(Rating: R) 
 
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Episode 416: Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You 
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	In Nagano-2, Sailor Orion was on her tenth cup of tea in as many
hours.  She had once heard another senshi say that tea and coffee would
always keep you awake, whether from the caffeine or the pressure of a full
bladder.  She had had her fill of both lately.  Being a senshi was sometimes
a pain when she had to use the restroom, since the process involved-
 
	"Sir," said Sammy, breaking in on her thoughts, "we have a
confirmation signal!"
 
	Sailor Orion nodded once and looked out the window.  It was growing
more cloudy, but the weather forecasts said snow was unlikely.  In a way she
was thankful for the gray curtain which hid the events in orbit from view. 
It was easier this way, relying on the instruments and readouts of
headquarters rather than looking up into a blue sky and watching the flash
of a fighter on its last mission.
 
	"Another signal, sir," said Sammy moments later.  "Capture." 
 
	The redhead closed her eyes.  "Kami help her." 
 
*** 
 
	On the shuttle, things were going from bad to worse.  Out of
necessity, Sailor America had been the only one to know about the plan, and
so the rest of the passengers panicked when one of their fighter escorts
rocketed off and away from the shuttle.  They panicked even more when the
ship suddenly rocked with a jolt.
 
	"Calm down, everyone!" shouted Sailor America, who had been
expecting something like this.  She used her communicator previously to send
the two signals to Nagano-2.  Now there was nothing to do but wait while
they were taken aboard the alien vessel . . . then again, she could baby-sit
the rest of the passengers, too.  "Everything's under control, just get back
to your seats." The cabin made a sudden sickening roll, and the artificial
gravity vanished.  "Just stay calm!" she called out, feeling her ponytail
drift up into the air.
 
	Her mind went back to the first rules of public relations; always
appear as if you have all the answers, even when you have none.  So even as
their tiny frail craft was drawn towards the enemy ship, she worked on
calming the frightened people onboard.  After all, there would be plenty of
reason to panic later.
 
*** 
 
	Baustch stormed through the dark hallways of his ship, Holbrow close
behind.  "Is the bay secure?"
 
	"Not even a canaxgonne could get out of there," reassured Holbrow,
referring to a small insect that had been common to their homeworld.  "We've
been watching.  They've made no attempt to leave their vessel."
 
	"The fighters?" 
 
	"Destroyed, as you ordered.  No survivors." 
 
	"The *other* fighter, Holbrow." 
 
	She quailed, but showed no outward sign of fear.  "All indications
are that it managed to send its signal in time."
 
	Baustch took in a deep breath.  "Then we must assume that their
Queen knows of our presence, despite all our efforts."
 
	"You know *he* is going to want to reprimand you for this," she said
with no small amount of glee.
 
	He shrugged.  "I'll surely be awarded handsomely for capturing one
of the sailor senshi.  You've read the legends just as I have; once their
Queen learns we have her bodyguard, she'll sacrifice herself if necessary-"
 
	"Listen to yourself!" said Holbrow sharply, stopping the alien man
in his tracks.  "She'll kill herself for *one* of her guards, when she has
at least a dozen others?  Think about it: if she can afford to dump two
senshi so far from their home, she *must* have something waiting in
reserve!"
 
	"Our lord has promised our victory if we can capture this world for
our own.  We just have to move quickly, and the more you talk to me the less
quickly I can proceed!  Now go make yourself useful and check what the ones
on the surface are doing!"
 
	Holbrow wisely kept her anger in check and turned around to head
back to the control room.  Fine, let him have his way.  When the time came
to lead the ground invasion, she knew who would be picked to head it.  Then
the glory for bringing the humans to their knees would go to her.  She
laughed with just a hint of apprehension.
 
*** 
 
	The holding bay was filled.  Baustch's most trusted guards ringed
the shuttle, and as he entered four more moved to flank him.  He walked
steadily towards the captured shuttle, silent save for the steady beat of
his boots on the floor.
 
	In a row before him stood the occupants of the shuttle.  Three
showed signs of a struggle: two men whose uniforms stood out from the rest
because of their red turtlenecks, and one other who looked to be a scientist
of some sort.  Only two in the group interested him, though.  He came to the
first.
 
