The Moon Dragon's Lair

LUNAR: The Lost Episodes

By Andy Beale

Volume Twenty-Two: Episode 2-14.16 "Homecoming"

Rated PG-13

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 9 February 2738

RSN Headquarters, Deputy Fleet Commander's Office

The thick carpet of the office suddenly muted the clack of high heels against the marble floor as Sailor Neptune entered the room. Moving gracefully across to a large desk, she sat down in to the comfortable chair and attended to her first job of the day.

A pot of jasmine tea, with two slim wafer biscuits.

"Good morning, Lady Neptune," came the polite tones of Nirvana, the palace AI.

"Good morning to you, Nirvana; would you ask Gillian to step in, please?" Sailor Neptune said as she poured the tea into a fine china cup.

"Certainly, Lady Neptune," Nirvana replied.

Sailor Neptune snuggled back in her chair. A nine o'clock start was late for her; she, Sailor Uranus, and their Knights had taken in a concert by the BBC Philharmonic orchestra in London last night and had returned late.

A brief knock at the door, and the compact form of Gillian- Sailor Neptune's personal assistant, secretary, and head of her personal staff- entered. A small woman, she had the slight graying hair of someone entering their middle years, with a slightly stern look on her face that comes with many years of dealing with large bureaucracy.

"Good morning, Michelle," she said with a friendly voice that showed long association.

"Good morning to you, Gill, thank you for the tea. It's wonderful as always. Any news?" asked Sailor Neptune with a smile.

"Unfortunately not. My first grandchild seems to be reluctant to make her entry into the world, much to my eldest daughter's distress. How was the concert?" Gillian responded.

Sailor Neptune took a sip of her tea before answering. "Very good, actually; I must admit that I tend to look down on these modern works, but the one titled 'Ascent of the Moon' was far above my expectations." She took a quick nibble of a biscuit and a sip of tea. "To business; I have Serenity's briefing at 11:30. Is there anything new of note that I should be aware of?"

"Not too much," said Gillian, taking a seat. "There are the usual supply requests, transfer requests, and the general mumbles and grumbles from the fleet; it has been compiled into your daily report. There is one slightly notable thing." Her face scrunched up slightly. "There has still been no communications with Outpost Archird Beta; they are twelve hours overdue."

Sailor Neptune's eyes rolled slightly. "Sailor Macros."

"Yes, Sailor Macros," affirmed Gillian.

"I know she is the best communications expert in the fleet, but I thought she would have learned by now," sighed Sailor Neptune.

"There is a slight concern, because Archmage Shigenobu is a responsible base commander, and the communication system on the recent supply ship was fully functional," said Gillian.

Sailor Neptune leaned back in her chair taping her left index finger against her lower lip. "He could be slightly distracted; Sailor Venus has said to me before that Shigenobu has a 'thing' for Sailor Macros. Still, that is no excuse. I am very uncomfortable with having to take down whole communications systems to allow upgrades."

Leaning forward in her chair, she asked, "Nirvana, what ships do we have the Archird area?"

"The Amazon-class destroyer SLS Martin Luther King, Jr. is on a shake down cruise after a six month refit; it is currently five hours from the Archird. It is, however, only two-thirds manned, mostly with ship yard and testing crew; it is under the command of the Sorcerer Syracuse," Nirvana replied promptly.

"Hmm. Nirvana, tell communications to order the King, Jr. to make best possible speed to Archird Beta, and investigate the situation. At least it will give them a little excitement," Sailor Neptune said dryly.

"Consider it done, Sailor Neptune," answered Nirvana.

"Anything else, Gillian?" Sailor Neptune queried.

"It is time for personnel assessment reports again!" Gillian said with a slightly sadistic smile.

Sailor Neptune groaned.

Personnel assessment reports aside, the day was going quite well, Sailor Neptune thought as she approached her office. An early dinner with the queen (or breakfast, as it was for the queen), followed by a shuttle ride to inspect the new facilities being built at the moon's planetside spaceport. As she reached for the door of her office, Nirvana abruptly spoke up. "Commander Francis requests your presence in the situation room, immediately!"

She turned from the door and headed towards the heart of the building, frowning slightly. Commander Francis never requested anything lightly.

RSN Headquarters: Situation Room Alpha

"This is getting weirder by the moment!" was Sailor Jupiter's comment as they watched footage come in from Archird Beta.

When Commander Francis had calmly told Sailor Neptune of the King Jr.'s discovery of the remains of a Dark Kingdom destroyer in a decaying orbit around Archird Beta, the first thing to happen was the summoning of the HOMESEC director. Her arrival came shortly before the arrival of Sailor Mercury, who had been called to see if she could make sense out of the 'unusual' weapons signatures and ion trails found by the King, Jr. Sailor Venus had arrived slightly later, of her own accord, since she had been looking for Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter, to see if they wanted to 'come out for a drink tonight' since their Knights were on a royal visit with King Endymion to Mars.

A landing party consisting of twelve of the ship's security troops and Sorcerer Syracuse had landed a shuttle on the location where it seemed an unknown ship had landed. Two of the men were equipped with remote cameras, which transmitted live pictures back to the King, Jr., and then back to RSN headquarters situation room. Searches of the site turned up very little; lots of foot prints, some vehicle tracks, shavings of metal, and a metal can that was holding a thick lubricant of some type.

