|
|
Haruna smiled at the group of teenagers. "You were telling me this afternoon where you've been all these years." They had finished dinner and were sitting in the living room drinking tea as the four teenagers were outside, talking.
Seiya nodded as he sipped at his tea. He stared at it for a moment before replying. "We had to return home. For personal reasons, as I explained earlier. As you may or may not know, we originally came from northern Japan."
"That would explain Yaten-san's gray hair," Toshio replied, coming back into the room. He resumed his place beside Haruna and accepted the tea she offered.
"Yes. Anyway, we stayed there for about two years before we decided it would be easier on the girls to raise them away from all the bad memories," Seiya replied. He took another sip of his tea as he tried to remember the cover story they planned. "We changed our names and became completely different people."
"You must have told Usagi-chan and her friends where you were. They never seemed to worry about you," Haruna replied.
Seiya nodded. "We told them. But we lost contact not long after we left."
Toshio listened to his story quietly, not really believing him, but giving him the benefit of the doubt, because of Haruna. "And you're just now interested in finding out what happened to them? Why did you wait so long? Why come back now?"
"I have always wondered what became of them. But in trying to build a new life, I never had time to come back and find them. And I only tried to find them now because this is the first time I've left the compound," Seiya replied. He saw the strange look on his former teacher's face and smiled. "My wife was a naturalist. We lived in a nature preserve, in Africa, for the last ten years. I'm afraid I have no idea what's been going on in the rest of the world."
Toshio nodded slightly. "A Naturalist, huh? Does that mean no electricity, no computers, that sort of thing?"
Haruna chuckled, leaning over to whisper something to her husband. She smiled when his face turned red. "A nature preserve? That must have been an interesting place for the girls to grow up."
Seiya watched the two curiously, wondering what his former teacher had told her husband. "It was. They got to see a lot of things that we never saw growing up. And Naturalist means that we had no artificial goods brought in. No electricity, no outside food or products. Everything we had we made ourselves. It was quite a change from Tokyo, I must say."
"Oh," both of the Wakagis blushed slightly. Haruna chuckled. "THAT kind of nature preserve."
"What did you think I meant by 'naturalist'?" Seiya raised an eyebrow at how bright his former teacher's face had become. He chuckled slightly as he realized what she apparently had told her husband moments before. "I think you're thinking of 'nudist', Wakagi-san."
Toshio laughed at the look on his wife's face. "Seiya-san, you mentioned having a wife. Did she come with you to Tokyo?"
Seiya's good mood faded quickly as he lowered his gaze to the ground. "No. She ... died. Five years ago. She and our son were in an ... accident."
Haruna glanced outside to the group of girls. "I'm sorry to hear that, Kou-san. How old was he?"
"Seven," Seiya replied without thinking.
"Then that would mean he was born shortly after you left here, wouldn't it?" Toshio noticed that the other man was distracted.
"He was part of the reason you left, wasn't he? You left Tokyo to raise him." Haruna watched the young man for several moments before changing the subject. "So, I was able to get some information that you might want. About Tsukino Usagi. Though, some of it, you may not want to hear."
Seiya's head shot up at Usagi's name. "Were you able to find out where she is? As long as she is alive, then I shall be happy."
Haruna nodded, standing to fetch the paper she had written Usagi's address on. "Yes. She's living in America. With Chiba Mamoru." She handed the paper to the younger man and noticed that he seemed relieved at the news. "I haven't spoken to her in a while, but ... Seiya-san ... Usagi-chan is-"
Toshio's cell phone started ringing and he got up to answer it. After a moment, he glanced at his wife and their companion. "Gomen, I have to go. There's some kind of weirdo in a costume terrorizing a shopping mall. I thought this kind of thing ended years ago." He said goodbye to the adults, sending the girls back inside as he left.
"Perhaps we should be going now, Wakagi-san." Seiya stood and hugged the older woman. "Thank you for your kindness. Next time, dinner is on us."
Haruna returned the hug and followed the group to the door. "Seiya-san, girls, please be careful. There have been strange incidents occurring all over town. Then again, that isn't that unusual for Tokyo, is it?"
"Do not worry, Wakagi-san. We are most capable of taking care of our selves." Usami bowed slightly before leading the girls back outside. Seiya followed their lead and said his goodbyes.
Haruna watched them go and sighed. 'Oh, Usagi-chan ... I wonder if I should call her ... or just let him surprise her.' She smiled slightly as she turned to go back into the house. "I think I'll just let him surprise her. She could do with some good news."
