Chapter 7

     "I'm  very  sorry  Sailoruranus.  We  took  every
precaution. You can check our log books. Everything  was done. . . "
     Sailoruranus  tuned  out the  panicky  voice  and
stared  down  at the wreckage of ten years work.  Twenty five
million crowns and eighteen lives to get  to  this point.  All  that
time, money and  effort  gone  in  an instant's  carelessness. Her
unconscious frown  silenced the   tough  security  colonel  as
effectively  as   an executioners axe. The sudden silence alerted
her and she glanced up to see the man cringing against the wall. She
turned   away   in  disgust,  her  eyes   sweeping   the featureless
padded room finally resting  on  the  rooms sole occupant; young,
fit, female about 16 years of age, nude and quite dead. Sailoruranus
contemplated the head lying  parallel  to the shoulders on a neck
that  wasn't so  much  broken  as  shattered.  'What  a  waste,'
she thought.  'What  a terrible, terrible waste.'  The  iron will
and  discipline that made her so perfect  for  the project  used
for  this, for nothing.  Who  would  have thought  anyone could
deliberately drive their own  head into the floor with that much force.
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     ". . .  and that's how they found her. This  puts  us
back at square one."
     "It's   much  worse  than  that,"  Sailor   Neptune
corrected.  "She  was our last viable  candidate.  There isn't
anyone else."
     "Oh, come on. It can't be that bad."  "It's  worse. Out of a
     system population  of  forty
two  billion only thirty percent can tolerate the  basic implants.
From  that thirty percent  we  have  a  basic recruitment from
everyone between five and twenty  years of age, give or take a
year. Of those only about sixteen percent fit  the mental and physical
parameters. And out of  that  number we found a grand total of  one
hundred sixty   eight  persons  who  could  tolerate  the  final
implants." Sailorneptune paused to check her notes.
     "Of  that  number, One hundred twelve  died  during
their  first  power  up. Of the survivors,  twenty  nine refused to
face transition back to normal space and died when their power and
environmental ran out and nine died from the stress of reversion
to normal space. Only three of  the eighteen remaining survived
beyond four complete transitions.  And  the last of those three
successfully suicided  yesterday, despite all of our precautions.
So it is that bad."

     "I've seen some new research by . . ."Sailoruranus consulted her
notes. "Senshi H'pakra't. It seems she thinks there might be a way to
by-pass the pain centers. A . . .uh . . .a 'cut-off switch' I think
she calls it."
      "I've seen her results." Sailorneptune agreed.  "It's a brilliant
theoretical concept. And in another half century or so she may be able
to get it to work.  I don't think Beryl is going to wait that long."
     "What   if   we  just   lowered  the  standards   a
little. . ."
     "What if we just shot them in the back of the head!
It  would  be  faster, cleaner and  a  hell  of  a   lot cheaper,"
Sailorneptune snapped, then slumped  in  her chair.  "I'm  sorry,
I didn't  mean. . . "  Sailoruranus waved a dismissal and turned to
their companion.
     "Now what do we do?"  "I  don't  know,"  Sailor Pluto  admitted
     tiredly.
"Continue  searching for another viable  candidate.  Run simulations
with  modified parameters  using  the  data we've   already  collected.
See  if  you  can   salvage anything.  I  have  to get back to the
capitol."  Sailor Pluto  laughed  bitterly. "Good  Queen  Beryl  has
sent another trade delegation. Serenity still thinks she  can make
friends. I need to be there before the. . .   before the  Queen  gives
the Imperium away and saves Beryl  the trouble of stealing it."