Having found nothing of use there, they began by following the footprints and vehicle tracks back up though a side gate, and into the terraformed perimeter of the base proper. As they moved up the path from the outer perimeter fence, a figure could be seen lying on the ground in the low fog. The sound of the increased whine of primed blasters could be clearly heard. As the camera drew closer it became apparent that the figure on the ground was a Slasher; what also became rapidly came apparent was that it was a very dead one, as told by the three large holes that had been punched into it, and the largely missing upper left shoulder.

A few minutes later, Syracuse stood in the middle of what appeared to be a very one-sided battle.

"Somebody came in and slaughtered these monstrosities; I don't know if we should be thankful or afraid!" Syracuse said over the link.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 10 February 2738

RSN Headquarters, Situation Room Alpha

The reports were in. Initial analysis was done, and what they had was largely confusing. Sailor Betelgeuse had been informed, and clued in enough to keep the press from digging around too much about Archird until such time as they had answers. Thankfully the 202nd Winter Olympics was currently taking place; the press was rather closely following the current darlings of the Olympics, the woman's five-person bobsled team from Venus. Sailor Betelgeuse had commented that at the moment, they could have declared martial law on Earth and no one would have noticed until the soldiers were on the streets, and quite possibly only noticed then if they got in the way of the holo-displays.

As the meeting finished, Sailor Neptune made her way towards the queen's rooms in the heart of the palace, with a basic report on her microcomp and in her mind; the salient points were:

1. Outpost Archird Beta was attacked by a mixed group of Dark Kingdom invaders.

2. One of these invaders is of unknown type, but was extensively damaged in a later firefight with an unknown party.

3. This Dark Kingdom group killed all those in the base; except, it seemed, the base commander, Archmage Shigenobu, and Sailor Macros.

4. The location of Archmage Shigenobu and Sailor Macros was unknown; certainly not amongst the dead found so far, or even appearing to be anywhere on the planet.

5. A previously mentioned unknown party of an unknown number interfered with this take over and killed all the Dark Kingdom forces.

6. This second party also destroyed a Dark Kingdom destroyer in low orbit.

7. All station control functions have been locked out by Archmage Shigenobu's Argon Blue code.

8. The base seems to have been raided for a limited amount of materials, especially the food supplies, and bizarrely enough, books.

9. This second, unknown party has now left to places unknown.

This is not a report, she thought. It's an invitation to a mystery night, with far too many uses of the word 'unknown'.

In FTL transit, 10 February 2738

The FSS ShadowDancer

The people who could have helped solve this little mystery were currently hanging in interstellar space about 11 light years from the Sol System, with Jon in a vacc suit making subtle adjustments to the lightly twisted port sensor pylon (the metal used was not quite space grade and had twisted in the intense cold of space).

"Little bit more, Jon, to the right!" commanded Susan from the bridge.

"Yeah, yeah, you said that ten minutes ago, Susan," was Jon's sarcastic reply.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 10 February 2738

Department of Homeland Security, Director's office

"Bullets? Amy, that's rather uncommon on a RSN base," came Sailor Jupiter's comment. "We phased out those types of firearms within the past century."

"That's not quite true; I was watching the biathlon at the Olympics this morning; they're still using them," commented her second, Sailor Magneta, from behind her. Sailor Jupiter turned around, giving her a slightly disbelieving look.

"Nevertheless, that's what we have here," said Sailor Mercury, rolling her eyes slightly. She pointed to the display in front of them. "The science officer on the King, Jr. pulled these out of the Slashers. An ultra-hard alloy encasing a core of lead-208."

"Lead 208?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"Yes. One hundred percent lead 208, from Thorium breakdown; they specifically choose that isotope in the bullet's manufacture, which leads to me one other fact: these are NOT of any of the local race's manufacture!" Sailor Mercury said.

That made both of them blink. "Not of local manufacture? How do we know that?" asked Sailor Magneta.

"The surrounding alloy is unknown to us, and any of our neighbors, at least to the equipment that is available on the King, Jr. at the moment. The science team on the Cancer might have better luck," Sailor Mercury explained.

"When did the Cancer leave?" asked Sailor Magneta.

"Late this morning; there was some delay in retrieving Archmage Shigenobu's Argon Blue unlock code," Sailor Mercury said with a faint smile.

"The queen couldn't get out of bed this morning," chuckled Sailor Jupiter.

Sailor Magneta's eyes widened slightly at the disrespect.

"You haven't known her as long as we have," commented Sailor Mercury. "There's still a little bit of Bunny Tsukino under all that finery. Anyway, there was a second type of bullet, but there is little physical evidence as it appeared to be made out of some sort of explosive. "

"How powerful?" Sailor Jupiter wanted to know.

"Enough to blow off their arms and legs, even with all their armor," Sailor Mercury replied.

"Ouch," winced Sailor Jupiter.

"There were two other weapons used. An explosive charge of some sort, used both to blow a greenhouse door and the door into the control room; and whatever caused this," Sailor Mercury said, as she pressed the panel. The image changed to show partly dissolved remains of a Slasher.

