The Rebound Effect
A Sailor Moon fanfic
by Tim Williams - fireangel37@yahoo.com or ffml_tim@yahoo.com
Disclaimer goes here. (Sailor Moon and Tenchi Muyo! at some point)
Author's notes: One quick note. //text// implies thoughts. It's
certainly more distinctive than ', so I stuck with my original formula.
Chapter 1
Somewhere in Space and Time
Lady Mercury watched intently as the data glyphs streamed across her
terminal at a pace impossible for most people to follow. It wasn't very
often that one got to witness something as spectacular as the formation
of a black hole, but that was exactly what was being displayed on the
monitor in pulsating greens and yellows.
Few other events would warrant a personal viewing by a scientist of her
status, but here she was, drifting through space halfway across the
galaxy from her home in her tiny observation vessel, the Hermes.
The process was well underway by the time they had come out of warp, and
the apex was fast approaching.
"Ma'am, my terminal is showing that we just lost contact with Earth
Central," her co-pilot interjected, his voice a startling contrast to
the soft humming and buzzing of monitoring equipment. He was on loan to
her from the Interstellar Naval Academy and took his job a little more
seriously than she may have liked, though he was well trained and always
professional.
"It's probably due to the rapid flux of the gravitational field," she
replied distractedly, her eyes still focused on the incoming data from
the collapsing star. A faint sense of foreboding tickled the back of
her mind, "But it would be best if you attempt to reestablish contact."
The sound of rapid typing seemed to fill the small craft's control
chamber, though Mercury's sense of wrongness continued to grow.
"Ma'am, no luck," the man said nervously. "I can't get a link to
anything within the Solar system. And not only that, but I've also lost
contact with the base on Apollo III."
Mercury sighed, brushing off the nervousness that she was starting to
feel. Incidents like this weren't unheard of near cosmic phenomena, but
knowing that didn't sooth her nerves much. Though it was probably
nothing, her first duty was still to the safety of her Queen even if it
meant missing a once in a lifetime opportunity like this. "Deploy the
reconnaissance drone and set a course for Earth."
He rapidly obeyed and within a matter of minutes, the ship was coming
about to begin the long trip home as the small form of the data
collection drone drifted lazily away. The drone wasted no time in
deploying its collector dish, its small stabilization thrusters firing
to keep it in the proper orientation as the shimmering sheet of foil was
unfurled.
"Ma'am, contact lost with everything on the other side of the Gambian
Belt."
Mercury nodded slightly. //Always trust your instincts, girl,// she
admonished herself as her lips settled into a grim line that could
almost be mistaken for a smile. //You're getting slow in your old
age.// Things had been silent for dozens of centuries, and now
everything was going to hell all at once.
She turned to her pilot. "Full speed toward Earth, and put the contact
map on the forward display."
Soon the forward hemisphere of the cabin was bathed in faintly glowing
yellow-green lines that formed a simplified map of the Milky Way. All
known human and alien settlements, worlds, and outposts were highlighted
in a brighter green that almost seemed to hover a few centimeters over
the backdrop. Well, the ones that were still sending "alive" messages
were highlighted in green, a vast expanse on the left side of the map
was in red. Red was for worlds that should be sending "alive" messages,
but weren't.
Earth was in the middle of the dead worlds.
Even as she watched, the tide of red dots expanded outward slightly and
her mind raced as she began a series of rapid mental calculations.
"Change course for Centauri IV. All possible speed."
According to her math, which was rarely wrong, they should arrive at
Centauri IV shortly before the encroaching wave. She silently prayed
that it was all a gravitational event, and not something more sinister.
***
Lady Mercury awoke slowly to the dull red lights of emergency power.
Her last memory was of a watching a glowing wave of energy consume the
planet below them and then feeling the shock as it hit her tiny vessel.
There had been no chance to turn aside and likely nowhere to go even if
there had been. If the sensors had been right just before the impact,
there shouldn't even be a galaxy left.
Groggily, she began to take stock of the damage to her body. Dozens of
bruises, some quite large, and a twisted ankle all throbbed in response
to her mental cataloging. Not too bad, she thought, considering what
had hit her.
