SIMILITUDE
Chapter 10: "Preemptive Strike"
A neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"Has your link-up been established, Dr. Mizuno?" the investigative lab technician at the Civilian Defense and Protection main headquarters asked over a real-time visual link with the Crystal Palace.
"Yes, your telemetry is coming through clearly," Ami responded from her infirmary room. Unable to sit still and recover, but mindful that she couldn't leave the infirmary, she had contacted CDP headquarters and arranged for a visual link of the biological scans of the captured senshi clones. "Please start the scan."
"Yes, Doctor," the technician said. "We're just waiting for authorization from the Director of Bio-Crimes . . ."
"These subjects have the possibility of self-destructing and we're as yet uncertain of how soon the trigger is initiated," Ami informed him. "Logically, that makes time of the essence. Please begin under my personal authority as Chief Physician of Crystal Tokyo and one of the King and Queen's personal advisors. I'll take full responsibility."
As the scan initiated, Ami began studying the information it found. The subject they were scanning was, ironically enough, the clone of her Sailor Mercury form. Mizuno's legendary powers of concentration focused on the data being transmitted by the scans, compartmentalizing the unpleasant memories this clone brought back, that of a chilling battle with her old nemesis, Viluy.
"Scans show humanoid female tissue," the technician responded. "Bone structure, muscle tone and endocrinology all off the charts."
"Forgive me, but I'm going to take over your computer function remotely," Ami said suddenly, impatient with the progress of the scan. The focus narrowed to a microscopic level. "Yes, I thought as much. These aren't exact clones."
"Well I would think the skin color and lack of hair would tell you that."
"Yes, but the differences are much more than mere cosmetic," Ami continued. "See this strand here?" and she highlighted a section of the DNA scan on the screen. "There are differences in the DNA, possibly engineered and possibly process defects. As yet, I'm not certain what that abnormal strand controls. I would suggest this scan be turned over to a qualified geneticist. My recommendation would be Dr. Kurosawa."
"I'll stream him a copy," the technician replied.
"Are you continuing with the other scans?" Ami asked. The technician nodded. "Good. The more information we have, the less likely we are to overlook something. Moving on to the next abnormal strand."
"What's going on here?' demanded Kimi Mitsusaki, CDP's Director of Bio-Crimes. The Japanese woman, fifty-two and very petite, but in possession of a withering stare, focused that stare on the poor technician. "Who authorized this scan?"
"I did," Ami replied while she studied the scan of another DNA string. "Remarkable work. Send this scan to Dr. Kurosawa too, please." She pulled up another scan while dividing her attention between it and Mitsusaki. "Has the person behind this been identified yet, Director?"
"DNA residue implicates a Dr. Ran Yoshida, until three years ago employed by Moroboshi Corporation," Mitsusaki replied, unwilling to conceal her irritation.
"I've some familiarity with her work. She always did show a great deal of promise," Ami said distantly. "Director Mitsusaki, I apologize for rushing things along. I just felt that it was dangerous to wait."
"I don't see why," Mitsusaki grumbled. "There are procedures, Dr. Mizuno, that even the palace staff need to follow."
Just then an alarm claxon began to sound. Checking the telemetry, both Ami and the technician saw that the subject was heating up very quickly. Ami began hitting studs on her computer console, but the clone exploded in flame. Immediately fire retardant foam sprayed out from the ceiling, filling the quarantine examination room and snuffing out the fire. When the foam was evacuated from the chamber, though, all that remained was a charred husk that was once alive.
"Phosphorous," Ami muttered. "Nothing else burns that hot or that quickly. Director Mitsusaki, I recommend you place the other subjects in vacuum stasis, with breathing apparatus of course. Phosphorous can't ignite without a source of oxygen."
Mitsusaki consulted her PDA. "You're too late. All the other prisoners ignited at the same moment this one did."