"What the Serenity's name caused that?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"Again, we don't know. The King, Jr. found some anomalies in the samples, but without all the proper equipment was unable to make much headway. I suspect some sort of super enzyme, or possibly a nano weapon," Sailor Mercury concluded.

"Nano?" said Sailor Magneta. "I thought the nano experiments of 2500 were a bust."

Sailor Mercury looked uncomfortable. Sailor Jupiter nodded to her.

"They were," she started, but was interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt," came the voice of Nirvana. "But Sailor Neptune wanted you to be informed right away. Something unusual just past deep space observation station 4, a quarter of a light year out from the heliopause."

"What is it?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"Can I borrow your display?" Nirvana countered.

"Yes, we have finished here," answered Sailor Mercury.

The display changed to show a vector grid, in which a single white line was shown cutting right though the center. Below it and around it were a mass of small writing and numbers. Sailor Mercury gasped slightly.

"As you can see, we have a mass over 1000 tons, yet less than 10,000. It's traveling in a large gravimetric distortion of some sort; none of the readings make sense with any of the models we have. This object is apparently traveling at speed of 262806c, but not by any means we know, and it is heading straight for Pluto Station Four. It will be there in 28 minutes. Sailor Neptune is calling for red alert status for that whole defensive sector," Nirvana reported.

In FTL Transit, 10 February 2738

The FSS ShadowDancer

Naru was glad Susan had let her out of the sick bay, but was initially slightly unhappy about being told that she should 'rest in the lounge'. She, however, rapidly warmed to the idea, as during FTL travel it was obvious it became the hub of crew activity. Apart from two people on watch, everyone else gathered there to talk, prepare food, and generally socialize. Food was particularly important, as Susan had finally said that the nanobuilders had completed their work to an extent that she could now eat some 'light' meals. Soup and soft fruit was not her idea of a meal, but at least it allowed her to lose the final drip into her arm. Unfortunately, eating had also awakened other digestive needs, and the trip to the head had been a rather painful experience.

This had also brought up another question: why hadn't her Senshi healing ability kicked in? Susan had said simply, "your body didn't know it had been injured." Apparently there had been some sort of poison that had short-circuited the body's systems that said 'I am damaged, come heal me!' This little twist had caused problems in the healing process, forcing the use of rapid tissue cloning, glue, and nanobuilders.

"So, where we going?" came the question that jolted Naru out of her contemplation. She turned slightly to look at the smiling person sitting next to her.

"Pluto Station Four. It's one of the larger space stations on the outskirts of the solar system; it seemed to fit the answer to Jellic's question," Naru replied.

"What was Jellic's question?" asked Jon, taking a sip from his glass.

"I think it went something like 'Where can we drop you off and have a talk to the locals without them attempting to reduce us to a rapidly expanding cloud of space dust?'" Naru responded.

Jon laughed. "That sounds like Jellic all right; always playing careful when he can." He raised his drink. "Well here's to careful, mate; we have been doing too many risky things lately. "

"You sound Australian now! Where do you come from? I have been trying to pin down your accents for a while now. Susan has Polish overtones, but yours is very difficult to pin down," she said.

He shrugged. "Not surprising; my family is descended from Australian and American colonists. I come from Mammon, a world orbiting Zeta Trangulum Australe, or Z Trangulum as we call it. Does it exist in this universe as well?"

Naru thought for a moment. "I honestly don't know."

"You guys would have probably ignored it anyway with a surface grav of 1.82 G. We did for the longest time. We only started colonizing it about 100 years ago, when they finally cracked the coding for high grav gene jacks, like myself," Jon mused.

"No, we would have just domed it, and tunneled underneath, terraforming everything along the way. Wait; you're genetically engineered?" Naru blinked.

"Yep, third generation. It's the only way we could have had people live there safely in 1.82G. Robotics are good, but having people on site makes things a lot easier," Jon explained.

"Is he bragging again?" came Susan's voice from the other side of the room. She then slowly picked her way though the room, and around Jellessa, who was meditating on the floor, carrying a two mugs. She sat down at the end of the couch on which Naru was resting, and passed Naru one of the mugs.

"Its Alphan Ker'ich weed soup, very nutritious to humans, but gives Alphans the runs. So, don't feed any to Anternain and Susaumen," Susan grinned.

Naru eyed the clear, but slightly green, liquid, with darker green bits floating in it, with some doubt.

"It tastes a lot like chicken noodle soup, with lots of pepper," Susan said, taking a sip from her own mug. "Anyway, practically all humans are genetically engineered in some way in our universe. The human genome was changed to allow us to survive the mess that Earth was after the various biogenetic plagues that occurred during and after the Third World War. Question; is this going to be a problem? I ask, because some societies find the whole thing repugnant and this can cause problems."

Naru considered Susan's question, then shook her head. "No, I don't think it would be an issue per say, but we have an enemy that uses genetically altered creatures to wage its wars. So, there may be some suspicion in people's minds because of that." She paused for a moment and thought. "I would keep quiet about it initially. Talking to Sailor Mercury and Sailor Betelgeuse would be best; they can probably spin it the right way, if necessary."

Susan lifted Naru's feet into her lap, straightening her legs. "Thank you," she said. "That puts my mind at rest a little; prejudice towards gene jacks is on the rise in some places in our universe. I'm just glad we don't have to deal with it here. Now, perhaps, you can tell me something else. What are the shopping opportunities like?"

