"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
3-06: Forging Ahead
Rated:
R
Former
site of a Dark Kingdom gate, in the Alpha Zone, 10 June 2740
The
SLS Bahumat
Sailor Cygni glared out the window with fists clenched, teeth grit, and
pure fury evident in her normally pleasant expression and pretty features. Her posture was tense, wound up; she looked as a snake about
to strike.
At least, that was the impression Sailor Ryujin got as she stood just
inside the doorway of the captain’s ready room, not quite sure of how to
proceed.
She stepped almost casually over the broken glass on the carpeted deck,
and cleared her throat.
“What?!” snapped Sailor Cygni.
Sailor Ryujin cocked her head. “You
shoulda seen it. That bitch left
the bridge in a hurry, with her tail between her legs.”
She smiled slightly.
Sailor Cygni didn’t reply. Sailor
Ryujin took another step forward. “After
that… shit, girl, do you need a hug or a drink?”
Sailor Cygni uttered a short bark of derisive laughter.
“Both; but I doubt even that will help.”
Sailor Ryujin snorted. “Oh,
I don’t know... Anything in
particular?”
“Surprise me,” growled Sailor Cygni, still glaring out the window.
“Okay,” Sailor Ryujin said agreeably.
She went to the dispenser and placed an order; as it shimmered into
being, she raised her voice. “Sailor
Ryujin to Sorcerer Derrelli.”
Sailor Cygni half-turned. “What
are you-“
“Go ahead,” came Sorcerer Derrelli’s voice.
“You busy, Pyro? If not,
your woman could use a hug; she had a bad time with that diplomat bitch,”
Sailor Ryujin continued.
“Well, I’m not in the middle of anything, so…” Derrelli replied.
“In that case, to the captain’s ready room, please,” Sailor Ryujin
said.
“Enroute,” Derrelli responded, before a beep indicated the channel
closing. Sailor Ryujin grabbed the
drink and turned. Sailor Cygni was
regarding her through narrowed eyes.
“I thought you were gonna do it,” Sailor Cygni said.
“Well,” trailed off Sailor Ryujin, thrusting the drink at Sailor
Cygni. As she took it, Sailor
Ryujin continued. “I was tempted;
you are one hot chick. But I
figured Pyro was a better choice; and I wasn’t relishing getting my butt
kicked if he got jealous ‘cuz I put a squeeze on you.”
“Please,” snorted Sailor Cygni; Sailor Ryujin could already see the
rage bleeding off; and then the Senshi of Gravity smiled a little, surprising
her first officer. “Actually, he
probably would have enjoyed it; asked for pictures, even.”
Sailor Ryujin smirked. “We
might have to try that sometime, then,” she snickered.
“What would the rest of the bridge crew think?
Or that bitch diplomat?”
“’What is this, a Senshi whorehouse or a starship?’” Sailor Cygni
mimicked, imitating Juanita Flores’ mannerisms and voice.
Sailor Ryujin burst out laughing.
“That’s pretty good,” she managed to say, wiping laugh tears from
her eyes.
Sailor Cygni took a long swallow of the drink, and suddenly flushed red,
gasping for breath and slamming her free hand on the table; Sailor Ryujin moved
over and slapped her back, allowing her to get her breath back.
“Damn, girl, you’re not supposed to attack this stuff!
It can kill you like that!”
“What the hell is this?” gasped Sailor Cygni.
The Water Dragon Senshi smiled sweetly.
“A Pan-galactic gargle warp blaster.”
“Mother of Serenity,” Sailor Cygni managed.
“Isn’t this drink illegal?”
Sailor Ryujin’s grin widened. “I
figured you needed something good and strong to help settle you.”
Sailor Cygni was silent for a moment.
“You got that right,” she said softly.
“That bad, huh?” Sailor Ryujin asked, almost as softly; she sat on
the edge of the desk, crossing her legs.
