The Moon Dragon's Lair

LUNAR: The Lost Episodes

By Veronica Rose

Volume One: Episode 1-17.75

Rated: PG-13

Edge of Sabaat system, 19 October 2736

The SLS Destiny

"Anomaly detected in the Majeil Nebula." Sailor Vulcan's crisp, calm voice echoed through the bridge. "Recommending a slight alteration to the shield modulation, your Highness."

Princess Serena stifled a yawn as she nodded. "Of course. What would it take?"

Sailor Vulcan blinked once as she made the calculations in her head. "A few minor adjustments to the tactical defense array to keep the ship's reactor from being affected by the erratic wavelengths from the nebula."

"What kind of erratic wavelengths?" Sailor Eos looked back to the Senshi of Order, who was already prepping the ship systems for the transition.

"The Majeil Nebula has been responsible for several disappearances of smaller vessels in the past century, a phenomenon not unlike the Terran 'Bermuda Triangle'. Later research proved that by realigning the shield array, the phenomenon could be avoided." She finished the calculations and began running each system through the complex realignment algorithm.

"Good idea," Sailor Eos laughed. She turned around, catching sight of a yawning princess, who smiled sheepishly at her and stretched her arms above her head.

"It's a long wait," Reeni offered. "Four more days."

"I know," Sailor Eos nodded. "I think I'm going to take a walk to get the blood moving before my feet fall asleep. Care to join me?"

She shook her head. "I'll stay here until Sailor Vulcan finishes her work with the shields. Maybe in an hour or so."

"I can stay with you if you'd rather…"

"Go on, clear your head," she pressed. "We'll be fine here." Reeni watched as Sailor Eos bobbed her head in agreement before turning to leave, the doors on the bridge opening and closing with a faint hiss. Another yawn, and another stretch… perhaps a walk would have helped after all.

Several decks below, Archmage Derrelli was examining a slew of new equations on his spellcomp on his way to one of the holotraining rooms. Once he, Mage Torym, and Sailor Mercury had ensured that the generators would be able to accommodate his unique firepower, he had made preparations to take the evening and test out the newly christened Ember Bolt. He turned the corner, engrossed in the display as he double-checked a series of variables…

"Oh!" Sailor Eos jumped back, tripping over her feet and landing on her backside. She laughed merrily as Derrelli extended a hand to help her up, the apology already tumbling out.

"I'm so sorry, Sailor Eos," he stammered, pocketing his spellcomp immediately. "Are you all right?"

"Just fine," she answered with a smile. "I've got plenty of padding back here." She winked at him, smoothing her skirt as she did. "Out for a walk?"

"Going to test out a new spell, actually," he replied with enthusiasm. "Been waiting to try it out for a while."

"Sounds like a blast."

"Should be, if all goes well," he joked.

She smiled once more at the young sorcerer. "Have fun, then… and watch where you're going," she added in a mock tone of authority.

"Sailor Eos, I'm really…"

"It's just Eos," she interrupted. "The whole Sailor formality always gets in the way when we're not on the bridge. 'Kay?" He nodded in response, returning her grin. "Seeya later!"

"Of course, later." He looked after her for a moment, and then returned his attention to the spellcomp. Time to get to work. A security code allowed him to enter the holotraining module, and the doors shut behind him as he uploaded the last bit of information to the module's system. A few more minutes, and Derrelli would be able to indulge himself in one of his favorite pastimes.

A tremor shook the hull of the Destiny as Sailor Vulcan finished the algorithm for the shields. "Just in time," Sailor Sirius noted from her post. "Wouldn't want to have us disappearing before the whole fleet got here, would we?"

"That is highly improbable," the stoic young woman noted. "The shields have been remodulated to accommodate the pulses from the nebula."

"If you say so," Sailor Sirius teased. "But if we get lost, I'll make sure to blame it on you."

The tremor hit the holodeck just as the Ember Bolt surged ahead, the impact causing an azure ripple in the forcefield. The wave continued about the room, an eerie blue and white circle closing in on Derrelli. He managed to grab the spellcomp from the wall mount, but was unable to reach the door panel. Two seconds later, the bioscan on the deck indicated one less life form on the Destiny.