"And with that," said Jon, "I am going to get another beer, and no, I am not acting as pack mule for you again." Waving his finger at Susan, he turned and left for the kitchen, with two Terran women giggling behind him.

In high patrol station near Pluto Station Four, just beyond Pluto, Sol system, 10 February 2738

The SLS Isis

Sailor Canada stood in front of the main tactical screen, watching the build up of forces. Pluto Station Four was at full alert; the two on-station destroyers, the SLS Berthierite and the SLS Kermesite, were now in battle formation with the Isis, along with another battleship, the SLS Warspite. From near space, eighteen police and system defense ships were gathering.

"Captain," said the Germanic tones of her first officer, Wizard Aukum. "Pluto Station Four reports all civilians are now in the shelters, and merchant shipping is scattering away into the surrounding space."

"Thank you, Helmuth." She returned to her contemplation.

Aukum rolled his eyes, and stood next to her, bending down slightly to whisper into her ear. "Captain, please sit down, you're making us all nervous."

With a slightly startled, then rueful, look, she turned and sat down; Aukum sat down on her left.

"I was doing it again, standing there and picking at my lip," she sighed.

"Yes, captain, you were," he replied.

"Well, I am not surprised; first carrying Slashers, now this. It's a surprise I am not back in the Lunar nuthouse wearing one of those fashionable tie-around-the-back jackets," she answered with a smile. The debate about the relative levels of sanity of each other had been going on for some years now. The rest of the bridge crew ignored it.

"Captain," came the thin voice Lieutenant J.G. Johnson. "Deep space eighteen reported that the unknown has come past them, same course, same speed. Estimated time of arrival 1 minute and 35 seconds... mark."

"Any further information on our guest?" asked Aukum.

"No, sir," came the reply.

Sailor Canada turned to her communications officer. "Give me a channel to all ships."

"Open, ma'am," her comm officer replied.

"This is Sailor Canada; all ships, move to your final positions. This is a potential first contact situation; it could also be a DK trap of some kind. Warspite, your job is to boost Pluto Station Four’s own defensive firepower. Berthierite you're on my starboard side, Kermesite with the Warspite. Police group, move to my port side. Do not fire, unless you are fired on first, and let us hope in Serenity's name that this all comes off peacefully. Sailor Canada out."

She turned. "Bring both shield layers up, and bring all weapons to standby. Go to red alert," she ordered. The bridge lights darkened as the flashing red lights came on above doors and the viewscreen.

Sailor Canada sat down in her chair and bought up her tactical displays.

"Contact," called out Johnson. As the screen adjusted to extreme magnification, a bright streak appeared; then it suddenly collapsed back on itself. From the end of the streak appeared a ship.

"What the!" muttered Aukum.

The FSS ShadowDancer

"Nearly home, Naru," said Jellic.

"30 seconds to break out," announced Anternain.

"Any last hints?" Jellic wanted to know.

"Just be nice, and a bit patient. Without prior communications, I would imagine there will be a welcoming committee," Naru responded.

"I expected as much. We are dropping out of FTL a half light second from the station, so we hopefully with have plenty of distance to talk before we get too close," Jellic smiled. "I just hope your people haven't been rattled too much by anything else."

"10 Seconds," announced Anternain.

"Places everyone; brace for breakout," said Jellic.

"Breakout in 5 seconds," Anternain continued.

"Astrometrics show green," Susaumen stated.

"Negative on collision warnings," Jellessa added.

"Breakout in 3... 2... 1... now!" called Anternain.

With a slight bump, the ShadowDancer returned to normal space.

"Emergence complete, detecting no space-time anomalies," Anternain reported.

Emergence point is clear, beginning deceleration," Jellessa added.

Fusion power plants ramping down," Jon said.

Naru physically winced, as her head started ringing.

“Shit, we are being massively, actively scanned. Multiple sources, multiple methods," said Susan.

"Return the complement, Susan; what's out there, and what is it doing?" said Jellic.

Moments later the central holo-display lit up; Jona stepped forward.

"We are 150,000 Km from your destination. The station is as Naru described; there are, however, 22 ships surrounding the station. 18 are smaller, 56-meter long ships, possibly heavy fighters. Two are 250 meters long; the final pair are both nearly 1 km in length. All have active shields, type and capabilities unknown, although they are different than those encountered on the Dark Kingdom ship. All ships' weapon systems seem to be on standby; there appears to be no attempt to achieve active weapon locks at the moment."

Naru shook her head with a slight whistle. “They really were expecting something bad. Eighteen system defense ships, two Amazon-class destroyers, and two Oberon-class battleships; that is a lot of firepower.”

Jellic turned to Susan. "Begin the transmitting recognition codes and linguadex. Once we have some sort of signal from them, patch it through, and see if we can get a common communication protocol going."

"I could have done that for you," commented Naru.

"I know you could," said Jellic. "But Susan told me that you need to rest, not trying to pick though our mixed-up bag of communications equipment."

The SLS Isis

"It's a weird looking thing," commented Wizard Aukum.

"It's not in any of the ship recognition indexes," said Osiris, the Isis’ AI.

"Their course remains unchanged; they're slowing down, though. If they maintain their course and current rate of deceleration they will come to a relative stop range twenty from the station," said Johnson.