Ami exhaled in frustration
Dr. Yoshida pecked away at her handheld sensor scanner, hoping to get her simplified program to run. She'd taken to cannibalizing one of the readers and some of the memory crystals stored in the facility in hopes of boosting the handheld's capacity enough to get a cloned memory patch for the Serenity clone. The unwieldy network of memory crystals slowed processing speed down to a crawl, but if the patch could be generated without the program locking up . . .
"Damn," groused Yoshida.
The handheld had locked up. Nothing to do now except reboot. While it did that, Yoshida went into the next room to get more memory crystals. There she found the Serenity clone sitting on a container, her hands cupped around something glowing silver. At first she thought the clone had the Silver Crystal out and was gazing at it. It was when she was right up to the clone that Yoshida saw something that shocked her: Cupped in the clone's hands was a tiny black embryo.
"What is that?" Yoshida demanded. The clone turned to her, startled by the woman's tone. "Did you create that?"
"Yes, Creator," the clone responded.
"Are you insane? Do you realize how much energy you have to be expending in order to have created and accelerated growth to this point? Stop at once!"
"But, Creator," the clone began timidly, "I merely longed for another - - like me. The others who were like me - - they ceased. I felt it."
"Yes, it was too long since the fail-safe counter-agent was injected," Yoshida replied. "No matter. You're still here." She pushed her hand into her pocket. "That reminds me, it's time for your injection."
"I want," the clone continued, "someone like me. There is no one else like me now. You are not like me. Our skin is different. Our hair is different. And there are other differences between us. I - - sense things - - that I do not think you can sense. I am alone. I am the only one of my kind. I wished for there to be another. Is that wrong?"
Yoshida's jaw tightened. "It is a matter of priorities," she told the clone. "You must conserve your energy and only use it to eradicate those who wish to destroy you. By expending the considerable amount of energy necessary to create and foster life, even clone life, you risk a recurrence of the physical stresses you underwent before and you leave us both vulnerable to those who oppose us." She closed her hand over the hands cupped around the embryo. "This must wait until we are safe from those who oppose us."
"Yes, Creator," the clone said. She was clearly disappointed.
"Now destroy it please."
"But - - why?"
"We don't have the facilities to keep the embryo alive," Yoshida reasoned, "and you can't expend anymore energy doing so. It's best this way."
The clone looked at the floor for a few moments. Yoshida wondered if she would rebel. Then the clone's hands flashed silver.
"It is done," the clone whispered.
"Very good. Now you must rest," Yoshida nodded. "Out of curiosity, were you able to use the crystal to just build and assemble DNA strands on your own?"
"No, Creator," the clone replied. "I took a human sample and caused it to grow into one like me, just as you created me from the other."
"Whose sample?" Yoshida asked.
"Yours," the clone replied.
"Mine? Who gave you permission to use my DNA?" demanded Yoshida.
The clone pondered this. "Was permission needed? You did not get permission to use the DNA that created me."
Yoshida didn't respond. The clone had a point, which in itself was disconcerting.
"I need to give you your injection," Yoshida said thinly.
"I removed the phosphorous fail-safe from my chest," the clone responded innocently. "I did not feel it was a necessary component of my body."
A chill ran up Yoshida's spine. She hurried off to check on the reboot of her handheld.
Sailor Ceres sat in the chair in front of her computer station, but she was watching Sailor Pallas rather than her computer. That and trying not to feel useless. She had manufactured several dozen plant humanoids that were now helping to canvas Crystal Tokyo in hopes of finding Dr. Yoshida and her clone warrior. Beyond that, her mission was to support Pallas while she tried to summon a vision.
While they didn't always come on demand, Pallas had an uncanny gift for summoning precognitive visions when the need was critical. The longer it took, though, the more Ceres began to wonder if it would ever come. She could guess why. Pallas was still in some emotional turmoil over her one-sided infatuation with the new student, Valeri Brugarov. Ceres had tried to get her sister's mind off of him, but she knew from experience that it wasn't an easy task.
"Maybe Ceres should call Mr. Hideki-Sir," Pallas said suddenly. Ceres scowled, but refrained from admonishing Pallas about eavesdropping on her thoughts. Pallas may have just picked up the thought while mentally sweeping Tokyo. "Yes, Ceres, Pallas did."
