Sailor Moon V * The Dark Adventures of the Sailor Scouts Episode Six * "The Return From Darkness" Time flowed strangely in The Dark. While the flow of Time seemed to be even and continuous inside the neo-void, it was quite chaotic when compared to the flow of Time in another dimension. The discovery of the consciousness inside the burnt-out shell of the soul took only a handful of minutes from her perspective, but the same span of Time covered three months in the small branch of Time that was the place of origin for the soul. <....my name is.... Pluto....> the soul said hesitantly as it woke up. Most interesting, she thought as she continued to examine the small ball of light. This soul has been virtually dead for almost a thousand years, and now it's talking to me. <....who.... who are you?> the soul continued. She blinked as she considered the question. She did have a name, but it was not something to be shared, for the knowledge of the true-name of an inhabitant of The Dark meant absolute power over the individual. It was said that those who have lived in the neo-void the longest have gone by other names for so long that they have forgotten their own true-name. she said after a moment's thought. the soul replied at once. She blinked again, amazed by how fast the soul was recovering. she asked the soul, not entirely sure why she was doing so. She blinked again, now totally confused. She could sense the soul's frustration at being unable to remember. she said soothingly, the soul said slowly, as if speaking an unfamiliar word. She blinked yet again, the soul's fragmented thoughts beginning to slowly make sense to her. She took a slow breath and sat back, letting the soul work out her train of thought on her own. Her? she thought for a moment before she nodded. Yes, this 'Pluto' was definitely female, she decided. she said when Pluto fell silent, exhausted from the effort of remembering. she reminded Pluto. Pluto thought. She frowned lightly when Pluto's thoughts started to become slightly more fragmented. she said soothingly without thinking about it. Pluto replied, then fell silent as her words echoed inside her soul-mind. She jumped back as Pluto's soul started to pulse with energy. Her first thought was that she was being attacked, but her defensive impulses quickly faded when she realized that Pluto was in a severe state of panic. she asked, reflexively casting a wary eye around her tiny keep. Pluto thought, still highly agitated at the thought. She frowned as Pluto's words failed to make much sense. Pluto replied. She frowned again as something clicked within her memory. Pluto asked slowly, calming down slightly. She hesistated only a moment before she made up her mind. she thought towards the soul as she gathered it up and put it in her storage pouch. She looked around her tiny sanctuary to make sure everything was secure before she concentrated her internal energies and dimension-shifted into another portion of The Dark. * * * * Leda sighed and let her head fall forward, smacking into the open biology textbook with a dull thump. "I give up," she said, her words muffled by the mass of paper mashed against her face. Ami absently patted her on the shoulder, most of her attention still focused on the textbook in front of her. "Take a break and come back to it," she said as she studied the advanced mathematics problem she was currently working on. "It'll make sense in a few minutes." "That's what you said half an hour ago," Leda replied as she straightened herself up with a heavy sigh. "This thing still isn't making any sense." She didn't even bother looking up when a steaming mug slid across the table to come to a halt in front of her. "Thanks, Mina," she said as she picked up the mug and downed half of the contents in one gulp. The blonde's head suddenly snapped up from her physics textbook, her blue eyes darting frantically around the room. "What? What I'd do?" she blurted out in confusion. "Nothing, I did it," Rei replied with a small frown as she glanced up from her own studies. "When in doubt, Leda, carry the two." Leda blinked and looked down at her book. "This is biology, Rei, not math. There's no two to carry." The priestess blinked for a moment before she shrugged. "Can't help you, then. Could someone wake up Serena before she starts snoring again?" Leda fished an ice cube out of Ami's cup of juice and tossed it across the room, bouncing it off of the top of the blonde's head with amazing accuracy. Serena immediately bolted upright, her blue eyes nearly twice their usual size with surprise. "Yiii! I'm up, I'm up!" she squealed. "That's nice," Ami said distantly as she started scribbling furiously on a scratch piece of paper before writing down the answer on her homework paper. "Mina," she said quietly. Mina jumped again, startled out of her studies. "What?" "Don't forget to include the delta-v in your third equation," Ami replied without looking up from her paper. "Mr. Meyers wants all parts of the physics model to be defined correctly." Mina blinked in confusion and looked down at her paper. "But I'm only on the second equation." "Keep working at it, it'll make sense soon," Ami said soothingly as she continued to crunch numbers at a mind-numbing pace. Rei sighed as she reached for the nearly empty bowl of fruit. "How do you do that without a calculator?" she said tiredly as she searched for a banana that wasn't too badly bruised. Serena looked down at her own mathematics textbook and sighed heavily. "Nevermind the calculator, how do you do that problem period?" she asked in a weary tone. "When in doubt, carry the two," Rei offered. "And what was your final grade in math last year?" Leda inquired. "Umm...." Rei said, her cheeks turning a light pink color. "Why don't you go study your history lesson and let us worry about helping Serena with the math?" Leda suggested gently. She blinked as there was a heavy thunking sound as another head hit the table in frustration. "Cheer up, Mina, it can't be that bad." "What was the equation for work again?" Mina muttered, her voice muffled by the textbook pressed up against her nose. "Force times displacement," Ami responded immediately. "Think of it like this: work equals force times displacement. Force is mass times acceleration. The most common variable for mass is m, a for acceleration, and d for linear displacement. So put it together and you have m times a times d. String the letters together and what does it spell?" she reiterated without glancing up. Mina blinked. "Mad." "Exactly. If you remember the mnemonic 'work makes me mad,' substituting the equal sign in place of 'makes me,' then you will remember that work equals mass times acceleration times displacement," Ami said slowly and calmly. Four minds thought about that for a brief moment before there was a brief scramble for paper as Mina, Serena, Rei, and Leda all tried to write down that tiny fragment of wisdom before they forgot it. "Ami, you're a genius," Mina cooed as she scribbled. Ami sighed and finally looked up from her work. "If you had been paying attention in class like you should have been, Mina, you would have remembered Mr. Meyers telling us that." Mina smirked. "Why do I need to pay attention when I've got you as a handy reference?" Serena giggled. "That's what I've been saying about the classes I've had with her in the past." "And what of your grades in those classes?" Ami replied reprovingly. Serena blinked and blushed. "Well...." There was yet another heavy thunk as yet another head hit the table in frustration, followed by gentle words of encouragement by Ami. Dragoon Lieutenant Maze leaned against the entraceway to the dining room, silently watching the five girls try to study their school homework. Makes me glad I'm past those days, he mused. This could get amusing after awhile, he thought as Rei picked her head up off the table. Of course at this rate, everyone except Ami is going to have impact headaches by dinnertime. Shaking his head to himself, Maze stood up straight and walked down the hallway towards the cathedral's central computer, a small smile of amusement still on his lips. He walked past the open door and was about to say something to the room's occupant but stopped when he heard the heavy sound of a forehead meeting the leading edge of a Negaverse-design crystal computer. "One of those days already, boss?" he quipped as he sat down in an empty chair next to Tolaris. Dragoon Commander Tolaris sighed quietly as he lifted his head up from the computer screen and rubbed at his temples. "Maze, this has been driving me up the wall for hours now. See if you can make sense of it," he explained as he turned the crystalline monitor so Maze could get a better look. Maze glanced at the display, blinked hard and did a double-take, and sat back with a deep frown on his face. "Tell me that's not a search worm." "It is," Tolaris said with a grunt. Maze closed his eyes and sighed. The whole purpose of a search worm was to check something out in a distant computer and report back what it found. "Did it already send out its reply?" "Just as soon as I discovered it," Tolaris said quietly. "So Rune knows we're here now?" Maze said softly. Tolaris blinked and gave Maze a curious look. "Rune has known that for some time now, Lieutenant. Why she hasn't acted on that is beyond me, but she definitely knows about Nephlyte's base being used by us, as well as the fact that the dimensional phase-link to his computer is still active." Maze sat up with another frown. "So why the search worm, then?" Tolaris shrugged. "I suppose we'll find out eventually." "Wait a second, boss...." Maze said slowly as something bubbled up from the depths of his memory. "When I discoverd that the phase-link was still in use by you, I rerouted it so it looks like an ordinary remote link. I did it myself, so there couldn't be any way that Rune knows about it." Tolaris frowned and looked at the computer screen, trying to figure out this latest development. Both Dragoons jumped slightly when the computer emitted a soft tone, indicating that a network service message had been sent to their terminal. Both denizens exchanged glances before Maze pulled out his communicator and opened a channel to Ra'vel and Whisper, asking them to come to the computer room immediately. Maze had barely finished putting his communicator back in his pocket when the air shimmered briefly as Psi-Corp Captain Whisper and Dragoon Lieutenant Ra'vel teleported into the room. Tolaris and Maze blinked hard when they realized that Whisper was wearing only a towel and was dripping water everywhere. "I was in the shower," she said mildly in response to their looks. "With all due respect, Lieutenant, this had better be very good." "I think this might prove to be worth your time," Tolaris replied evenly as he turned his attention back to the computer and opened the message. All four of the denizens leaned forward slightly in anticipation as the message began to scroll up onto the screen. FM: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) TO: 284.336.84.502 RE: NETWORK ALT-ROUTE TX: HOST NET MUST REPEAT MUST ALT-ROUTE DIST SIGNAL THRU ALT SYS BREAK DIST SIGNAL READS LIVE VIA SEARCH WORM BREAK REQ ACK OF MSG TO VERIFY CHANGE IN NET BREAK VR K'TAL CDR DRAGOON DIV BREAK END No one spoke for a moment, the only sound being heard was the steady drip of water on to the floor. "So K'tal is in command of the Dragoons now," Maze said softly. "Not a bad choice, to be honest." "He's a little too gung-ho, in my opinion, but he is one of the best," Tolaris agreed. "My question is, why did he send us this message?" Ra'vel chirped softly as she reread the message, trying to vocalize her ideas. Whisper shook her head, accidentally spashing water droplets all over Maze. "No, I think this message means much more than what it says." "Agreed," Tolaris said as he thought. "What do we know about K'tal?" Maze snickered. "He has the two qualities most desired in a Dragoon." Whisper blinked. "And what are those?" she said warily. "He's got brains and he's got k'vesan," Maze replied with a grin. "Men," Whisper sighed and traded only partially-amused looks with Ra'vel. The avian made a distasteful chirping noise and glared at Maze. Maze chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, please. I saw how you handled yourself in the Outreaches. You've got more k'vesan than some guys I know." Ra'vel blinked in mild surprise and looked at Whisper. The telepath merely shrugged and cinched her towel a little tighter. "I think he does have a point, Ra'vel." "Now that we have established that Ra'vel has what it takes to be part of the Dragoons despite being female, we need to figure this out," Tolaris said mildly. "Something is definitely going on here and we need to know as soon as possible. Suggestions?" "Send a reply back," Whisper said. "Something tells me he wants to make absolutely certain that it's us on this end before he does something." "Question is, do we really know what he's going to do?" Maze countered. "We don't even know if that is K'tal on the other end." Whisper nodded. "That is true, but keep in mind that they already know we're here. I'm not sure what sort of plan K'tal has in mind, but I don't think that a Dragoon would do anything like this unless he had a good reason." Tolaris nodded. "That makes sense. I'm for sending a reply back. Any objections?" Both Maze and Ra'vel shook their heads and Tolaris nodded. "Very well, then, here goes nothing." Everyone remained silent as Tolaris typed up a quick anonymous reply and sent it back to the Dragoon Headquarters Complex. A tiny beep signaled the receipt of the message at the distant end and Tolaris sat back. "Well, then. So now we wait." "I don't suppose I have a few minutes to go get dressed?" Whisper said mildly as she ran her fingers through her still-dripping hair. Tolaris saw Maze biting his tongue out of the corner of his eye and he sighed quietly. "By all means, Captain." Whisper nodded and was preparing to teleport back to her room when the computer beeped again, signaling another incoming message. "That was fast," she said slowly. Tolaris frowned. "Too fast," he said as he opened the message. FM: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) TO: 284.336.84.502 RE: RE-XT ACK TX: THISTA RCV'D ACK MSG BREAK REQ POS IDENT OF DIST END USER BREAK USE SEC FREQ DCT BREAK VR K'TAL CDR DRAGOON DIV BREAK END Maze sat up with a scowl. "Why does he need to know who we are?" Tolaris's mind was working as fast as it was capable. "Maze, wait a moment.... Standard operating procedure is to get a positive ID of the user on other end before performing a network alt-route. Using a secure frequency is not uncommon. However, the frequency he suggested doesn't exist." Whisper frowned and leaned forward to get a better look at the screen, cinching the towel a little tighter as she did so. "It looks like a valid frequency to me. Maze, if you