"Helm, move to intercept," ordered Sailor Canada.

"We are being scanned," reported Johnson.

"Anything invasive?" asked Aukum.

"No, it's not, sir. Just seems to be a general, 'what's going on out there?'" Her console beeped. "Radio transmission from the ship; it appears to be a communication attempt."

Osiris spoke up again. "It is a data stream transmission; it contains mathematical numbers and sequences. It seems to be an attempt to open full communication by first transmitting the basics of their mathematics system, and then building on that. Give me a few moments, and I will work on it."

"The ship has increased its deceleration rate; it will now come to stop range one from our intercept point," said Johnson.

"Helm, ETA to intercept?" asked Sailor Canada.

"4 minutes, 8 seconds," replied Johnson.

The next few minutes passed quietly as the ships slowly came together. Osiris finally broke the silence.

"I have interpreted the data stream, and have a programmed the communication system with their protocols," the AI said.

"Excellent," said Sailor Canada, standing up from her chair. "Comm, open a channel." She paused for a moment. "This is the Sovereign Lunar Starship Isis, Sailor Canada commanding. Unknown ship, please state your intentions and your reason for encroaching in our space."

There was a pause as the message and video sped across the void to the other ship, and a reply was formulated and returned.

"I have a reply, audio and visual," came the communications officer.

"On screen," said Sailor Canada, wondering to herself what sort of creature she would be looking at.

She was slightly disappointed when the upper half of a dark haired humanoid appeared the screen. Her eyes rapidly noticed that he was not human; the slit-like eyes rapidly dispelled that notion. The dark blue suit he was wearing was not something she had seen before; nor was the logo on the right side of the chest, which seemed to be of a phoenix emerging from the ground, with its head raised to a black, star covered sky. Around the top was the words 'De Cinis Victoria.' In the background, another apparently female humanoid figure, wearing a similar outfit, could be seen sitting behind a control panel.

"This is Federation Star Ship 17729 ShadowDancer," came a voice in English, the quality of which showed slight overtones which further indicated the speaker was not human. "My name is Jellic Damlanmo Kren, commander of this vessel; we are travelers who have found ourselves in this area of space. We seek repairs and supplies in equitable trade, and to drop off some people we rescued on our way here."

He stepped to one side, revealing a smaller figure standing behind him.

"Naru!" Wizard Aukum exclaimed as he rose from his chair.

"Hi there, Helmuth," said Naru with a slight wave.

"Sailor Macros?" asked Sailor Canada.

"That's me. Our friends here rescued Archmage Shigenobu and myself from Archird Beta."

"Where is he?" asked Sailor Canada.

The camera image changed to include a third person. This person appeared to be a female human, with long brown hair. She was wearing the same uniform as Jellic, but it had the addition of a white square with a red cross on the left side of the chest.

"My name is Susan Hajkowski. I serve as the ShadowDancer's medical officer. Tomomasa Shigenobu was discovered in a cationic state, and has remained so since his recovery 4 days ago. I have been able to do nothing but stabilize his physical condition. I request that we transfer him to your care as soon as possible; he needs treatment beyond mine, or this ship's, capabilities."

Jellic stepped forward again. "Sailor Canada," he said, glancing at Naru as if to ask if he was using the correct form of address. Naru nodded slightly. "I know you are at war at the moment, and have little reason to trust us; but please, at a minimum, let us drop off our guests and let us be on our way, in the hope that we can complete our journey home another way?"

Sailor Canada paused for a moment, wary of traps; but in the end went with her heart; for once, things had come out all right, and a little bit of luck was on their side for once.

"Stand down red alert. Would you like to come over here with our strays, and we will discuss what we can do for you?"

Jellic smiled, which showed a very strange-looking set of teeth. "Certainly. Your shuttle, or mine?"

In the end, it was Isis' shuttle; and two hours of negotiations then took place between Jellic, Sailor Canada, and Sailor Jupiter over a communications channel, and a tall, bird-like woman called Susaumen. Just before midnight local time, the ShadowDancer flew into one of the large customs bays in Pluto Station Four and gracefully settled down on the landing pad. In a small observation lounge, five people gathered, a customs inspection team, ordered to go over the ship for any contraband and anything that could be considered dangerous. The leader of the group turned to talk to his staff, but was interrupted by the opening of the lounge door, and the entry of legendary Sailor Pluto. Her garnet colored eyes scanned the group in front of her and she barked out. "LEAVE, NOW!"

The group rapidly scurried out of the way under her gaze. Only when the door finally closed did she turn her eyes to the ship now resting on the landing pad.

"Why are you here? Why didn't I detect you when you arrived? The time gate is in turmoil, and you are the cause! You have to go home!" the Senshi of Time snapped.

With that, she twisted the time staff around, imbedded it into the floor, and bent down on one knee. "DARK DOME CLOSE!"

The strings of reality were pulled, and then pulled back; and for the first time ever, Sailor Pluto got the feeling that she had been give a very polite, but very firm, sod off.

Sailor Pluto stood up, and scowled at the ship for a moment; with a wave of her staff, she opened a portal, and disappeared to places and times unknown.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 18 February 2738

Department of Homeland Security, Director's office

"So it's confirmed, then, they're from another dimension," said Sailor Jupiter, looking up from the report, towards Sailor Mercury, sitting in a chair in front of her desk.