“Yeah,” Sailor Cygni said. “She
just doesn’t get it, Kis. She’s
too damn obsessed with her own inflated sense of self-importance and how
essential her job is; she endangers this ship without a second’s thought, and
she thinks everyone who does not agree with her is wrong, period; no room for
compromise. And then she slanders
people, on the bridge of their own ship, in front of their own crew… and acts
all hurt and irritated when confronted by it!
Her actions could very well get us killed… when they aren’t pissing
us all off. We have enough problems
to deal with; we don’t need this on top of everything else!”
Sailor Cygni’s face reddened again, in a combination of anger and, as
Sailor Ryujin now saw it, misery; her captain was very upset about recent
events.
“I’d say,” Sailor Ryujin began cautiously, “that you’ve handled
the bullshit pretty damn well.”
“Not well enough,” sighed Sailor Cygni.
“I’m not supposed… no, I’m not allowed to lose my cool.
I’m the captain of a starship; I’m not allowed to let emotions take
control of me.” A tear trickled
down her cheek; she gazed into her drink. “And
I have. What does that say about
me?”
“Perhaps not, Hoshi, and I don’t know how to answer your last,”
Sailor Ryujin said, a hint of fury creeping into her voice.
She stood. “But damn it,
Captain, I doubt even Her Highness would blame you.”
The door hissed open; Derrelli stepped in, stopping just inside the door
and glancing down at the broken glass. He
looked back up, his eyes questioning. Sailor
Ryujin approached, lowering her voice. “Get
her calmed down, Pyro; she’s rather upset and she needs to be cool.”
“What set her off?” he asked quietly.
“Oh, I’m gonna go have a chat with that person right now,” Sailor
Ryujin said, her eyes hard and cold. “If
you’ll excuse me, Captain? Derrelli’s
here for ya now.” Sailor Cygni
stared into her drink, barely even acknowledging the statement.
Derrelli glanced after Sailor Ryujin’s departing form, and as the doors
shut turned to regard Sailor Cygni. His
expression was thoughtful; he stepped over the glass and was by Sailor Cygni in
a few long strides. He reached
down, removed the drink from her hand, and pulled her out of the chair, ignoring
her half-articulated cry of protest; he enveloped her in a tight hug, pulling
her head into his neck.
“Just let it out, Hoshi,” he whispered.
“You’ve got to, and you know you want to.
I’m here, and Kis looked as if she was about to go tear someone’s
head off.”
Sailor Cygni didn’t answer; her hands closed, grabbing fistsful of his
uniform tunic; she sobbed quietly and bitterly.
He could feel the warmth of her tears trickling down his neck; he closed
his eyes, and lowered his head on hers.
Mission accomplished, thought Sailor Ryujin bitterly as she
stalked across the bridge, ignoring Wizard Duke in the command chair. She marched to the turbolift.
So, now the captain’s feeling a little better, venting on her lover,
and will shortly be calm enough to resume her duties.
The turbolift doors opened, and Sailor Ryujin entered.
Yeah, and now it’s me
who’s pissed! Oh, am I gonna give
that bitch a piece of my mind.
“Deck 5, visiting dignitary quarters,” she all but snarled as the
turbolift doors closed. Neo, the Bahumat
AI, said nothing, deciding silence was better at the moment.
The turbolift hummed as it moved, and Sailor Ryujin glowered at the
closed doors. When they opened, she
stalked out, and Neo decided to speak. “Give
her hell, Sailor Ryujin.”
“I plan to,” Sailor Ryujin replied, heading off down the corridor.
She stopped in front of the proper door, and pressed the panel. Her enhanced hearing couldn’t even detect the door chime on
the other side of the noise-proofed door; but she imagined it, crossed her arms,
and waited.
“Who is it?” came Juanita’s voice from the panel.
“Sailor Ryujin,” she said, feigning neutrality, and reigning in her
anger for the moment.
“Is it important?” Juanita asked.
