Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Blinded By Science ❯ A Code X Moment ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

BLINDED BY SCIENCE
Chapter 4: "A Code X Moment"

by Bill K.

They watched together as a fireball accelerated toward the monitor's point of view,
growing larger and larger until it engulfed the screen. The picture turned red for a moment.

When it recovered, the point of view was different. Sailor Moon and the other senshi
towered over them, looking down at them like they were bugs on the walk.

"An interesting metaphysical hypothesis," they heard something say. It sounded almost
human, but was distorted and clipped with electrical shorts. "I wish I had the time to debate the
subject with you, Sailor Mars. But at the moment, I am experiencing," the speech was
interrupted by large static interference, "massive systems failure."

"B-But," Sailor Moon said through her horror, "if you're not Ami - - then what happened
to her? What did you do with Ami?"

"I'm sorry, Sailor Moon," Ami heard in an artificial simulation of her own voice while she
sat in her plastic cube cell, "but my programming prevents me from revealing that information."

"Who made you?" demanded Sailor Venus. "Who sent you here? What's your purpose?"

"I'm sorry, Sailor Venus," came the response as Viluy listened and ground her teeth in
growing anger and frustration. "My programming prevents me from revealing that information."

"Then what can you tell us?" Sailor Moon cried.

The point of view adjusted slightly, focusing solely on Sailor Moon.

"I can tell you," came the reply of someone - - something clearly on the verge of dying,
"that I had fun today - - shopping with you - - and Naru-chan. I hope you - - and Mamoru-san - -
will be very - - hap . . ."

The picture dissolved into black.

"NO!" roared Viluy. In a fit of rage, she flung her remote control across the room. It
smashed against the wall near the monitor. "They destroyed it! How? How did they know?"

"Apparently your android wasn't as perfect as you thought," Ami solemnly typed.

Viluy took a moment to regain control.

"Obviously," Viluy replied. "Perfection is a state of being that is statistically unlikely.
Everything has a flaw, no matter how small. I merely failed to observe and plan for the flaw of
that android." She flashed Ami a mirthless grin. "We learn from our mistakes."

Viluy walked up to the vinyl wall separating them. She pressed up close, her eyes glued
on Ami, taking in her every expression and movement.

"Perhaps you'd like to tell me where I erred?" Viluy asked with an undercurrent of
menace. Ami remained silent. "Perhaps the error wasn't in the android? Perhaps the error was a
situational analysis failure? I failed to thoroughly analyze the characteristics of your other
friends?" Her eyes narrowed. "That miko who transformed into Sailor Mars, for instance?"

Ami tried to control the burning of her cheeks.

"I can still read you like a textbook, Mizuno. But let's examine the facts. Sailor Mars has
demonstrated abilities that less sophisticated people would classify as supernatural. Japanese
history has been littered with myths and legends about mikos with supernatural spiritual abilities,
abilities that could be easily explained as heightened extra-sensory perception. Is that what's in
play here? What ability does this miko possess on top of her ability as Sailor Mars - - telepathy,
or perhaps precognition?"

"Perhaps you're just rationalizing a poorly thought out design," Ami typed. "Perhaps your
entire plan is based on false data and illogical conclusions.

"Don't change the subject, Mizuno," Viluy smiled like a cat with a cornered mouse. "We
were talking about this miko." Ami stayed still. "I understand you don't want to help me. You
are a prisoner, after all." Viluy pressed up against the clear wall. "But don't think for a moment I
can't figure it out. I just may not have the time."

Viluy turned and headed for the door at an even, confident pace.

"After all," she said over her shoulder, "I have other people to replace."

Ami didn't notice the door close behind Viluy. She was far too busy trying to figure a
way out of her current situation.
- - - -
"What are we going to do?" wailed Sailor Moon. She stared at the melted and charred
remnants of the Ami-android, teetering on complete panic.

"The first thing we do is not panic," Jupiter told her. Sailor Moon felt her friend's hands
gently clamp onto her shoulders, silently offering support, guidance and restraint. Her terror
ebbed a little.

"All Artemis has to do is trace her communicator signal," Venus replied, popping open
her wrist communicator. "If she's on Earth and the signal's not blocked, he'll find her. Artemis?"