"No doubt about it," said Sailor Mercury. "The quantum resonance frequency of an object cannot be changed or faked in any way. We have six people, and a vessel of approximately five and half thousand tons, all showing the same frequency, that, and their technology. It is too different from any of the local races."

"How do you know that?" asked Sailor Jupiter. "They were very cagey about releasing any technical archives to us."

"I can understand that; such information could unbalance a civilization quite easily. A directive was issued to the effect that people in their situation shouldn't. But, our technology levels are actually quite close; we can easily scan most things, and did so, and the results are quite interesting," Sailor Mercury elaborated.

"Go on," said Sailor Jupiter, leaning back in her chair.

"Well, for starters, their materials technology is slightly more advanced than ours; no doubt because they have to use metals, plastics, and ceramics, while we bypassed a lot of that with the use of gestalt-based crystalline structures. They have alloys such as duranium, which we have, and duralloy, which we don't; 14 types of high temperature superconductor, where we have 9; and another class of materials they call hyper-magnetics that we have never even heard of," Sailor Mercury explained. "On the other hand, we have better field generation, in shielding, force fields, structural integrity, etc. Our power back-ups are better, too; of course, they have to be. Their hull could probably take more punishment then our own hulls can. Our outlook on hostile environments is almost directly opposite theirs; they genetically alter their citizens to deal with environments, we dome and terraform them."

Sailor Jupiter held up her hand to stop what might become an overwhelming flood of information. "Okay, I take it your materials people will be busy for a while."

Sailor Mercury nodded. "Them, and my Gravitechnics people. Their Grav drive is a very interesting. There's a lot that could revolutionize the civilian ship-building industry, and to some extent, the military one as well."

"Do I hear two of my oldest friends salivating over our visitor?" came a jovial tone.

Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter stood, and smiled towards the person entering the room. "King Endymion," they echoed.

The formally clad king of the Golden Millennium waved his hand dismissively, and, with an unusual lack of grace, fell into the chair next to Sailor Mercury. He smiled at the pair; he had been on Mars overseeing the latest batch of potential cadets, and performing those duties, such as opening things and promoting worthy causes, that were a part and parcel of being royalty.

"Your return, and presence, was unexpected," said Sailor Mercury.

"But not, hopefully, unsurprising," he said, his face turning serious. "The Sorcerers, and to a lesser extent, the Senshi, have been taking a beating lately. These new monsters of the Dark Kingdom have caused a little fear and trepidation amongst the ranks. Then it comes to people's attention that a group of six outsiders manage to wipe out 36 of these monsters, without any casualties or injuries." He shifted Excalibur to a slight more comfortable position. "Now the rank and file are asking 'how did they do that?' and frankly so am I. Granted, the Sorcerer Derrelli single-handedly cleared a cruiser of those things, but still..." he looked at the two meaningfully.

Sailor Mercury looked thoughtful for a moment. "Physics would be the simplest answer." At the slight look of confusion on the two other's faces, she continued. "Their home universe works, in many cases, the same way as our own, but has some fundamental differences. For example, our weapons: when we invented the blaster 350 years ago, it seemed to be the ultimate weapon, capable of non-lethal effects, killing, and explosive effects, all from the same weapon. So, over time, the design and efficiency of the weapon has improved, but the basic physics never have. So, once the Dark Kingdom understood its abilities, and how it worked, they produced something that was largely immune to its effects. In their universe such universal utility has not been achieved, so other methods are used."

"And these are?" prompted Endymion.

"I was talking to Jellic about the fight with the Slashers on Archird, and when I asked about their weapon technology, he paused and disappeared for a couple of minutes, bringing back a large metal box. He gave it to me, and explained that the box contained the standard arms and armor kit for ground troops. He said he had about a half dozen others on board, so he could spare one."

She tapped the terminal in front of her, and the display changed; the wall behind Sailor Jupiter's desk parted to reveal a large screen. Sailor Jupiter and Endymion turned to watch, as Sailor Mercury stood to one side of it. An image and schematics popped on the screen.

"A tailored body suit, with cooling and warming abilities; this also has an attachment point for an outer armor kit, of which there are three types: a general purpose set, an energy resistant set, and a physically resistant set; all are interchangeable, and mixable. A simple helmet is included, but Jellic tells me that they are normally changed out with one more specific to the task and race of user," Sailor Mercury said. "Our own suits are more comfortable, but not as suited for combat operations... but then, we also use thaumaturgy- magic- which is a great equalizer, and obviously they do not."

The display changed.

"Weapons; three rifles, two handguns, and long-bladed dagger." She pointed to one. "This is the Slasher killer, the Mark 22b All Environment Combat rifle; 50 or 120 round magazine, firing 20 rounds a second with near-zero recoil, and an attachment for tactical missiles. The others are the Mark 5 Kergin Blaster rifle with 60 or 100 round ampoule magazines, again with attachment for tactical missiles. It fires a wide spectrum energy bolt equivalent to a heavy damage setting on our blasters, but is otherwise nowhere near as concentrated, lethal, or versatile as our blasters. The final one is an Accelerator scattergun, firing a range of different large bore munitions. The handguns include a Mk 6 Policing Stunner; it fires a bolt of electrical energy, which knocks out or disorientates most creatures with an electric jolt; again, not quite as efficient as ours. The final one is what they call a Nail gun, 15 rounds moderate recoil; a short range weapon of last resort."

