[FFML] [Fic][SM][Continuation]NewStory5 Chapter 1 v0.68

[d rat]

Sorry, don't have a title yet.  i'll have one by next revision.

Sailor Moon and all of it's affiliates were created by Takeuchi Naoko,
and are used without permission.

C&C please.

i apologize in advance about any formatting errors, i cannot acquire a
formatter from out here (Access Denied).

--dunerat

*****



Author’s Notes:

1.,  i got a suggested title for this, which immediately spun itself into
another tale which must now also work on.  So i doubled my wishload without
actually getting a title, ha ha….  =/

2.  It’s not meant to be Trekish at all, actually.  The terms I’m using come
straight from current Naval practice, with the lone exception of the
“Councillor.”  In current practice this position is called a Chaplain and
there would be several of them in a ground command of equivalent level.  Naval
vessels typically only have one, however, with two or three assistants
depending on the size of the vessel.

3.  No, not the HMS Really Batty!  Thanks for the laugh though.  It’s an
homange/reference, actually, but the other clue in this chapter is a little
esoteric i think.  It’ll be more obvious come Chapter 3, but kudos to anyone
who gets it before then.

4.  Don’t worry, lot’s of Big Bad involvement and other conflict
upcoming.  Being
in Iraq is a bit trying for the creative juices, so I’m working on it.  Expect
Chapter 3 sometime in the next month or so, after I recover it from it’s
somehow getting corrupted.  Chapter 2, unfortunately is stalled as they have
blocked torrents out here and my other copy of the manga is on my HD back in
the states.  =/  I’m trying to be as true to Takeuchi’s beautiful original
as i can, so I’m being a stickler for reference.

5.  Please C&C!  i have thick skin, be as harsh as you must.

6.  Thanks to Miasharra for your C&C of v0.5

 *****



"Are you sure?  Is it not a mistake in the telescope data or something?"

"Yes ma'am, we're sure.  We exited hyperspace at the correct point, but Sol
is not where it should be.  We have, however, identified a nearby system
that *should* be Sol, given its relative position, spectroscopic analysis,
similar number of gravitational objects, and other data."

"I see.  Well Commander, move us into position under the system as though it
were a hostile destination.  We will make discrete observations and try to
confirm our location before we do anything else.  Will this require another
Jump, or can we make it under normal power?"

"The distance is short enough, ma'am.  It should only take a few days, and
it will take at least that long to recharge for a jump anyway."

"I'll be in my quarters then.  Let me know when we reach our position."

            As promised, the trip took only three days, while her skeleton
crew conducted functional checks of the ship's systems.  She wandered
through the labyrinthine passageways of the ship, musing on how it reflected
the mind of her designer.   She was also grading areas in terms of
maintenance, or even outright damage control.  Most of the ship was in good
working order, but there were some disturbing lapses, including a whole
compartment that had inexplicably suffered a hull breach.  Most importantly
though, she was interacting with the crew, trying to boost morale a little
now that they were supposedly home.  She resisted the urge to teleport to
the bridge when her first officer announced that they had reached their
destination, the nadir point of the ecliptic sphere.

            "Captain on the bridge," announced the helmsman, a young man
from Jupiter.  He had been hit hard by the death of his Sailor, she
remembered.  Well, they all had, actually, even more so since it had been
Jupiter, Uranus, and their entire teams.  But especially the Jovians and
Urani, since Sayuri and Oleander had been their own.  He had bounced back
fairly well, she thought.

            "Carry on.  Commander Wellesley, what do you have for me?"

            "We've arrived, and this is almost definitely Sol, but..." he
trailed off.

            "But what, Commander?"

            "Well ma'am, there's some things missing, for one.  Also, we've
had no response to our hails as yet."

            "What do you mean missing?  Bring it up on the main screen."  He
complied, and she gasped.  The system was... dark.  The star in the centre
was bright enough, of course, but there were no lights on any of the
planets.  Several of them seemed discoloured, though they were not yet close
enough to tell why.  The most glaring problem, however, was that one of the
planets was missing entirely.  "Locate Luna.  Bring it up on maximum
magnification."