don't find something else to look at other than my chest, I will tear your eyeballs out," she said evenly. Maze coughed discreetly and focused his attention on the crystal computer screen. "She's got a point, boss. I don't see why that frequency wouldn't exist." "It's one of those division-level Commander's-Eyes-Only secrets," Tolaris replied. "No message traffic is ever transmitted with a middle-band frequency of C. It's one of those little designations that means someone is trying to tell us something but can't do it on any sort of free-range medium." Whisper blinked. "Why is it they never told me that?" Tolaris turned his head to one side to look at her. "Did you ever receive a formal in-brief when you got promoted to Captain of the Psi-Corp?" The telepath wrinkled her nose at the thought. "No, I didn't." "Trust me, it would have been in there," the Dragoon commander replied as he turned back to the monitor. "Now if we can only figure out what exactly he's trying to tell us." Ra'vel chirped a query and his head snapped around to look at her, only to wind up mashing his face against Whisper's chest. "Excuse me," Whisper said icily as she took a step back and tightened the towel around her. Tolaris's face flushed a dark shade of gray. "Sorry, ma'am," he said sheepishly. He blinked and focused his attention on Ra'vel. "Say that just a little slower, Ra'vel." Ra'vel gave him a curious look and repeated her chirps slower. Tolaris sat back to consider the thought for a moment while Maze gave Ra'vel an odd look. "What exactly did you say? My language skills aren't what they used to be...." he apologized. she telepathed to the room. Whisper's eyes went wide. "DCT. Dragoon Commander Tolaris." Both Maze and Tolaris frowned as they turned to give her an odd look. "What exactly are you saying?" Tolaris inquired. Whisper shook her head, sending more water droplets flying around. "Don't you see? We know he's trying to reach you, but he can't or won't come out and say who he's trying to reach. He needs to make absolutely sure it's you he's got before he switches you over to another network." Tolaris thought about the idea for a full second before he turned back to the keyboard and started typing as fast as he could. FM: 284.336.84.502 TO: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) RE: ALT-ROUTE ACK TX: THISTA RECONF RCV'D MSG RE ALT-ROUTE BREAK ID CONF STERLING LTCDR SEC DIV IDENT 21354SCD BREAK THISTA AT SB FOR ALT-ROUTE BREAK END Maze waited until the computer beeped softly before he shook his head. "Congratulations, boss, you just totally confused me. I understood the part about reconfirming the network alt-route, and I understood the part about standing by for the switch, but who exactly did you say you were?" Tolaris looked up at his friend and smiled. "My great-grandfather." Whisper blinked. "Your great-grandfather?" she echoed. Tolaris merely shrugged. "Well, think about it. If he can't ask for me by name for some reason, what makes you think it's safe for me to reply with mine? He knows who my great-grandfather was, or at least he should," he added with a small sigh. "So now what do we do, boss?" Maze asked as he gave Ra'vel a curious look. "So now we wait for the network to switch over," Tolaris replied. Ra'vel chirped at Maze curiously and he squinted at her. "I could be wrong, Ra'vel, but I think that might be a dust mite on your shoulder," he said slowly. Ra'vel screeched and immediately started fluffing her feathers, sending a tiny cloud of feather particles into the air. Whisper took a hasty step back, but not before she accidentally inhaled some of the particles. Her nose twitched briefly for a moment before she let loose with a loud sneeze. Her eyes suddenly doubled in size as she felt the towel unwrap itself from her body and fall to the floor. Some people may have considered Ra'vel to be somewhat slow-minded because of the brain damage she received during the Mintaka campaign. However true that may be, she certainly wasn't stupid. She heard Whisper sneeze behind her and realized the probable result. With what some might have called an avian version of a grin, she extended her wings out as far as they could, effectively blocking Maze's line of sight. "I will be right back," Whisper said quickly, blushing a dark shade of blue. She scooped up her towel and teleported out of the room, leaving a small spray of water in her wake. "Lieutenant," Tolaris said evenly, fixing Maze with a reproving look. "What'd I do?" Maze replied, his tan eyes wide with innocence. Tolaris just sighed heavily and looked over at Ra'vel, who was occupied with preening her feathers for dust mites. "I'm sure Captain Whisper is very appreciative of your excellent timing, Ra'vel," Tolaris told her. Ra'vel looked up from her work long enough to scold Maze for a few moments before she returned to her task, making quiet, distasteful chirping noises to herself as she worked. Everyone blinked and looked up at the computer as it made a harsh noise and flashed a "Network Failure" warning. The message continued to flash on the screen for a few seconds before being replaced with an "Establishing Connection to Distant End" message. "This should be interesting," Maze commented as they watched the computer go through the motions of connecting to another site through the dimensional phase-link. Ra'vel chirped an agreement and resumed her task, her attention divided between the monitor and her feathers. "I think Maze was making a joke about the dust mites," Tolaris told her. "Umm, no I wasn't...." Maze said with a frown. Ra'vel paused her work to look up at them, her gaze alternating between the two of them. She was about to chirp something at them when she caught motion out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look and started screeching almost in the ultra-sound range, causing Tolaris and Maze to wince in pain at the high frequency. Tolaris watched with mild interest as Ra'vel snapped her beak at something on her feathers, chomped down hard and quickly spat it out, and then proceed to stomp on it, her talons scratching up the floor tiles in the process. "She hates dust mites with a passion," Maze observed with a smile. "So I see. I think you got it, Lieutenant, so you can stop clawing up the floor now," Tolaris called out to her. Ra'vel hissed at the now-deceased dust mite and gave it one final stomp before she fluffed her feathers and calmed down, chirping apologetically at the other Dragoons. "We understand," Maze said soothingly. The avian grumbled to herself for a moment before she resumed preening her feathers, pausing long enough to take one step to the side. The air shimmered briefly as Whisper teleported back into the room, wearing a snug-fitting tank top and sweatpants. "Hold still," she growled at Maze as she walked over to him and grabbed his nose. "Euungh..?" Maze grunted before his gaze went vaccant and he fell silent. Tolaris's eyebrow went up almost to his hairline as he watched Whisper scan Maze's mind for something. He exchanged a mild glance with Ra'vel and got a casual shrug in response. Okay.... he thought before he returned his attention back to Whisper and Maze. Whisper sighed and released her hold on Maze's nose. The Dragoon blinked and leaned forward, his nose twitching briefly before he let loose with a very forceful sneeze. His hands immediately came up to his face and his eyes took on a slightly disgusted expression. "Ewww...." he groaned. "Tissues are in the bathroom," Whisper said mildly. "Danks," Maze replied as he stood up and made a hasty exit. Tolaris sighed. "Do I want to ask...?" The telepath made a face. "I just wanted to see if he did that on purpose or not. He didn't, which is why he's still breathing," she added. Ra'vel chirped something at her and she nodded in reply. "Yes, I am very grateful for your wingspan, Lieutenant. Oh, and if you remind me tomorrow, I'll help you try to set up some sort of oil bath to get rid of those mites." Ra'vel chittered back a reply that Whisper wasn't able to translate. She blinked in confusion and gave Tolaris a blank look. "Did she say something about soap in her last oil bath?" she asked hesitantly. The Dragoon commander just shook his head. "You don't want to know." "About what?" Maze asked as he walked back in the room, still wiping at his nose with a tissue. "About that little incident where someone 'accidentally' dumped a full jar of concentrated liquid soap into her oil bath last year," Tolaris said mildly. Maze flushed a dark green and fought to keep his tone level. "Yeah, I heard about that. Soap isn't good for your feathers, is it?" he asked. Ra'vel's rather profane reply was cut off by the sound of the computer beeping as it received a message from its new network host. Everyone exchanged mild glances and gathered around the terminal before Tolaris opened up the message. FM: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) TO: 441.95.274.511 RE: EST SEC NET TX: THISTA READS DIST END ON UNSEC FREQ BREAK REQ EST SEC FREQ USING KEYTAPE 218AGH954 BREAK VR K'TAL CDR DRAGOON DIV BREAK END "Now what?" Whisper muttered. "Apparently he wants us to establish a secure connection," Tolaris said. "The only problem is, we don't have that keytape." Maze frowned. "Is that a good tape? I mean, it's not another one of your little commander's-only games, it it?" Tolaris sat back to consider the matter. "No, that is a valid keytape to the best of my knowledge." Ra'vel snapped her beak quietly several times before she blinked as an idea occurred to her. she telepathed. Whisper frowned. "What do you mean?" Tolaris blinked and looked up. "Ra'vel, did you telepath something?" he asked, once again mentally cursing the fact that he was psi-mute. Maze straightened up so fast he almost strained something. "Boss, she's right! What if that's not a keytape name, but the actual encryption key?" Whisper blinked and gave Maze an odd look. "Do you think that someone like K'tal would send the key over the open like that, even disguised as the name of a keytape?" "Remember what I said about him being just a little too gung-ho?" Tolaris replied as he typed a response back. "Trust me, this is exactly the sort of gutsy stunt I'd expect him to pull." "Too much k'vesan and not enough brains, eh?" Whisper said wryly. "You can never have too much k'vesan," Maze said with a grin. "Men," Whisper sighed as she shook her head. "So we're sure that it's K'tal on the other end?" "Well, I'm staking our lives on it by replying, Captain," Tolaris replied evenly. "I'd rather go down trusting another Dragoon than anyone else." Ra'vel chirped her agreement while Maze nodded. "We're with you on that one, boss," he said. Tolaris merely grunted in reply and waited for the distant end to respond. He blinked in surprise when the computer made a peculiar humming noise and a text box appeared on the screen. "Entering Secure Mode, Please Stand By," he read aloud, sitting back and waiting. "So now what?" Whisper asked, already knowing the answer. "So now we...." He trailed off as the screen was suddenly filled with lines of seemingly random characters. "This is interesting...." Maze blinked. "Is someone doing a data dump?" "Perhaps, perhaps not," Tolaris said as he waited for the text block to finish displaying itself. "I may not be an expert on communications, but this looks like an encrypted data file." "Well, well, well...." Whisper said slowly. "Anyone want to bet on what we'll get if we run that through a decryption program with the character string Commander K'tal just gave us?" "One way to find out," Maze said as he rose from his seat. Tolaris gave him an odd look. "Where are you going?" "I was going to go ask Ami if we could borrow her toy computer. I've seen what kind of processing power it has and I'm sure it'll zip right through this thing in no time," he explained. "Sit down, Lieutenant," Tolaris said as he split the display in half and opened another program in the second window. "She and the others are busy studying right now. It's bad enough that their lives have been disrupted by being Sailor Scouts as it is. We don't need to be adding to the chaos by having them assist us with things like this when they're trying to learn how to function as adults in their own society." Maze sat down with a small grunt. "I guess I see your point, boss." "How long will this take?" Whisper asked. "I really need to finish up my shower before dinner." Tolaris and Maze exchanged glances and Maze smiled. "I'm going to have to code this decryption program from scratch, so it should take at least an hour. I'll have someone knock on your door when we're finished," Tolaris said as he typed away at a furious pace. "Thank you," Whisper replied and prepared to teleport back to her room. "One thing before you go, ma'am," Maze said, still smiling. The telepath paused and gave Maze a wary look. "What?" "You really ought to dry off before wearing something form-fitting like that tank top," he said evenly. "Water tends to collect in the strangest of places." Whisper blinked and glanced down, her face turning a dark shade of blue when she realized that the water had turned the front of her tank top totally transparent. "Men," she grumbled as she hastily teleported out of the room. * * * * Maze walked into the computer room carrying two steaming mugs of ma'cha, the denizen version of coffee. "So what's it look like?" he asked Tolaris as he held out a mug. Tolaris grunted as he accepted the mug and set it on the edge of the work station, never taking his eyes off of the computer display. "I finished that decryption program five minutes ago. That data file we got isn't just any data file, its another encryption key," he said grumpily. Maze paused, the mug halfway to his lips. "Another encryption key?" he echoed. Tolaris nodded, his attention still fixed on the computer. "Yes. The thing with this key is it's an actual copy of a keytape. All we would need to do is load it into a crypto-linker and we could establish a secure link to the other end of this network." "Great!" Maze exclaimed. "Problem," Tolaris countered. The Dragoon sat back and pondered the matter for a moment. "What sort of problem?" he finally asked warily. "Do you see a crypto-linker anywhere around here?" Tolaris replied with a heavy sigh. Maze blinked. "Sure, there's one in the arsenal vault." "You mean the one you fed to Dyvach so it could fabricate the parts you needed to rewire Mina's coffepot into an instant hot chocolate machine?" Tolaris replied. "D'oh...." Maze muttered as he slapped himself on the forehead. The Dragoon commander sat back and gave his friend a strange look. "What exactly is that you just said?" he asked curiously. "Sorry, I guess I sort of got that from watching too much of that animated whatever Mina keeps watching," Maze explained sheepishly. "I think this Earth culture is starting to get to me." "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Maze frowned as he took a sip of his ma'cha. "I'm not sure anymore, boss. I mean, at first living here was a great idea. We got away from all of the backstabbing and politics from working in the Negaverse, not to mention being away from all those wonderful animals and such we have running around. But now that I've been here for awhile...." Tolaris took a calculated sip of his own mug as Maze trailed off. "Keep going, Lieutenant. It's not like anyone is going to court martial you for your opinions about your exile." "That's just it, boss," Maze said suddenly with a grunt. "Right now, it's starting to feel like we're in exile. I mean, I know I don't have anyone back in the Negaverse that I could see even if I wanted to, but every now and then I feel like just taking a walk down some city street and enjoying a sense of familiarity and belonging." He blew out his breath in frustration and took a large gulp of the ma'cha, ignoring the pain as it scalded his throat. "You're bored, aren't you?" Tolaris asked softly. Maze sighed and looked into his mug, watching the odd patterns the rising steam made. