five, Okuni Hirohata was the oldest teacher at the school. 
She'd lived on Hinansho since the colony was founded, and had bent the rules
on age limits for space travelers when she came there.  Her age hadn't
crippled her in the least, though; beneath the gray hair and reading glasses
was one of the keenest minds in the building.
  
	"There's been no-"  
  
	"We're at war, and you know that as well as I do.  I may not be a
senshi, but I can read a newspaper!  So, when will your resignation be on my
desk?"
  
	Jen casually took a bite out of a Red Delicious apple.  "Never."  
  
	"What?"  Hirohata was flabbergasted. 
  
	"I'm not resigning.  I like my job, I like being here, I'm not  
leaving until it's either no longer fun or I'm dead, and I'm not dying  
anytime soon."  
  
	"Perhaps you didn't understand me, Sakachi-san.  I wasn't asking if
you were going to resign.  I asked *when*."
  
	The redhead chuckled at her desk and drank some more iced tea.  "If
you think you can pressure me to leave, you're mistaken."
  
	"Because you're the high and mighty Sailor Orion?"  
  
	"No."  She finished her apple in silence.  "Because I've got a
doctorate in history from the University of Crystal Tokyo, and you're not
going to fire someone with that."
  
	"Such . . . such . . . such unbelievable *arrogance*!  I'll be
talking to the principal, Sakachi!  Senshi or not, you'll respect my
authority!"
  
	Inside Jen was shaking.  Outwardly she tried to be cool, turning  
her back to Hirohata and continuing with her lunch.  She knew that she  
*was* being arrogant, though.  It was totally unlike her to have such  
disregard for authority, but it was her job, dammit, and she wasn't going to
leave it just because Eileen had nearly been killed doing her other job.
  
	Hirohata stalked off, and the rest of lunch passed in silence.  
  
***  
  
	Nighttime in Nagano-2.  Jen and Eileen's house was relatively far
away from the downtown area.  Also, the downtown area didn't have the lights
that most major cities did at night.  For that reason, light pollution was
relatively low, and the major constellations were easily visible as Jen sat
on a plastic lawn chair in her backyard, facing east.
  
	She pulled her arms close to her chest; two turtlenecks and a  
sweater weren't enough against the breeze blowing down from the northern  
mountains, a breeze that heralded winter just three months away.  The  
redhead sat like that for a moment, chin resting on her arms.  Then,  
with a sigh that was made visible by the cold air, she looked up to the  
sky.  
  
	The constellations in the sky of Hinansho would be completely
unfamiliar to any native of Earth.  As everyone on the colony wasn't too far
removed from Earth to start with, that meant that a good half of them were
still being named.  She looked at one particular constellation, which looked
a bit like Orion but with two extra stars in a more slanted belt, and one
shoulder missing.  It had been called Chibi-Orion after it was announced
that Jen would be coming there.
  
	For the most part, though, the constellations had been named after
local flora and fauna, a trend she happened to like.  The sky deepened into
black, and then lightened a bit as the first of Hinansho's two moons rose. 
She remembered the times she and Eileen had spent in this chair, usually
involving some lap sitting, looking up at these same stars.
  
	Jen had paid a visit to the hospital that afternoon.  Eileen's
condition was improving rapidly, and she was expected to get out of the
hospital in just a couple days.  Not too soon for Jen, of course.  She
didn't notice a shooting star in the northern sky.
  
***  
  
	"See, it's there again!"  
  
	"Hm . . . ."  Lieutenant Commander Sammy Porter frowned.  "Replay it  
again."  
  
	"Replaying."  Sammy, recently returned from the south, and a 
young rating were sitting in front of one of the Valhalla computer 
consoles.  The picture was one of a star field, with the print in the
lower left corner denoting it as a view of the northern sky at 100x 
magnification, 21:33 SNST.  A ground-based camera mounted to a telescope
had been observing one of the ships that had slipped into orbit. 
  
	The picture on the screen looked like it might show something
detaching from a larger ship.  It might also be a stray shooting star.  The
two of them were trying to figure out which of the two was correct.
  
	"See," said Ginko Nakane, the rating "it'd be a pretty big
coincidence for a meteor just happening to hit the atmosphere at this point,
especially as it's also the point one of the ships happens to be at."
  
	"But it's not impossible."  
  
	"No, sir."  
  
	"Keep going, then."  
  