Earth Date: Unknown
StarMaker looked through the hole in the deck out at space. The energy fields seemed to be holding for now, but on emergency power, it was only a matter of time before they would fail. Since she could survive the airless conditions, she was alone on the bridge, rerouting the major systems to another deck. She had managed to contact Yaten's ship and tell them of the attack, but that had been hours ago. If they didn't reach the rest of their convoy soon, there would be little chance of saving the remaining 746 refugees. The ship started shaking, a sign they were nearing the other side of the portal.
'It's too soon,' StarMaker thought to herself. She glanced at a readout and shook her head sadly. She hit the warning klaxon again and sighed. 'Another few hours and we would have reached Yaten.'
She turned back to the hole in the deck as she used her power to steady the ship. Closing her eyes to concentrate on keeping the ship from flying apart as it returned to normal space, she failed to see tale-tale signs of other ships recent passage through the portal. She opened her eyes as the ship seemed to become steady once again, and was amazed by what she saw. There in front of her was Earth! By all calculations it should have taken many many months to get here. She started going over the calculations in her mind when suddenly, the ship tilted to one side. They were falling and StarMaker could do nothing to stop them.
In front of her, the exposed edges of the ship were starting to break off as they tilted even more. Sailor StarMaker tried one last time to pull the ship out of the planet's orbit as the energy field finally gave way. Now she could feel the heat against her skin as the ship's rate of descent increased drastically. Every thought she had was on her family as she watched the Pacific Ocean grow larger by the second.
December 31, 2008
Senior Airman, Thomas G. Maxwell, III, was on duty in the Control Room of the USS O'Connor when the radar started showing something strange. "Sir, we might have a problem. I've got a glitch on the screen," he replied.
Admiral O. Ryan Seward glanced toward the radar station over his shoulder. "What do you mean 'glitch'?"
"I'm reading a bogie, sir, but it's too big," the Airman replied. He double checked his systems and glanced at the other radar operator. The same information was on her screen as well. "This thing's for real, sir. But, it's almost as big as the ship."
Admiral Seward went over to the screens and checked the readouts. "Tell all planes to scramble. I want to know what that thing is and where it came from!" He leaned closer and spoke to the radar operators quietly. "Any chance that thing could be a nuke?"
"Negative, Sir. It's the size of a destroyer class sub," the Airman replied. He checked his instruments again and looked at the Admiral. "And it seems to be coming from somewhere outside of the planet's orbit."
The Admiral stiffened for a moment. "Communications, get me someone in Washington. I think their Space Station is about to fall on our heads," he replied. He walked out to the deck to watch the fighter planes take off.
A few minutes later, he cleared the Control Room of all non-essential personnel as the call to the Joint Chiefs went through. "Madame Secretary, we have a problem. About ten minutes ago, our radar identified a bogie falling into the Pacific Ocean. Fighters have already been launched to investigate. Have you received reports of any problems with the Space Station?"
The voice on the other end of the line seemed doubtful, even as the Secretary of Defense motioned for an aide to leave and contact NASA. "No, Admiral. We haven't received any reports. Why? What's going on out there?"
"Ma'am, I'm not sure. Whatever this is, it's too big to be anything created on Earth."
Another voice this time, this one more curious. "What are you saying, Admiral? Do you think we could be looking at an invasion?"
"No Sir. We've just had a report from one of the first planes out. It looks like whatever it is, is on fire," the Admiral replied. He looked at the few remaining crew as he carefully chose his next words. "I think we could be looking at a possible First Contact situation, Madame Secretary. What do you advise?"
The Secretary of Defense spent several moments thinking. When the Admiral asked the second time, she looked up into the face of her colleague. "I advise you to be careful, Admiral. Tell no one else of what is happening out there. No matter what, secure the area."
The other voice came back on the line. "As soon as we know what we're dealing with, we'll send more ships to assist," Thysson replied. He cut off the call and looked at the Secretary of Defense, the only other person in the room. "I think we can both agree that no one hears of this. Not until we have it under our control."
Sailor StarMaker opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by water. She felt hands pulling her up and gasped for breath when her head broke the surface. "My Lady, are you alright? Where are we?" one of her rescuers asked.
The redhead took a moment to catch her breath before trying to speak. "Earth," she replied. She felt something warm on her face as the console beneath her started turning red. 'Blood', she thought as she raised one hand to her face. "Did anyone else survive the crash?"
Her rescuers nodded. "Almost everyone, thanks to you. We only lost four more," one of them replied. The ship tilted again and all three of them went back into the water. "We have to get out of here, the ship is sinking."