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said after a moment. "I mean, at least when I was in the Negaverse I had my job to keep me mostly occupied." "Not to mention having a seemingly endless supply of female company to help occupy you when you weren't working," Tolaris said with a grin. Maze snorted. "Admit it, you were always jealous of that." "If you say so," Tolaris snickered. Maze gave his friend an odd look. "Come on, boss, you mean to tell me that you never had the desire for female company at least some time during your seven-hundred-plus years of life in the Negaverse?" Tolaris's eyebrow arched up in mild amusement. "You know very well that I have, Maze. However, I was always too busy to accomodate." "Of course," Maze muttered darkly as he sipped his ma'cha. "So you're saying that you couldn't forget that never-ending stack of reports for at least one night to just sit back in your quarters and relax with someone?" "What, with Queen Beryl's wrath looming over my head if those reports were ever improperly handled or were late being filed?" Tolaris countered. Maze blinked. "What kind of reports were those?" "Classified Seven-Aerce," the Dragoon replied. "Straight to Beryl?" Maze asked with a sickened expression. He received a nod in reply and he shivered. "Eww.... No wonder you were so anti-social. You honestly and truly didn't have the time, did you?" "So nice to be believed after all these decades," Tolaris replied wryly. Maze made a distasteful face. "Oh, hush. Why didn't you ever put in for a short field assignment or a request to take some leave?" "Several reasons," Tolaris replied as he sat back. "First, I was the only officer in the Dragoon ranks who was cleared for that stuff. Second, those reports were rather vital to Queen Beryl's operational plans. Third, even if I did manage to get an assignment, the responsibility for those reports would have fallen to Shar-Tei, and I wouldn't want to have that dumped on anyone. And the final reason, Maze, is that I simply didn't feel like it," he finished with a sip of his ma'cha. Maze just sighed heavily and looked at the ceiling. "You know, I wonder if Captain Raijen founded the Dragoon Legion as a means of uniting the most loyal or the most work-hard-until-you-drop type of soldiers. You sure seem to fit the second category." The Dragoon commander grunted in mild amusement. "Probably both." "Figures," Maze agreed. Tolaris nodded and looked at the computer warily. "We need to get back to our original problem." "What, the crypto-linker?" Maze asked. He received a nod in reply and he sat back to think, idly sipping at his nearly-empty mug. "The only real vital component is the actual encryption modulator. Everything else can be rigged up or patched from scratch. Do you think Dyvach could reconstruct a modulator if we feed it enough raw material?" Tolaris shrugged as he tossed back the last mouthful of ma'cha and stood up. "I have no idea, Maze, but Dyavch might know. So why not ask it?" he said as he set the empty mug on the table and started walking towards the door. He only managed to take three steps past it before he accidentally tripped over the large crystalline spider curled up in the middle of the hallway. The Dragoon grunted as he got to his feet. "Must you take a nap in the middle of the hallway?" he grumbled at the weaver. Dyvach made a disoriented chiming sound before it started flexing its many crystalline legs, sounding like a tangled set of wind chimes. It's usually transparent carapace was flushed a dark orange color as it struggled to cope with the sudden shock of being tripped over while napping. It continued to stretch for a few moments before it chimed a still mildly disoriented query at the Dragoon. "Of course I'm fine," Tolaris replied as he leaned against the wall for a moment. "Trust me, if I can get run over by Ami and not damage anything, then I'm sure tripping over you won't hurt too badly. Are you awake yet?" Dyvach's color returned to normal as it chimed back an affirmative. It stood up and continued stretching its many legs one by one, making soft chiming sounds to itself in the process. Tolaris nodded. "Good. I've got a question for you. Do you remember that crypto-linker you ate awhile back?" He received a rather happy chime in response and he smirked. "Tasted that good, eh?" Dyvach immediately cut loose with a stream of chittering noises that Tolaris wasn't quite able to translate properly. The Dragoon sighed quietly and rubbed at his temples. "Slow down, Dyvach, you know I can't always make out what you say, even on a good day. You said something about the modulator?" The weaver chimed back a brief explanation that caused Tolaris to blink in mild surprise. "Mina's using it for what?" Tolaris asked. Dyvach tried to explain in greater detail but Tolaris wasn't able to fully understand what it was trying to say. Maze poked his head out of the room at the mention of Mina's name. "So what's up?" he asked, slightly curious as to what Mina had to do with the current situation. Tolaris shrugged. "From what I understand, Mina's got the modulator for some sort of project." "Great," Maze grunted. "Knowing her, she's probably got it wired into that demonstrosity she calls her synthesizer. Which also means she's not going to be too happy about having to give it up." "I'm afraid she'll have to do without it for the time being," Tolaris said with another shrug. "She can have it back when we're finished with it, but I think this takes priority over it's entertainment value." Maze snickered. "Just try getting her to see that." Tolaris gave his lieutenant a decidedly evil grin. "That's your job." Maze blinked and immediately quit snickering. "What?" "You said you were bored, right?" Tolaris said mildly. "I said I was bored, not suicidal," Maze countered. "You know how she is about her synthesizer." "Come now, surely your unnatural charm can win her over," Tolaris teased. He laughed as Maze started muttering highly acidic comments to himself about blondes and electronics. "Times like this makes me wish I was single," Maze muttered as he started walking towards the room where Mina and the others were still studying. * * * * General Rune looked up in irritation as someone knocked on the door to her private bathroom. "Who is it?" she called out, letting her irritation show in her voice. "Moirah," came the voice from the other side of the door. Rune grumbled to herself and sat up, trying to decide what sort of crisis was happening now. She was still mildly upset at the intrusion, but she knew that Moirah had enough personal experience in dealing with her to know when and when not to disturb her while she was taking a bath. "Come in," she grunted as she picked up a washcloth and began to rinse the soap off of her skin. She heard an odd liquid sound and looked up as a puddle of water started flooding the room from the crack under the door. Rune watched with mild curiosity as the puddle started to rise up and solidify into a humanoid shape. "A little theatrical today, are we?" Rune said mildly when the aquamorph had assumed her normal, solid form. "Begging the general's pardon, I didn't think you wanted me opening the door given your current state of undress," Moirah said evenly as her eyes reflexively scanned the room for any possible sign of danger. Rune snorted. "I gave up on modesty after the first month of having you and V'Kreeth taking turns watching over me while I bathe." She looked up and caught the aquamorph's glance towards the tiny pocket of shadows in the distant corner of the bathroom. "So what sort of crisis do we have today?" Rune asked after a careful moment of observation. "Sensors report a massive energy disturbance coming from the dimensional rift in the Hinterland region. The current analysis of the disruption is inconclusive, but Science thinks it might be an artificial rift in the process of opening," Moirah reported. Rune paused in mid-motion as her bodyguard's words sank in. "From the Hinterland region, you said?" she asked slowly as she gave Moirah a carefully neutral look. "Yes, General," Moirah replied. Rune sighed and sank back down into the bathtub, letting the steaming water flow over her body. "Tell me, V'Kreeth, what do you think is going on in that region?" she asked the shadowy corner. The shadow detatched itself from the wall and moved foward to stand next to Moirah, appearing only to be a pair of dark gray eyes set into a humanoid mass of darkness. "The best guess is that Nop'tera is about to make her return," V'Kreeth said in a voice that sounded like dry leaves whispering over stone. "Which is what I would conclude," Rune said with a heavy sigh. "Time has a way of sneaking up on you, doesn't it?" "It all depends on your perspective," V'Kreeth replied. Rune said nothing as she resumed running the washcloth over her body. "Do you have anything else to report while you're here, Moirah?" she asked somewhat wearily. "We received a Flash message from Leviathan North an hour ago saying they might have a possible submerged contact," the aquamorph replied. "They only detected it because they almost collided with it. The contact does not appear on their sonar and they are currently trying to locate it by audio tracking. They do not believe they were detected during the incident and immediately assumed a Stage 4 alert." Rune sat up so quickly that she splashed a considerable amount of water onto the floor. "A submerged contact?" she repeated with a frown. She thought about the matter for a few moments before she made a decision. "Send a Flash to both Leviathan North and Leviathan South. Tell them to immediately assume a Stage 3 alert with the instructions to go to Stage 2 upon a solid contact with any submerged vessel. If the contact shows any hostile intent at all, they have full sub-surface weapons release authority." She blinked as someone started knocking on the door. "Now what?" she grumbled to herself. "Who is it?" she called out. "Admiral Si'ren," came the dulcet voice from the other side of the door. "One question, V'Kreeth," Rune said quickly. "Did Queen Beryl ever have to hold a conference while she was in the bathtub?" "The shower, yes, but I don't recall one from the bathtub," V'Kreeth said in all seriousness. "Let her in," Rune said as she sank back down into the water. Moirah blinked. "Begging the general's pardon...." "If you are concerned about my modesty, Moirah, there isn't anything I have that she doesn't," Rune said with a slight edge to her voice. Moirah traded mild looks with V'Kreeth before she went to the door and opened it, quickly closing it after Si'ren entered. V'Kreeth quickly retreated back into the corner of shadows while Moirah tried to remain as unobtrusive as possible under the circumstances. Admiral Si'ren glanced over Rune's nude body and blinked, her delicate eyebrows almost arched up to her hairline. "If I had known we'd be doing one of these kinds of meetings, I'd have brought a swimsuit," she said mildly. Rune sighed. Si'ren was the Negaverse Navy's Fleet Admiral, which under ordinary circumstances made her the equal to the Army's Commander General. However, with the absence of a monarch, the power of the throne went to the Commander General. This technically made Rune Si'ren's superior, but the admiral often still viewed them as equals. "And how many of 'these kind' of meetings have you been to?" Rune asked. Si'ren gave her a strange little smile. "Queen Beryl had the worst luck when it came to developing crises. They always seemed to happen while she was in the shower." "I'll bet that made the other generals happy," Rune replied evenly. "To be honest, I don't think anyone cared," Si'ren said with a casual shrug. "Malachite was only interested in Zoicite, Nephlyte never considered Beryl to be attractive, and neither Zoicite nor Al'vexi were attracted to other women." "And what of Jedyt?" Rune asked with mild curiosity. Si'ren made a face. "I don't think Beryl had to have a meeting like that since Jedyt was promoted to the rank of general. Or if she did, I wasn't able to attend for some reason or another." "Interesting," Rune said mildly. "So what brings you here at this hour?" Si'ren smiled at her again. "What, I can't be sociable anymore?" Rune frowned. "If you are trying to be sociable, Si'ren, then you picked a really bad time. Unless you wanted to see me naked in the bathtub," she added in a neutral tone. Si'ren blinked, her eyebrows arching up again. "I have just received a Flash message from Leviathan South about a possible submerged contact almost running them over...." She blinked again as Rune sat up again, splashing even more water onto the floor. "Moirah, get that message out now!" Rune snapped. "Tell them both that I want hourly reports on anything they find, no matter how insignificant." Moirah didn't bother taking the time to reply. She immediately became a column of liquid that splashed to the floor in a large puddle, quickly oozing out the crack beneath the door. Si'ren watched the whole process with mild amusement. "It must be nice to be able to do that," she observed. "It depends on the situation," Rune said. "Having a bodyguard that can hide in the fountain in my private chambers is a definite advantage, but you have no idea how many times I've had to chase her out of my bath. She claims she can protect me better if she's right there with me," Rune explained. Si'ren erupted into peals of laughter, much to Rune's irritation. "You should have listened to Beryl go on about having to put up with bodyguards in her bedroom. She didn't mind their presence while she slept, but she sort of had a thing against being watched while, shall we say, entertaining a private guest," the admiral explained, giving Rune a knowing look. Rune gave her a neutral look before she glanced over at the corner of