Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor Moon of the 30th Century ❯ Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

“Farewell and adieu to ye fair Spanish ladies…” (Old sea chantey.)

 

The UES Artemis, (BB 1,) was indeed a futuristic looking vessel in many regards, and yet would have looked familiar to anyone who was familiar with the basic battleship design. It indeed had the shape of a sea going vessel, with a low profile on the water, and the shaping to not allow a radar signal to go directly back to its source. In fact, it was lower in profile than what had ever seen in the past, due to their being certain things that were no longer needed. There were no stacks on the deck, nor was there a tall radio tower. In space, such a tower would not be needed, yet it could rise up in an array planet side with a crow's nest if need be. In fact, the conning platform and the signal bridges were one tier higher than the top 16 inch batteries fore and aft. There was a platform on the back for hover vehicles and V-STOL capable flying crafts. In conning platform sat the command chair, and everything that one would expect on the command bridge, including the helm. However, on the aft section, the ship was not propelled in the water by screws, but by an impulse engine that gave it thrust which sat above the waterline. Yet, it could also function underwater in its submerged function. To either side of the aft rested the two warp engines designed for interstellar travel. The smaller vessels built before were used to test those engines, and, after a couple of near disasters, they had perfected the design to near perfect efficiency. The ship was the latest of the first battle flotilla of the Terra Commonwealth, which went with a fighter carrier, six missile cruisers, 12 destroyers, six CT, (cloaked torpedo,) cruisers, and a fighter and bomber wing on the carrier. Each terraformed planet that formed oceans, (Venus, Mars, and some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn,) were at that point working on similar flotillas which would make up an entire fleet for the United Sol Federation. This flotilla, however, would be the first to penetrate the solar system and take a shakedown cruise around Proxima Centurai and back. Once done, they would then go to towards the closest yellow dwarf that their scientists said gave indications that there were planets around it. Even though it seemed like a normal ship's commissioning, the trip of the Earth Flotilla actually carried a significance equal to man's first steps on the moon between the Old Moon Kingdom and the establishment of the new kingdom.

 

The crew stood resplendent in their dress uniforms as they stood ready for the ship to sail off into the Pacific. Since it was still March, they were wearing their winter blues. The enlisted personnel wore their Cracker Jacks with the Dixie Cup hats, the back flaps, hats, and neckerchiefs were all colored in the branch they served. For example, if one was in direct ship service, (helm, navigation, mess, supply, quartermaster, etc.) it was marmalade, matching the color scheme of Princess Venus. If you were in engineering, medical, science, and such like, it was light blue. The ladies wore skirts. The marines were wearing the same thing as Marine Ceres, (except that he now wore a white X belt on his uniform, and a Napoleon style hat, marking him as an officer.) The naval officers wore navy blue dress shirts and pants or skirts depending, with branch colored stripes on the pants and around the hat that they wore. This was the site that covered the deck as she prepared to pull out. The only ones not out on the deck was the bridge crew, and they prepared the ship for its first space run. The only uniform that was unique was Princess Sailor Venus, wearing the same costume that she was given when Tom Reichmann first joined the team. She then said to her helmsman, “Mr. Bjorn, take us to port, one eighth impulse power.”

“Aye, aye, your highness,” he said, and the impulse engines gimbaled to the left, and then thrust as she lurched forward and then to the port. As the ship went, many of the crew started to break out in song, singing, “I'll sing you a song; a good song of the sea—away Rio! I'll sing you a song if you'll sing it with me, and we're bound for the Rio Grande.”

 

The king and queen stood on the platform from which they had given their speech and watched her pull away. Serenity wrapped her arms around Endymion's and she began to snuggle up to him as she watched. “I so love when they pull out like that,” she said, “I love their singing so much.”

“That has been a time honored tradition for centuries,” said Endymion, “They were actually trying to set at ease those that were left behind that they would come back.”

Serenity's face then went long a touch, and he was forced to ask, “What's wrong, Dumpling Head?”

“They're going to do something no one in the solar system has ever done,” she said, “That makes me nervous.”

“Come now,” he consoled, “You know that Venus can take care of herself. Remember: she was the first of us to awaken, so she can take care of herself.”

“It's not just her, I mean, you know Usagi is up there too, and she's going with them.”

“So is the rest of the flotilla—they all share the risks. You know the quartet is with them, as is Mars and Mercury. She is on the hospital ship, and they could not have better care in this galaxy…at least that we know of!”

“I wonder if this is what our parents felt when they landed on the moon for the first time.”

“Well, I guess it equates, what they are about to do could make that seem like a small thing. It's okay.”

They then turned to go to the hover carriage that was to take them back to the Crystal Palace, they could hear them singing yet, though it was fading as they went: “And it's away Rio—away Rio! It's fare ye well my pretty young girls, and we're bound for the Rio Grande.”

Serenity then thought about the first moon landing, and she then remembered what they had to do to preserve it when the terraforming of the moon actually turned the Sea of Tranquility into just that! It now sits under a crystal dome at the bottom along with the undersea research center, set in such a fashion that water could not even moisten the moon sand, and it was so with every spot where they figured that there was going to be water. She was so glad they were able to preserve the sites, but she also hoped that they could commemorate this event just as well. She looked at the ship pulling away, and then she looked up and said, “Take good care of Usagi, everyone, and come back safe.

 

Once out to sea, the navigator, Kim-Soo-Lee, said, “What is the course, your highness?”

“Set a course for the north mid-Pacific and then prepare for the launch,” was her reply, “We'll be in orbit in no time.”

Some of the bridge crew looked nervous, and she said, “If they could get that carrier up there in orbit, we can do this. Just keep it sharp on helm, Mr. Bjorn—one wrong slip, we go into gimble lock, and we plunge into the Pacific.”

Everyone became even more nervous, and Artemis, who was sitting on her lap in the conn chair, whispered to her, “I don't think that was all that encouraging.”

Once in position, the vessel was brought about 180 degrees and she said, “Okay, now bring us up to one half impulse power, and then gradually bring it to full impulse. At that point, slowly gimble the impulse thruster up as high as it can go, then set it on auto gimble, and keep her steady.”

This was done, and everyone on the ship felt the thrust. She then said, “Mr. Mambazo, (communications officer,) open up ship's intercom.”

“Aye, ma'am,” he said, and he hit the switch. Her voice could be heard to echo throughout the vessel, and she said, “This is Admiral Venus. All hands prepare for launch.”

Everyone then went to either their bunks or to special seats to strap down and prepare for launch, save for the few that had to work certain stations in engineering in order to get the vessel space born.

 

As the ship picked up speed, the ship began to rise up on specially designed hydroplanes that would allow her to skim along at full speed, and also to remain stable as the ship launched. By the time they reached