Is it important!? Why,
you little… “Yes,” Sailor
Ryujin said aloud; even as she balled her fists she plastered a false smile on
her face.
“Come in, then,” Juanita said; the door hissed open as Sailor Ryujin
entered. Juanita stood up from the
couch; she had changed out of her diplomatic corps uniform into civilian
clothes, in this case a white blouse and long gray skirt; she set a microcomp
aside, and a wineglass full of red wine on the table.
“What can I do for you, Sailor Ryujin?
Or is this an attempt to get a favor from me?”
Her tone was insolent, irritated.
Sailor Ryujin glared at her for a moment.
“Get a favor? By Serenity,
I…” she trailed off, and closed her eyes for a second; her whole demeanor
abruptly changed, a saccharine-sweet smile on her face and a playful look in her
eyes.
You, bitch, are nothing to me; if I wanted, I could tear you to shreds,
thought Sailor Ryujin. Aloud, she
said “Y'know, I've always been the sort who found strong brassy bitches sexy
and alluring. But damn, you just shot that turn-on to hell with the way you
treated the Captain." She leered at the diplomat in a decidedly
un-officer-like fashion. "Don't you just hate it when your fantasies come
tumbling down on your pillows, 'Nita-dear?”
Juanita went sheet-white, frozen. Her
mouth worked, and she finally managed to speak.
“E-excuse me?”
“Did I stutter, ‘Nita?” Sailor Ryujin smirked at Juanita’s
discomfort. “You are the one
talking about ‘favors’, after all. Oh,
‘Nita, ‘Nita… dear, don’t you know just how badly you fucked up on the
bridge? Hmmm?” She shook her blonde head.
“This is out of line,” Juanita snapped at Sailor Ryujin.
“Out of line?” fired back Sailor Ryujin.
“Out of line? Disrespecting
the Captain of a starship in front of the troops is out of line, ‘Nita-dear.
Slandering every Sailor Senshi, many of whom have given up their lives so
that you have the right to walk around on a starship and have a chance to attack
the Captain, is out of line. Out of
line, ‘Nita? Oh, we haven’t
begun to go there yet.”
“My name is Juanita,” growled the diplomat.
“Oh, the hell with it,” sighed Sailor Ryujin.
“Our image isn’t going to change in your eyes, anyway, so why
bother?” She jumped forward,
moving far too quickly for Juanita to follow, and grabbed the diplomat by her
arms, shoving her against the wall. She
grabbed the front of Juanita’s blouse, twisting slightly, and lifted her off
the ground a few millimeters, pushing her against the wall; she stuck her face
so close that Juanita almost felt their noses touch.
“Let’s get something straight, ‘Nita.
You crossed a line you shouldn’t have, and you’ll be lucky to come
out of this mess an apprentice diplomat by the time we’re through with you.
You think you’re special? You…
are… nothing… and we’ll see who’s special when Her Highness finds out
about the shit you’re shoveling and pulling.
Now. You will be on your best damn behavior. You will be most respectful towards everyone.
You will act properly… or else. Are
we clear?” demanded Sailor Ryujin.
Juanita was frightened in a way she had never been; for what was probably
the first time in her life, her life was in physical danger; she could see it in
this Senshi’s eyes. She fought
it; summoned up a bit of bravado. “Or
else what?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly.
Sailor Ryujin let go, dropping her against the wall and taking a step
back. “You’ll find out. Crossing a Senshi, any Senshi, is simply not a good idea.”
“Or else what?” she demanded again as Sailor Ryujin moved to the
door. She stood, straightening out
her clothing. “You come in here
and threaten me, you-”
“Shut up,” Sailor Ryujin, half-turned in the doorway, hissed;
Juanita subsided. “You really
don’t want to know what else, ‘Nita-dear.
You don’t want to know. Yes,
I did threaten you… but where’s your proof?
Who do you think controls the systems around here?
You? Please.
You upset Neo, too, with your little stunt on the bridge.