the bathroom. "V'Kreeth...." she started to say. "We can leave you alone provided you are by yourself, General, but we cannot leave you alone with someone else, even if you give us a direct order to," V'Kreeth explained almost apologetically. "What goes on during that time is nobody's business and is never spoken of." "Am I not allowed any privacy any more?" Rune muttered. "Privacy is what you make of it," Si'ren said with another odd smile. "Perhaps," Rune replied. "Now unless you have any other business that needs to be addressed at this moment, I would like to try to finish my bath in some semblance of privacy." "Of course," Si'ren said smoothly. "Perhaps we can arrange to have another one of these meetings at a later date when we don't have any other crises to worry about. Pleasant evening, General Rune," she said with a small bow and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Rune sat in the bathtub with a slightly puzzled look on her face. She remained that way for several minutes, trying to figure out a new puzzle that life had just handed to her. "V'Kreeth...." she said slowly. "It is not for me to say," the shadow replied. Rune frowned lightly. "I see. What would you suggest I do, then?" "Again, it is not for me to say," came the voice from the shadowy corner. "If the idea appeals to you, then that's your business. As I said before, what goes on in your chambers is nobody's business and is never spoken of." Rune sighed and opened the drain valve, letting the water slowly empty out of the bathtub. "Were you there when Beryl had her guests?" She received silence in reply and she sighed. "Did Beryl ever have any privacy at all?" "None," said the shadow. "Why didn't anyone tell me about that part before I assumed command?" she grumbled to herself as she picked up a towel and began drying herself off under the ever-watchful eyes of her bodyguard. "It would probably spoil our fun," V'Kreeth replied in a rare moment of humor, drawing a dark look from Rune. "We must protect you every moment of the day, General Rune, and it's not an easy task. We need to get something out of it." "And what do you get out of watching me take a bath?" Rune inquired. "I rarely watch you as I am busy watching everything else," said the voice from the corner of the bathroom. Rune paused and gave her bodyguard a mild look. "Honestly, V'Kreeth, you expect me to believe that?" She received more silence in reply and sighed heavily. "Tell me again why I like my job...." she muttered to herself. * * * * Tolaris looked up at the door and sighed quietly as Mina walked in with a very unhappy look on her face. "Do I even want to ask?" she said with an edge to her voice as she held out a small circuit board. "The short version is we need this to create a secure link so we can talk to someone in the Negaverse without being detected," Tolaris explained as he took the circuit board and looked it over carefully. Mina blinked. "What?" Tolaris frowned slightly. "I'll explain in a moment. What exactly did you do to the modulator?" he asked as he tapped a somewhat bulky computer chip securely soldered to the board. "I set it up so I could use it to multiplex the signals to and from a laser array," Mina explained. "Without that chip, I'd need at least another CPU chip if not two just to handle the data traffic between the control console and the array." Tolaris blinked. "This thing has an I/O port?" he asked, lapsing into computer technical talk. "Of course," the blonde replied as she leaned toward him. "See, this is where it connects to the console, that gets connected to the array's data hub, and this thingy right here gets plugged into the console's power matrix," she explained as she pointed everything out. The Dragoon nodded in understanding. "Okay, here's what I need to do. I need to have a signal come in one end, have the modulator descramble it with an encryption key, display the result on the computer, have it scramble the data I send back, and have the signal go back out the other end." Mina gave him a blank look. "Umm.... that's Ami's department, not mine. I know how to use computers, even Ami's to some extent, but all that hardware and data processing stuff is way over my head." Tolaris chuckled. "You asked what I wanted it for." "Not what I meant," she replied as she looked at the computer. "Umm, who exactly are you trying to talk to and what are you talking about? I don't mean to be nosy or anything, but I'm kinda worried about advertising our presence to General Rune, if you know what I mean." Tolaris sighed quietly. "To be perfectly honest, Mina, I have no idea who I'm going to be talking to about what. All this chip would do is let me talk to that person without having to worry about someone listening in or otherwise tapping into the encrypted link." Mina blinked and gave the crystal computer an odd look. "I'll be right back," she said and quickly left the room, leaving Tolaris standing there with the circuit board in his hands and a mildly confused look on his face. She returned a few minutes later with a somewhat upset vampire following her, highly irritated at having her studies interrupted without any warning. "This had better be good," Ami said. "Tell her what you told me," Mina said without any preamble. Tolaris blinked for a moment before he took a deep breath and explained to Ami everything he had explained to Mina earlier about needing the chip and how he was going to use it. Ami gave him a reproving look. "Surely you're capable of performing the installation and everything yourself." Tolaris shrugged. "I am." Ami sighed and glared at him. "So why did you have to bother me?" Mina tapped her on the shoulder. "Hello, Ami? You're missing a rather serious point here." Ami looked at her. "And that point is...?" "Who's on the other end?" Mina said slowly. Ami blinked at the realization sank in. "Umm.... good question...." "We think it's the new Dragoon commander, but we can't be absolutely certain," Tolaris explained before Ami could ask. "Who's we?" Mina asked. "The rest of us denizens who live here," Maze replied as he walked into the room. A somewhat lengthy scratch on the back of his hand was still slowly oozing his green blood, a sight which slightly unsettled Ami. Tolaris raised an eyebrow. "What happened to you?" "I think Mina leaves sharp edges in odd places inside her synthesizer to keep anyone who doesn't know better from removing anything," he said dourly. "I told you that I would get to it in a few minutes," Mina replied. "It's not my fault you got impatient and tried to remove it yourself." "But was I right about the sharp edges?" he asked pointedly. The blonde snorted. "Would I do a thing like that?" "Yes," chorused Maze and Ami. Mina gave Ami a dark look. "You stay out of this," she said archly. Tolaris cleared his throat. "Can we get this taken care of before you decide to further injure my lieutenant?" "Why don't we start from the beginning," Ami suggested. "What prompted you to suddenly start wanting to talk to someone in the Negaverse?" Tolaris nodded and turned to the computer. "It all started when we got a message like this," he explained and began to show them the contents of the network administration messages he had received. "Wait, don't translate for us," Ami said quickly as the spidery symbols that made up the written denizen language began to scroll up on the crystal monitor screen. "Time to see if our language skills are up to par." Tolaris and Maze exchanged glances before Maze shrugged. "Okay...." the Dragoon commander said slowly as he sat back. "Just let me know if you need help or when you're ready to see the next one." "Sure...." Mina replied absently, her mind already focused on trying to translate. "Umm, is this supposed to mean 'distant' or am I misreading it?" she asked as she pointed to a symbol. "Keep in mind that the military mindset is the same, no matter what world you're from," Ami said as she squinted at a different symbol. "It probably means the same, only it's been abbreviated to save space." "Oh, so you're saying that we're no different than your Earth armies? Thanks," Maze said dryly. Mina giggled. "Not at all, it's just that doing stuff like that is so basic a military tactic that it's universal." "She may have a point," Tolaris said. "What's this?" Ami asked as she pointed to a group of symbols. "This looks like a name, but I've never been able to fully grasp the rules of when you use that apostrophe in the middle of words." "K'tal," Tolaris explained. "He was my second officer, so to speak, and is now in command of the Dragoons." "So that made Shar-Tei your first officer?" Mina inquired. Tolaris sighed heavily at the mention of Shar-Tei's name. "Yes, she was." Mina blinked at the unexpected reaction. "Sorry, didn't mean to dredge that up," she aplogized. "I don't get it," Ami said after a moment. "This just looks like a normal message sent to users on a network that's about to be shut down." "That's what it's supposed to look like," Maze explained. "However, this computer was supposed to have been attached to an isolated network. In other words, there shouldn't have been any need for an alt-route." "You read too fast, Ami," Mina said with a grunt. "What's a search worm?" "It's an invasive program that sneaks into a computer, looks for something in particular, and reports back to its creator on what it found," Ami said. "It's like a Trojan Horse, right?" Mina asked hesitantly. Ami gave her an odd look. "In a sense, yes, only it's not destructive. Should I bother asking what you know about hacking into computers?" The blonde made a face. "Hacking is such a harsh term, Ami. Okay, so Sailor V did have to do a bit of creative reconaissance involving a set of computer-controlled security cameras on one unremarkable occasion, but she never 'hacked' into a computer database or destroyed anything before. You on the other hand...." "We don't need to discuss my computer skills at the moment," Ami said quickly. "I was just wondering what you knew." "What did you do?" Tolaris sighed. Ami blushed. "Well.... I didn't quite understand how to log into the cathedral's mainframe computer at first, so I had to bypass all of the security functions. I never destroyed anything.... unless you count the Trojan Horse I transmitted on a wide-band frequency during our first trip into the Negaverse. I don't think that worked, though...." Maze coughed. "You mean the one that went off when someone tried to save any sort of file with the words 'Sailor Scouts' in the file?" Ami blinked. "You mean it worked?" she said incrediously. "That was something I wrote in an effort to relieve some frustration. I never thought your computers would have been able to do anything with it due to the extremely differing architecture." "It worked only because some numbnut cadet ran across a copy of a program written in a computer language he had never seen before, somehow managed to translate the coding into a standard Negaverse code, and ran it," Maze said with a grunt. Ami couldn't contain the grin slowly spreading across her face. "So what happened?" "Looking at the original coding, it was only supposed to work on files with the keywords in the file name, right?" Maze asked. He received a nod in reply and he continued. "Well, that fool cadet mistranslated that and set it to go off if it found the keywords anywhere in the file. The end result was that your 'Trojan Horse' quickly mutated into an armed search worm." Tolaris blinked, his gaze alternating between Ami's smug expression and the slightly haunted look in Maze's tan eyes. "What do you mean by an armed search worm?" he asked warily. "It became a search-and-destroy program. If it found a file with that so much as mentions 'Sailor Scouts' in the contents, it deleted it," Maze grumped. "That little bug ate a good ten percent of the files in the central computer before we picked up on it and started isolating memory banks. The task of flushing it out fell to the Dragoons, and the person with the most experience in dealing with rogue programs got the job of cleaning up. Guess who that person was?" Maze explained, giving Ami an icy glare. Ami blushed. "Sorry." Tolaris blinked. "I thought they would have given it to Asrial." "They would have if she hadn't been on assignment," Maze grumbled. "She wasn't around, so it fell to me. I'd compliment you on doing good work, Ami, if I didn't have to spend a month trying to squish that worm." "Sorry...." Ami giggled, not sounding the least bit repentant. "And you say I'm a bad girl...." Mina snickered. Ami made a grunting noise as her facial expression changed unexpectedly, causing everyone to blink in confusion. "What was that about?" Mina asked. "Mmph," Ami said, letting the tip of her tongue protrude past her lips to show everyone the blood on it. "When biting your tongue to keep from making any sort of smart aleck reply, make sure you use flat teeth and not fangs," she muttered. "We try," Maze said dryly. "One of the downsides to being a vampire," Ami said, her humorous mood now forgotten. "Okay, enough about my computer skills and back to this message. What's wrong with it?" "It never should have been sent," Tolaris explained, "Nor should this computer have been invaded by a search worm unless someone on the other end of this network is trying to reach us." Mina looked at the message again. "So do you think this K'tal is trying to reach us?" "I think he's trying to look for me," Tolaris clarified. "Here, let me show you what we wrote back and forth." Ami and Mina spent the next half-hour trying to translate the spidery text into something more immediately comprehensible. "Okay," Ami said after a few minutes of careful study. "I take it a keytape is like a punch card in the sense that it has data physically imprinted on it?" Tolaris nodded. "Exactly. However, this keytape doesn't exist in a physical form, only as a stream of data. That modulator chip Mina borrowed is capable of turning that data into a secure algorithm used to scramble and descramble communications traffic." "Which you would then use to talk to this K'tal person, right?" Mina said as she rubbed at her temples. She felt Maze's fingertips brush hers aside and she leaned back to let him gently massage her head. "Which we're not sure he's who he claims to be," Ami finished up. "In a nut," Tolaris replied with a shrug. Mina giggled. "In a nutshell, you mean." Tolaris sighed. "Leave me alone, I'm still working on learning that part of your language." "You're doing just fine," Ami consoled him. "Here's the bottom line," Tolaris said as he picked up the circuit board with the modulator soldered into it. "Unless any of you have any objections, I intend to connect this chip to the computer, use it to establish a secure link to the other end of this dimensional phase-link, and find out who wants to talk to me and why." Mina suddenly sat up, mildly startling Maze in the process. "Sorry," she