"Stop that," Ceres raised an eyebrow.
"Is Ceres mad because she's afraid Mr. Hideki-Sir was playing Mommy and Daddy with the naked lady?"
Ceres sighed. "I guess."
"What if he wasn't?"
"He still doesn't have any business being alone in his studio with a naked woman who ISN'T ME!" Ceres snapped. "Who knows what might have happened if I hadn't walked in."
"Doesn't he love you?"
"I think so," Ceres frowned. "I mean, he doesn't say it. But he doesn't use the word a lot. He expresses himself with his art and his actions, not words. Hideki is one of those types who enjoys what he likes and shuns what he doesn't. And he doesn't shun me, so he must like me. But just because he might love me doesn't mean he," and Ceres looked down, "well, won't enjoy someone else. And if he is just 'enjoying' me - - where does that leave me?"
"Pallas wishes she was smarter," Pallas said softly, "so she'd know what to say to Ceres."
"I'm not sure anybody's that smart, Pallas," Ceres sighed.
With that, Ceres noticed that Pallas had a glazed look suddenly. An all-too-familiar glazed look. Absently Pallas reached down and picked up two of her dolls. One was a mermaid, while the other one was a fashion doll with short blonde hair. Pallas began to mime that the two dolls were walking side by side.
"Do you see the copy lady yet?" Pallas said, wagging the blonde fashion doll while speaking in a low, husky voice.
"No. All I can see is how very pretty I am," Pallas answered herself, this time in a higher voice as she wiggled the mermaid doll. "Maybe my mirror can't see the copy lady because she has The Queen's jewel."
"Don't give up," Pallas said in the husky voice. "You're pretty and smart and my love for you makes me believe in you. You'll find her."
Pallas made the two dolls kiss.
"You know what we have to do when we find the copy lady," Pallas said in the high voice.
"We have to kill her and make her dead," Pallas replied in the lower voice. "Because The Queen is too good and kind to do it and it's the only way to get her jewel back." Pallas continued to mimic the dolls walking.
"I see her!" Pallas exclaimed in the high voice. "I see the copy lady! I know where she is!" Pallas mimicked the dolls' pace increasing, as if they were running.
"So how do we make her dead?" Pallas asked in the lower voice.
"Whatever it takes," Pallas answered, once more in the higher voice.
"Oh boy," Ceres exhaled apprehensively and engaged her communicator.
Paranoia permeating her every thought, Dr. Yoshida eased out of the access door leading to the crystal storage unit below ground level and furtively looked around. There was still light in the afternoon sky and emerging from hiding was a tremendous risk. She pressed back into the doorway as a CDP observation drone passed overhead. They, of course, were a threat to her day or night, for their night vision optical array could see her no matter what time of the day or night. But in the day, she risked being spotted by human eyes as well. She didn't have access to optical camouflage and she was no doubt being pursued by both CDP and the Queen's senshi.
And she couldn't safely rely on the Serenity clone. The clone was evolving too rapidly to trust in it still obeying her commands. What if she refused a command? What if she decided that, with the crystal in her possession, that Dr. Yoshida was suddenly a redundancy to be abandoned or even eliminated? The risk had to be taken. Yoshida couldn't afford to wait any longer. New artificial memories had to be cloned and introduced into the clone's mind while there theoretically was still time.
Hugging the side of the building, Yoshida made her way to one of the public computer station hubs that dotted Crystal Tokyo. Her actions were highly suspicious and attracted the attention of most of the people who passed her on the street. Yoshida didn't care. As long as she didn't run into a CDP officer or a senshi, the public could stare all they wanted. Her only goal was to get to a computer powerful enough to produce an artificial memory plug-in for the clone's current brain.
That and not get caught.
