(Rating: PG-13)  
  
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Episode 413: The Agony of Defeat  
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*** [title sequence] *** 
  
	Sailor Orion's blue eyes opened wide as the light began to blaze
from the hands of her attacker.  The beams surged forward and then flew past
the two senshi.  Acting purely on instinct, the two dove to either side,
though not fast enough to avoid the beams entirely.  Sailor America's
ponytail was very lightly singed as she swung to the right.
 
	The man's face was one of shock as his feet gave out from under him. 
In a lightning move, Sammy had scrambled over and made a well-timed sweep of
her legs at the man.  Distracted, his attack flew up into the ceiling,
punching a hole in it and sending debris crashing down to the floor.  For
her part, the blonde immediately rolled out of the way as Kim and Vanessa
brought their sidearms to bear on the attacker.
  
	The two senshi were still rolling away, neither quite realizing how
close they had come to death.  Sailor America was the first to recover,
coming to her feet shakily but steadily.  Sailor Orion was slower.  Her
heart was still pounding from the adrenaline the blast had spiked into her
system, and her instincts told her to stay on the ground.  It was a struggle
for her intellect to force her up into a ready position.
  
	Kim and Vanessa took just a split second to make sure the senshi and
Sammy were clear.  Then, both released the safeties on their weapons and
fired at point blank range, pumping high-energy micro-plasma charges into
the attacker's body.  Kim's face was frightened, but Vanessa's held
undisguised glee.  It was payback time indeed.  All watched as its body
twitched and spasmed.  Much to their dismay, while each shot was hitting
home, there was none of the searing of flesh that was to be expected from
being shot with a plasma pistol.  It was getting hit again and again, and to
be sure the thing's uniform was gradually being seared off, but they weren't
having any real impact.  Most seemed to simply be absorbed by his 'skin,' so
to speak, leaving only the kinetic impact.
  
	Sailor Orion simply stared with her sword drawn, unwilling to go any
further into the line of fire.  The commanders were pouring everything they
had into it, and now Sammy had drawn and was firing her weapon as well.  All
they could manage to do was push it further back and away from the others.
  
	Sailor America glanced over at Sailor Orion, who was on the other
side of the stream of fire from her, and nodded once.  Sailor Orion nodded
in return, signaled to her three commanders and mouthed the countdown to
America.  Three, two, one.  "NOW!" shouted Sailor Orion, aiming her sword at
the attacker.  "Orion Saber Disruption!"
  
	"American Stars and Stripes!"  
  
	Kim, Sammy, and Vanessa said nothing, but simply kept firing, all
three concentrating on his chest.
  
	The thing reeled from the combined attack, but to its credit it
didn't crumple.  Rather, throwing its arms back, it broke off the magical
and conventional attacks, knocking the senshi and officers to the ground. 
Then, eyes closed, it slowly faded into nothingness without a further word. 
There was silence in the room for a moment, save the panting from the five
women and the distant hooting of alarms.
  
	"Did we beat him?" asked Sailor America.  
  
	Sailor Orion leaned on her sword for support.  "No, we only beat him
back.  He's still alive, for certain." She looked around.  "But he's
finished his job for now." Valhalla was in ruins.  The status board was
smoking, the rows of computer consoles were either sparking, burning, or
dead, bodies were everywhere.  Over everything hung a pall of smoke.  Sailor
Orion sighed tiredly; as much as she hated it, her job wasn't over yet. 
"Sammy?"
  
	"Y . . . yes?"  Sammy Porter was still shaking from her encounter. 
Her pistol lay forgotten on the floor.
  
	"You're in charge for now.  We need to transfer to the backup
command center until this place can be repaired, okay?" Backup command was
actually a much smaller room than this one, much closer to the bridge of a
starship.  Its other major characteristic was that it had actual windows. 
It was located in the main government office complex, across from the
Parliament building.  Sailor Orion remembered that it was considerably more
cheerful.
  