apologized. "Commander, what are the odds that this is another one of those fun traps of Rune's that we've come to know and love?" Maze pulled a tissue out of his pocket and held it out to her. "Here, use this. You're dripping sarcasm on the floor." Tolaris coughed discreetly and spoke before the blonde could formulate an appropriate reply. "There is a significant chance that this is indeed one of Rune's traps, but I have my doubts. Granted K'tal is just a little on the, shall we say, trigger-happy side when it comes to situations needing tact, but I honestly think that he has his reasons for doing what he did." Ami and Mina exchanged concerned glances for several seconds before Mina wrinkled her nose and made a gesture in the general direction of the living room. Ami nodded and stood up. "Go ahead and connect the chip to the computer, but don't use it yet," Ami told Tolaris. "Mina and I have to discuss this with Luna and the others first to see if we really want to take the risk of announcing our presence to General Rune or whomever is sitting on the other end of that thing." Tolaris nodded and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "I understand, love. Maze, do you remember where I put that screwdriver set?" Maze snickered. "Last I saw of it was about half a second before I sent it flying across the hall after I got electrocuted awhile back. No idea where it wound up." Tolaris stood up and sighed. "See if I ever let you borrow those again," he grumbled as he left the room to search for them. Ami and Mina exchanged a partially amused glance before Mina shrugged. "Come on, let's go see what the others think of this," Mina said. "What do you think of it?" Ami inquired as she followed the blonde down the hall towards the living room. Mina sighed. "I'll let you know when I make up my mind." Ami frowned to herself and remained silent, her own doubts about the situation starting to weigh heavily upon her. This could either help us a lot or hurt us very badly, she thought. Do we really want to risk it? Still thinking, she entered the living room with a sigh and, making sure she had everyone's full attention, began to speak about the situation. * * * * They plane-shifted into another section of The Dark, which looked and felt just like the area they had just left. As soon as they had materialized she was on the alert, nervously looking in all directions around her for any sign of anything even remotely hostile. After a few seconds, she was satisified that she was undetected for the time being and started her search. Her search only lasted for a few moments before she froze, her senses screaming an alarm that something was wrong. Moving as quickly as possible while trying to remain seemingly motionless, she scanned the area around her again, searching for anything that seemed out-of-place. She blinked as something seemed to be missing. A reflex automatically checked her holding pouch for everything, momentarily surprising her to find a soul inside before she remembered she was carrying it. Satisfied that she was still carrying everything she had when she left, she began to move in a small circle, searching carefully even though she had no idea what she was looking for. She froze as she thought she detected the faintest movement in front of her. On impulse, she began to run various sensory filters over her optic nerves in an attempt to look at the entire energy spectrum. She paused in mid-cycle as the sense of something missing returned, nagging at the edge of her mind. She began to cycle through the filters once more, only this time at a much slower pace, comparing each image to the previous ones. She paused when her eyes were attuned to background radiation, appearing to her as a somewhat hazy collection of colored sources of radiation. She looked around her slowly and froze when she saw a section of The Dark that was completely devoid of any background radiation at all. Fear filled her when she realized that it wasn't an absence of radiation she saw but the result of something blocking her line of vision. She began to shake when she realized that she only had two choices: Ignore it and hope that it wasn't a creature trying to hunt her, or she could do a scan for life energy and give her location away in the process. She remained absolutely still as she contemplated the situation. It was her guess that she was as invisible to it as it was to her, but that was only because she wasn't moving and actively trying to mask her presence. The scan for life energy would let her clearly see what it was, but the burst of energy she gave off would announce her presence like a flare in the dark. She was just about to make her choice when the creature suddenly became visible and she was engulfed in a burst of radiation. Her brain had just identified it as a life energy scan when her reflexes kicked in and she darted away as fast as she could move, trying to escape from the creature. The creature was simply too fast. Within a mere moment it had closed the short distance between them and snared her in what might have been called a tendril of energy. The realization that she was about to die had just sunk into her brain when a beam of energy shot out of the darkness, narrowly missing her and striking the creature square in the center of its mass. The creature began to writhe around in agony as its life energy was being polarized by the sudden attack. She had barely enough time to grasp what was going on before she was grabbed by a second creature and felt herself being torn apart by a teleport. She had no idea where her molecules reassembled themselves, nor did she care as she tried to deal with the agonizing pain that a molecular teleport brought on. All that mattered was that she was alive, but the pain gave her second thoughts about enjoying it. "I am sorry I had to do that, but I wasn't ready enough for a dimensional shift," a voice said as he released his hold on her. He looked at her oddly for a moment before he remembered. "So we meet again," he said, then speaking the syllables of her true-name. The shock of her true-name being spoken drowned out the residual pain she was in. "How...?" she asked as she looked up at her savior, trying to discern his identity. "You...." He nodded. "So you do remember me." "How do you know my true-name?" she whispered, the shock being replaced by fear at the situation, for she knew that he now held absolute power over her with the knowledge of her true-name. "That is unimportant, my friend," he said softly. "What is more important is why have you come here? This region is far more dangerous than the area you usually inhabit." "Actually, I was looking for you," she said quietly. He blinked in mild surprise. "Looking for me?" he echoed. "You once spoke of a legend of a kingdom that lies outside The Dark," she explained. "I believe you referred to it as the 'Moon Kingdom.'" He looked at her with an intense gaze for a moment, making her slightly wary of the whole situation. "I doubt you have manged to escape The Dark, yet you speak of that which lies outside of this neo-void," he said softly. "How did you come by that name?" She hesitated for a moment, unsure of how far she could trust him. He saw the look on what passed for her face and gave her a comforting look. "Believe me when I say I have no reason to wish you harm. I am merely curious as to how you came across a reference to the Moon Kingdom." "A soul told me about it," she said, her voice a bare whisper. He gave her an odd look. "A soul? I don't understand." She finally made a decision and withdrew the glowing soul from her storage pouch. "Listen to her," she said as she held the soul out to him. She saw him carefully touch it like it was a poisonous object, then watched as his eyes nearly tripled in diameter as the soul spoke to him. he thought-broadcasted, the shock of having the soul speak to him upsetting him enough to forget to direct his thought only at the soul. He listened intently as Pluto reawoke and told her fragmented story again. "A thousand years?" he whispered aloud. "Wait.... I've seen something like this before.... Hold her," he said as he held out the glowing soul to her. She carefully accepted the soul and watched in amazement as his form began to dissolve, quickly collapsing into a swirling maelestrom. She blinked as something intangible emerged from the center of the vortex and floated to the ground. The tiny particles quickly coalesced into their usual solid form and he picked up the object. "I found this a long time ago, but didn't know what it was or what to do with it," he said as he held it out to her. She took it from him and nearly dropped it in shock when she recognized it. "It's another one!" she said in utter amazement. "It's another soul, just like Pluto was when I found her!" "Strange it could have existed this long without fading out," he mused. "How did you revive Pluto?" "I gave it as much energy as I could spare," she replied. "Interesting...." he said as he turned his mind inward to his own supply of energy. He carefully extracted a tendril of energy and transferred it to the nearly faded soul, waiting to see what the reaction would be. Both of them jumped as the soul sucked up the tendril of energy like a vacuum. They took a closer look at it and noticed that the soul had taken on a very faint yellow glow. "Most interesting," he commented. "If it's energy it wants, I think I have enough available to satisfy its immediate needs." He searched inward and extracted almost half of his reserve supply of energy, carefully transferring it to the soul. The tendrils of energy quickly wrapped themselves around the soul, causing it to glow brighter and brighter until there was a blinding flash of light. When they could see again, they saw a vibrant yellow ball of light floating calmly in the air. The only visible difference between it and Pluto's soul was the color. "Unbelievable," he said after a moment. Carefully, almost fearfully, he reached out and touched the soul. After a careful check to ensure that the soul was still intact, he picked up Pluto's soul and held the two next to each other. <.........> Pluto said. he answered. Pluto asked. he replied. <.........> Mephisto asked. <........?> Pluto replied. <....?.....???> <...?.....?............!> <........Alex?> Pluto said, mildly amused. <...?.... What happened?> she said soothingly. <..........?> Mephisto said quietly. Pluto replied. <...? Thank you....> Pluto said softly. * * * * General Rune sighed and glanced down at the display console she had been staring at for the past hour. The display was split into three windows, the first two showing an overhead tactical map of each of the polar oceans while the third displayed the results of several scans of the region where the odd rift was still forming. "What's the latest word from the Leviathans?" Rune called out over her shoulder. Lieutenant Admiral Ne'tan walked over from the communications console to stand next to her. "Leviathan North reports no contacts," he said in a low, even tone. "We have not yet received an update from Leviathan South." Rune frowned. "Where exactly are they?" Ne'tan reached past her to quickly tap a few buttons on the keypad at the base of the display. After a few seconds, a pair of green circles lit up on the screen, one in each polar region. "These were their last known positions as of ten minutes ago. For various security reasons they never report their exact positions, instead giving us a certain radius that they are currently operating in." The frown on Rune's face deepened as she digested the information. The Navy was fiercely protective of their ultra-secret Leviathan project for some unknown reason, a fact that didn't sit well with Rune's Army background. "Who knows their exact locations?" Ne'tan shook his head. "Only the captain of each Leviathan and their navigators." Rune have the Navy second-in-command a sharp look. "Not even Admiral Si'ren knows?" Ne'tan's reply was cut off by the loud voice of one of the communication console operators. "Sir, Leviathan South reports multiple submerged contacts. The are assuming a Stage 2 Alert as per orders and are rigging for ultra-quiet to assess the situation. They will report when they have further information provided they can transmit while remaining silent." Rune's fingers were a blur as she punched in several commands into the display console. On the far wall of the tiny underground command center, the topographic map of the Negaverse vanished and was replaced with a full-size display of the southern ocean. As further commands were entered, various objects and types of information were superimposed on the map. The green ring that appeared tiny on Rune's display was several inches across on the map, representing an area of several square nautical miles. All eyes turned to the map when five smaller white rings appeared, each denoting the possible location of a submerged contact. The rings were close enough to overlap each other several times, indicating that the contacts were rather close to one another. "Someone contact Admiral Si'ren and tell her to report here immediately," Rune ordered. "Someone starting a war?" Si'ren asked as she walked into the command center. Unlike Queen Beryl and her predecessors, she had always preferred to receive her information as it came in, instead of having to wait for various military personnel to process it into something the Queen could understand. Discovering that General Rune preferred to do the same had given the admiral a small measure of hope that the throne's power would be more focused on what the military was doing, as opposed to worrying about what the rest of the civillian population was planning. If Rune seemed surprised at Si'ren's sudden entrance, she hid it well. "I'm glad to see that timing doesn't go down the tubes in a crisis," she observed. "Leviathan South just reported several submerged contacts." Rune took one look at the way Si'ren's eyes doubled in size and decided that this was a very bad development. "What is Leviathan South doing right now?" Si'ren asked Ne'tan. "They have assumed a Stage 2 Alert and have rigged for ultra-quiet," he replied evenly. "They will respond when they have more information on the situation, provided they do not risk revealing their position in the attempt." Rune waited patiently for Si'ren to finish cussing beneath her breath. "I will admit ignorance to some of your branch's terminology," Rune said very evenly, "As no doubt you are sometimes confused by ours. What exactly takes place when they 'rig for ultra-quiet?'" Si'ren ran her fingers through her close-cropped white hair. "Do you want the short-and-stupid version or the long-and-complex version?" she asked. Rune raised an eyebrow. "Short-and-stupid will work for the time being," she said dryly. "The full explanation can wait until I have the time to deal with the headache caused by technical