A Senshi to be Named Later
A Sailor Moon Spamfic by
Steven P. Cornett
(cornetts@siscom.net)
Characters and situations taken from "Sailor Moon" by Naoko Takeuchi.
All rights reserved to their respective owners, Toei (in Japan) and
Mixx (for the manga) and Cloverleaf (anime) in the US.
**********************************************************************
Natsuko tried her best to stay calm as she started her way
down the corridor to the audience chamber of the Crystal Palce. She
figured she was a trembling mess regardless, though if any of the
Asteroid senshi picked up on it they were at least polite enough not
to mention it.
Her excitement and apprehension was understandable, she
figured. After all, it wasn't every day that a daughter of a middle
class quantum computer programer was summoned to the court of Queen
Neo-Serenity, ruler of the city and most powerful person in 30th
century Earth.
No reason was given for her summoning; nothing about the
nature of the meeting was given in the official letter her parents
received from the royal guard while she was still in School, and her
attempts to inquire the reason through web sources and vidphone calls
were fruitless. Even the Asteroid senshi, who attended the same
classes she did before becoming the Guardians of the young princess
Usagi, broke their silence only to say that she was to be accorded
a position of honor. That, she figured, could only mean that she was
about to join her classmates as a Sailor Senshi.
They stopped in front of the great diamond doors that lead
to the main hearing chamber of the queen. Two Guardians stood in
front of the doors, and quickly opened them.
Soon, Natsuko stood before Neo-Queen Serenity, and gave a
dignified bow to her majesty. "Summoned, I come my queen."
"Please rise, Lady Natsuko." the former Usagi Tsukino
replied. Natsuko took her first look at the world's greatest monarch
and was astounded. If anything, Neo-queen Serenity was even more
beautiful than she imagined, and every expression and gesture radiated
peace, grace, and loveliness. Her husband, King Endymion, and the
other senshi stood at either side of her highness, adding to the
solemnity of the occasion.
"Do you know why you were called before us this day?"
Natsuko thought about it a moment, then stuttered the answer
she suspected for fear of sounding haughty or arrogant. "Your majesty
...I think it has something to do with...the Senshi?"
"That is correct," the ruler of Neo Tokyo answered. "You have
been found to have the soul of a great fighter for love and justice,
and so I will make you the newest member of my court."
"Oh woo...er, uh...yes, thank you your majesty," Natsuko
replied excitedly.
"We have summoned you here to receive your henshin wand, the
symbol of your power. Once we do this, you will train with Lady Pluto
to learn the duties expected as a senshi of the outer Solar System."
An outer? Natsuko beamed; this was better luck than could
have
imagined. She was an experts on the deeds and exploits of all the
senshi, and well knew that the outer senshi were the most powerful of
all expect the Neo-queen herself. Sailor Saturn was said to be able
destroy worlds with one spell, for the Moon Queen's sake!
Serenity rose from her throne and stepped down to meet with
the young schoolgirl to give her the symbol of her new status. "Take
this wand, the activation of your power and symbol of the planet you
represent."
"I will, your majesty." Natsuko replied as she received the
transformation wand. She looked eagerly at the device, and noticed
that it was just a red cylinder, lacking the symbolic astrological
designs or symbols that she read about the other henshins having.
What was going on? What world did she represent anyway?"
"Meaning no disrespect, your highness," Natsuko began, "but
what planet do I represent? There doesn't seem to be any symbol on
this to tell me, and this seems to have no special design to it?"
There was silence in the court for the moment after the new
senshi made the query, and Natsuko became very afraid she said
something wrong. Neo-queen Serenity looked embarrassed, and when
she saw Lady Pluto attempt to look somewhere else, her heart sank
a little further. They seemed to know the answer, and were quite
sure she wouldn't like it.
"Well," the ruler of Crystal Tokyo uncharacteristically
mumbled, "you see...how do I say it...your planet is rather...new."
"New?"
"New."
"How new are we talking about?"
"It was discovered just before I became Queen...and...well..."
"Well?"
"Well, they seem to have decided to apply a 'tradition' in
regard to naming this planet. But there was a problem with that."
Natsuko's excitement was curdling by the moment. She was
almost too afraid to ask the now obvious next question.
"What problem?" she said, fear obvious in her voice.
"Well, you see, they decided to wait until it completed a
couple of rotations around the sun before they gave it a name.
However, the planet is in an orbit between Pluto and Neptune so that
means it would have been 440 years before they decided on a name and
by that time, I was in charge and...well...forgot about it."
"With all due respect, you can't be serious, can you?! You're
telling me I'm a senshi without a name?!"
"Our best scientists assure me their working on the matter.
You're only gonna be nameless for a couple of weeks...unless you just
want to call yourself Sailor 2000 EB173."
The only sound resounding from the great crystal chamber was
that of a young girl face-faulting on the floor.
***** *** *****
FIN (SHARK)
***** *** *****
In case you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, scientists
for the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) just discovered a new
'minor planet' in a stable orbit between Neptune and Pluto. The new
worldlet, about a quarter the size of Pluto, is called 2000 EB173.
Actually, it's probably been there since the formation of the solar
system, so it's not really new.
The bit about the 440 years came from a quote made by one of the heads
of the team, Prof. Charles Baltay, chair of the Physics department at
Yale University. According to him, it might well take that long for
anyone to name the 'plutino' because, "there's some tradition that
these things go around the sun twice before you name them," and EB173
takes 240 years to go around the sun.
The article I'm quoting from can be found on the Fox News Sci-Tech
page at:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/102500/planet.sml
There's also a picture with the plutino at:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/7477/eb173.html
And yes...you may slap me now!!
Comments, flames, grunts and loud noises to:
Steven P. Cornett
cornetts@siscom.net