	"Roger," replied Sammy.  In a daze, she brushed some dust from her
uniform and made her way to her companions.  After a few moments'
deliberations, they split up and began to take control of things, first
opening the doors to Valhalla and admitting the various teams.
  
	While security worked on making sure the chamber was safe, the
medics flooded in, immediately conducting triage on the mostly dead bodies
on the floor.  It was a gruesome task, and a depressing one as well.  "They
never stood a chance," said Sailor America quietly, coming to stand next to
the other senshi.  "No weapons, no warning, nowhere to run.  How can we
possibly defend against something like that?"
  
	The redheaded senshi could only sigh.  She knew time was essential,
but couldn't force herself into the hurry that was necessary.  "I don't
know.  Maybe it left some clues behind, though." She shook her head.  "Right
now we have to regroup.  This could just be a spoiling attack before a
full-scale invasion."
  
	"Keep the citizens in the shelters?" asked Vanessa expectantly.  
  
	"Yes.  The council will have to be notified of this as well." Sailor
Orion's tone showed that she didn't relish that thought in the slightest. 
If she wasn't a senshi and the planet's best hope for survival, they'd
probably be clamoring to put her in irons for the job she had done.
  
	"I'm on it, sir," answered Kim.  She lifted a phone, then replaced
it in its cradle.  "It's dead," she said simply.
  
	Sailor Orion sighed and detransformed into the same black naval
uniform everyone else wore, much to the surprise of Sammy.  "Sir?" she
asked.
  
	"Yes, I know," answered Jen.  "Somehow, a sailor fuku doesn't seem
appropriate in this sort of atmosphere." She gestured to the room as a
whole.  Security had done its job, and now the medics were removing the dead
and injured.  The repair crews were still assessing the damage, trying to
decide what could be fixed, replaced, or completely thrown out.  She looked
at her watch.  It was only 22:00.  "Kim, Sammy, Vanessa, Eileen, I'm going
to need to meet with you in a few hours at the new headquarters.  Kim, could
you make sure there's some lasagna there, at the least?"
  
	"Yes, sir."  As the valkyries dashed off, Sailor America took the
hint and detransformed as well.
  
	"So," asked Captain Sakachi quietly, "what will the press make of  
this?"  
  
	"Nothing," said Captain Pearcy just as calmly.  Jen was surprised by
this.  "As far as the public will be concerned, there were two and only two
enemy attacks tonight.  Both were on the surface, both were handled easily. 
There's no evidence topside anything happened down here, so why worry them?"
  
	Jen frowned.  "You're talking about concealing information."  
  
	"Damn straight," replied Eileen.  "And in the long run, it'll help a
lot more than it'll hurt."
  
	The redhead crossed her arms.  "You're the expert in these things,  
Eileen, but still . . . ."  
  
	"The other choice would be to go on TV tomorrow morning and tell the
public that the enemy went straight to the heart of our operation, raised
hell, and got clean away.  I'm sure Nagano-2 will feel a *lot* better about
that, won't it!" Eileen stepped back; she hadn't meant to raise her voice. 
"Sorry Jen, but you're going to have to go with me on this.  I hate hiding
the truth as much as anyone, but if we don't then we're going to have panic
on our hands.  Just let me handle it."
  
	"I guess you're right.  You'll handle the details?"  
  
	The brunette managed a smile.  "I've been doing this kind of stuff
for years, it'll be a piece of cake.  It'll be easier, too; give these
military types orders of secrecy and they'll shut up, I can tell you that
much."
  
	"Okay."  Jen brushed her lips against Eileen's.  "We've got work to
do; I'll see you in a bit."
  
***  
  
	Bautsch sighed.  His plan had worked perfectly up to a point. 
First, distract the senshi by sending them some surface opposition. 
Meanwhile, the third operative sneaks into their headquarters, raises some
hell, waits for the senshi to walk into the trap, and then eliminate them. 
It had almost worked, he thought wistfully.  "But I couldn't anticipate
having a damned COWARD as my Sixth!"
  