details." "Very well," Si'ren said with a soft smile. "In short, they're doing their absolute best to remain as quiet as possible, which means they make no motion at all, turn off all active sensors, and don't transmit any messages. In other words, they make like a hole in the water." Rune turned back to the oversized display board, already deep in thought. "Can they move when ultra-quiet?" she asked absently. "They can, but as any motion makes some degree of noise underwater, they can only move very slowly and still remain undetectable," Ne'tan explained. "And what are they armed with again?" Rune asked. She heard silence in reply and she turned around to fix Si'ren with a look. "I asked a question, Admiral, and I would appreciate an answer." Si'ren suddenly appeared to be slightly nervous. "Forty sub-surface missiles, ten sub-surface-to-air missiles, and thirty ballistic missiles." Rune blinked hard. "And with what kind of warhead on each?" "Impact, conventional, and either conventional or nuclear, respectively," the admiral replied softly. Rune looked back at the map and studied the large green ring. "Let me summarize this," she said, her voice deceptively soft. "We have a pair of Navy vessels in operation that don't report their exact whereabouts to anyone, have the ability to disappear off of the rest of the Navy's sensors at will, are able to go beyond the reach of the secure frequency communications net, and are armed with enough nuclear weapons to turn a good tenth of the known map into so much free-floating radioactive air pollution. Am I right?" A sudden noise behind her caused her to whirl around in time to see a Navy officer draw his side-arm and point it at her. Immediately the room erupted into chaos as everyone scrambled to either get out of the way or to try to stop the assassination attempt. "Die, bitch!" the officer screamed as he pulled the trigger a scant second before he was taken down by three people. Rune would have been shot in the dead-center of her chest if she hadn't been forcibly shoved aside by Ne'tan. His actions saved Rune from immediate harm but put himself in the path of the projectile. There was a muffled crack as the round imbedded itself in his ribcage and the small explosive charge detonated. Rune looked up in time to see Ne'tan's amber eyes widen in shock as most of his lifeblood was splashed across the wall, creating a hideous cascade of blue that immediately started to pool around him. Then the life faded from his eyes as his brain overloaded from the extreme shock and simply shut down, mercifully sparing him from any sensation of pain. She quickly sprang to her feet, the adrenaline burning in her veins like wildfire and her senses alert for any further attempts on her life. A quick glance around the room was all it took for her to realize that Si'ren and the other naval officers had things under control. Two ensigns had the would-be assassin in secure arm-lock, putting enough pressure on his arms to make the bones creak loud enough for Rune to hear from across the room. A lieutenant had secured the side-arm and was pointing it at the man's forehead, ready to pull the trigger in an instant. Rune blinked when she saw the expression on Si'ren's face. She had known the admiral for decades, but had never seen her as furious as she was now. So perhaps it wasn't a Navy plot after all, Rune thought, or perhaps the admiral is a first-rate actress.... Si'ren made sure that the assassin was securely restrained before she walked over and forced him to look up at her. "What were you thinking?" she seethed, her eyes showing quite clearly her anger. "You know why the Leviathan project was started," he replied. "And now you betray it to someone like her? Had I known you were as undeserving as she is, I'd have fired the next shell at you." "General Rune," Si'ren said quietly, her voice absolutely flat, "Do you have any questions for him?" Rune frowned. Ordinarily she would have turned the assassin over to her own security force for detailed questioning, followed by a suitably messy execution, but something in the back of her mind told her to let Si'ren handle the situation. "I doubt he would be able to answer the questions I have in mind," Rune said after a few moments of silence. Si'ren heard the odd tone in the general's voice and turned to look at her, the two women communicating somehow without word or gesture. "I see," Si'ren said quietly. "Then as I doubt neither of us have any patience left for the matter, is there any particular way you would like to see him die?" Rune blinked in surprise, having expected Si'ren to have the officer taken away for further questioning. She briefly toyed with several options that sounded appealing to her before she caught the look in the admiral's dark eyes. "Surprise me," Rune said with a small smile. Si'ren didn't smile back, only nodding her head once before turning her attention to the assassin and reaching out. Her hand had almost touched the base of his throat when she paused and cast a quick glance back towards Rune. "You aren't squeamish, are you?" she asked. Rune blinked in surprise again, caught off-guard by the question. "Of course not," she said, giving Si'ren an uncertain look. This time, a soft smile tugged at the corners of Si'ren's mouth. "Good," she said simply and turned back to the assassin, her fingertips lightly making contact with his skin. "This may get.... disturbing." Nothing happened for a few seconds at first. Then Rune noticed that the assassin was starting to sweat, his eyes starting to go wide for some reason. Rune knew something was happening when his skin started to turn a light shade of pink and his muscles started to twitch. The two ensigns holding onto him began to exchange nervous glances and discreetly began to shift positions, wary at what was happening. Si'ren laughed very softly. "You two may release him and step back. He isn't going anywhere anymore. As for you, Lieutenant," she said, addressing the officer still holding the assassin's weapon, "I want that weapon taken down to the lab and analyzed. I don't recall ever seeing that type of shell being used before, and I want to know all about it." "Yes, ma'am," the lieutenant replied as he made a hasty exit, not wanting to stay around to see the assassin's demise. The assassin was now making choking noises as his eyes started to bulge and his skin started to redden. "My, you're a tough one," Si'ren commented. "I think you have about one more minute of life left in you before you die." Rune remained silent as she sought to figure out just what exactly Si'ren was doing to him. She immediately ruled out electrocution, as his short hair wasn't standing on end or crackling with static. He wasn't bleeding yet, or at least not that she could see, so she tentatively ruled out any sort of internal damage being done. Still, she thought, she's doing something.... Si'ren smiled as steam began to emerge from his mouth. "I suggest that everyone take a few steps back," she said lightly. "And if you are of the squeamish type, you are dismissed from the command center." Of the twelve people in the command center, only five bothered to remain and watch. Rune cast a quick glance at the retreating mass of people before she turned back to watch the assassin. He appeared to have lost all muscular control and now his abdomen appeared to be swelling slightly. The realization of what was happening had just occurred to Rune when the assassin let out a high-pitched whistling noise a bare second before his entire body exploded outwards. Rune reflexively ducked as an unholy amount of blood and gore was thrown into the air and started raining down. She waited until the last of the bits and pieces had fallen before she cautiously stood up and looked around, her stomach churning at both the sight and the smell of burnt flesh. Si'ren was calmly brushing off the front of her uniform, which was now a solid mass of pink and blue ichor. She caught the horrified look in Rune's eyes and shrugged. "'Any day that I am covered up to my elbows in the blood of my enemies is a good day,'" she quoted with a casual smile. "This uniform is going to need some serious work, though." Rune finally found her voice. "Who said that?" she asked, a small creak still in her voice despite her best efforts. The smile fell from Si'ren's lips. "General Nop'tera." "I see," Rune said as she surveyed the control room. "You," she said as she pointed at a young lieutenant who was obviously fighting her nausea. "I want you to call maintenance and tell them that we need a cleaning team over here. Make sure they send people who aren't easily nauseated, and be sure to specify that they need to spray everything down with a heavy-duty type of disinfectant." The lieutenant could only nod in numb compliance before she turned around and quickly bolted down the hall towards the nearest latrine. Rune closed her eyes and counted to ten, opened them slowly, and turned to face Fleet Admiral Si'ren. "I'll admit that was a surprise. What exactly did you do?" she asked. Si'ren gave her a mild look. "I have a strong control over water," she replied. "Part of the reason I joined the Navy instead of the rest of the ground-based military. As for our friend here, he was composed of eighty-six percent water, just like the rest of us." "So you boiled that water?" Rune finished for her, slightly disgusted. Si'ren spread her hands. "Very messy, but very effective, wouldn't you say, General Rune? Tell me you wouldn't have crystalized something in his bloodstream or something to that effect." Rune indeed had considered doing exactly that, although she had never attempted to do such a thing before. "It matters not. I think it is safe to say that justice has been served, but there still leaves quite a lot that needs to be answered," Rune said slowly. Si'ren nodded. "Indeed, and I may have some of the answers that you seek. But this is not the place and my uniform needs to be changed. Ensign Raw'eth, you will oversee the clean-up of the center and continue to monitor the situation with Leviathan South. If anything changes, notify me in my quarters at once. Understood?" "Understood perfectly, ma'am," the stocky ensign replied crisply. Si'ren nodded and turned to Rune. "I believe there is an Earth saying that goes, 'The time has come... to talk of many things.'" Rune nodded silently and followed Si'ren out of the command center and down the corridor, her mind already sorting the questions she would ask about not only the Leviathan project, but about other things as well. Who knows, she mused, this might turn out to be exactly what I need after all.... * * * * Leda quietly walked into the room, trying not to disturb anyone from their work. As she looked around, she had to bite her tongue to keep herself from giggling out loud. And me without my camera, she thought to herself. The front casing of the crystal computer had been removed and Tolaris had both of his arms buried up to his elbows inside. From what she could see, he had a series of wires held in one hand, some sort of tool in the other, and a small penlight clamped between his teeth. Maze had pried up several of the floor tiles in order to get to the main node of the dimensional phase-link connector. All that could be seen of him were a pair of sweatpants-clad legs hooked around a bar that had been secured between the legs of the computer table. "Wait a minute, go back to the fourth wire again?" Maze's voice drifted up from the pit in the floor. There was a dark growl from within the computer as Tolaris peered inside and traced down a wire. "I thought we already ruled that one out," he said. "Yeah, well I just discovered I had a loose connection here," Maze shot back. "That second wire is clear, that third is definitely null, but I want to try to get another reading on that fourth." Leda gave serious consideration to yelling 'boo' and most likely scaring them both. However, she thought, scaring someone holding a glass of water is one thing. Spooking someone poking around in delicate electronics or doing their impression of a bat is another. But still.... "Connected," Tolaris called out. "Ay'cha navidshi, that's it!" Maze called out from within the depths of the narrow access conduit. "See, told you all we had to do was pin down the return data path." Tolaris muttered something cryptic that Leda's limited knowledge of the denizen language couldn't translate properly. "What was that about fish?" she asked cautiously. There was a muffled curse as Tolaris jumped and bumped his head on the top edge of the computer casing. "Hang on," he growled as he secured the wire into place with the tool he was holding. "Who's up there?" Maze called out. Leda smiled as she walked over to the conduit and peered down. "Just me, Maze. We having fun yet?" "Loads," Maze replied as he glanced down at his feet to see who it was. "Speaking of loads," Tolaris replied, "Are we sure this line will be able to handle the stream of data?" "It should, but we all know how far that usually goes," Maze replied as he briefly returned his attention to firmly attaching the wire into the data hub. "Look on the bright side. If it blows, at least we know which one it is." The Dragoon commander snorted. "Great. In that case, you can replace it as I'm not quite suited to hanging upside down for hours on end." There was a brief burst of laughter from within the conduit. "I don't get it, boss. You can spend hours in an underwater or null-g environment for training, but you can't hang upside down for fifteen minutes to replace one simple wire?" Maze said. Tolaris finally withdrew from the inside of the computer and cast a mild look at the pair of legs. "It's probably the same reason why you can handle variable-gravity situations but can't stand free-fall." Maze grunted. "Yeah, well...." "Do I want to ask what you two are talking about?" Leda inquired. "If you think you can follow it," Tolaris replied with a shrug. "Put it like this," Maze grunted as he finished the last connection. "If the Dragoons ever have to go to war again, I will probably be one of the six or seven people who won't be participating in the 'Death From Above' tactic." "Yeah, sorry I asked," the brunette said with a sigh. Tolaris shrugged. "It's easy. We get a large airborne transport, strap on airframes, fly over to our objective, and deploy once we're overhead." Leda blinked. "Airframes?" "I think you humans refer to them as hang-gliders," Tolaris said. Maze grunted as he started to wiggle out of his inverted position. "The only thing wrong with that idea is Kota's First Law." Leda looked at Tolaris in time to see the Dragoon rolling his eyes. "And what exactly is Kota's First Law?" Leda asked cautiously. There was another grunt as Maze flexed his legs and flipped out of the access conduit. "Gravity works," he said. Leda smiled. "Ahh. What goes up must come down, eh?" "Precisely." "Admit it, Maze, you're