Endymion's eyes had opened wide at the end of her description. "By Serenity; what is the cost of training, supplying, and maintaining their troops?"

"Very high. Jellic told me that something like 8.6% of the gross product of the Federation goes to maintaining their armed forces; it's close to 21% in current times because of the major interstellar war they were fighting. A lot of this is due to the much larger space they occupy, but demands of physics and doctrine also adds to the burden," commented Sailor Mercury.

"Have they just been fighting this war, then, or are they just well prepared?" asked Endymion.

"They were active participants. They were called up because their starship is over 80 years old, and did not use a particular type of neural-processor chip in its systems. Apparently their enemy, the Jerbrn, had a way of disrupting the operation of said chips; this led to the formation of the 'Third Fleet', a rag tag bunch of ships more than 80 years old, to hold the Jerbrn back, while a way was found to protect the more modern ships from the Jerbrn's jamming technology," said Sailor Jupiter.

"What was the cause?" said Endymion, curiously.

"Of the war?" said Sailor Jupiter. "The extreme xenophobia of the Jerbrn. It was like a holy war to destroy all other sentient races. According to Federation scientists, it stems from the fact that their home world had two sentient races evolve at the same time, and being in the same niche, the two fought until one was eliminated. The xenophobia was a natural result of that. We, of course, must take that with a pinch of salt, as ever the victors do write the history. But, from the records they downloaded to us, they seem remarkably free of propaganda."

"It sounds slightly familiar," said Endymion. "So, what they want from us?"

"Somewhere to rest, recover, repair, and re-supply their ship, until such time as they return to their own dimension by themselves; or to make the journey to a hypothetical system called Draconi Sigma, some 820 light years from here," said Sailor Jupiter.

"Return themselves? Is that possible?" he asked.

"According to their library data," began Sailor Mercury, "since they are not native to this dimension, they are unstable in it. This instability grows the longer they remain, and eventually they 'pop' back to the same place in space and time they left from. The timing on this is, however, uncertain; it could be days, months, or years before they do so. The other option is to see if a world called Gateway is orbiting Draconi Sigma. The world is supposedly a dimensional nexus, which allows people from other dimensions to return to their native dimension. Jellic was hopeful that it exists in our dimension."

"Unfortunately for them, Draconi Sigma is in that undefined blob that is the back of beyond of Dark Kingdom space," commented Sailor Jupiter.

Endymion frowned. "Should we be concerned that they have such a world in such close spatial proximity?"

Sailor Mercury laughed. "I asked that question. Susaumen nearly fell off her seat laughing. It's a relic of what they call a type V civilization; it apparently protects itself quite well from abuse by the likes of us."

The other two shared a blank look.

"Sorry; I would have to explain that, wouldn't I? It's from Federation terminology. It is a method of measuring technological advancement by defining usage and control of energy. So a Type I civilization would be able to control the energy of its own planet, a type II can control the energy a solar system, and a type III control the power of an entire galaxy. A type IV is able to manipulate the energy of universe, and a type V civilization is the most powerful, being able to manipulate the power of its own and other dimensions. To quote Susaumen, to a type V civilization we are but ants walking across the road, which can be squashed without noticing. We have a similar scale, developed by the Vulcans: the Kay'lahr Civilization Index. The equivalent on that scale is a twenty," Sailor Mercury said.

A silence fell in the wake of that comment.

"Well, that puts us in our place, doesn't it!" commented Sailor Jupiter.

"Why haven't we encountered any of them?" asked Endymion.

"Several possibilities present themselves. Perhaps they've always limited evidence of their activities; maybe we haven't explored enough; or they have not come here. There is also the possibility, not to put too fine a point on it, that we are as yet simply too ignorant to recognize such an occurrence," answered Sailor Mercury. "As it is, no one in their Federation has ever met them either."

Endymion opened his mouth to ask another question, and then stopped himself. "We are sliding away from the topic at hand." He looked firmly at the two Senshi. "Are these people any threat to us?"

"In mine, and Omega Force's, opinion they are what they say they are. It could have all been a very elaborate hoax, but Sailor Mercury's evidence puts their origin beyond our dimension; that, and they are very willing to abide by any restrictions and conditions we impose. Jellic reputedly said to Sailor Magneta, 'That's fine, it's what I would do'," answered Sailor Jupiter. "The only one with any concerns was Sailor Cerebra; as they are very obviously used to dealing with telepaths, and had considerable defenses against her abilities. But Sailor Cerebra admitted that most of her concern was mostly to encountering resistance like that; which to us is unusual, but very common for them."

Endymion thought for a moment, then nodded. "That's good news. They did do us a favor back on Archird; the queen is talking about awarding them medals as an official recognition of their actions." He stopped again, his eyes glazing over slightly; then he pointed towards the display. "Amy, could we use their Slasher killing technology?"

Sailor Mercury blinked slightly. "Er, yes, shouldn't be too difficult to derive a useful modification to our blasters with the new information. Between our studies of the captured Slashers and our guests, I expect to have a solution in short order."