	The 'Sixth,' an alien much like Bautsch with light blue hair, could
only cringe.  Blushing wasn't a trait his evolutionary ancestors -- or for
that matter, his creators -- had seen fit to keep around.  "My lord, I *had*
the senshi, I swear it!  They were right in front of me-"
  
	"SO WHY AREN'T THEY DEAD?"  The fury in the man's voice took the  
Sixth by surprise.  
  
	"I . . . I was attacked-"  
  
	"By a THIRD senshi?" roared Bautsch.  
  
	"No, my lord!  One of their regulars, I think a female-"  
  
	"A FEMALE!"  
  
	"I always warned you to beware the female species, Bautsch," drawled
Holbrow, stepping out of the shadows.
  
	"Not now!" he warned.  
  
	"Oh no," she replied, leaning against a column.  "I wouldn't miss  
this for all of Hinansho."  
  
	Bautsch scowled.  "Stay out of this.  You haven't been dealing with
these humans as long as I have; the old stories passed down don't even
*begin* to do them justice."
  
	"My Lord, I must agree," said the Sixth.  "I've looked into their
eyes, they're very strong."
  
	"I *know* they're strong," said Bautsch as if to a child.  "If they
were weak we wouldn't even be fighting here!"
  
	"But . . . ."  He trailed off, seeing the look in the face of his
superior.  Time to try another tack.  "I *did* gain all sorts of
information!" He produced a small card, about twice the size of an ordinary
playing card.  Bautsch took the card and slipped it into a slot in a sort of
computer, and watched with delight as pictures, diagrams, and text flashed
on the screen.
  
	"Locations of their headquarters and backups, computers...power
stations, evacuation routes, weapons depots, fuel centers . . . everything
we needed and more!" With undisguised surprise he looked up at the Sixth. 
"Well done!"

	"Perhaps you're not such a failure after all," mused Holbrow,
peering over his shoulder at the data.  "However, our leader hasn't been
fully convinced.  We're to work together on planning the next operation."
  
	Baustch's face turned stony.  "I work alone," he said in a stern
voice that brooked no argument.
  
	"It's not for you to decide, lover boy," she replied, adding a hint
of sultriness to her tone.  "Our Lord orders it, so we will obey . . .
unless, that is, you plan to make some power play of your-URK!"
  
	Bautsch had, in a lightning move, gotten up, grabbed the woman's
throat, and slammed her into a pin on a nearby wall.  "Do NOT question my
allegiance again, Holbrow, or so help me your body will NEVER be found!"
Holbrow could only nod weakly.  He let go, letting her sag to the ground. 
"Just don't do it."
  
	"Right," she managed to utter.  
  
	"So," he said, making a visible effort to regain his calm, "we have
orders from our Lord to eliminate the senshi as quickly as possible, which
shouldn't be too hard with the data we have now, and who knows?  The Mark
II's are ready now, we can begin energy-collecting operations soon.  That
should keep those two bitches busy until they die their miserable deaths!"
  
	Holbrow coughed several times, nodding in agreement.  Mentally,
though, she began to make plans.  Bautsch's continued existence, she
decided, was becoming hazardous to hers.
  
***  
  
	Captain Jennifer Sakachi fumed.  "They said *what*?"  
  
	"They won't come to the main conference room, sir," replied Vanessa. 
"They say it's too far of a walk."
  
	Jen hmphed in response and walked to the windows, Jen's favorite
part of the new command center.  They slanted inwards at a forty-five degree
angle and faced southeast, admittedly an odd direction for windows to face. 
She liked them anyway; they provided a view of the Parliament building and
other government offices to the east, and to the south two of Nagano-2's
three major skyscrapers.  Beyond it, on a clear summer day one could even
see the sparkling of sunlight on the waters of Nagano Bay.  Now, however,
the skies were gray and leaden.  Last night's fallen snow had stopped for
now, but the clouds held the promise of more to come.  There was already two
centimeters of snow on the ground, giving the city below the sixth floor
room a thin white blanket that shone in the early morning sunlight.
  
