Eternal City Crystal Tokyo
Chapter Sixty Two
School was thankfully the same, most of the time. Erica Tenoh smiled as the black haired woman took a seat, her classmates chattering happily around her. There was still some distance' between her and the others, but Catrine had helped bring her more into the regular cliques in the class.
It also helped that there were new students for her classmates to focus on. Subaru Yagami was unaware of her fangirls, amusingly, the cute brown haired young woman being cheerful and open o the girls eagerly vying for her attention. Alicia Testarossa was more reserved, but she and Subaru seemed to spend a lot of time together too.
Which, of course, got the rumor mill going, but Erica and a few teachers had done their best to squash that. As far as she could tell the two of them were just friends, and she was not going to let rumors make life hard for them in school.
Miss Ennis smiled as the green haired woman walked in, her suit crisp and neat. "To your seats everyone," she called, "we start in a minute."
Everyone physically there headed to their seats, while other students appeared via teleportation. Some families felt that with the current 'pro-Earth' terrorism they should keep their kids at home, only sending them to class for a minimum time. Occasionally Erica wondered why they all didn't just attend class via holographic avatar, but she supposed there was a good reason.
"All right everyone, we're starting with Galactic Politics," Miss Ennis said briskly, "who can name our primary allies?"
A lot of hands shot up, and Hatsumi Ryald was picked. The redhead stood as she answered, "The Star Empire of Jurai."
"Jurai, yes," Ennis agreed, "and they share a border with us. Anyone else?"
Other hands went up and a young man stood. "We have non-aggression pacts with the Khanite and mutual defense treaties with several worlds. Other than that, our primary allies are colonies established by Earth."
"Nicely summarized," Ennis agreed. "Now, what other factors do we need to be aware of with our local neighbours?"
Erica put her hand up after there was a moment of silence, assuming no one else would answer. Ennis nodded and she stood, "In addition with trading with our colonies and Jurai, we also deal extensively with the League of Non-aligned Worlds. Though calling them a league is a insult to leagues everywhere."
That comment got some snickers from the class and Ennis grinned. "Elaborate, please?" the teacher asked.
"May I?" Erica asked, gesturing to the holohram controls for the Galactic map. When Ennis nodded she rotated the map and highlighted a large red region as she said, "While the League is less powerful than the Khanite or Jurai, it actually encompasses a larger area and has more habitable planets. However, in founding the League for mutual protection, the smaller alliances were entirely unwilling to surrender individual powers."
"Which means?" Ennis asked.
"They do not have a cerntralized army, navy or a functional police force," Erica shrugged. "They basically send out a emergency signal when attack and each system or cluster of system sends it's navy in response."
Catrine was looking at her, aghast. "How do they function?" she asked.
"They don't, mostly," Erica said with a shrug. "There's a reason a large chunk of our military budget goes exclusively to building escort ships: it's to guard our merchant shipping while it moves through the League."
"It's THAT bad?" Subaru asked.
"They don't have pirates everywhere in the League," Erica conceded, "but if you are not near a large League world, you are almost automatically at risk for piracy."
|So," Ennis asked, liking seeing her class having such a lively debate, "why doesn't Crystal Tokyo go in there and restore order?"
"Well, it's against our laws for one," Hatsumi noted.
"True," Ennis agreed, "but putting that aside?"
"Well," Hatsumi hesitated then said, "It sounds like any invasion would be incredibly messy and difficult." She looked thoughtful, "No central government, so you can't strike decisively..."
Erica nodded her agreement, "You'd have to take over the League system by system or region by region. Plus you would have to constantly weaken your invading force by leaving ships in each system you've taken."
"Not just ships," Subaru added, "whole squadrons, probably."
"Which would bleed away your attack power," William noted, the young man nodding thoughtfully. "Not to mention the risk of planet based resistance movements."
Ennis smiled, glad to see the majority of the class engaged in the discussion. Noting the time she sighed, knowing she had to wrap this up. "All right, your assignment for next session is to write up a five page essay on Crystal Tokyo and it's relationship with one of the other major galactic powers," she told them.
There were some groans, but mostly good natured ones. It was a interesting topic, after all. She left, and there was a break between teachers, so the students gathered together to talk a bit.