"This better be good," grumbled Artemis over the communicator. "I was sleeping."

"Sleep later, fuzzy butt! We've got an emergency here! Ami's been abducted!"

"Abducted?" gasped Artemis. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm staring at the robot someone left in place of her - - or what's left of it. Get a
trace on her communicator."

"On it!" Artemis replied. "Can you put the remains of that android in a safe place? I'd
like to look it over."

"Only because you asked nicely," Venus joked. She turned to Sailor Moon. "We'll find
her, Sailor Moon. Nobody busts up the Three Musketeers while I'm around." She scowled.
"Um, Five Musketeers - - what is a musketeer anyway."

"Don't strain yourself," Mars sneered. She softened as she took Sailor Moon's hands. "If
Artemis can't trace her, I'll do a fire reading. We will find her. Don't fold on us." Sailor Moon
nodded.

"Venus!" Artemis called back. "I'm not getting anything on the trace. She's either in a
shielded place or she's not on the planet."

Everyone felt Sailor Moon tense.

"Or in this time," Venus added. "Which means maybe I should pay a call on Setsuna?"

"Worth a shot. And by the way, if it was a duplicate of Ami, it's an android, not a robot."

"Details, details!"

"I'll come over to the shrine with Luna and look it over."

"Yeah, you just want to grab some snuggle time with your squeeze," Venus needled.

"Focus, Venus," came the acid reply. "Artemis out."

"I'll get on that fire reading," Mars told Sailor Moon and headed for the shrine.

"I'm going to head over to Setsuna's," Venus told them. She turned to Sailor Moon.
"We're going to find her." The princess nodded.

As they watched Venus leave, Jupiter felt Sailor Moon's strength wavering again. She
began to massage the girl's shoulders.

"I know it's hard to believe it when Blondie says it, but we will find her," Jupiter
whispered.

"I trust them," Sailor Moon replied in a small voice. "It's just so hard not to fear the
worst. Why would someone take Ami?"

"Maybe to spy on us," Jupiter offered, "although that means they know our secret."

"But who?"

"I don't know. It's not like we've got a magic mirror that can tell us things like that."

At once each senshi looked at the other with growing inspiration.

"But Michiru does!" Sailor Moon gasped.

"I hope they're home," Jupiter grinned. "Give me a minute to tell Mars where we're
headed." Jupiter ran off, transforming into Makoto as she did.
- - - -
Frustrated, Ami sat at the desk in her prison cube. The walls were too thick to break.
She'd even resorted to throwing the chair against the wall, to no effect. There were no seams
visible, save for a small door on one wall and an access port a half-meter long and about 25
centimeters high. Since it was next to the desk where the tray well sat, Ami deduced it was
where her meals were shoved through. It was too small to get more than a hand through.

Her frustration a thing alive, Ami looked over the cube again.

"There must be something I'm overlooking," she thought. She glanced at the food port
again and noticed it was closed over with a hatch on hinges. "Air," she thought.

Quickly her eyes scanned the entire cube. There was no break in any of the walls or floor.
The entire cube seemed to be sealed tight.

"If this cube is sealed, how is air getting in?" she wondered. "There must be a hidden
vent somewhere."

Up on her feet, Ami looked over the ceiling with intense scrutiny. She dissected
everything she saw, looking for the most minute difference. Then she saw it. Pulling the chair
over to the far corner, Ami stood up on it and got a close look. There was a vent, camouflaged
by being made of the same material the cube was. The mesh on the screen was so fine that it was
easy to miss if one wasn't specifically looking for it.

However, the screen covered a vent that was thirty-five centimeters by thirty-five - -
hardly big enough for even an infant human to pass through.

"I made the vents that small intentionally, Mizuno," she heard Viluy say. Looking down
from her perch on the chair, Ami saw her captor paused in the doorway, holding a meal tray,
looking at her with a smirk of triumph. "Can't have you crawling through the duct system, can
we?" She strutted into the room, audible only by the rustle of her knit skirt against her hose and
the click of her high heels on the floor. "But congratulations on finding the vent. It is
stimulating to see a superior mind at work."