	"What's your answer, sir?" asked Vanessa, snapping the captain out
of her contemplation of the city.
  
	A glint came into Jen's blue eyes as she turned and faced the room. 
"We'll have the meeting here, by teleconference."
  
	"Here?"  Vanessa was incredulous as she gestured to include the
entire room.
  
	'Here' was the backup command center.  The reasoning had apparently
been that anything able to take out Valhalla wouldn't care much whether
headquarters was underground or not.  Thus, they had decided to place it in
the above-ground regional headquarters of the Royal Star Navy, which was
coincidentally the same building the Council met in, and the same one in
which the RSN had a recruiting office.
  
	Cozy was one way to describe it.  The ceiling was much lower, about
as low as a typical office building.  It was mostly dark, as was almost a
tradition with command centers, but the windows offset this to a large
degree.  Next to the windows was an open space of about two meters.  Then
came the various computer consoles all arranged in a rather haphazard
fashion; the usual rows that larger rooms featured didn't exist here, nor
was there a 'crow's nest' or central location overlooking the rest of the
room as there had been in Valhalla.  The floor was level instead of tiered,
which meant in part that the screens at the front of it were often obscured
by some person or another.
  
	In the center of it all was a simple table.  Around it were three
commanders and a sailor senshi.  Sammy Porter sat on the edge of the table,
while the others either leaned against it or, in Vanessa's case, sat on a
stool next to it.  The sailor senshi wasn't in her traditional attire, to be
sure, but she was still easily recognizable.  Eileen Pearcy, wearing her
rarely-used captain's uniform, smiled at the rest of the group.  "Yeah,
here.  We've got the equipment, and if they're too lazy to come down to the
conference room then we're too lazy to go up there and meet their lazy
as-selves," finished Eileen, catching herself before using the rather
naughty word.  Even if the majority of the staff agreed with her opinion of
the planet's leaders, that didn't mean she could just call them whatever she
liked.  At least, not yet.  
  
	She saw nods around the room.  This was the normal day shift, called
in a few hours early due to the emergency.  Eileen felt a tear come unbidden
into her eye; the normal shift for this hour had been almost wiped out last
night.  The other two shifts would be short on personnel while they juggled
schedules around.  Eileen was ashamed to admit that it didn't matter all
that much to her; she'd hardly ever been down to Valhalla, had barely known
the people there.
  
	"Set it for ten minutes from now, then," said Jen, breaking in on
Eileen's thoughts.  The redhead came over from the windows, adjusting the
white turtleneck of her uniform shirt.  She usually left the corresponding
blue jumpsuit a bit unzipped, but the heating in the room was apparently
still buggy, and she needed a bit of protection from the chill.  Twirling a
lock of straight red hair, she hopped up to a perch upon a railing.
  
	She liked it here, for certain.  It reminded her so much of
Pleiades, in both appearance and atmosphere, that sometimes she could
persuade herself she was in space again.  Still, she could just turn around
and look out the windows.  Their very existence drove home her situation: on
a planet far from safety, with only her and her lover to protect the world
from the unknown and the council.  "So," she said in her professor tone,
"anyone have any new data?"
  
	"Well," began Sammy uncertainly, "we're still going through the
Valhalla debris.  Right now we hope to find some sort of biological
residue."
  
	"Which is very hard," interjected Antares tinnily.  The sound system
in the new headquarters was definitely subpar.  "Any possible alien matter
is being drowned out by all the bits of human that are in there."
  
	"We've had to run over the whole place with handheld scanners, sir,"
said Vanessa.  "It's taking a *long* time."
  
	"And no results to show for it," said Jen glumly.  "How about the
other two we fought topside?"
  