Slowly, she began to take stock of her surroundings. Two things caught
her attention immediately. For one thing, the contact map was still
splayed across the cabin's forward display, though the lines were dimmed
due to lack of power. The map was showing quite a bit of green, though
not as much as it should have been, and many of the dots seemed to be in
odd places. Secondly, her pilot was missing.
He wasn't dead, he was just gone. No body, no scorch marks, nothing.
In fact, the ship seemed to have taken no substantial damage other than
the missing crewmember.
Well, it's not like she needed him to get home, but he had been kind of
cute... She frowned and cut the thought off before it got started.
Worry about the Queen was her first priority, and then came everything
else.
Without much trouble, she got the ship back to full power and back into
motion though the engines took two cycles before they came humming back
to life. Whatever had hit her had done a number on the ship's
electrical system in a magnetic fashion. Fortunately, most of the
important parts were designed out of crystal and a simple restart
repaired the problems.
As she powered through the solar system, heading for deep space it was
safe to enter warp, her instruments registered a distress call from just
outside the orbit of the eight planet. Frowning slightly at yet another
interruption, she changed course to intercept. Doing so would only cost
her a half hour or so, and compared to the length of the journey ahead,
it was an almost insignificant detour.
Soon she was upon the source amidst what appeared to be a vast debris
field. A detailed sensor sweep eventually narrowed down the signal to
what appeared to be an escape capsule floating in the midst of wreckage.
Though the markings on the side of the pod were not something she
recognized, she carefully maneuvered along side of it and brought it
into the tiny hold of the ship. As soon as the capsule was aboard, she
resealed her hold and pulled away. Setting the autopilot for Earth, yet
again, she went to find out exactly who or what had needed her help. If
they were victims of the same disaster that appeared to have caused so
much other havoc, it was possible that they knew a little bit more about
what had gone on.
***
Inside the warm jelly that filled the interior of the pod, a humanoid
female floated.
In fact, if Mercury didn't know better, she would have sworn that the
girl was her sister or daughter, but she knew she had neither. On
closer inspection, she found that the woman didn't look all that much
like her, after all. Mostly it was the blue hair and the headband that
did it.
//Might as well ask her who she is,// Mercury decided and pressed the
buttons on the capsule's control board that seemed most likely to be the
proper sequence to free the woman from stasis. Though the controls
themselves weren't familiar, the language labeling them appeared to be a
dialect of Kurosh, which was fairly common on spacecraft parts.
In a matter of minutes, the pod had dissolved to a pool of goo and the
woman was beginning to come around.
"Mihoshi..." she murmured distractedly. "Going... kill you..."
The language the girl spoke, at least, appeared to be very similar to
Japanese, the galactic standard. Mercury waited patiently as her guest
regained consciousness. She knew from experience how much fun waking
from stasis was.
"Oh... my head," the blue haired woman muttered as her eyes cracking
open just a bit. Crusted stasis jelly cracked on her face as she did so
and some smaller pieces fell to the floor. "Where am I?"
"On board my ship, mind telling me exactly what you were doing floating
around in a pile of wreckage that doesn't seem to have been a space
vessel?"
"Weren't a space ship, was a house. Who are you?" She was slurring her
words a bit, almost drunkenly.
"A house? How strange," Mercury smiled slightly, mostly out of gladness
that she wasn't the one suffering from a stasis hangover. "As for
introductions, how about we get you cleaned up and talk in the control
room? Would you like some tea?"
"Sounds good," the woman muttered and tried in vain to get to her feet.
"Here, let me help you," Mercury said as she offered the woman her hand,
which was gladly accepted.
***
"So, Kiyone, you're in the... What did you call it again?" Mercury took
another sip of her tea as she carefully watched her guest.
"Galaxy Police. Don't tell me you don't know who we are." Kiyone took
a sip from her own cup of tea as she studied her rescuer carefully.
"Actually, I've never heard of them before today. Of course, the way
things have been these last few decades, I could have missed something
like that." Mercury sighed lightly as she tried to remember the last
time she had time for something so simple as watching the news and
couldn't.
"We've been around for seventeen hundred and fifty three years," she
mumbled, though her host's raised eyebrow seemed to indicate she had
been heard. She decided it was time for a change in topic. "What about
you? I thought I was familiar with most of the major nobility, but I
don't recognize your name."
Mercury smiled faintly. "I'm not noble, by any means. Well, in so much
as my birth parents were nobles."