Ami climbed down from the chair and placed it at the desk. She readied herself for more
communicating via the computer. Viluy slid the tray through the slot without fear of her prisoner
attacking her.

"How do you think Sailor Moon would do in this trap?" Viluy asked. "Do you think she'd
be sucking her thumb by now?"

"This incessant need to gloat and belittle ill reflects a superior intellect," Ami typed.

"Oh, touche," smiled Viluy. "You've grown some bite in the last few years. Yes, I
suppose it does reflect poorly upon me. It pains me to admit it, but even I'm not completely
bereft of these troublesome emotional responses." She flashed Ami a wicked grin. "But I'm still
young yet. Watch with me."

Viluy took a few moments to search for the remote. When she remembered she'd
smashed it earlier, her face darkened and she walked over to the monitor recessed in the wall.
Pressing a stud engaged it. On the monitor was a picture of a well to do man in his fifties. He
seemed to be riding in a car with the android broadcasting the picture.

"On the screen is Yukihito Takamoto," Viluy said. "Are you familiar with him?"

"He's Chief Operating Officer of Nippon Central Bank," Ami replied through her
computer.

"The very same," Viluy nodded in admiration. "As far as he knows, he's riding with his
old friend Shinji Tanaka. Let's watch what transpires."

They turned back to the monitor. The car pulled into a remote area of the city, near a
private golf course. Takamoto turned to the driver, puzzled.

With imperceptible speed, a hand lashed out, apparently from the android. Takamoto's
head lolled back at an awkward manner, his stunned eyes lifelessly staring up at the roof of the
car. Viluy looked at Ami's reaction. She lip read Ami's silent whisper of "That poor man" and
smiled to herself.

"Even now my android duplicate is returning to Takamoto's office," Viluy said. "The
Tanaka android will dispose of the body in an incinerator I've arranged for. No one will be the
wiser except you and I."

"How?" Ami typed distantly.

"Specify," Viluy demanded.

"How could you," Ami struggled to type, "pervert technology like this? I knew you were
cold - - but this? It gets more reprehensible every time."

"Your mistake is that you apply social mores to technology and its application," Viluy
countered calmly. "The only difference between this and using technology to eradicate a
bacterium is the social value placed upon each."

"Cold, soulless logic," she read on Ami's lips.

"Precisely," Viluy replied.

"It isn't something to aspire to," Ami typed.

"That's your opinion," Viluy said haughtily. "And your opinion doesn't carry much
weight at the moment. After all, you're the lab rat in the cage, not me." Viluy smiled. "Eat your
dinner, lab rat - - or do I have to engage in some Skinner-esque behavior modification?"

Ami glared up at her captor.
- - - -
Behind a house in an otherwise quiet neighborhood, a fourteen-year-old boy peered
through the gap between the boards of a wooden fence. The youth, a very quiet and ordinary
boy, was engaged totally by what he saw. He didn't notice the stress cramping in his knees as he
knelt against the fence. The soft give of the dirt next to the fence was dimly noted. His breathing
was faint. He acknowledged nothing of the world surrounding him except for what was on the
other side of the board fence.

On the other side of the board fence, Setsuna Meioh lay sunning herself in a lawn chair.
Her long, luxurious body, covered only for propriety's sake by the nylon wisps of her maroon
bikini, relaxed and soaked up the last of the sun's warmth. Her chest rose and fell with a slow,
rhythmic, almost hypnotic pace. The bright sun gleamed off the lenses of her sunglasses. Her
only concession to the world around her was the occasional movement to pick up a cool drink or
to rub more oil on her soft, darkening skin.

Kaz Horomi watched spellbound. Females were, at his age, still a mysterious and
intimidating breed. They were so different, so unfathomable, and yet so very fascinating. The
way you could tell how soft a girl's skin was with your eyes instead of your fingers intrigued him.
The way a girl's shoulder curved or her foot arched, the way her hand splayed or the depth of her
eyes was confusing to him. And that was with a girl his own age - - to actually be this close to
such a stunningly beautiful mature woman was all his fourteen-year-old mind could aspire to.
Her long green-black hair astounded him. Her long, elegant legs captivated him. Her face, a
unique thing capable of distance and aloofness and at the same time warmth and generosity,
hypnotized him. And he noticed other characteristics about her, too.