	"Sailor America." 
 
	The brown haired senshi looked back at him with a carefully masked
expression.  Not masked enough, though.  He could see the slightest hint of
fear and uncertainty in her brown eyes.  She said nothing.
 
	"You and your partner have caused myself and my people a great deal
of difficulty over the last several months."
 
	"Who are you?" she asked calmly, almost in a bored tone. 
 
	"You may call me Baustch." 
 
	"Hm.  Well then, Baustch, I apologize.  If possible we would have
tried to cause you much, much more."
 
	The alien gazed hard into her eyes now, but the fear and uncertainty
were gone, replaced with a twinkle he couldn't quite place until he saw the
sides of her mouth drawn up in the very slightest hint of a smile.  He
smiled.  "You're a cocky one.  I like that." She smiled more confidently.
 
	Baustch drew back his right hand and slapped her full on her left
cheek.  The senshi of America's head spun a quarter turn around, and she
couldn't help but let out a small gasp to accompany the smacking sound of
violence.  Slowly, she turned her face to look back at Baustch, and now her
eyes showed fear . . . and anger.  'You'll be sorry for that,' they seemed
to say.
 
	He would enjoy breaking this woman.  Oh yes.  "I will speak with you
more in a moment, Sailor America." He turned to the guard nearest him. 
"Have her taken to a secure location.  The rest of you may go."
 
	A dozen heavily armed guards proceeded to grab America and half
lead, half shove her out of the bay.  The senshi didn't struggle; from here
on out she knew it was a game to survive as long as possible and wait for
help to come.  When she was presented with an opportunity to escape, she
would try.  For now, though, she would conserve her strength and bide her
time.
 
	As she left, a guard was uncertain as to what to do with the other
prisoners, and said as much.  Bautsch shrugged.  "Kill them, torture them,
makes no difference to me.  Do not fight over our trophies, though," he
warned, quelling the rumbles of satisfaction and expectation that ran
through his ranks.  "If your squabbles damage one screw on this ship, I'll
pick ten men from every division and have them thrown out into space,
understand!"
 
	"YES, MY LORD!" shouted the aliens. 
 
	The rest of the humans were hustled out, some shouting ineffectually
for freedom.  Their cries were ignored, but in a way none of them knew until
later, they were lucky.  These were less bloodthirsty beings; killing them
would be too simple, and not enjoyable enough.  Soon, all that remained was
the human ship, Baustch, and the Sixth.  The green haired alien quietly
walked to his champion.
 
	"You performed well," he said warmly. 
 
	"Thank you, my lord!" 
 
	"However, you also allowed the senshi to send a signal to their
home.  The punishment for this is death.  Good bye."
 
	The Sixth had only enough time to open his eyes wide before Baustch
raised his right arm and sent him flying back into a wall, killing him
instantly.  With a cheerful motion, the alien commander brushed off his
hands and proceeded to leave the bay.  Time to check on his very important
prisoner.
 
*** 
 
	In Nagano-2, morning had turned to afternoon.  The core group of
Kim, Sammy, and Vanessa was still at their posts.  The situation table was
fast becoming a mess, though, with napkins and coffee mugs and torn sugar
packets.  Outside the windows, the afternoon sun was struggling to break
through the clouds.
 
	Sailor Orion stared into space as she sat at a small table, as far
away from the bustle of command as possible.  There seemed nothing else to
do; all possible preparations had been made.  Her lover was committed up
there, and all they could do was wait for help from outside the system to
come.  She was now in extreme sleep deprivation; without adrenaline to
sustain her, all she had was tea, and that wasn't enough.  Her head rested
on her folded arms as she sat at the table, half paying attention to the
goings on in the room.  Every once in awhile she completely fell asleep. 
Then the images came: Eileen in a torture chamber, Eileen impaled on a
stake, Eileen being violated by some alien monster.  Those were always
enough to snap her eyes into full alertness.
 
	She was tired; they all were.  She wanted to go to bed, but she knew
the loneliness that awaited her there.  She couldn't eat; the stress and
tension were getting to her, and the last meal she attempted, at about
23:30, had come back up after a few minutes.  She took off her glasses,
massaged her nose, and sighed.
 