            The view shifted.  "Passive scans also do not detect any
holowave transmissions at all, not even a beacon," Wellesley replied.  The
moon came into view, split half and half by its own shadow.  He cycled
through several modes of reception, including heat and exotic radiation.  In
all views, however, the surface stayed cold and dark, save the natural heat
of the light side from the sun.  Even at maximum magnification, from this
distance the moon still only occupied the middle third of the screen, not
enough to make out surface details.  What they could see was disturbing.  When
they left, Luna had been a green world, mostly flat plains and famous for
both its beef cattle and its cheese.  Now it was white and gray, with large
craters visible even from their position, .

            "This...  this can't be right.  Fifty years is not enough time
for this much change!"  She was starting to come loose, she knew.  The
general wrongness of the situation had been piling up, starting with the
nagging feeling that something was missing she had had since being Awakened.
This was pushing her limits.  Even the debacle in Gamma Orionus had not been
this bad; there at least she knew that she had done everything possible.  Not
quite fully Awakened, her bridge crew was still too shocked to make much
sense of it.  Rumours would be starting soon, she knew, and then her hard
earned morale and confidence would plummet; her grasp on the multi-planet
crew would vanish. "Send probes to the other planets.  Get a definite hold
on where we are and what happened here if this home.  The Awakening is on
indefinite hold until further notice.  Awaken only minimal required staff
and the other Sailors; have them meet me in my ready room as soon as they
are able.  Maintain skeletal crew requirements until minimal crews are one
hundred percent.  Let me know when the first probes start reporting.  Commander
Wellesley, you have the conn.  I'll be in my ready room."  She turned and
headed into the small room adjacent the bridge as her first officer
acknowledged the conn and began passing orders.  Once inside, she allowed
the stress of the mission and the recent setbacks pile up and wash over her.
She sat down, laid her head on the desk, and shivered uncontrollably for a
few minutes.  She was famous for being calm under pressure and collected
under fire, but only she and her closest friend knew how much she had paid
for that reputation.  Saskia Holtzclau, the 876th Sailor Venus and Captain
of HMS R. Batty, was secretly an emotional wreck who constantly second and
third guessed herself, and suffered through each and every loss every time
she laid down at night.



*************



            Sabine Mendel, 763rd Sailor of Mercury and the ship's Chief
Engineer, slowly Awakened.  She did not immediately recognize her
surroundings until one of the ship's nurses came into her view.  The events
of her life rushed in then, all trying to reconnect to her consciousness at
once.  She mused quietly on how much she hated the process, despite being
quite proud of inventing it with her friends Sayuri and Katrina.  She
swallowed hard at Sayuri's memory and tried to sit up, only to be shushed
back down by the nurse.

            "Not quite yet, ma'am.  You'll have to let the restoratives work
a little longer yet.  And I'm afraid you'll still need that cane for a
while."

            "Something's happened."

            The nurse looked nervous for a moment before continuing: "I
don't know what exactly, just that the Captain is quite perturbed."  He was
not lying, exactly.  However, he also remembered Sabine's sharp tongue when
her work was questioned, so he hesitated to comment on what seemed to be a
malfunction of the systems she had designed.

            That information was enough for Sabine, however.  She knew of
Saskia's reputation as an unflappable, levelheaded leader even in the direst
of circumstances.  She had helped build that persona, after all.  Saskia had
to be close to cracking for the crew to know anything of her secret
self.  "Where
is she?  Is someone hurt?  An accident?  Why wasn't I Awakened immediately!"
Her voice was dry and scratchy; she immediately started coughing.

The nurse handed her a sippy-cup of water as he tried to explain.  "I'm not
sure, ma'am.  I know that the captain halted the Awakening and changed it to
essential personnel only.  She's waiting for all of you in the ready room;
you should be able to leave in about ten minutes."  Before he could
continue, a blue light began to flash from the recovery room's alert panel
accompanied by a muted alarm from the main sickbay.  The nurse barely gave
the door time to open, leaving Sabine alone to ponder.