Think he’s inclined to ‘favor’ you?”
“Why did you come in here and threaten me?” Juanita tried a
different tack.
“Why? You upset the
Captain enough to turn her violent and push her to the point where she could
concentrate on nothing, in the middle of a mission of utmost importance.
‘Nita-dear, you keep prattling on about how important this mission is
and how you’re not gonna let us screw it up.
But, ‘Nita, don’t you see? If
this mission fails, it won’t be because of us.
‘Nita, it will be because of you.”
Sailor Ryujin turned to leave; as the door hissed open, she paused.
“That’s why,” she said finally, and left.
Juanita, trembling, suddenly realized she needed to use the bathroom.
She made it to the head in the nick of time.
Sailor Cygni fell silent after telling Derrelli of the morning’s
events, and Derrelli finally looked away from his careful regard of her face. “Shit,” he said softly.
He glanced down at his clenched hands.
“I am so fighting the urge to go turn her into a crispy
critter.”
Sailor Cygni laid her hand on his arm.
“Don’t,” she said. “It
would solve nothing.”
“I know,” he sighed. He
glanced at her drink. “The hell
is that, anyway?”
“Don’t ask,” she smiled slightly, her wet-streaked cheeks beginning
to dry. She stood, and took the
drink to the dispenser; it dematerialized.
Sailor Cygni turned, eyeing the mess near the door; she extended a hand,
and the collection of glass chunks and shards lifted.
She moved the localized gravity field to the dispenser, where she ended
the field and watched the fragments dissolve.
She touched the panel and prompted the cleaning systems to activate.
“Good thing that one was empty,” she said.
Derrelli stood, and smiled slightly.
“Geez, babe, I’m not sure you should go out to the bridge just yet. I think you should go to your quarters, first.”
“Why?” Sailor Cygni demanded.
Derrelli simply pointed at the reflective surface of the table. Confused, she followed his direction… and saw her
disheveled reflection; plus she could smell the synthetic alcohol on her breath
from the one swig she had taken. She
grimaced. “Good thing I have a
dedicated turbolift here.” She
moved around her desk, and tapped a panel there.
“Sailor Cygni to bridge.”
“Go ahead, Captain,” answered Duke.
“Duke, you have the helm for awhile; I need an hour or so,” Sailor
Cygni said.
“Copy that, Captain. We’ll
holler if something develops. Bridge
out.” A beep ended the
communication, and Sailor Cygni moved towards her personal lift.
As
the doors opened, she glanced back at Derrelli, ran her hands over her hips and
down her skirt, and grinned. “Coming?”
“Of course,” grinned Derrelli. “Wouldn’t
miss this for the world.”
They were already kissing as the lift doors closed.
Nearing
1800 hours
Double doors hissed open, and Sailor Cygni, Sailor Ryujin, Derrelli,
Wizard Orien, and Duke strolled into the main shuttlebay as one group. The command group approached the diplomats; Juanita was
tense, quiet; the other three more relaxed, but a little confused at their
leader’s reticence.
It was no real mystery to Sailor Ryujin; she allowed herself a brief
smile, and then schooled her expression to careful neutrality as they arrived
next to the diplomats. Behind them,
the doors opened again, and the “guides” and other security personnel
arrived.
“Positions,” ordered Sailor Cygni.
Even as the new arrivals moved to preassigned spots, the Thoqualian
Lieutenant manning the shuttlebay controls spoke up.
“Two shuttles, one Zerm, one HDE; and one DK Pod approaching in
assigned flight positions. The lead
shuttle with the Zerm delegation requests landing clearance.”
“Proceed,” said Sailor Cygni; all around, everyone snapped to
attention, and the diplomats and Bahumat bridge crew straightened up, all
expressions neutral. Juanita stepped forward, and Sailor Cygni and Sailor Ryujin
flanked her.
“Let’s get this over with,” muttered Orien; Duke, Derrelli, and the
three junior diplomats all shared a brief grin before the shuttlebay doors
opened and the business of making delicate peace talks successful began.