	"I wonder what Eileen is doing right now?" 
 
*** 
 
	At that point, Eileen was wondering if there was in fact a God, and
if She was in the mood to answer some prayers.
 
	"Sailor America!" called Baustch coldly.  "I would speak with you!"
 
	"Eat shit and die," she spat.  She was boxed up in a small cubical
cell with two meters to a side, with one wall left as empty space.  This
space held a force field; she had found this out the hard way.  She had been
sitting on a convenient bench when the doors of the larger chamber had
opened.  Then she got another look at her captor.  He seemed vaguely elfin,
except that few elves she had seen in books looked so sinister.  There was
distinct malice in his eyes as he sized her up.  She stood with hands on her
hips, the red of her skirt matching the anger she felt.  "What have you done
with the others?"
 
	"They are alive, that's all you need to be concerned about." 
 
	"Answer my question, you son of a bitch!" 
 
	"Why you-"  He rushed to the cell and stopped just before he would
have run into the containment field.  "Do *not* test me, Sailor America, or
you will regret it!"
 
	"The only thing I regret is not killing you when I had the chance!"
 
	He raised his hand again, and again a bolt of energy flew forth,
hitting her in the chest.  She cried out and fell to her knees, not knowing
anything could have hurt that much.  Bent over, she could only pant as the
alien continued.
 
	"Now, I am going to tell you a little story.  It starts over a
thousand of your years ago, when two of my people--my ancestors--came to a
world called Earth."
 
	"That's a lie," she said weakly, gathering her strength.  "Aliens
have never come to Earth-"
 
	Another blast of energy.  "Oh, they did, I assure you.  I'm well
acquainted with the legends.  It was a city called Tokyo, in what you call
the year 1995 Common Era." Sailor America's mind flew: 1995 CE, what had
happened then?  "In that year, my ancestors came to your planet, the last
two members of a dying race, desperate for energy to survive.  They
encountered five young girls who seemed determined to foil their attempts. 
You and I know them as the sailor senshi."
 
	In a flash, it came back to her.  Ages ago, back when the senshi
were just fourteen years old.  That had been judged too young an age; almost
all the newer senshi had begun at seventeen or eighteen.  There had been a
brief contact with two aliens, but as she remembered it there had been a
benign outcome.  "But that came out all right!  The aliens went on their way
after the senshi sorted out the source of the misunderstanding-"
 
	"The senshi *thought* they had sorted out.  But they never bothered
to follow up, now did they?  After the two, Ail and Ann, went off back into
deep space, they began to prosper.  Seven hundred of your years later they
reached their old homeworld, and began to rebuild it.  Something went wrong,
though.  A climate failure nearly wiped out the population, and those who
remained chose to try to find someplace else to live.  There were two
groups, each traveling in a different direction."
 
	"And you're one of those groups?" 
 
	Baustch glared at the senshi.  "We *were* one of the groups, a
hundred years ago.  Time and fatigue have cut down our number, until only
three of our ships are left."
 
	"So why did you come here?  To take over?" 
 
	"Taking over this world would be easy, sailor senshi.  We have
weapons that could destroy your precious city in an eyeblink.  No, our
purpose here is twofold.  First, to kill you and your partner." He smiled
maliciously.  "We do have a bit of a grudge against you, you understand, but
it's not totally personal.
 
	"You see, after we get rid of you two, we can proceed with our
original plans.  Our ships run on life energy, it's far more efficient than
your fusion power.  Ordinarily we'd use animals and harvest their energy. 
However, after such a long voyage our supplies are dangerously low.  We must
have the energy your planet's population can provide, and once you and your
partner have been dealt with we can proceed at our leisure."
 
	For once, Sailor America didn't have anything to say.  A dozen
insults crossed her tongue, but none seemed vile enough to suit her captor. 
"You . . . you . . . ."
 
	"Pleases don't waste your breath insulting me.  It will profit
no-one, you know that."
 
	She finally gathered herself enough to ask a coherent question. 
"What about the other group?"
 
