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Meeting the Menace

A The Chrysanthemum Chronicles Series Story

Main Dining Hall In The Crystal Palace

Moon City, Moon Kingdom, Moon

October 13, 986

Hours later, Daniel and Serenity finally emerged from those chambers, after spending quite a bit of time getting very caught up with each other once again in them, in a manner of speaking. They hadn't been together for at least a few weeks. And so they spent quite a bit of time doing so.

When they left those chambers, finally, it was at least two hours past local midday, if not even later. More like three or four hours past then, as time was reckoned during the average day in the Moon City local area of the Moon, as a matter of fact. They went to the Crystal Palace's main dining hall. When they got there, they were quite surprised to see their three daughters partying quite intensely with a considerable number of other girls in it.

Serenity and Daniel looked around that main dining hall for a while. And they were very surprised to see more than a few girls there at once. Besides their daughters, also partying at least a little in it were Amy, Raye, Lita, Mina, Hannah, Alexis, Michelle, and Susan. Not to mention, as well, Ariel, Poruzuka, Jacqueline, Deborah, Chloe, Bridget, Aurora, Beatrice, Dorothy, Gwendolyn, Estella, and Tracy. When Serenity wondered why, Raye said, "Because Prince Raphael thought that they should come here, if they weren't already on the way here, Queen Serenity. You see, not long after we were whisked away like we were, he thought they might want to be here. If they weren't already en route to here, of course. That was so that if we showed up, or he and/or others close to you both learned any news of us, he could try to make sure that the situation was sufficiently controllable by the necessary people. And so people here in the Moon Kingdom wouldn't panic because we'd somehow gone missing."

Serenity asked, "Ariel, Poruzuka, Jacqueline, and Deborah, how did your recent mission go elsewhere in our Milky Way Galaxy?"

"Excellent, it seems, Queen Serenity. We'll probably be getting military shipments of arms for at least the next year or so, if we need them at all from that society you sent us to some time ago. We got back here about two weeks ago, and we've been here ever since," answered Ariel.

"Okay, but if your sisters aren't protecting your respective planets, and their mini-systems, Ariel, who is?"

"Prince Raphael sent two hundred ships full of Moon Kingdom military personnel to each of them where necessary while you were gone from here, Queen Serenity. However, he didn't need to send any ships to Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter's mini-systems. For they didn't need any reinforcements of people at that time. Only Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto's mini-systems needed reinforcements at that time."

"I see. Anything else you need to tell us, then, Ariel?"

"There are several planets that have just appeared outside the orbit of Pluto in our solar system, Queen Serenity. We stopped off on at least one of them while we were heading back here on our return trip to here. We weren't expecting to see them at all there. They all appeared there when they emerged from something that I can think I can probably best describe as some sort of dimensional rift, if I can call what they each came out of like that."

"How many?"

"At least five that are inhabited, it seems, if not more. But none that are really quite space-capable currently, I believe," said Ariel.

"What are their names, if you know what they're called well enough by now, Ariel?" asked Queen Serenity, in very short order.

"Ninby is the one that's currently closest to Pluto's orbit. Then Mezopheus is the next one out. Tarmisuno's apparently the next one out from Mezopheus. And we saw at least ten to twenty small moons orbiting it with average diameters that are about half the diameter of the Moon here, at most, I believe. Then, after Tarmisuno, there are the planets of Colberg, Arkallisi, Marferuno, and Pyllisen. At least three of them, if not all of them, have at least six small moons orbiting them, it seems, Queen Serenity. Pyllisen and Marferuno could possibly be inhabited. But we didn't have much time free to do a lot of exploring on it. For we were nearly out of fuel crystals for our ship. All seven of the planets I have just mentioned here have at least two small moons orbiting them, if not more. Tarmisuno has an apparent diameter of about 35,000 Terran statute miles, and several large continental landmasses on it. We got within 10,000 such miles of the top of its apparent atmosphere. And not much closer, or we might have been unable to get out of its gravity field. For it apparently extends to about 9,900 such miles away from its planet's surface, at most. We passed it easily enough. Then we went at least another eighty or so million miles, until we crossed Mezopheus's orbit. After we did that, we went about another 130 or so million miles until we landed on Ninby's planetary surface. Ninby's a planet about the size of Venus, with an atmosphere apparently much like that of Earth at the current time. We spent a day or two on its surface searching for fuel crystals for our ship, so that we could begin the last leg of our trip back to the Moon Kingdom. Nobody saw us, as we did so. We all met nobody as we were still on Ninby. And we lifted off from Ninby no more than 48 hours after we landed on it. Then we all came back here. A short stop on Mars was the only other stop we made before we finally landed back here on the Moon. Even while you were still gone with my sister Alexis and a whole lot of other people."

Then Ariel, Poruzuka, Jacqueline, and Deborah spent at least the next hour or two briefing Serenity and Daniel on other things that'd happened on their recently-ended mission. Even while Serenity and others had recently been off the Moon themselves as well. This they did as their fellow Moon Kingdom Princesses continued to party elsewhere in the Crystal Palace's main dining hall, for that matter.

Eventually, though, Serenity said to those Princesses, "Girls, if you're going to be going to the ball tonight, you might all want to get ready for it now. Besides, Daniel and I want to get something to eat in relative peace and quiet for at least a little while."

"Mom, can't you see that we're all having fun here?"

"Serena, don't sass me, please. For if you do, you know what might happen."

"All right. But is it all right then if we take it elsewhere on the Crystal Palace's grounds? That's because I think we all still want to party, Mom."

"Very well. But you don't have too much more time to party. For Earthrise will come to us before too long, if you're not careful enough. I expect you all to be quite ready for the ball tonight, if it's still being held tonight, by then, of course."

"Understood, Mom. Let's go, girls, because Mom and Dad have that certain look in their eyes again, if you know what I mean."

Then Serena led all the other Princesses out of the main dining hall quite loudly. Even Ariel, Poruzuka, Deborah, and Jacqueline, who were still wanting to get a little more to eat from it. Serenity said to those last four Princesses, "You can get more to eat later on, if you wish. But right now, I want to be alone again with my husband. No arguments, please, you four." So Ariel left the main dining hall with the rest of their fellow assembled Princesses, with no arguments with Serenity from any of them.

I suppose that I'd better stop here now. For this will be where the next part of the story will take up from, in fact, readers. I hope that you have so far enjoyed the story, if you've gotten this far, and that you'll all continue to read it. I don't know yet just how long it'll take me to get each story in this series up fully here. But it might take a while for each story in this series, just the same. Until later, then, this is "The Universal Storyteller" signing off here. Happy reading, and God bless, and all that, of course, readers! Over and out!