*************



            In her ready room, Saskia received a similar alert, paging her
to medical.  He mind whirled in fear as she teleported through the
ship.  *Please,
mother, not another one!*  Arriving in the corridor, she moved quickly into
the Chief Medical Officer's office.   Her friend Katrina was not there yet,
herself still Awakening, but she knew enough to manipulate the view screen
to see what she needed.  She was struggling to recompose herself when one of
the doctors joined her.

            "I'm sorry ma'am, we did everything we could for her."

            "What happened?"

            "He Pre-Awakening went normally, but when we moved her into
Awakening State and her own systems should have taken over her functions,
she immediately went into a massive seizure coupled with total cardiac
failure and respiratory distress.  We were unable to calm her brain or
restart her heart.  The cause will be subject to an immediate investigation,
though we have conducted thousands of Awakenings, so I cannot believe it was
an error.  However, given that she had no history of seizures or heart
trouble, coupled with the fact that such a catastrophic systemic failure as
a result of Awakening is practically impossible, I can't give you a time
estimate."

            Saskia hid her face behind her hands, utterly failing to hide
her tears.  *Why, Mother?  I was almost home, why are you still punishing
me?*  "What of the others?  Are they alright?"

            The doctor's face grew pained.  "All but one ma'am.  I'm afraid
that the containment failed on Princess Uhuru's hibernation capsule while
everyone was in stasis.  She is dead.  I am sure it was quite painless,
however."

            Unfortunately, she could see right through that lie, and they
both knew it.  "See to it that the remaining Sailors are fully recovered and
then join me in my ready room as soon as possible afterwards.   No less than
thirty minutes from now.  Dismissed."

            "Yes ma'am."  As he turned and left the room, she laid her head
on the desk and wept for her dead.



*************



She tried to maintain her determined facade as she watched her friends enter
her ready room.  Sabine was first, as always, grumbling about the injury
that still required her to use a cane months after.  She was followed by
Madelena de Santos y Rios and Jeanne L'Seine together, of Mars and Saturn
respectively.  Close to each other even in childhood, they were also her
Tactical and Operations Officers.  Her CMO was next, Katrina Yesbek of
Neptune.  Lastly came the Ship's Counselor, Jillian Busch of Luna.  She was
in a daze, trying to find her centre amid the wash of feelings from the
crew, her psychic abilities having placed her on the ship’s Command Staff
despite not being a Sailor.

            "Everyone get something to eat, and then have a seat.  We have a
lot to cover, though there isn't much information.  But we need to all be on
the same page for the sake of the crew."  They all nodded and quietly made
their turn at the replicator, thinking of what they needed to ask, and
wondering why they were still missing two faces.

            Jillian was the first to speak, her concern echoing everyone's
apprehensiveness.  "Saskia, where are Trill and Uhuru?  Are they not yet
awa—" she broke off, Saskia's stricken face telling her all she needed to
know.  "No..." she whispered, her face falling.  "Not them too...."

            Everyone realized it what it meant at once.  Then the questions
all came at once, overlapping each other.  "What?  What happened?  Where?"

            "Quiet please!"  Saskia commanded.  *Mother, give me
strength....*  "Although I would have rather gotten to this later, as
Captain, it is my first duty to inform you of the deaths of two of our
sisters.  Princess Uhuru was found dead in her hibernation capsule;
apparently the containment system failed somehow.  It was a painless death,"
she perpetuated the lie, knowing it would not last but needing to hold the
shock as long as possible.

            Sabine half rose out of her chair, livid.  "That 's
inconceivable.  *I* designed those stasis capsules.  They have an operating
lifespan of nearly *two thousand* years!  There is *no* possibility of
containment failure on a mere fifty year mission!"

            "Sabine!" Jillian interjected.  "We all know and trust your
skills and those of your people!  Moreover, I know that you are upset by her
majesty's death, but let's have all the facts first, shouldn't we?  She
hasn't even told us where we are, yet."