	"We've been luckier with that," said Antares.  "Sailor America's
target was mostly destroyed, but yours had quite a few strands of DNA left,
and the fact that there even *was* DNA is very promising news.  Whoever
developed this can't be too dissimilar to us."
  
	"Can't?"  
  
	"Well, it depends on what you call dissimilar.  I'm assuming DNA
agreement of greater than seventy percent.  Most mammals are within a couple
percent, other animals vary.  The xenobiology department of the university-"
  
	"It's wonderful how the university professors end up doing the work
our intelligence branch should be doing," grumbled Eileen.
  
	"Lieutenant Nishimura tries the best she can," said Antares.  "It's
hardly her fault that no-one saw fit to put the best spooks in the Kingdom
on this little planet."
  
	Everyone looked over at Captain Sakachi.  The redhead held up her
hands in protest.  "I can't pull every string, guys.  If I'd known-" The
main screen went blank, then displayed a picture of a few men and women
sitting around a plain wooden conference table.
  
	"Planetary council requesting a conference call, sir," said Sammy
belatedly, hopping down from her perch on the table and attending to her
little patch of instruments.
  
	"Captain Sakachi," said a gruff voice.  
  
	"Mr. Secretary," said Jen, just as curtly.  She didn't relish having
this conversation in the slightest; it was only out of a sense of duty that
she was even relaying the information personally.
  
	"Why aren't you here?" he asked.  
  
	'Typical,' she thought, 'leaps right into his accusations without so
much as a "how do you do."' "Mr. Secretary, given recent events I think I
should stay here, where all the information is.  We don't know when the next
attack might come, after all."
  
	"And another chance to fail, yes," said Defense absently.  The
governor raised a hand in protest, but Jen had had enough.  Standing to her
full six feet, she faced the screen, its light aiding to make her eyes
inscrutable behind her glasses.  "Your temerity won't be tolerated any
longer.  As of now you are relieved of duty!  Sammy, that goes in the book."
  
	"Sir, are you-"  
  
	Jen whirled to face the blonde.  "That was an *order*, Sammy!"  
  
	"But he's not technically in the military-"  
  
	"Then he's under arrest."  
  
	Eileen stepped forward hesitantly.  "Jen, are you-"  
  
	"Later, Eileen," said Jen in a warning tone.  Right now she was
Captain Jennifer Sakachi, and if she allowed herself to slip back into the
role of Eileen's lover, she'd lose it.  "Now please, Sammy, the Secretary
will be placed under arrest for the charges of reckless endangerment of the
colony, harassment, and impeding a military operation.  Do it!"
  
	"Ay-"  
  
	"Belay that!" shouted Eileen.  No-one in the room was more surprised
than Jen.
  
	"Eileen?" she asked slowly.  
  
	"Captain Sakachi," said Eileen simply, and that said it all.  Jen
froze in the middle of opening her mouth to say more.  In all the years from
3029 to 3041, Eileen had never called her by that title.  Never.
  
	Jen adjusted her glasses with a chastened expression.  "As she said. 
Belay the arrest order." Sheepishly she looked up at the furious face of
Defense and spoke quietly.  "Mr. Secretary, my apologies.  I was out of
line."
  
	"DAMN RIGHT!  Mark my words, Sakachi, I'll have you in irons for
this!  Serenity herself will bust your ass right down-"
  
	"Kill the audio," said Jen in the same soft voice.  The shouting
ceased, and she waited for Defense to realize he was no longer being heard. 
"Put it back on." There was a click.  "Mr. Secretary, let me make something
perfectly clear.  I'm a sailor senshi.  I'm a captain in the Royal Star
Navy.  I'm under no obligation to apologize to you, be nice to you, or even
*tolerate* you.  I'd be within my rights to have you arrested at any time I
please.  Keep that in mind the next time you decide to go about insulting me
and my work." Defense made as if to stand, but Jen wasn't finished.  "This
meeting is a courtesy on my part.  If you don't have any interest in it,
I'll be glad to send some MPs over there and make sure you don't have to
listen through to its conclusion.  If that's not the case, then my advice is
to sit down and SHUT UP!"
  