"Ah, but you introduced yourself as "Lady"?"
"Force of habit. You can call me Ami," she grinned broadly. "No one
ever does, but I have to try."
"Okay, Ami," Kiyone grinned slightly as well.
"It's one of those things that gets thrust upon you once you've defeated
a certain number of "Evil Menace Set to Destroy the Universe"s, I think
the requirement is currently five, but I'm not certain."
Kiyone grinned. "Guess I have two more to go." She took another sip of
tea then looked up, startled. "I can't believe I've forgotten to report
in!"
"Oh, you may use my communications system if you wish."
"Thank you." Kiyone bowed slightly and moved forward to the control
panel. After a few moments of fumbling with the unfamiliar equipment,
she found the right buttons and dialed in a signal designation. The
lieutenant's face appeared on the screen. "Kiyone? Is that you? Thank
God! You're alive!" He looked on the verge of tears. "Listen,
Mihoshi's gone out of control, she's in the Solar System. You've got to
go and keep an eye on her, you're the only one she'll listen to! If
anything happens to her, I'll lose my job!"
Kiyone scowled. //I spend who knows how long floating in space because
of that bubble head, and now they're trying to give me another
assignment with her? I can't believe this!// "Sir, I have to decline.
I don't have a ship, and if you think that I'm going to spend one more
SECOND on the same assignment as that-"
Mercury broke in, ignoring the look of chagrin Kiyone directed her way,
"If you need a lift, I'm heading to the Solar System right now... In
fact, we'll arrive in just a few days." //Besides, I need to find out
exactly who the "Galaxy Police" are and what they are doing on Earth.
Possibly they are the source of this recent.//
Kiyone gaped in dismay. "See, Kiyone," the lieutenant said laughing in
relief. "You'll be able to rejoin your partner in no time at all!"
Kiyone sighed in frustration. It was always like this. No matter what
she did, she couldn't escape HER. Never, ever, ever. She wanted to
cry.
END
Tim Williams
fireangel37@yahoo.com
ffml_tim@yahoo.com
"This time, we're leaving nothing to the imagination. We tried that
last time, and, in our opinion, it didn't work." -- Henry Rollins,
"Driveby Shooting"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
by Tim Williams - fireangel37@yahoo.com or ffml_tim@yahoo.com
Disclaimer goes here. (Sailor Moon and Tenchi Muyo! at some point)
Author's notes: One quick note. //text// implies thoughts. It's
certainly more distinctive than ', so I stuck with my original formula.
Chapter 1
Somewhere in Space and Time
Lady Mercury watched intently as the data glyphs streamed across her
terminal at a pace impossible for most people to follow. It wasn't very
often that one got to witness something as spectacular as the formation
of a black hole, but that was exactly what was being displayed on the
monitor in pulsating greens and yellows.
Few other events would warrant a personal viewing by a scientist of her
status, but here she was, drifting through space halfway across the
galaxy from her home in her tiny observation vessel, the Hermes.
The process was well underway by the time they had come out of warp, and
the apex was fast approaching.
"Ma'am, my terminal is showing that we just lost contact with Earth
Central," her co-pilot interjected, his voice a startling contrast to
the soft humming and buzzing of monitoring equipment. He was on loan to
her from the Interstellar Naval Academy and took his job a little more
seriously than she may have liked, though he was well trained and always
professional.
"It's probably due to the rapid flux of the gravitational field," she
replied distractedly, her eyes still focused on the incoming data from
the collapsing star. A faint sense of foreboding tickled the back of
her mind, "But it would be best if you attempt to reestablish contact."
The sound of rapid typing seemed to fill the small craft's control
chamber, though Mercury's sense of wrongness continued to grow.
"Ma'am, no luck," the man said nervously. "I can't get a link to
anything within the Solar system. And not only that, but I've also lost
contact with the base on Apollo III."
Mercury sighed, brushing off the nervousness that she was starting to
feel. Incidents like this weren't unheard of near cosmic phenomena, but
knowing that didn't sooth her nerves much. Though it was probably
nothing, her first duty was still to the safety of her Queen even if it
meant missing a once in a lifetime opportunity like this. "Deploy the
reconnaissance drone and set a course for Earth."