Tokyo, Japan, Planet Earth, Sol system, 19 October, the present

I hate thermodynamics. The thought rolled over and over in Dawn Connolly's mind as she trudged home, her book bag heavy with textbooks and copious notes collected at the university library. The young woman rifled through her jacket pocket for the keys to her small apartment, fingers finally closing on them. With a heavy sigh, she fitted the key in the lock and turned, not looking forward to the evening of studying for her midterm exam. So consumed with the thought of spending four hours worrying over engine processes, Dawn made her way all the way into the kitchen without noticing the young man standing bewildered in the middle of her apartment.

Books crashed to the floor, an ungodly shriek issued from her lips, and a slew of angry words in a loud clipped language filled the room. Grabbing a knife from the counter, Dawn charged ahead, clearly upset at her unwelcome houseguest. A burst of heat filled the room, followed by a fiery bolt of something that caught her in the stomach. She hit the opposite wall with a loud thud, eyes tightly closed as she slid to the floor. In the center of the room, Derrelli stared at the young woman in shock, fear having overcharged the newly tweaked Ember Bolt. He took several steps closer, wondering if her singed shirt and shorts was a bad sign at this point. He was less than a foot away from her when her eyes opened, the palms of her hands glowing a bright lavender and rose as a stream of fire poured from her chest in between her fingertips. Another burst of light, and Derrelli found himself thrown to the center of the room, his own uniform smoking as an uncomfortably warm feeling washed over his skin. Above him, the image of a very pissed off young woman stood, the familiar purple and silver outfit causing him to sit up quickly as she glared at him.

"May I ask," she began through clenched teeth, "what the fuck you are doing in my apartment, and why you just tried to incinerate me?"

Derrelli blinked, more out of shock at the language than the question. "Um, I have no idea, and you were going to stab me with a large knife," he replied slowly. "Sailor Eos?"

To his surprise, the young woman's brash demeanor dissolved, and she stepped back a few feet, head tilted to the side as she stared at him. "You know who I am?"

He nodded, slowly getting to his feet. "Sailor Eos, Guardian of her Highness, Princess Serenity." Derrelli looked at her a little more closely. "Although," he said after a moment's consideration, "you're not as old as you used to be."

"Old as I… what?" Dawn's face contorted into an expression of pure bewilderment. "What the hell are you talking about? And who the hell are you?"

"Arch…" He stopped, reconsidering his response. "Derrelli," he replied simply. "You mean you're not Sailor Eos?"

She gave a wry grin. "Oh, I'm Sailor Eos… just not the one you're thinking of," she answered. "The name's Dawn Connolly." To Derrelli's surprise, she stepped forward with a genuinely warm smile and extended her hand. "Don't tell me… the future, right?"

He shook her hand, still somewhat surprised. "I guess so, unless you're part of the holotraining module on the SLS Destiny." She shook her head, the brown hair swaying back and forth. "As for how I got here, no clue."

"We can't blame this on Sailor Pluto?" Dawn turned to her book bag, her sailor outfit melting back to her regular clothing in a matter of seconds. "You weren't sent to warn me of some horrible impending terror or something?"

"Sorry to disappoint you," he chuckled, "but no. This was purely accidental."

She snickered. "That's what they all say. C'mon, really, what's it about this time? Another missing artifact? Has Reeni run off again?" She waited for some kind of answer, but Derrelli simply shook his head.

"Look, I'm not playing around. It was really an accident."

"What about that fire thing? Was that an accident?"

He managed a somewhat abashed expression. "That was a new spell I was trying out," he admitted.

"It needs work." She set her books on the table. "I shouldn't have been able to get up, and it wasn't very concentrated. Lotsa energy lost in the delivery, maybe."

"Maybe," he echoed, a bit offended at her brash assessment. He'd spent quite some time perfecting the attack, and it hurt his pride just a little that some person from the comparatively primitive Terran past was trying to give him pointers.