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     "Ah, Lady Pluto, how nice to see you again."  "What  is he doing
     here?" Sailor Pluto ignored  the
ambassador and glared at her Queen.
     "We  have just concluded a most advantageous treaty
with  our well loved neighbor Queen Beryl." Pluto  could feel a vice
tighten around her head.
     "How  nice  for  Queen Beryl. And   what  precisely
would the terms of this treaty be."
     "We   have  ceded  the  Brazter   monopole   mining
facility  in  exchange for rights  entire  to  the  Nhee sector
cometary systems." Queen Serenity gifted the room with  a  blinding if
somewhat bewildered  smile,  as  if watching  a play she didn't quite
understand but was too well bred to bother other people with questions.
     "I see."  The two short syllables were enough to turn Beryl's
ambassador white as all the blood drained to  his  feet.  His self
congratulatory smirk faded like virginity in  a whorehouse as he
suddenly realized he was a table  width away  from the second most
powerful person in the Silver Millennium and had just placed himself
number one on her people-to-squash-like-a-bug-before-dinner list. Just
as the ambassador was wondering if they would send his body home
for burial or just pour his remains down the drain he was granted a
new life.
     "We   are   tired   Lady   Pluto.   These   arduous
negotiations have fatigued us greatly. We would like you to escort
us to our chambers for a nap before dinner."
     "Certainly  Majesty." Sailor Pluto grit  her  teeth
and  glared at the retreating ambassador with such venom that  he
vowed himself, his wife, children and the  next six  generations  of
his family to religious  orders  in return  for  deliverance from
Sailor Pluto's  wrath.  Or failing  that a painless death and a
nice  funeral.   As the  door  closed  on  the  last  ambassador,
minister, secretary,  recorder and necessary flunky  Sailorpluto
grabbed  her sovereign's hand in a manner very unlike  a loyal
deferential  subject.  Serenity,  Queen  Empress, Defender  of  the
Reaches, Marshal of the Inner  System, High Justice of the Silver
Imperium gave out a squawk as Sailorpluto  half dragged, half carried
her  down  the private hall that led to the Royal apartments. The  door
to  Serenity's  bedroom crashed against  the  wall  with enough  force
to knock several pictures off  the  wall.  Serenity bounced twice on
the bed where Pluto flung her.  She  did not complete a third before
Pluto sent the door crashing back into its frame, finishing off the
last  of the wall hangings.
     "Dammit  Serenity were you born  stupid  or  is  it
something you've acquired over the years! What the  HELL were you
thinking!"
     "I  was  thinking  I was Queen,"  Serenity  replied
quietly  from where she lay in a silken tangle, "or  has there  been
a  coup  and no one told  me?"  She  peeped adorably up at her angry
senshi through a silver halo of hair.  "I keep telling the staff that
they need to  keep me informed about these little things."
     Pluto  growled  and  threw her  circlet  of  office
across  the  room with enough force to  dent  the  wall.  Serenity
winced  but  other wise remained  still  while Pluto ranted.
     "Why  do  I bother? Why don't I just gift wrap  the
Imperium  for Beryl. Oh I forgot, that's your job.  What next
Majesty?"  The  title oozed sneeringly.  "Shall  I prostitute
myself or perhaps your daughter could do your whoring  by  proxy?"
Pluto froze, white  faced  as  she suddenly realized what she'd said.
     "Senenity,  I  didn't mean it.  .  my  tongue  runs
away. . . " She turned miserable eyes to Serenity.
     "Come  here,  Sailorpluto." She  patted  the  bed
beside  her.  "Now sit down." As Pluto did so,  Serenity pulled her
jacket off and began kneading Pluto's shoulders.
     "Serenity, we need to. . . " "Shusssh."  Serenity put a finger
     to Pluto's  lips.
"You've  had   your tantrum, now it's my turn to  talk."  Pluto
grunted   in    protest,  but  remained  silent.  Serenity dug
into a particularly tight  muscle group and smiled  to  herself
when Pluto groaned  in   relief  and snuggled closer to her. She
shifted slightly so that the Guardian  of  Time lay cradled against
her  side,   then brought   up  a  map of the solar system  with  a
quiet mental   command.
     "Now   this is the inner system controlled  by  the
Imperium."   A  section  of the  map  obediently  turned silver.
"While  Beryl  claims  this  section."  Another section was colored an
angry red. Skilled fingers sought out  steel tense muscles and softly
stole away the anger and fear. Pluto melted slowly and unconsciously
into her Queens embrace.
     "Now  this,"  Serenity whispered, dropping  a  soft
kiss on Pluto's throat, "is the Bratzer mining facility.  We abandoned
it years ago due to the radiation hazzard."  Pluto's  groaned
helplessly as Serenity  planted  kisses along the vulnerable line of
her throat.
     "Now   Beryl   can   exploit  the  facility   using
Artifaxes.   But  it  will  take  time  and   production facilities
to  manufacture that may synthetic  workers; Time  and  facilities
that they can't  use  against  the Imperium.  Plus  they  will  have
to  divert  men   and materials; Engineers, technicians, managers.
And  every item  and  person earmarked for Bratzer is a person,  or
ship or factory that is not directed against us.
     "You  will also notice," Serenity whispered,  "that
the  facility is presently in opposition, and  you  know what  that
means."  She gently bit the  delicate  lobe.  Pluto shivered in
her arms.
     "That  means  a minimum of three months,  one  way,
just for ships to travel there. After all, Beryl doesn't have the
ability to gate that far out system.
     "Now  this  is the really exciting part."  Serenity
slipped  a  small hand inside Pluto's blouse, cupping  a breast,
delighting  at the nipple  helplessly  hardened under her palm, like
a soldier standing at attention.
     "The really exciting part is our acquisition of the
Nhee system." Pluto fought open passion drugged eyes.
     "Why? Wha's there?"  "Not a thing. Isn't that great?" Pluto
     whimpered as
Serenity  gently tickled the band of skin  where  blouse met  skirt
and valiantly tried to find two neurons  that weren't drowning in
endorphins.
     "W..why's that great." She tried to keep her  voice
steady  even  as  her  tummy shivered  under  Serenity's gentle
assault.
     "We  are  going  to  put  the  biggest  mining  and
exploration  facility in the system in  Nhee.  At  least Beryl is
going to THINK that's what we're doing. At  the very  least  she'll
have to put an observation  post  in place.  At  best,  she'll try
to  occupy  the  adjoining systems, duplicate our efforts. Even if
I told her  that there was nothing there, she'd have to picket the
system as  a  routine precaution.  I think we can at least  tie down
a  division just for observation, maybe six  times that many if she
decides on a full scale operation."
     Adrenalin  blasted  Pluto's  mind  clear  and   she
twisted to look Serenity square in the face.
     "Serenity, that's brilliant! You're a genius!"  "I know it."
     "Oh  I wish I could be there when Beryl figures out
what  you've  done.  She may die of  a  stroke  and  put herself  out
of  our misery. That is the  most  wicked, evil, sneaky thing I've
ever heard of."
     "No,  that  isn't.   But this is."  Before  Pluto's
groggy mind could decipher these cryptic words, Serenity tumbled her
to the ground in a tangle of bedclothes.
     "Neyah,  can't catch me!"  Serenity picked  up  her
skirts and sprinted out the door into the gardens.
     "Why   you  little. . .  "  Words  failed  as   Pluto
struggled  off the floor and raced after her  Queen.  At the  doorway
she paused, trying to pick  up  Serenity's trail.   To the left she
saw a delicate slipper,  beyond that  another.  Pluto took off ,
following  a  trail  of stockings,  petticoats and skirts. At  the
end  of  the trail  she  found Serenity, clothed only in starlight
, curled up in a nest of flowers.
     "A  palace  coup.  Betrayed by my closest  advisor.
Stripped  of  all  power. Helpless  before  her  as  she ravages  me
again, and again and again." Pluto  stalked forward, dropping her
blouse on the ground.
     "Again and again. . . and again?"  "Well, isn't that what wicked
     advisors do when they
have the innocent Queen helpless in their power?"
     "I   don't  think  you've  ever  been  innocent  or
helpless, but who am I to argue with royalty."