He turned his eyes on her. "Amy, get cracking. Lita, forward me your final report on our guests, ASAP." With that, he rose and swept out of the door.

The two Senshi, who had risen from their chairs too, looked at each other.

"I will pass on to Michelle to give them the news, and clear them for access to the declassified areas of the Skunk Works," said Sailor Jupiter, returning to her seat.

"Sounds good to me; I will send a research team there to talk to them, and go over the records they release," said Sailor Mercury. As she stood, she stopped for a second. "Oh, by the way, did you find out why Jellic was asking about kaftans?"

"Not a clue!" answered a mystified Sailor Jupiter.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 18 February 2738

The Royal Apartments

Endymion swept down the corridor to the royal apartments, his two ever-present escorts nearly running to keep up with his pace. Outside the door to the Royal Apartments stood the apartment guard, and the queen's personal guard. All snapped to attention as the door to the apartment opened silently for Endymion, and just as silently closed behind him. The guards all looked at each other, and took their places to wait.

His rapid footsteps carried him up to the queen's private office. He carefully pushed open the door. "Serenity?" he called as he looked inside.

In front of him were the pulverized remains of what had been a set of comfortable chairs, and a small table; now, they were nothing but wood fragments and shards of stone and crystal. Sitting at her desk, ramrod straight, was Neo-Queen Serenity the First herself, her eyes fixed on nothing. Tears streamed from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks, and eventually dripping from her chin onto the blotter pad on the desk. Endymion came around the desk, and placed his hand on her shoulder. It took a moment for the warmth of his hand to awaken the crying Queen, who eventually turned and looked up at him.

"Darien," was her only word as she threw herself into his arms and began to sob.

The King of Crystal Tokyo held his wife tightly in his arms. His wife, AKA Neo-Queen Serenity, AKA Sailor Moon, AKA Bunny Tsukino, savoir of the world (nine times at least by the last count), Messiah, and mother, was only still only human. A very special human, but human nevertheless; and on her visit to see Archmage Shigenobu, the realization of what he had gone though was ever present in her mind. To watch 14 of his friends and workmates tortured to death, while being taunted and insulted, must have been beyond words; that, combined with the effect of the drugs, had driven him over the edge. Only after a week's treatment had they managed to get him to sleep naturally, and that was by blocking off extensive parts of his memory.

She had listened to the doctors and the super-intelligent Amy, spoken words of encouragement to the care staff, and talked long with the family. Then she had come back to her rooms, and attempted to release some of the anger, misery, and guilt that she felt.

Sometimes the job of ruler and leader absolutely sucked.

Pago Pago, Samoan Islands, Planet Earth, Sol system, 20 February 2738

The Crown Lodge and Hotel, Lodge 12

Francois Nguyen considered himself to be a lucky man. As an up and coming designer in Paris, he had been approached by the Royal Palace to see if he would do some remodeling work. He had first thought it would be some work on the Paris embassy, but was extremely surprised when he found himself in Ellen Tsukino Memorial Ballroom of the Crystal Palace to remodel it after the Infiltrator attack just before Christmas the previous year.

For nearly two months he had driven himself and his work crews to the limit; it was now ready for the celebration of Sailor Neptune's birthday on March 6th. At the end of the commission, he had walked into a travel agency in Armstrong City, and asked for a quiet, restful place with some sun; and found himself, 24 hours later, at this tropical paradise.

His relaxation on the beach had been pleasantly interrupted by the attention of a very attractive Polynesian girl, who recognized him from the design course she was taking in the local technical college. A day of conversation, followed by a day trip to the nearby, uninhabited islands, and a romantic meal in a local restaurant, had lead back to them both returning to his lodge for a "nightcap".

Opening the door, he cleared his throat to command the lights, when Kahhya put her hand on his.

"Leave the lights off; let's have fun in the moonlight," she said, pulling him into the room.

As he bent down to kiss her soundly on the lips, a noise alerted him to the fact they were not alone. Turning to face the noise, and pulling Kahhya behind him, he glanced about. "Who's there?"

A sliver-white ray emerging from the corner of the room, and striking him full on, answered him. He tried to shut his eyes and found he couldn't; he tried to move, and found he was paralyzed. Out of the corner of the room, a large, hooded figure emerged from the darkness.

Kahhya stepped out from behind him. "Master," she said, bowing to the figure.

Is this the one? he heard in his mind.

"Yes, master," she replied.

You have done well, my Thrall, came the harsh mental voice again.

He struggled to move as creature came towards him. Pulling back the hood, the figure revealed itself to be a tentacled, one eyed, Cthulhuen horror; and his last thoughts were of utter terror as its tentacles attached themselves onto his head.

Then the ripping pain started as his mind was sucked out.

Half a minute later, it was all over. The body of Francois Nguyen fell to the floor. The Alkon stood, and its tentacles writhed for a few moments, and then settled down. It pulled up the hood of its robe.

Pick the body up, it sent as it walked towards the door.

Kahhya bent down, and with a struggle, managed to get the body upright.

Very good, it sent, before its eye glowed. A black cone enveloped the two of them, as their bodies disintegrated and blew away like dust in a storm.

As it left, the Alkon activated the robotic cleaner to remove the small amount of dust that signified passing of two lives.

To be continued...