As he stared at her, his heart yearned to be with a woman as perfect as her. But in his
head, he knew she was beyond him. She was an adult and a woman and he was fourteen and
had nothing to offer her that would entice her to condescend to be with him. He didn't
understand females and feared he never would. And he feared a woman such as this would
always be beyond him. All he could do was burn her image into his memory and long for her.

A small electronic beep interrupted everything. Setsuna sat up and clicked off the alarm
chronometer she wore as a necklace. Though she loved the sun, Setsuna was sensible enough not
to stay out in it too long. Gathering her drink and her oil, she casually strolled up to the back
porch of the house she lived in and went inside.

Kaz sighed and surrendered his post at the fence. He walked up to the door of his house
and found his mother standing in the doorway.

"Were you staring at the neighbor woman again?" she scowled.

Kaz blushed as he grimaced. He was only worshiping at the altar of her perfection. Why did
she have to make it sound so reprehensible?

Inside, Setsuna found a surprise waiting for her. She came face to face with Sailor Pluto.

"Forgive me for startling you," Sailor Pluto said gently.

"You are my future self," Setsuna said. It wasn't a question.

"I am," Pluto nodded. She smiled wistfully. "You have been lying in the sun. How I
miss that." Setsuna looked at her curiously, but Pluto would say no more.

"Why have you come to me? Is it because whatever powers I am destined to gain in the
future have not yet emerged? Do you seek to warn me of a calamity to come?"

"You graze the truth, Setsuna," Pluto replied. "I see things you cannot, things you must
not know until they occur. I cannot explain myself, for that would reveal things that would
forever bar the future of Crystal Tokyo."

Setsuna studied her future self. She knew what the woman said was so, and yet her
human curiosity itched to know what Pluto knew.

"I will say this much," Pluto continued, "for it is crucial to the future of the one we both
serve. A - - misfortune has occurred and you will be called upon to stand with your fellow
senshi. You must not act."

"Betray my oath to protect the princess?" Setsuna marveled. "How can you, of all people,
ask me to do this?"

"I ask this because our primary duty IS to protect the future queen," Pluto countered.
"But our power is more than courage and a strong weapon. Ours is the power to know when an
act will save all that matters most - - and when not acting will." Pluto grasped her past self by
the shoulders and their eyes met. "Setsuna, soon you will be called upon to take a course of
action. You must not."

"What could have occurred that could have such grave consequences for the future?"
Setsuna asked, desperate to believe her future self. "I grasp that you cannot reveal my future to
me, but please can you not give me something to carry my resolve to act as you ask? Can you
tell me nothing?"

Sailor Pluto looked into herself, remembering how she felt this day and through that
knowing what she had to reveal.

"The time stream has been muddied," Pluto revealed, "by a traveler. She has gained
knowledge of the future that will make her a threat to this present. Should you become involved
with her, you will destroy everything I am working desperately to return to us all. Setsuna,
please believe me. You must not become involved in this. I can say no more. Please let this be
enough to convince you."

Setsuna looked at her mirror image. There was a quiet desperation to the woman that
made her want to believe. And yet there was a certainty to her, as if she already knew the
outcome - - which, if she really was who Setsuna perceived her to be, she would. Perhaps a test.

"Kentaro Yatamami," she whispered. Sailor Pluto smiled with the glow of a memory.

"Our sempai from first level high school," Sailor Pluto replied. "The first boy we loved
from afar. We never told him of our feelings, for we feared he would be insulted. And then he
was gone, beyond our reach and in the grasp of the fair Akiko Suzuki." She grasped Setsuna's
hand. "You will receive another chance at love, Setsuna."

"Very well," Setsuna said. "I shall do as you ask. I only hope, in my ignorance, I do not
act incorrectly and cause further damage."

"I have faith in us," Sailor Pluto smiled. Then she grew serious. "Your first test
approaches."

The doorbell rang. Setsuna walked to the door and peered out the decorative window in
the top.

Minako stood on her front step.

continued in chapter 5