He rapidly obeyed and within a matter of minutes, the ship was coming
about to begin the long trip home as the small form of the data
collection drone drifted lazily away. The drone wasted no time in
deploying its collector dish, its small stabilization thrusters firing
to keep it in the proper orientation as the shimmering sheet of foil was
unfurled.
"Ma'am, contact lost with everything on the other side of the Gambian
Belt."
Mercury nodded slightly. //Always trust your instincts, girl,// she
admonished herself as her lips settled into a grim line that could
almost be mistaken for a smile. //You're getting slow in your old
age.// Things had been silent for dozens of centuries, and now
everything was going to hell all at once.
She turned to her pilot. "Full speed toward Earth, and put the contact
map on the forward display."
Soon the forward hemisphere of the cabin was bathed in faintly glowing
yellow-green lines that formed a simplified map of the Milky Way. All
known human and alien settlements, worlds, and outposts were highlighted
in a brighter green that almost seemed to hover a few centimeters over
the backdrop. Well, the ones that were still sending "alive" messages
were highlighted in green, a vast expanse on the left side of the map
was in red. Red was for worlds that should be sending "alive" messages,
but weren't.
Earth was in the middle of the dead worlds.
Even as she watched, the tide of red dots expanded outward slightly and
her mind raced as she began a series of rapid mental calculations.
"Change course for Centauri IV. All possible speed."
According to her math, which was rarely wrong, they should arrive at
Centauri IV shortly before the encroaching wave. She silently prayed
that it was all a gravitational event, and not something more sinister.
***
Lady Mercury awoke slowly to the dull red lights of emergency power.
Her last memory was of a watching a glowing wave of energy consume the
planet below them and then feeling the shock as it hit her tiny vessel.
There had been no chance to turn aside and likely nowhere to go even if
there had been. If the sensors had been right just before the impact,
there shouldn't even be a galaxy left.
Groggily, she began to take stock of the damage to her body. Dozens of
bruises, some quite large, and a twisted ankle all throbbed in response
to her mental cataloging. Not too bad, she thought, considering what
had hit her.
Slowly, she began to take stock of her surroundings. Two things caught
her attention immediately. For one thing, the contact map was still
splayed across the cabin's forward display, though the lines were dimmed
due to lack of power. The map was showing quite a bit of green, though
not as much as it should have been, and many of the dots seemed to be in
odd places. Secondly, her pilot was missing.
He wasn't dead, he was just gone. No body, no scorch marks, nothing.
In fact, the ship seemed to have taken no substantial damage other than
the missing crewmember.
Well, it's not like she needed him to get home, but he had been kind of
cute... She frowned and cut the thought off before it got started.
Worry about the Queen was her first priority, and then came everything
else.
Without much trouble, she got the ship back to full power and back into
motion though the engines took two cycles before they came humming back
to life. Whatever had hit her had done a number on the ship's
electrical system in a magnetic fashion. Fortunately, most of the
important parts were designed out of crystal and a simple restart
repaired the problems.
As she powered through the solar system, heading for deep space it was
safe to enter warp, her instruments registered a distress call from just
outside the orbit of the eight planet. Frowning slightly at yet another
interruption, she changed course to intercept. Doing so would only cost
her a half hour or so, and compared to the length of the journey ahead,
it was an almost insignificant detour.
Soon she was upon the source amidst what appeared to be a vast debris
field. A detailed sensor sweep eventually narrowed down the signal to
what appeared to be an escape capsule floating in the midst of wreckage.
Though the markings on the side of the pod were not something she
recognized, she carefully maneuvered along side of it and brought it
into the tiny hold of the ship. As soon as the capsule was aboard, she
resealed her hold and pulled away. Setting the autopilot for Earth, yet
again, she went to find out exactly who or what had needed her help. If
they were victims of the same disaster that appeared to have caused so
much other havoc, it was possible that they knew a little bit more about
what had gone on.
***
Inside the warm jelly that filled the interior of the pod, a humanoid
female floated.
In fact, if Mercury didn't know better, she would have sworn that the
girl was her sister or daughter, but she knew she had neither. On
closer inspection, she found that the woman didn't look all that much
like her, after all. Mostly it was the blue hair and the headband that
did it.
//Might as well ask her who she is,// Mercury decided and pressed the
buttons on the capsule's control board that seemed most likely to be the
proper sequence to free the woman from stasis. Though the controls
themselves weren't familiar, the language labeling them appeared to be a
dialect of Kurosh, which was fairly common on spacecraft parts.