just afraid of heights," Tolaris teased. The Dragoon lieutenant glared at him. "I'm not afraid of heights, boss, I'm just afraid of that sudden stop at the end if I should happen to fall." "I think hang-gliding would be cool," Leda said. "You would," Maze muttered beneath his breath. "So what brings you here?" Tolaris asked before Maze went off. The brunette sighed. "Well, first to tell you that everyone had to go home. Mina poked her head in here earlier to say good-bye, but you both looked like you had your hands full so she asked me to tell you when you were done." Maze grinned. "She just didn't want to stick around to see if we needed to further mutilate her synthesizer for parts," he snickered. Leda spread her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, I'm just telling you what they told me. Anyway, Serena and the others came to an agreement to let you talk to what's-his-face in the Negaverse. However," she said, giving Tolaris a warning look, "If anything happens that could even remotely put us in any sort of trouble or anything, cut the link and give Rei a call immediately." Tolaris nodded, a small frown on his face. "Understood, but why should we call Rei instead of someone like Ami or Luna?" Leda shrugged. "Rei said something about not seeming to get much sleep anymore and would probably be the only one awake at odd hours in the morning." "That's not a good sign," Tolaris observed. Leda shrugged again. "Yeah, we know, but Rei said that she's had a lot on her mind as of late, and not just about school work. Mina tried to get her to talk about it but almost wound up getting chased out by a fireball." Maze said something cryptic in the denizen language and Tolaris smirked. "I doubt that would be the case, lieutenant," Tolaris said dryly. Leda gave the Dragoon a dark look. "I'll be sure to tell Rei you said that about her," she said evenly. Maze blinked. "Umm...." The brunette giggled impulsively. "Of course, I personally came to the same conclusion, but I'm not rude enough to voice it openly like that." "Now there's a first," Maze muttered beneath his breath. "Are you two finished?" Tolaris said dryly as he turned his attention towards the computer and began to initialize the newly installed computer chip. The computer immediately came back with a multi-harmonic chime and displayed an error message in bright red spider-like characters. The two denizens exchanged glances before Maze flushed a light shade of green and quickly climbed back down into the conduit. "Problem?" Leda inquired. "Yeah, it usually works better if you turn it on after you plug it in," Maze said from within the depths of the conduit. "The hub should be back up now, boss. Try it again." "Do us a favor and stay down there until we're sure everything works," the Dragoon commander replied as he tried to initialize the chip again. The result was the same but the error message was completely different. "Now what does it say?" Maze called out from his inverted position. "External matrix port not ready," Tolaris replied. "That's your fault, not mine," the lieutenant shot back. Tolaris grumbled something acidic beneath his breath that Leda couldn't even come close to translating. He carefully reached inside the computer and reset the tiny power circuit connecting the modulator chip to the rest of the system. There was a momentary hum as power started to flow through the chip and it began to communicate with the main CPU. Leda smiled. "Third time's the charm," she said. "Let's hope so," Tolaris replied as he initialized the chip again. This time, he got a small status screen with a single, green spider-like character that was slowly blinking on and off. The brunette squinted at the character for a moment. "Acting?" Tolaris shook his head. "Working. Acting is drawn like this," he said as he picked up a pencil and started to draw on a scrap of paper. Leda compared the two characters and shook her head. "They're almost identical. How do you tell them apart so easily?" The Dragoon shrugged. "Practice, I guess. You tend to become skilled at certain tasks if you've been doing them since you learned how to walk." "True...." Maze coughed lightly from within the access conduit. "Language lessons are always nice, boss, but is everything working to the point where I can come on out of here now?" Tolaris chuckled. "But I thought you liked doing your impression of a mer'cata." There was a derisive snort from within the conduit. "Yeah, so you get a different view of the world when you do that, but your blood also tends to start pooling in your brain after a few minutes. Especially after you've already spent an hour in this position." Leda looked up at the computer in time to see the text message change to a lengthy explanation of something. "I think it's finished," she said as she struggled to translate the first five characters. Tolaris glanced at it and nodded. "It's finished now, Maze, so you can climb back out of there." "Great," Maze grunted as he quickly extracted himself from the narrow confines of the access conduit. As soon as he was free, he quickly sat down and stared up at the ceiling. "Whee, blood rush...." "I thought you said you liked those," Tolaris said absently as he opened up a utility program and began to configure the chip's software interface for use with the crystal computer. "A blood rush from fighting for your life is always a good feeling," Maze replied slowly as his vision slowly refocused. "A rush from adrenaline is a good one as well. A rush from sex.... well, no need to comment. But a rush from having half of your blood supply go from your brain to your toes in two seconds is not the most pleasant of feelings...." Leda giggled. "You only hate that because you don't like freefall." "You hush," the Dragoon lieutenant replied with a mild look. "Children, please, not in here," Tolaris said as he continued to work. "Children?" Leda echoed, her green eyes narrowing. She moved forward to smack him upside his head but halted when she found Maze's arm blocking her. "Now, now, Leda, it's not Tolaris's fault he's old enough to be one of your ancestors," he said smoothly with a large grin. "And after all, a fifteen year old girl in the Negaverse would still be in post-diaper training." Tolaris blinked at Maze's words and quickly started to explain things to Leda before she took offense and went ballistic. "What Maze is trying to say is that denizens have an extremely slow initial growth rate, both physically and mentally. It takes us five years to get past the initial brainless-infant stage and another ten to learn how to walk. Public education doesn't start until the twenty-fifth year and that is geared towards learning how to learn. Once our minds 'solidify' as we call it, then we can begin to really learn about the sciences and all." Leda blinked as she digested all of the information. "Why does it take denizens such an unimaginable amount of time to grow up?" she asked, still in a mild state of awe. Tolaris shrugged. "I sat down with Ami one day and compared the human timespan and the denizen timespan of life at certain key points. Surprisingly enough, the only time difference between the human lifespan and the denizen lifespan is the amount of time between birth and death of old age. Everything else is virtually a direct time ratio." Leda blinked again, this time lost by the Dragoon's words. "Huh?" Maze smiled. "What he's trying to say is that if you took the denizen's average lifespan and crunched it down to a human's lifespan, we'd grow up as fast as you humans do. The reverse is also true. If we stretch your lifespan out to two thousand years, it'd take you just as long to grow up as we do." "Ooooh, I get it...." Leda said slowly as her mind grasped the concept. "And contrary to what Maze was trying to insinuate," Tolaris said dryly, "I do not view you and the other Sailor Scouts as being merely young children." Leda sighed and looked down at the floor. "Yeah, well, we kinda still are that, in a way." She looked up as she felt Maze gently squeeze her shoulder. "Age is a state of mind, Leda," he said quietly. "So Tolaris is two centuries my elder. When you live as long as we do, or are supposed to," he added with a roll of his eyes, "What does a few years matter?" "Supposed to?" Leda echoed. Tolaris laughed humorlessly. "Speaking from a strictly biological view, yes. However, the amount of violence in our society definitely has a major impact on things." Leda wrinkled her nose and was about to make a comment when the computer screen changed and a series of denizen characters appeared. A neutral-sounding synthetic voice filled the room as it read the words out loud in the denizen language. Maze blinked. "Now this is interesting." Leda frowned as she studied the screen. "Something about being ready?" she asked as she quickly went over the text and paused at the few unfamilar characters. "Vocal interface for dual input-output mode is ready," Tolaris translated. "I take it the chip works?" Maze asked cautiously. "So far, but I still have to load the encryption key into it," Tolaris replied. "I wonder.... Nak'seth." "Venta," the computer replied as it displayed the denizen character for 'ready' on the screen. "When did this thing become voice-activated?" Maze wondered aloud. "Wait a second...." Leda said. "Which circuit card is that whatever wired into?" "This one," Tolaris said as he picked up the penlight and shined it into the open computer casing. "There, the one with the three amber lights on the left side." "And Mina let you borrow that indefinitely?" Leda gasped, her eyes wide. Maze and Tolaris exchanged mildly concerned glances. "That's what she said," Maze said slowly. "Oooh boy," Leda grinned. "What?" Maze said, a small frown tugging on the corners of his mouth. "That circuit board also holds her artificial language matrix's speech pattern ROM. Her synthesizer won't be able to simulate human speech without that circuit board," Leda explained. "Uh oh...." Maze said quietly, turning rather pale. "Human speech.... hang on," Tolaris said as he turned his full attention to the computer and started to work on reconfiguring the chip again. He worked for ten minutes before he reinitialized the chip and sat back, waiting to see the results. After a few moments, the computer displayed the previous ready message and repeated the words in the denizen language. "Mmm, not a good sign," Tolaris muttered. "Nak'seth." "Venta," the computer said as it displayed the denizen character. "Looks fine to me," Maze commented. "Computer," Tolaris said in English. "Ready," the computer replied as it redisplayed the denizen character. "Good enough," the Dragoon said as he sat back with a smile. "Hey, how'd you do that?" Leda asked, her eyes wide with wonder. Maze smiled. "Using Ami's translator program?" he asked. Tolaris shrugged. "Well, I just linked her translator to that unknown program sitting on the chip, which thanks to Leda I now know to to be Mina's synthesizer language database. After that was done, I just tied Ami's program to the vocal interface properties of the communications program. And as you can see, the result is a computer that now understand both languages." "Mmm," Maze said as he looked at the display. "I take it you can't do a written-word translation because you don't have a master database for that?" "Exactly," Tolaris replied with a nod of his head. "So this thing can understand what I say now?" Leda asked with an evil gleam in her eyes. Maze and Tolaris exchanged looks before Maze smiled and Tolaris sighed. "Yes and no, Leda," Tolaris explained as he rubbed his eyes. "Yes if all you are doing is using the computer like a telephone to talk to someone or to issue brief, simple commands, but it won't understand most of what you say if you try to do anything else with it." "Aww...." Maze snickered. "You've been watching too much of that science fiction program, Star-whatever." Leda grinned back at him. "Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?" "Nak'seth, a'rein kurush'an-taal Tolaris aan," Tolaris said. "A'ren'i," the computer replied as it displayed a single character. Leda blinked. "I understood that except for that one word." "If you mean kurush'an-taal, it means encrypton key," Maze explained. "Kurush'an-taal a'ren'en," the computer said as it displayed the text. "So far, so good," Tolaris said mildly. "If I may interrupt for a moment," Leda said as she leaned past him to study the computer screen. "I just want to add to my limited understanding here. A'rein is the verb form of load, right?" "Yes," Tolaris replied. "And a'ren'i means loading, right?" "Last time I checked it did," Maze replied with a smile. "Smart aleck. Anyway, and a'ren'en means loaded?" Leda continued. "Correct," Tolaris said. "So when you write it out, you add an 'i notation to the end of a word for the present-tense action and an 'en notation to the past-tense action, right?" she concluded. Maze chuckled. "Yes, but if the last syllable contains an ein mark, you substitute the en mark in its place when you add the notation. And if it has an i mark at the very end, you leave it off totally when you add the notation," he explained slowly. Leda blinked and looked over the spidery words. "I think I understand it now," she said hesitantly. "Good, you'll be quizzed in the morning," Tolaris said evenly. He looked up at the stunned expression on Leda's face and chuckled quietly. "That was a joke, Leda." "Not funny," she muttered as her cheeks turned pink. "Perhaps," Maze chuckled. "Umm, might I ask a potentially rude question?" Leda asked cautiously. Maze blinked. "Umm, sure." "Why doesn't the verb k'ves have the notations when you conjugate it?" "Because when you use that word, you're already conjugating," Maze said almost inaudibly beneath his breath. There was a strangled noise next to him as Tolaris bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing aloud at the remark. Leda's gaze alternated between the two Dragoons. "Umm...." "You do know what that word means, right?" Maze asked slowly. "Not quite, which is why I'm asking," Leda admitted with a blush. "Oh, great, here it comes...." Tolaris muttered in his native dialect, knowing full well that Maze probably wouldn't be able to translate his accent. "I'll handle this, you go back to your work," Maze said smoothly as he reached out and turned Tolaris's head to face the computer screen. He then quietly and calmly explained to Leda the literal translation of the word and all of its associated connotations and implications. By the time he was finished, Leda's blush had deepened by at least five shades of red. "Well now...." she managed to say after a few seconds of silence. "Any other fun words I should know about?" "You don't need to teach her any more profanity, Lieutenant," Tolaris said sternly as he worked. "Granted she isn't a child, but her mind doesn't need to be corrupted any more than it already