StarMaker pulled herself out of the water and scrambled to the doorway. She staggered for a moment and then felt arms around her waist, pulling her out of what was once the bridge. The hole that had been open to space was now the main cause of the water flooding the ship.
The two guards, the only other members of the court besides the Senshi that were still alive, pulled their leader into an access shaft. The route they had taken to get to the bridge was now underwater and since an entire section of the hull was gone on that side, the rest would soon be underwater as well. They fought to remain standing as the ship continued moving. The older of the two, a man known only as Gai, pulled StarMaker flat against what was once a wall. "Grab onto something. The ship's going belly-up!"
The red-haired Senshi grabbed onto the edge of a door and reached for the other guard. The young blonde reached for her commander as the wall on the other side crumbled. Gai grabbed the smaller woman's arm before she could fall down the now vertical corridor. The ship stopped moving and the trio held onto the doorframe. "Now what?" asked the terrified blonde. She had only been a guard for two months when orders had come to evacuate. She had never experienced anything like this before.
"The engines will pull the ship down, lass," Gai replied. "If the ship doesn't fall apart when that happens, she may just float."
"Then we'll have to deal with the humans," StarMaker replied in Japanese. The other two looked at her curiously, but she didn't have time to explain.
Space travel for large groups means large ships, that in turn means large engines. No matter what you make an engine out of, it will be heavier than water. As the Earth's gravity pulled on the engines, the trapped air began to bubble out of the holes in the hull and water rushed in to take it's place. The ship tilted faster and before they could react, the trio of guards found themselves lying flat on the ceiling, water spilling into the corridor from every direction. StarMaker tried to focus enough to teleport out of the ship, but she had used all of her energy to keep the ship in one piece. She was lucky to even be alive.
Gai glanced into one of the doorways that had opened during the flip. "Part of the ship is gone from here, we can get out," he replied. The outer wall of what appeared to have been crew quarters was missing. If they hurried, they could get out of the ship before it completely sank. He half-carried the commander through the water and motioned the blonde to go first. Once she had made it out, he pushed StarMaker through the hole. As he was stepping out, he heard an energy weapon discharge and looked up as a beam of blue energy came straight toward him, the sound of jet engines ringing in his ears.
"Admiral! You're never going to believe this, but the bogie is a ship! Twice the size of any sub I've ever seen!" The fighter jet turned and came around for another pass. "Blue Leader to Blue Squadron, do you see what I see down there?"
"Blue 7 to Blue Leader, that's affirmative, Captain. We have survivors."
"Blue 3, confirm. I coun-- what was that?"
"What is it, Blue 3?"
"Nothing Captain. My eyes are playing tricks on me. I make two more coming out of the side. One seems severely injured."
"Acknowledged. Blue Leader to Base, send the rescue teams now!"
"Negative, Blue Leader. Rescue teams will not be launched until that ship stops moving," the Admiral's voice replied. He issued commands that the other fighter planes return to the carrier. "Blue Squadron, you are to secure the area. Shoot violators on sight. This is a matter of international security."
"Acknowledged, Base. Blue Leader to Squadron, flight pattern Theta. No one gets within 100 kilometers of this thing." Captain Bunny Graves lifted the visor on her flight helmet and looked down at the wreckage. Already, the ship seemed to have settled. At least enough for the survivors of the crash to scramble on top of it to avoid the water. From her vantage point, she could see several of them gathered near the middle of the upturned ship. She could also see that a large portion of the group was children. 'They look like they were going to a Halloween party ... such strange outfits.'
Admiral Seward came back onto the radio and shook the Captain out of her thoughts. "Blue Leader, what's your status? Has the ship stopped moving?"
Captain Graves lowered the visor and nodded slightly, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Affirmative, Admiral. The ship appears to have stopped. We have several hundred survivors out here, sir, what should we do?"
The radio was silent for a few moments and the Captain knew he was consulting the higher-ups. "Have your people return to the ship once the rescue teams arrive. Report to me immediately for debriefing."
"Acknowledged." Captain Graves signaled her crew and flew lower to get a closer look at the survivors. She noticed that there were a lot more people climbing up onto the ship now. The bottom of the ship itself seemed to have burn marks from what looked like reentry and also signs of battle. She heard the radio crackle and looked up to see the rescue helicopters approaching the ship. She ordered her crew to return to the ship and circled the crash site a couple of times to make sure no one else was getting close. "Crash site is secure, Admiral, returning to the ship."