Through the flickering force field, the sleek, rounded, silvery and shiny
shape of the Zerm shuttle could be seen; a spindlier shape could be seen right
behind it, with a black spherical shape highlighted in greenish energy from its
engines right behind that.
“Deactivating outer force field,” Neo intoned.
“Zerm shuttlecraft on final approach; tractor beams locked on.”
Sailor Cygni remained silent as the final course was cleared from the
table. In deference to their
guests, special meals had been created; the chefs had outdone themselves. Every salad, every appetizer, every plate had been exquisite.
She was proud of her crew; the way they were treating this occasion and
giving forth so much of their energy to make it work.
So far, from her angle, it was a smashing success.
She briefly wondered how the diplomatic angle was going, but put it out
of her mind, examining her counterparts.
Permecht, which happened to be the Zerm equivalent of captain’s rank,
Amisere Newelsed was the commanding officer of the Zerm battleship Treseey.
Like most of his race, he sported three arms, legs, and eyes.
He had blue, scaly skin; he was clothed in a deep green uniform with his
triangular rank pips on a sash over his shoulder.
His top three officers accompanied him; and like him, had field
generators that held a skin of water around them.
He was widely regarded as the best of the remaining captains in the Zerm
Fleet.
Bishop Commander Keligh Dreh’chen was the red-scaled captain of the
Holy Droylian Empire battleship Fid’rechel, which, when translated into
Galactic Common, meant “Holy Defender”.
He wore his bright yellow uniform with pride, with rank rings dangling
from his ear, and his orangish reptilian eyes sparkled, and longer red-orange
head and back spines flexed, in his amusement from a joke that one of his three
comrades told.
And the last group of four occupants was the most unusual ever to be
aboard the Bahumat; considering they were Lord Hirogex of the Dark
Kingdom battleship Wraith and his top three officers.
All three were vaguely humanoid, with varying features; Lord Hirogex
himself had deep green skin, midnight blue eyes, fangs, and shortly-cropped
black hair. All four wore
steel-gray uniforms, with black combat boots and their insignia glittering upon
their chests. It was hard to fight
the suspicion, hard to hide the hostility, which they all felt regarding the
presence of the Dark Kingdom officers; but again, her crew had done an admirable
job in that respect, and the current atmosphere was quite friendly… even if it
were a farce.
Time to put the new camaraderie to the test, thought Sailor Cygni.
She stood, and used her fork to clang her glass; conversation stilled.
“Another toassst, Captain?” inquired Amisere.
“A queer cusssstom, but one we can ssssurely get usssed to.”
“Actually, I’m afraid not,” Sailor Cygni replied.
“I’m afraid a bit of subterfuge was used to bring you here for a
reason other than diplomacy.”
“What reason?” hissed Keligh, as Hirogex and his companions tensed,
glancing about for some trap, some ambush.
“Relax, please,” soothed Sailor Cygni, her hands spread in
supplication. “Not nefarious, in
the way you may be thinking. But it
is nefarious in that the reason does not quite agree with the diplomatic nature
of our missions. If I may?”
“Please continue, Captain,” Hirogex said smoothly, waving his
companions, who were half out of their seats, to sit back down.
“All right. I’m not sure
how to put this, so I’ll cut right to the chase.
Somehow, through some means, our new common enemy knows about our
purpose, and the diplomatic summit on Polaris.
And we must find a way to stop them,” Sailor Cygni stated.
The room fell deathly silent. Finally,
Hirogex spoke. “Well. That certainly does belie the nature of our missions,
doesn’t it? I presume that you
have some sort of idea how to deal with this?”
“Some,” Sailor Cygni admitted. “The
beginnings of a plan. All of you
know the capabilities of your own ships better than we do.