In a matter of minutes, the pod had dissolved to a pool of goo and the
woman was beginning to come around.
"Mihoshi..." she murmured distractedly. "Going... kill you..."
The language the girl spoke, at least, appeared to be very similar to
Japanese, the galactic standard. Mercury waited patiently as her guest
regained consciousness. She knew from experience how much fun waking
from stasis was.
"Oh... my head," the blue haired woman muttered as her eyes cracking
open just a bit. Crusted stasis jelly cracked on her face as she did so
and some smaller pieces fell to the floor. "Where am I?"
"On board my ship, mind telling me exactly what you were doing floating
around in a pile of wreckage that doesn't seem to have been a space
vessel?"
"Weren't a space ship, was a house. Who are you?" She was slurring her
words a bit, almost drunkenly.
"A house? How strange," Mercury smiled slightly, mostly out of gladness
that she wasn't the one suffering from a stasis hangover. "As for
introductions, how about we get you cleaned up and talk in the control
room? Would you like some tea?"
"Sounds good," the woman muttered and tried in vain to get to her feet.
"Here, let me help you," Mercury said as she offered the woman her hand,
which was gladly accepted.
***
"So, Kiyone, you're in the... What did you call it again?" Mercury took
another sip of her tea as she carefully watched her guest.
"Galaxy Police. Don't tell me you don't know who we are." Kiyone took
a sip from her own cup of tea as she studied her rescuer carefully.
"Actually, I've never heard of them before today. Of course, the way
things have been these last few decades, I could have missed something
like that." Mercury sighed lightly as she tried to remember the last
time she had time for something so simple as watching the news and
couldn't.
"We've been around for seventeen hundred and fifty three years," she
mumbled, though her host's raised eyebrow seemed to indicate she had
been heard. She decided it was time for a change in topic. "What about
you? I thought I was familiar with most of the major nobility, but I
don't recognize your name."
Mercury smiled faintly. "I'm not noble, by any means. Well, in so much
as my birth parents were nobles."
"Ah, but you introduced yourself as "Lady"?"
"Force of habit. You can call me Ami," she grinned broadly. "No one
ever does, but I have to try."
"Okay, Ami," Kiyone grinned slightly as well.
"It's one of those things that gets thrust upon you once you've defeated
a certain number of "Evil Menace Set to Destroy the Universe"s, I think
the requirement is currently five, but I'm not certain."
Kiyone grinned. "Guess I have two more to go." She took another sip of
tea then looked up, startled. "I can't believe I've forgotten to report
in!"
"Oh, you may use my communications system if you wish."
"Thank you." Kiyone bowed slightly and moved forward to the control
panel. After a few moments of fumbling with the unfamiliar equipment,
she found the right buttons and dialed in a signal designation. The
lieutenant's face appeared on the screen. "Kiyone? Is that you? Thank
God! You're alive!" He looked on the verge of tears. "Listen,
Mihoshi's gone out of control, she's in the Solar System. You've got to
go and keep an eye on her, you're the only one she'll listen to! If
anything happens to her, I'll lose my job!"
Kiyone scowled. //I spend who knows how long floating in space because
of that bubble head, and now they're trying to give me another
assignment with her? I can't believe this!// "Sir, I have to decline.
I don't have a ship, and if you think that I'm going to spend one more
SECOND on the same assignment as that-"
Mercury broke in, ignoring the look of chagrin Kiyone directed her way,
"If you need a lift, I'm heading to the Solar System right now... In
fact, we'll arrive in just a few days." //Besides, I need to find out
exactly who the "Galaxy Police" are and what they are doing on Earth.
Possibly they are the source of this recent.//
Kiyone gaped in dismay. "See, Kiyone," the lieutenant said laughing in
relief. "You'll be able to rejoin your partner in no time at all!"
Kiyone sighed in frustration. It was always like this. No matter what
she did, she couldn't escape HER. Never, ever, ever. She wanted to
cry.
END
Tim Williams
fireangel37@yahoo.com
ffml_tim@yahoo.com
"This time, we're leaving nothing to the imagination. We tried that
last time, and, in our opinion, it didn't work." -- Henry Rollins,
"Driveby Shooting"