	"They were destroyed by a supernova twenty years ago," he said,
smiling grimly.  "Their distress calls as they died were . . . well, we
shan't dwell on that.  You need only know that in your orbit sits the last
remains of our proud race, and that we are going to ensure against our
extinction."
 
	Sailor America sighed, then seized upon a freshly realized hope. 
"Serenity won't take Hinansho's loss lying down, Baustch!  You can bet
anything that as soon as she gets our signal she'll send the entire fleet
running here!  You've signed your death warrants," she concluded, smugly
crossing her hands on her chest.
 
	"When your precious fleet comes, they'll see a ravaged planet.  We
will be long gone by then, to bide our time in deep space.  We'll have
plenty of energy to wait, and then we'll make our way to your home system. 
Your Queen will face a reckoning for what she did to us all those years
ago."
 
	"You're insane." 
 
	"I'm tired, actually.  Tired of traveling, tired of maintaining this
ship, tired of telling my people they need wait just a little bit longer."
He shook his head.  "No waiting, not anymore.  It ends now, Sailor America. 
In a moment I will broadcast to your partner an ultimatum.  If she does not
surrender within an hour, your city will be taken by force."
 
	"You'll never win," she said calmly. 
 
	"I already have," he replied with equal calm.  "Good day." 
 
	"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" she screamed, but he was already gone. 
Pounding a fist against the wall, there was nothing for her to do but sink
to the bench and weep in frustration.
 
*** 
 
	Baustch met Holbrow in the control room.  "What are they doing down
there?" he asked without preamble.
 
	"Nothing," she replied quietly.  "No movement aside from normal
civilian traffic, which seems to be lighter than usual."
 
	"*No* signs of preparation?" 
 
	"None, which doesn't mean they aren't preparing for it in some way,
of course."
 
	"Of course," echoed Baustch.  "Time to tell them their duty. 
Connect me to their headquarters." The requisite frequencies had been stolen
during the assault on Valhalla weeks before; it stood to reason that they
couldn't have changed all of them.
 
	"Connection established with foreign host, my lord," called one of
the menial workers.
 
	"Sailor senshi!" he called immediately.  "This is Baustch.  I offer
you a choice.  Surrender yourself to us, or die.  If you choose wisely, you
need only reply to this transmission, and we will take care of the rest. 
Should you make the wrong choice, we will destroy you.  You have an hour in
which to initiate a response.  Oh, and we have your other sailor senshi in
custody.  She is unharmed, for now." His voice hardened even more.  "You
have one hour.  Do not delay."
 
*** 
 
	In the command room of Nagano-2, the late afternoon sun barely broke
through the windows, turning the clouds a deep orange.  As Baustch's voice
died away, dead quiet held sway.  No-one moved, no-one said a word.  All
simply looked to their leader.
 
	Sailor Orion stood in her now-customary spot next to the windows,
head bent in thought.  After a full minute, Kim decided to speak up.  "What
will we do, sir?"
 
	The redheaded senshi would have liked nothing better than to just
detransform, throw her henshin rod to the floor, and walk out to die . . .
which would mean giving up on Eileen.  That was absolutely inconceivable. 
"Recall all personnel on leave and go to first stage alert.  All nonmilitary
personnel are to be moved at least ten kilometers outside Nagano-2--that
goes for police and fire departments, too.  Keep a garrison of military
police to prevent looting . . . wait, belay the previous order on
nonmilitary personnel.  Nonessential personnel are to leave, whether in the
military or not." She closed her eyes.  This was a war now, and she had to
prepare for an invasion.  Memories of 3035 came unbidden, as did the tears.
 
	She looked at the staff; half rookies still coping with the
high-stress conditions of the command center, the rest seasoned veterans who
could handle anything, led by the trio of Sammy, Kim, and Vanessa, three of
the people she trusted the most in the world.  She didn't know what would
happen next, didn't know how long until reinforcements from Earth could
come, didn't know how long Nagano-2 could stand with the meager forces she
had left at her disposal.  She knew only one thing: Eileen was up there, and
Sailor Orion would make sure she made it back home safely . . . no matter
what the cost.