is." "Gee, thanks," Leda said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Venta," the computer said, interrupting any further conversation on that particular topic of discussion. "Here goes nothing," Tolaris said quietly. "Computer, create secure link to distant end host." "Creating," the computer said in it's synthesized neutral-toned voice as it displayed a denizen character. The computer hummed to itself for a moment before several lines of spidery text started to scroll up onto the screen. "Error: Cryptographic key has not been initialized. Now initializing cryptographic key.... Initialization completed. Searching.... Located distant end. Creating link.... Link has been established. Establishing secure link.... Warning: Cryptographic key cycle mismatch. Attempting to cycle.... Cycle match established. Establishing secure link...." "This should take a bit," Tolaris said as he sat back and blew out his breath. "Give it, what? Three minutes?" Maze shook his head. "Three to re-establish, five to establish a link for the first time once you get the right cycle going." Tolaris sighed and reached for his cup of ma'cha. He picked it up, looked at the inside of the empty cup, and stood up with another sigh. "Anyone else want anything to drink while I'm up?" "What time is it?" Leda asked. Maze leaned forward and peered at the tiny clock display bottom edge of the computer display. "Should be.... somewhere around eight o'clock." Leda made a face. "Bah, too late for coffee. Tea if you can find some, whatever fruit juice is in the 'fridge if you can't." "Okay. What about you, Maze?" Tolaris inquired. "Tea sounds like a good idea," he said wearily. "Need to get flushed out anyway. Lunch is still sitting in my gut like a lead weight." Leda grinned as she heard Tolaris's laughter echoing all the way down the hall as he headed off towards the kitchen. "When are you going to learn?" "You know how Mina gets when you turn down her cooking," Maze muttered. The brunette gave him a wicked smile. "You just need to learn how to get out of eating her cooking without seeming to be trying to get out. Trust me, both Rei and myself are highly skilled at it, Darian is learning very quickly, and Ami somehow manages to always be legitimately occupied elsewhere when it's Mina's turn to cook." Maze shrugged. "And what about Serena?" Leda just sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Serena is either too dense to learn how to avoid Mina's cooking or she has a cast-iron stomach. Knowing her, it's probably both." "I can imagine," Maze said with a smile. "And what of Artemis?" "Poor thing...." Leda said with a sigh as she shivered. "After living with her for so long, he probably doesn't even have a stomach anymore. Just a hose that connects his throat to his rear." "What's this?" Tolaris asked as he walked into the room carrying several steaming mugs. "Not much, boss, just theorizing on what prolonged exposure to Mina's cooking has done to Artemis's digestive system," Maze explained as he accepted the mug of ma'cha from Tolaris. The Dragoon grunted as he handed the mug of tea to Leda. "I can imagine," he said with a mildly sour look on his face. "Don't get me wrong, Leda. Mina is a good friend and a truly remarkable girl, but she could probably manage to ruin breakfast cereal if you let her handle it." Leda promptly set the mug of tea down before her fit of giggles could spill the steaming liquid everywhere. "You know," she said between spasms, "She did that once. I think it was when we were up at the Hot Spring Resort, the morning after you and Darian took off." The memory became too much for her to handle and she sat down on the floor before she fell over with laughter. "The scary thing of this is that I can picture it happening," Maze said. Tolaris chuckled. "It's your girlfriend." "Don't remind me," Maze replied as he rolled his eyes. "Secure link established to distant end host 314.485.117.501," said the voice of the computer as it displayed the message in the denizen language on the screen. "Good timing," Maze said as he glanced at the tiny clock. "Aww, you just didn't want to hear us continue to tease poor Mina," Leda said with a giggle before she calmed down to the point where she could safely handle her mug of tea. "You two sound like you're related," Tolaris said with amusement as he sat down in front of the computer and studied the display message. "Hey, now...." Leda said, pretending to be deeply offended. Tolaris blinked as the text message unexpectedly changed and the computer emitted a soft chime. "Direct text exchange request received from user K'tal at host 314.485.117.501 via secure link. Do you wish to accept or deny?" the computer translated in soft monotones. Leda leapt to her feet and almost knocked Maze over in her haste to move over next to Tolaris. "What did it just say?" "Sounds like K'tal wants to have a word with us," Tolaris said calmly as he read and re-read the text message several times. "So, you ready to find out if this is a trap?" Maze asked warily. Tolaris sighed. "Despite all you can do to prepare, you can never be ready for traps. But still...." He sighed softly again, took a deep breath to calm himself, and started to pray that he wasn't about to make a fatal mistake. "Computer," he said slowly, "Accept request." The computer's response was to clear the screen and split the display in half horizontally. A small blinking cursor appeared on the lower half and a line of text was printed on the upper half. "Text exchange session open," the computer translated. Maze waited impatiently for something else to happen. "Well?" he said after a few moments. Tolaris grunted. "Fine, fine, be that way," he muttered to himself as he typed a quick command on the keyboard. "Computer, activate voice-to-text interface mode," he said. A single character appeared on the screen in response, looking almost exactly like a small spider that had lost a fight with a semi on the highway. "Active," the computer said in its monotone. "Who are you?" Tolaris said to the computer, watching with mild interest as his words were translated into the written denizen language on the lower half of the screen and sent to the distant end. Everyone waited in tense silence for the person on the distant end to respond, each wondering what the response would be. After a few seconds of silence, a small line of text was printed on the upper half of the screen and the computer began to translate. "I am Dragoon Commander K'tal, but I think you already know that. The question is, who exactly are you?" "Is it just me, or did that sound slightly arrogant?" Leda whispered very quietly in Maze's ear. "More than slightly, but that's K'tal for you," Maze whispered back. "Indeed," Tolaris muttered. He then cleared his throat and spoke loud enough for the computer's microphone to hear. "I trust you'll excuse my caution and hopefully have the brains to understand why, but I need to make sure this isn't another one of your so-called fool-proof traps." He then sat back and smiled while he waited for the computer to finish translating and send his message to the other end. Leda blinked at Tolaris's words and gave Maze a confused look. "Excuse me for being dense here, but I thought he was supposed to talk to this guy, not piss him off," she whispered. Maze gave her a small smile. "He's testing the other person. We'll know if it's really K'tal or not by how he responds." "Here we go," Leda said ominously as a few lines of text started to scroll up on the upper half of the screen. "As for excusing your caution," the computer translated, "I've always maintained that there is no excuse for you. And contrary to what delusions you might currently be holding, this isn't a trap. Besides, I keep telling you that you should always make an idiot-proof trap instead of a fool-proof trap because fools can be unbelievably creative when you least expect it." "It's him," Maze and Tolaris said simultaneously. "Okay, so now what?" Leda asked, eyeing the message warily. She was glad that the computer was translating the text out loud. Otherwise, she would have been lost after the first eight characters. "Can I trust you?" Tolaris said to the computer, counting the seconds until K'tal's reply came back. "Could you ever, Tolaris?" the computer said. The Dragoon raised an eyebrow and motioned for Maze and Leda to remain silent. "What makes you think I'm Tolaris? I thought he was still frozen in crystal in the Wastelands." "Butt-ugly lawn ornament that he was, some idiot set him free," said the monotone voice after a few seconds. "Of course, if you're a denizen exile on Earth and don't know about that, then either you're playing dumb, which really isn't that hard for you, or I've made one major miscalculation and will probably have to cover my tracks by sending the NP-3 to visit you." "I see he hasn't changed," Maze said darkly. Tolaris shrugged. "You really ought to watch your tone, K'tal. Some of us might consider that to be disrespectful. And even if you didn't sleep your way to full commander, I still outrank you with time-in-grade. Oh, and use the NP-2 model instead. I've discovered that they're surprisingly lethal if you drop them into small valleys," he said evenly. Leda sighed and rubbed her temples. "Is this guy your brother or what? You two sound like Serena and Rei on a rainy Monday morning." "The trick to dealing with K'tal is to take whatever he throws at you and shove it right back," Maze smirked. "You may wind up sounding like you're getting ready to get into a fight, but believe me, you accomplish quite a lot more than you would if you try to talk normally to him." "Did you know that they're still developing the NP-4 series?" the computer said as the text continued to scroll up onto the screen. "You would think that after a hundred years, those morons would have gotten something right by now." "If Rune put people like you in charge, it's no wonder," Tolaris replied after a few moments of silent thought. "I'm often surprised that you can change your own diapers without having to call for backup." The distant end remained silent for almost a minute, cauing Tolaris to worry that something was wrong. Finally, the block of text started to scroll up the screen again and the computer started to translate. "You'd be surprised what you can accomplish with a mirror. But as for calling for backup, any Dragoon will tell you that you only do that when you either are obviously outnumbered or when you have zero idea how to handle the current situation." Tolaris sat back with a small frown. Behind him, Leda and Maze exchanged concerned looks. "That doesn't sound too good, boss," Maze said softly. "If K'tal is in charge, and I don't have any reason to doubt that he isn't, he'd only request help like this if there was a major internal problem." "Agreed," Tolaris said softly. "Go get Ra'vel and Whisper. I think they need to hear about this." He didn't bother to wait for an acknowledgement before he cleared his throat and spoke up. "So eat some v'etu. That'll help solve your digestive problems," Tolaris said pleasantly. "If that isn't the problem, which is a common occurence with people as anal as you are, then I'm afraid you'll have to go into some sort of detail about the situation." "Excuse me?" Whisper said as she and Ra'vel walked into the room. Tolaris quickly motioned for them to be quiet and to come over to the computer. "I'm using a voice-activated link to talk to K'tal," he whispered to them when they were close enough to hear him. Whisper nodded and studied the screen, reading the log of what was said from both sides. Ra'vel made a soft clucking noise as she ruffled her feathers and read the text as well, chirping quietly in laughter as the conversation unfolded. "I guess you do have a lot of experience on those matters," the computer said as more text scrolled up. "However, I'm afraid a fit of constipation is going to be the least of our worries if what I think is going to happen starts to happen. I need your help, but I need to know if I can trust you." Everyone blinked at K'tal's words. "I think that should be my question to you, K'tal," Tolaris said. There was a lengthy pause from the distant end. "If you are Tolaris, then you have my word of honor as a Dragoon that I am the only one who knows about you using General Nephlyte's cathedral as a base," the computer translated. "But I need to make absolutely sure that it's you there instead of some other operative." Tolaris sighed and looked around at the room's occupants. "Time to make the decision. Do I tell him or not?" he asked softly. "Boss, either he's there alone or he's working with someone, but we know that it's K'tal on the other end," Maze said. "I'd rather go down for trusting a Dragoon than for trying to save our butts and later discovering that he truly needed our help." Ra'vel chirped an agreement and Whisper nodded. "If we trust him, we may be able to help. And if we don't, he still knows that someone who knows the denizen language quite well is here, and that pretty much narrows it down to a handful of suspects. In that case, he just might throw a nuke at us. I say we trust him," the telepath said quietly. "And what do you think, Leda?" Tolaris asked. Leda chewed on the edge of her lip. "Tolaris, I've only known you for about half a year, but I've trusted you with my life on several occasions and have yet to have my faith in you proven wrong. I know there's always a first time for everything, but we'll just have to deal with that if it ever happens. I say go for it." "Thank you," Tolaris said softly and took a deep breath. "Very well," he said out loud. "Just so there is no doubt, I am Tolaris, formerly the ranking officer and Commander of the Dragoons until my exile to Earth." Everyone held their breath as the computer translated his words into the denizen text and sent it across the secure link to the distant end computer. The response took a surprisingly short amount of time to come back and Tolaris blinked as the text started to scroll up once more. "It's been a long time, Commander," said the computer. "However, just so you know and are aware of this, I may hold the rank of Commander myself, but every true Dragoon knows you are still the commanding officer." Tolaris sat back with a loud sigh of relief and rubbed his temples in an effort to get rid of the sudden tension headache. "I'm honored that I'm still remembered, K'tal. Forgive my bluntness, but what sort of crisis is happening that would cause you of all people to willingly violate almost every single regulation we have by trying to contact me?" The response was not what Tolaris expected it to be. "Commander, I'm trying to prevent a war," the computer translated in an even monotone. "This is not a good sign," Whisper muttered. "What kind of war?" Tolaris asked. "Conventional, nuclear, what?" The time delay was almost unbearable, and when the response finally c