	The same video rolled once more, with the same maddening lack of
information.  The meteor (or other unidentified object) streaked for two
seconds, just a bright star, and then disappeared.
  
	"Not much to go on," murmured Sammy.  
  
	"No, sir."  
  
	A long moment passed in silence before Sammy reached for her headset
and slipped it on.  "Kim, Vanessa?  Yes, as we suspected.  Mm-hm.  That's my
recommendation too.  Okay, let's do it." She took off the set.  "Good job,
Nakane-san." Sammy straightened from leaning over the rating's shoulder and
brushed her blonde hair back from her eyes.  It wasn't quite as blonde as it
had been a decade ago, and she certainly wasn't as young as she once had
been.  But she wasn't old either.  "Go to first stage alert, notify city
officials, designate target as Sierra-2-"
  
	"Thank you, Commander Porter, that'll do."  
  
	Sammy turned around, surprised.  "Captain Aida?"  
  
	The true commander of Valhalla, Captain Yujiro Aida, stood behind
her.  He gazed down at her with his gray eyes for a moment, then looked up
at one of the status screens.  "I'm in charge of this operation now. 
Initiate first stage alert and evacuation procedures."
  
	"Aye, sir," said Sammy, slightly resentful.  Didn't Aida trust her
enough to do things by herself?  She really didn't need her CO hovering over
her shoulder; she needed a commander who had a more hands-off policy . . .
like Sailor Orion.  "I'll let Sailor O-"
  
	"No."  
  
	"Sir?  She's the commanding officer, she's got to be informed of
what's happening!"
  
	"I need you to supervise the firing pattern against the object once
it arrives here." There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Nagano-2 would
once again be the target.  "We'll launch an even dozen SAMs at Sierra-2 as
it comes in, and then the PDFs will move in and clean up if necessary."
  
	Sammy didn't bother mentioning that there were only thirty surface
to air missiles left in defense of the city, with eight in the southern
hemisphere.  This attack would accomplish little but deplete already
dangerously low munitions.  She also knew that arguing this point would be
even more useless.  When Aida made a decision, that was that.  All one could
do was say 'I told you so' after it was over.  "Aye aye, sir." Aida moved
off to his command position while Sammy pulled on a headset.  "Yes, get me
the first artillery command, tell them to prep to immediate missile launch. 
No, we don't have a target yet, we'll let you know as soon as we do."

	She clicked over to another channel and began giving more orders,
ignoring the cries of protest.  Quite reasonable: they didn't like being
told to get ready to shoot down an object when they didn't even know what
they were shooting at, or when they would shoot, or even why.  The woman
sighed and ran a hand through her hair.  A decade after her last crisis
situation, and now the security of her two friends was gone.  Kim and
Vanessa were both at other stations in the bright room, too far away for
them to give her the support she needed.
  
	At the main command post behind her, Aida was just climbing up the
stairs.  "Do we have a visual?"
  
	"No sir," answered Kim Young, looking up from the ops console.  The
frustration in her eyes showed: over an hour's frantic search with radar and
ground sighters had turned up nothing.
  
	"Perhaps it was a meteor after all?" offered Vanessa Leeds over the
headset.  The alarm that went off afterwards proved that to be untrue.  

	The main status screen, which normally showed a map of Nagano-2 and
the surrounding area, now had a bright red and blinking dot to the north. 
"What was that?" roared Aida.
  
	"Unknown, sir, but observation post at Mount Takajima has gone off
the air!"
  
	"So, the worst case scenario," he muttered to himself.  "Right,"  
he said louder, "target Mount Takajima with everything.  When that thing  
moves, annihilate it!"  
  
	"Sir," said Sammy over her headset, "all our weapons were useless
the last time out, what makes this one different?"
  
	"I've given my orders, carry them out."  
  
	"Sir!  You're not answering-"  
  
	"I don't *have* to answer to *you*!  I'm the commander, you're the
lieutenant commander, is that clear?"
  
	"It's clear he's an asshole," whispered Vanessa to Kim on a private
line.
  
	"Crystal clear," replied Sammy in a cold a tone as she dared use. 
With a furious click she changed to a different channel.  "Attention all
aircraft in the Nagano-2 zone, attention.  Mount Takajima and the
surrounding area are now no-fly zones.  I repeat, anyone flying in the
Takajima area, a no-fly zone is now in effect.  Any objects in the sky
*will* be shot down for the duration of the state of emergency.  Thank  
you."  Then the hard order.  "First artillery, this is Valhalla.  Target  
Mount Takajima: if anything flies, shoot it down."  
  