Now, we’ve had scout ships collecting as much information as they
could; we’ve drawn the conclusion that the enemy has some sort of powerful
internal field that prevents the Zerm Matrix from affecting them; but all of the
rest of our weapons should work. Our
goal is to fill in the gaps and come up with a definite plan we can all place
confidence in.”
“You expect just the four of us to defeat this enemy?” Keligh asked.
“Well, that and the four RSN destroyers currently patrolling the
Polaris system. That gives us a
small boost in firepower, and five TPAs,” Orien spoke up.
The DK faction exchanged a glance. Finally,
after some hesitation, Hirogex spoke up. “We,
too, now possess the capability to use our special abilities on enemy ship
targets.”
“How?” demanded Sailor Ryujin.
“Well, I’m afraid some time ago, one our spies managed to steal the
plans to your TPA and get it to us,” Hirogex explained, slowly, polite as
possible. “This has finally
resulted in what we call the EFA: Essence
Focusing Apparatus. Due to
technological differences, it isn’t yet as efficient as yours, but…”
“But you’re working on it,” Derrelli finished with a grin.
“Well, yes,” Hirogex said, a faint smile tugging at the corners of
his mouth.
“All in the past, at least for the moment,” Sailor Cygni said, waving
her hand dismissively. “And that
will come in handy.”
“You know, ignorance is costing us… dearly,” Derrelli mused.
Sailor Cygni glanced back at him as Duke spoke up.
“What are you proposing, Pyro?”
“I’m proposing that should we succeed and beat the hell out of that
ship, that before we finish it off we get aboard it and take some deep scans…
get a better idea of what we’re dealing with and maybe some way that is key to
defeating them,” Derrelli said.
“That sounds very risky,” pointed out Gyari, Hirogex’s tactical
officer. She then grinned, even
rows of teeth revealed. Aside from
the horns sweeping forward on her head, she looked quite human, with tan skin
and brown hair and eyes. “It
actually sounds like fun.”
“That makes two,” Derrelli said.
“You mean to tell me you want to lead that team?” demanded Sailor
Ryujin. “Now wait just a
minute!”
Privately, Sailor Cygni agreed, but fought it down, knowing- as Derrelli
full well did- that he was a good choice for the job, considering his
background. She raised her hand.
“Hold on. We should give
this full consideration. We have a
lot of ideas to condense, so we’ll take them down and discuss them in turn.
I think we can all agree that we’ll probably be here awhile whilst the
diplomats do their thing.”
“Amen,” agreed Keligh amongst a few scattered chuckles.
Several hours later, the dinners were concluded; the Bahumat was
now the lead ship in a convoy, united by purpose, heading towards the Polaris
system at high FTL speed.
“So?” Sailor Cygni said. The
five of them, with GIA activated and monitoring, were in the primary briefing
room rehashing the efforts of the day; all were quite tired, and needed to get
some rest… and they all looked it.
“So,” yawned Duke, “with everyone’s input and agreement, I think
we have a chance.”
“Not to mention a workable battle plan,” agreed Orien.
“I still think I should lead that scout team,” Sailor Ryujin pouted.
“No,” Derrelli said softly. “Your
strength is needed on the Bahumat; and I possess the necessary skills.
Either via magical prowess, or hacking ability; who knows what we’ll be
able to get into, good situations or bad.”
“Besides, the details are final,” Sailor Cygni said brusquely. “Neo, GIA; what are the chances of success?”
“If everything goes as planned, Captain,” Neo replied, “better than
50%.”
“Which it won’t,” added GIA. “Worst
case is 5%.”
“Better than nothing,” Orien shrugged.
“And we don’t really have a choice.”
“No, we don’t, do we,” Sailor Ryujin said.
“Well, it oughta be fun, at least…
like a choice wave, riding on the edge.”
“Geez, we really are tired,” laughed Derrelli.
“Yeah,” Sailor Cygni agreed. She
stood. “Let’s get some rest.”
As everyone got up to leave, she continued.
“We’re going to need it,” she predicted.