"Whatcha could do," she went on, pulling a few textbooks from the pile and setting them on the table. "If you can streamline the flow of whatever that is, then you could increase the output energy dramatically. Ya see…" Dawn flipped to a diagram in her fluid mechanics textbook. "It's a question of incompressible flow in a linear situation. I mean, that's assuming that you're considering fire to be a fluid and that it follows the requirements of an incompressible fluid, of course."

"Bernoulli's equation?" He stepped forward and frowned, shaking his head. "Nah, but… here." He picked up her thermodynamics book and set it in front of her. In response, Dawn let out a groan and sighed. "What?"

"I have a midterm exam in that tomorrow. I hate thermo."

He grinned wildly. "This is my specialty. See, it's more like a special steady-flow energy case, although I don't think the exact specifics on the molecular level have been proven at this point." He waited as Dawn turned the pages, stopping her as he saw the equation he'd been using. "See, this term gets broken down into interdimensional elements, depending upon the medium you're trying to manipulate."

"Oh." Dawn blinked as she looked to the equation, and then to Derrelli. "Are you supposed to use it with fire?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"I see." She looked down at the page again. "What do you usually use it with?"

"Magic."

She eyed him for a second; trying to figure out if he was being serious. From his expression, she guessed he wasn't kidding at this point. "Ooookay," she replied slowly. "But it's magic in, magic out, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"And now you're doing magic in, fire out?"

He nodded again, watching her as she stood up, a frown on her face. She stuck her pinky finger in her mouth, staring off into space as her lips moved slightly. Twisting a bit of hair in her other hand, she bent over the table to study the book again. Her jeans hung low on her waist, and Derrelli couldn't help but notice the bright purple waistband of her underwear as it peeked from the top of the denim. The jeans did seem to fit her nicely…

"Phase transition compensation!" The three words were hardly what Derrelli expected, but he managed to look up before she turned around triumphantly to face him, her voice full of excitement. "Are there coefficients or equations you can use to compensate for the entropy presented by that kind of a phase transition?"

He stared at her dumbly, jaw hanging open slightly as Dawn grinned wildly at him. Half a minute passed before he was able to swallow and recollect his thoughts. "Um, actually…" He trailed off, glancing down at his spellcomp. A few adjustments, and the new spread of equations danced across the display. "Whoa."

"Better?" She giggled in anticipation, thumbs in the loops of her jeans as she kept smiling. "Will that work?"

"Only one way to check," he said, pocketing the spellcomp. "Would you like to do the honors?"

She fluttered her eyelashes, a seductive smile gracing her lips. "Thought you'd never ask," she answered playfully. One hand stretched above her head, the subsequent transformation leaving Sailor Eos standing there. She walked to the other side of the apartment, turning to face Derrelli. "Show me what you got, doll."

"Ya sure?"

"Damn straight, ya little pyro!" She giggled, eyes dancing. "Hit me!"

Derrelli laughed in spite of himself, and then squared his shoulders as his face took on a more serious expression. "All right, here goes…"

Edge of Sabaat system, 19 October 2736

SLS Destiny

The hull of the Destiny shuddered once more as another wave rippled past it. Torym strolled through the lower decks, having stopped in to check on Derrelli in his quarters and finding no one. A brief conversation with Sailor Eos outside of Engineering had clued him in to his friend's whereabouts, so he headed towards the holotraining area. He rounded the corner, the smell of smoke greeting him as he saw Derrelli stumble out of one of the rooms, the front of his uniform somewhat singed. Unhurt, he grinned broadly at Torym and gave him a thumbs-up. Torym ran past him, glancing inside to see the fried circuitry sparking as the fire containment system worked.

"It worked, Tor! The Ember Bolt, it worked!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "And you'll never guess…"

"I don't wanna know what you did, Pyro," Torym cut him off, shaking his head. "I'd just like to see you explain to Princess Serena how you managed to blow up her holotraining deck."

Derrelli actually looked somewhat chagrined.