	Eileen frowned slightly, but said nothing.  
  
	Defense shuddered.  Everyone in the situation room could imagine the
thoughts going through his head: this upstart history professor who
occasionally dabbled at being a sailor senshi . . .this sailor senshi who
occasionally dabbled as a history professor . . . this thirty year old
redheaded woman who looked just like a nineteen-year-old girl.  She was the
most powerful person on the planet, and all his political and military
experience didn't change that.
  
	He hated her.  That much was clear.  He resented her for being so
beautiful, so smart, so successful.  She had accomplished by twenty-five
what he would never be able to accomplish if he lived for a thousand years. 
And what he hated her most of all for was that he had to obey her orders. 
He and the council pretended to be in charge, but it was truly just the two
senshi being polite that kept them in control.  Clearly, he had pushed his
luck too far this morning, and Sakachi had chosen now to demonstrate just
where the limits were.  The rest of the council was silent, content to let
its most volatile member hang himself out to dry.
  
	"Is there anything you would like to say?" asked Jen simply.  
  
	Defense sat up even straighter.  "Nothing, Captain.  Please give  
your report."  
  
	The room as a whole breathed a sigh of relief.  "I'd be glad to,"
muttered Jen.  Louder, she continued.  "Yesterday evening, at . . . ."
  
	"17:54," supplied Vanessa.  
  
	"-we detected a possible attack coming towards the city.  Myself and
Captain Pearcy went out to engage and destroy the enemy.  We did so with
great success . . . however, during this a third enemy somehow got inside
Valhalla.  We've found that in addition to wreaking havoc on Valhalla by
destroying equipment and people, it had as an additional goal the theft of
information from our computers." She looked over at Kim.
  
	"Sirs," said the black haired woman with only the slightest hint of
nervousness in her voice, "we've been looking at the access logs for the
computers, with Antares's help, and we've noticed that a number of sensitive
files were accessed right before the attack."
  
	"It's possible," said Antares, "that they were accessed for a
legitimate purpose.  If someone with sufficiently high access wanted to,
they could erase their own 'fingerprint,' so to speak, so that they wouldn't
be recorded as having done the deed."
  
	"But," continued Kim, "there are only two people on the planet  
with that authority: the sailor senshi."  
  
	"And we were a bit busy at the time," said Eileen wryly.  
  
	"That means that it was the alien who accessed our computers,"
concluded Jen.  "Meaning our enemy is a lot more clever than we've given
them credit for."
  
	"Any other information?" asked Science.    
  
	Jen managed a smile at that.  "We have DNA samples, multiple
visuals, probably a lot of info that we couldn't have gotten otherwise. 
Don't worry, the xenobiology department at the university is already on it. 
Within a week we should have a good picture of just who we're up against."
  
	"And then?" asked the governor.  
  
	"Then," said Eileen, "the ball is in your court, whether to attempt
negotiations or just take the war to them.  Lots of options, best decided on
by the politicians."
  
	The council seemed to brighten at this.  "Yes, we'd be glad to be of
assistance in the coming days and weeks," said Interior with a smile.  "Be
sure to keep us apprised."
  
	"Of course," answered Eileen, leaning against a console and saluting
in a decidedly casual manner.  "See ya."
  
	The council vanished, replaced by a sea of atmospheric data. 
Everyone in the room sagged in relief.  Jen turned to Eileen, shock evident
in her eyes.  "How did you *do* that?"
  
	The brunette shrugged beautifully and made her way to the door. 
"You've just got to know how to deal with politicians," she drawled, patting
Jen on the bottom as she left and earning a smile from the redhead.  Captain
Sakachi shook her head slowly in admiration and wondered for the millionth
time what she had done to deserve a wonderful woman like Eileen.