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     "Feel  better now?" Serenity asked, dropping kisses
on passion-slicked skin.
     "I  don't  think  I  can feel  anything  below  the
waist," Pluto groaned.
     "Beast."  Serenity  grinned,  punching  her   lover
lightly in the stomach. "You can't save me, you know."  Pluto tensed.
     "What's that supposed to mean?"  "I'm  going  to  die,
     eventually.  You're  killing
yourself for nothing."
     "I don't want to talk about it."  "Well,  you're  going to
     talk." Serenity  indicated
the  garden with a sweep of her hand. "All of this  will die, to make
way for new growth."
     "You're not a dammed flower!"  "Don't  deliberately misunderstand.
     Even  you  are
merely  immortal, not eternal. Plants, animals,  people, even kingdoms
die. It's part of the natural cycle."
     "If you would only let me. . . " "NO!  No. You know better than
     anyone how dangerous
it  is to tamper with time. There used to be ten planets and  three
sentient races in this system. Now there  are nine  planets. One race
is dead, one fled and we're left here alone."
     "So  you're just going to roll over and play dead!"
Pluto said bitterly. "Isn't this worth fighting for?"
     "Of  course it is. And I'm going to fight  as  long
and  as  hard as I can. For my people, my daughter,  and for you. But
I'm going to fight my way. With honor. . .  " Pluto gave a snort
of disgust.
     "Yes,   I   know   how  you  feel. . .   'any   means
necessary'," Serenity said in a credible mimicry of  her lover. "But
I know that the universe has a spirit, a  set of  ethical equations
that have to be balanced.  And  if you  try to cheat, or take a short
cut the universe will turn around and bite you on the. . . "
     Pluto squealed as Serenity graphically demonstrated
the  wrath  of  the universe on her fundamental  assets.  There
followed a brief philosophical discussion on  the merits of relativism
versus absolutism.
     Later   Pluto lay beside her sleeping Queen,  lover
and friend, listening to her soft breathing, feeling her heartbeat. And
with every slow, strong beat Pluto vowed that she would save Serenity,
by any means necessary.


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