	"Aye, sir."  There wasn't a very long wait before the missiles
started firing.
  
***  
  
	Jen had missed the shooting star earlier.  She didn't miss it when
the northern sky went ablaze with light.  She was too shocked for words,
could only stand from her chair and stare as the flashes and fireballs
detonated over the northern mountain range.
  
	"Kami-sama . . . ORION STAR POWER, MAKE-UP!"  No time to waste, time  
to head for Valhalla . . . after she locked the front door of the house.  
  
***  
  
	"Sir, incoming message from Sailor Orion."  
  
	Aida sighed.  "Tell her our plans, advise her to stay out of the
projected crash zone."
  
	"Sir," repeated Sammy, "she already knows that.  She's ordering-"  
  
***  
  
	"-Aida to call off those damned missiles NOW!  Tell him to sit back
and wait for further orders!  How's the evacuation of the city going?"
  
	Sailor Orion was running through the northern suburbs as fast as she
had ever run, her hair a red blur trailing behind her.  Absently she
adjusted her glasses so not as much wind blew into her eyes.  She had taken
the time to clip her communicator to the collar of her fuku, which allowed
her arms to swing free.
  
	There was a pause as Sammy spoke to Captain Aida.  "Slowly.  A good
part of the southern and western districts are still in the open."
  
	"Wonderful," sighed the senshi.  She gulped.  "Any news on what
we're up against?"
  
	"No . . . sir, I'm being told to inform you that Captainr Aida has
control of the situation, and that I'm to ask you-"
  
	"Tell Aida that as soon as this battle's over he's fired."  
  
	"Sir?"  
  
	Sailr Orion turned a corner and narrowly avoided a supply truck. 
"You heard me.  He's acting irresponsibly and irrationally, I don't need him
in the big chair.  Let him know that as soon as possible, but there's one
other thing I need you to do first.  Has Nagano General been evacuated?"
  
	"Not completely, hospitals and elderly homes were evacuated first 
but it's still going slowly."  
  
	"Hrm.  Find Ei . . . Captain Pearcy.  She's to be moved outside the
city and kept safe at all costs." She grabbed the communicator and fiddled
with it a bit.  "If my communicator goes off the air, wake her and inform
her of the situation.  I don't know if she'll be able to handle it, but if I
go down she's all we have left."
  
	Sammy was silent.  "An . . . anything else, sir?"  
  
	"Tell her that I love her."  
  
	"Aye, sir."  
  
***  
  
	In Valhalla, Aida was furious.  "WHAT?"  
  
	"Those were her orders, sir, I'm not in a position to question-"  
  
	"SHUT THE HELL UP!  Get me Sailor Orion!"  
  
	"Yes sir, putting her on.  No visual, though."  
  
	Sailor Orion's voice, punctuated with the gasps of a distance
runner, filled the room.  "I'm a bit busy, Aida-san, I'll get back to you."
  
	"You-"  
  
	"You fired without permission, which was a blatant violation of my
orders.  You're relieved.  Unless you want to add mutiny to the list of
charges at your court, you'd better march right out of Valhalla.  Copy?"
  
	Valhalla was silent.  The usual murmur of techs giving and receiving
orders stopped, even the hum of the air conditioning units ceased.  All
turned to face the command center, and the one man who stood, purple-faced,
in its center.  "BITCH!"
  
***  
  
	She stopped on a slight rise outside Nagano-2, her back to the city,
the light of a dozen forest fires illuminating her flushed face. The
adrenaline that had fueled her dash to the foothills of the mountains still
coursed through her veins.  She had to stop herself from hopping up and down
in anticipation as the glitter of the flames glinted in the lenses of her
eyeglasses.  "Right," she said aloud, standing alone at the edge of battle,
"I'm ready."
  
	She heard a growl that turned into a roar.  Turning to her right
faster than any normal human could, she was still caught unawares by the
giant humanoid slamming into her and throwing her to the ground.  The two
tumbled down the hill as Orion struggled desperately, the beast's hands
around her throat.  As they crashed into a pool of cold, murky standing
water at the bottom of the hill, Sailor Orion had just enough time for one
thought before plunging back into the struggle for her life.
  
	"Help me, Eileen."