Hurriedly Yoshida entered the hub and sat down at the nearest empty station. She began pressing studs on the control panel and the monitor lit up with command strings. It would be longer work than normal, since she was recreating the artificial memory process from her own memories of how she did it. Without the initial template to work from, she would have to slow down some in order to make certain she didn't make a mistake. There was no telling what havoc could come about from a memory implant with a faulty command string. Trying to will herself calm, Yoshida kept working, her focus solely on the monitor before her.
The memory was eighty percent done. That's when she felt the hand on her shoulder.
"Don't resist," warned the voice of Sailor Mars, behind Yoshida and to her right.
Yoshida thought for a second, then shoved her shoulder into Mars, sending the senshi staggering back. Bolting from her chair, Yoshida ran for the door, only to find Sailor Juno blocking it.
"Aqua Initiation!" Juno shouted.
Water streamed from the spout of the room's water station, striking Yoshida in the waist with the force of a hammer. The geneticist staggered back and flopped to the floor. Two CDP officers jumped on her and put her in magnetic restraints. Wrestled into a sitting position, Yoshida looked up venomously. She found Sailor Mars kneeling down next to her.
"Where is the clone?" Mars asked, her violet eyes seeming to look into Yoshida's very soul.
"She's in there?" Sailor Uranus asked. She had been following Sailor Neptune, pacing herself to stay behind the senshi, as Neptune followed the lead of the Deep Aqua Mirror. Neptune had come to a stop across the street from the records warehouse where Dr. Yoshida had been hiding with the Serenity clone.
"Yes," Neptune replied, partially distracted by what she saw in the mirror. "At the moment, she's alone. This may be our best opportunity to strike."
"Strike how?" Uranus asked. "If she's got Serenity's power, she's not going to be easy to bring down. And without Serenity's conscience limiting her power, there's no telling what she's capable of."
"Precisely why we have to destroy her instead of just capture her," Neptune reiterated. "A being running amok in Crystal Tokyo with Serenity's level of power has always been my nightmare scenario. We have to end it now, while we can."
"I'm all for it. But we probably can't get close enough to get in a good shot. I don't know what to do, other than drop the building on her."
Inspiration made Neptune smile. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," she said as she passed her hand over the face of the Deep Aqua Mirror. Neptune studied the mirror for a few seconds. "Yes, the building is unoccupied. Primarily a robotic maintenance crew. It probably gets visited by a human maintenance tech on regular intervals or if an alarm goes off." Neptune put her hand on Uranus's upper arm. "Direct your Space Turbulence attack at the foundation. That'll get the structure vibrating enough so that my Submarine Violin Tide can hit the sympathetic harmonic."
"You always did want to bring down the house," Uranus quipped as she produced the Space Sword, gallows humor to mask the fact that they were willingly executing a living being. "Space Turbulence!"
To the astonishment of people on the street, an energy blast came from the sword, shot across the street and struck the building opposite the two senshi. A low rumble began to emanate from it. The building could be seen to shake, low quivering at first but building up to a massive, violent quaking in seconds. Taking her cue, Sailor Neptune placed her hands in position. A golden violin appeared from nowhere.
"Submarine Violin Tide!" she shouted, drawing a golden bow across the strings.
The sound started low at first, like the rush of the tide. Seconds later, the sound climbed to a shrill screech, passing across the street and striking the shaking building. Moments after the sonic wave hit, the building collapsed onto itself, gravity driving four stories of steel, fiberglass and plasticell into the basement foundation. A gigantic dust cloud blew up from the rubble as observation drones closed in to access and report on the incident. As the on-lookers whispered among themselves, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune stood and watched silently, grimly making certain their job had been successfully accomplished.
"I think we got her," Uranus said at last. "I hope the Silver Crystal automatically returns to Serenity once this clone is dead. It's going to be a job digging her out otherwise."
Then a gasp rose up from the watching citizens. Like a wraith, a woman passed up through the remains of the building. Her head was clean of hair and her skin was onyx, with two blue orbs for eyes. The eyes scanned the crowd, then locked on Uranus and Neptune.
The two senshi crouched, ready for action.
Continued in Chapter 11