"You seemed very well informed on the League," Alicia Testarossa noted. "Planning on becoming a pirate queen?" the blond teased.
Erica snickered softly. "Actually my friend Ran seriously thought about it," she noted, "but I talked her out of it."
"She's the one who ran off to the Khanite, right?" Subaru asked interestedly.
"I should ask her to come in as a guest lecturer," Erica mused, "it would make a great bonus to my grades."
"Seriously, you seemed to know a lot about a war with the League," Catrine noted, "what's up?"
"I have to admit I cheated a bit," Erica admitted, "Saionji ran the scenario in the palace computers at one point. The results weren't good."
"Oh?" Alicia asked, curious.
"They did three scenarios, a best case, a regular case and a worst case," Erica confided. "If we succeeded in surprise attack and everything went well, it would still take at least a year to win. In the middle case, three years and heavy losses. Worst case, we end up mired in unending conflicts and get jumped by another galactic power."
"Ouch," Subaru winced.
"So is that why Crystal Tokyo has never gone in there to restore order?" Alicia asked. "I've heard about the League a few times since I arrived here, and I always wondered."
"Partially that," Erica conceded, "but I think most of the decision comes from the Queen's ethics. She firmly believes in freedom of choice and preserving that freedom, even if it means letting someone make a mistake."
"Like what's happening in the League," Alicia nodded.
"And saying that," Erica added, "if we got a appeal from one of the League nations asking for our help to fix things? I think Serenity would order our ships in, no matter how tough it would be."
The next teacher arrived and the group split up, and the class carried on as usual.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Nadesico Kinomoto was sitting in Arisugawa's Locket, the evening sun lighting up the converted warehouses. The bar was packed as usual, women from across the planet and from alternate dimensions chatting together, drinking and eating. She was mostly ignoring the festivities as she quietly fretted.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Alpha asked, the green haired waitress smiling warmly at the semi-regular. Nadesico had come in a lot when she was younger, had dated a lot too, but had cut back on that a lot as she grew up. Now she mostly just came in for a drink every few days.
"I'm not sure it's even worth a penny," Nadesico smiled wryly as she explained, "I'm just fretting over a friend of mine."
Alpha sat down across from her, looking at her curiously. "Care to talk about it?" she invited gently. "Getting things off your chest can be good for you."
Nadesico hesitated, then nodded slightly. She didn't go into anything confidential, but she sketched in the situation with her missing couier and sending Jun after her. As she finished her explaination, she was surprised to see Alpha frowning slightly.
"What?" Nadesico asked.
"I thought you had special abilities," Alpha said after a moment's hesitation, "shouldn't you have gone yourself?"
Nadesico wanted to get defensive, but felt a stab of shame too. Alpha had a point after all. "My replica Sakura Cards aren't made for combat," she explained, "and to be honest, I'm not combat trained either. I don't want to hinder them..."
"Okay, fair enough," Alpha conceded. "So you are worried about Jun... which I guess makes sense, though I thought she was pretty much unstoppable."
"I don't think anyone is unstoppable," Nadesico said with a sigh. They both knew there were a lot of powerful forces out there, just from living in a city like Crystal Tokyo. Changing the subject she asked, "How is Kokone settling in?"
Alpha brightened visibly. "Oh, she's having a lot of fun. We've found a nice place on the outskirts of the city, and she's thinking of restarting her courier business here."
"I'm glad," Nadesico smiled.
A customer waved and Alpha got up apologetically. "Do you want a refill on your soda, or something stronger?" she asked.
"Just the soda, thanks," Nadesico said as she waved bye.
May was up at the bar, the manager handling the crowd like a pro. Arisugawa herself was there tonight too, Juri mingling with customers as she smiled charmingly. There were more than a few girls in the crowd with crushes on the dynamic older woman, but she was eternally loyal to Sailor Pluto.
A crush Nadesico had had too, if she was honest with herself. Thank goodness she had grown out of that one. Of course then she had fallen for someone nearly as bad for her, a freighter pilot and sometimes scam artist. Thank goodness she disappeared a few years back, giving Nadesico a chance to get over her.
What ever happened to Faye Valentine, anyway...?
To be continued!
Notes: Wanted to reconnect with the school bits a little. The League are based both off the Babylon Five concept and bits from David Weber's Honorverse.