            Deflated, Sabine nodded slowly and sat back down, mumbling an
apology.

            "Saskia, you said two of our sisters.  Please continue," Jillian
asked.

            Saskia nodded, understanding of Mercury's outburst.  Her pride
in her work was a flow they had all grown used to and even come to rely on,
especially since it was rarely misplaced.  "Yes, Lieutenant McMillan, Sailor
of Lilith, suffered from a massive seizure combined with cardiac arrest
immediately upon Awakening.  She died about half an hour ago."

            Katrina started, her mind racing to find a possible explanation.
She knew her staff, she knew their skills, and she knew Trill's history, yet
could find no obvious explanation.  Not even skipping steps in the Awakening
process should cause such a catastrophic failure.

            "The rest of my news is almost as bad, I'm afraid.  We're
certain that we exited hyperspace at the proper coordinates, but everything
is in the wrong place, including the sun.  We're already working on it, but
we had to move to obtain the proper nadir point that we should have had at
re-entry.

            "How far," Sabine asked.

            "Huh?"

            "How far did we have to move?"  Sabine's mind was really
churning now.  One error was inconceivable.  Two were impossible.  But if
she knew how far they had had to move, she could figure out what had really
happened.  True, Sayuri had been far better at this sort of thing, her
purely scientific background having a huge advantage over Sabine's own
applied sciences in these matters, but since the Jovian Sailor's death it
had fallen on Katrina and herself to fill in as best they could.

            Saskia could immediately see what her friend was thinking, and
hoped it would start to bring some semblance or normality to the ship.  "Ten
point three parsecs."  The number meant little to most of them without
context, but between Sabine and her inherited Navi-Tography staff, she knew
an answer would not be long in coming.  "Which brings me to my next piece of
news: no one is answering our hails.  Not Starbase Catena, not Selene City
Starport, nor anyone else.  No ships not even a police cruiser.  We can't
even detect any signs of life.  Luna has turned grayish-white, and we could
see craters.  We are still waiting for the probes to start reporting from
the other capitols."

            Cacophony struck.  Saskia waited a few minutes for it to subside
before speaking again, suddenly extremely pensive.  "I have also reached a
decision.  After losing two of our sisters and a full fifth of our crew at
Gamma Orionus, I know that confidence in my command has been low despite
having an otherwise successful mission.  The price was too high.  As you
know, I have never really thought of myself as a good commander.  Having now
lost another one of our sisters, the princess of Terra, and quite likely
even more of our crew, coupled with the navigational error that we now face,
I no longer feel able to continue as Captain of this expedition.  I would
tender to you my resignation and submit myself to your judgment.  I would
like to nominate Sabine to take my place."

            This time, there was absolute silence, shock clear on every
face.  They all knew that the Venusian was much shakier internally than she
appeared.  They also all knew how much Sabine had coveted the position and
how outraged she had been when the Queen had appointed Saskia instead.

            Sabine spoke first: "Captain, we all know that I was both the
first and the most fervent doubter of the Queen's wisdom in appointing you
to a position I felt was rightfully mine."  Saskia swallowed hard.  "But
having served with you over the course of this mission, I can also say that
the Queen's wisdom is both far-seeing and right-acting.  Of all of us, only
Princess Uhuru could have rivaled you as our commander, and none could
surpass you.  I refuse, both your resignation and your nomination.  I am
flattered, but you really are the best choice."  The other women quickly
added their assent to Sabine's declaration.  "Besides Honey, we're almost
home now, right?  It's a bit late to be backing out now!"  She laughed a
little in spite of herself.

            Abashed, Saskia assented.  "Well, since that seems to be
everyone's position, I suppose I have no choice but to accept.  Now I ask
you to finish recuperating and return to your sections as soon as possible.
We have a very capable crew, but it will help morale a lot when they see us
working with them again.  Jillian, if you could please head to Medical with
Katrina?  The other essential staff, especially the Terrans and Lilim, will
need your support.  Everyone else, you know what to do.
            "Aye, ma'am!" they spoke as one
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