Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor X ❯ SX21: Out of Phase ( Chapter 21 )

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

Sailor X #21 Out of Phase

By: John Brengman

Edited by: Thomas Schell

Ship's Log, Entry 47

We have refueled the ship's reactors and restocked our food and
supplies from one of Cyberworld's nuclear facilities. We leave behind
a brave new world and there is a new group of guardians to help them
recover from the evil that Cybermoon and the other cyborgs brought
upon the people.

We wish them the best.

==> * SM * <==

Shuttle 2

"Shuttle 2 to Serena," Mina called into the ship's comm system as she
looked out the window. The object of her concern hung unmoving a short
distance away.

Raye walked into the forward cabin and sat down at the co-pilot's
chair. She hmm-ed to herself as she engaged the shuttle's scanners and
soon a digital square flickered across the window, flowing over the
Serena. She shook her head as the square flickered across the hull of
the drifting ship. The darkened windows were plainly visible.

"There's no one over there," Raye said.

"No life signs," Setsuna said. "But there is still a small amount of
dimensional particles present."
"And that means?" Mina asked.

"It means that the ship was not abandoned before it crossed the
dimensional barrier," Setsuna replied. "Certain things have very
little computer control because computers can't be trusted totally.
The dimension drive is one of them."

"So," Mina murmured. "The bottom line is..."

"Neo-Queen Serenity, Sailor Moon and the others are all dead."

After putting the shuttle on autopilot, the three women went into the
ship's passenger area and were soon seated around a small table.

"What can we do?" Mina asked. Her voice refused to show emotion.

"There is good news and bad news," Setsuna said. "The good news is
that this event is not within the normal timeline. The fact that
Neo-Queen Serenity is dead indicates this, as she is not supposed to
die for a very long time, as you know. This means that repairs to the
timeline are possible"

"And the bad news?" Mina asked as Raye listened intently.

"The bad news is three-fold," Setsuna replied. "In order to repair the
timeline, I need to know exactly where events went wrong. In order to
find out, someone is going to have to board the Serena and get the
internal sensor logs. Once you board the ship, the sensors will
register your presence and I'll be able to make temporal adjustments
based on the logs."

"Another problem is that we don't know what caused this to happen. It
could have been an alien, or it could have been a disease of some
sort. Or it could have been something completely different. Until we
know what caused this event, the ship should be considered a
quarantine area. You'll have to go over using environmental suits."

"Sounds fun," Raye muttered quietly, and Mina cast her a glance that
said she agreed.

"And finally," Setsuna continued. "There's the `statement of doom'"

"What?" Mina asked.

"I don't know everything about this new timeline," Setsuna replied,
"but without Neo-Queen Serenity, the city of Crystal Tokyo will never
be formed, and the Wiseman and his minions will have no problem
destroying Earth."

==> * SM * <==

With a solid-sounding THUD, the collar for the passage tube locked
into place over one of the airlocks on the port side of the Serena and
two forms stepped aboard the lifeless ship. Mina and Raye switched on
the searchlights mounted on the arm of their suits and bright light
suddenly stabbed out into the cold darkness.

"Sensors aren't showing any atmosphere," Raye said. "Let's split up."

"Right," Mina replied. "I'll get the logs from the Bridge, you get the
ones from Engineering.

With a nod, Raye started off down the corridor.

It didn't take long for Mina to become nearly scared out of her wits.
Oh, she didn't think the ship was haunted or whatever, it was just
that the sensors on the exosuits didn't extend too far away from the
suits themselves, and the darkness and silence combined with her
imagination made Mina think that someone or something was about to
leap out of the blackness and attack. The prone forms of the crewmen
that littered the corridors only added to the fear...potential victims
of the nameless thing out there waiting to get her.

Mina reached an intersection and quickly glanced around. As she looked
to the right down a secondary hallway, the identity of the evil
unknown thing seemed to change...

...death nevertheless came as a surprise. With a silent hiss, Dark
Sailor materialized next to Sailor Saturn, her axe unsheathed, its
blade more wicked than before. Her teeth bared with triumph, Dark
Sailor drove the blade of her weapon into Saturn's back. With a choked
grunt, she jerked forward. Blood bubbled up in her mouth as her ribs
shattered and organs burst. Her frail body was lifeless before it hit
the ground.

Victoria was the first to turn. She saw Dark Sailor roughly rip her
axe from the lifeless form of her beloved mentor. Victoria's wordless
horror turned into rage as she saw the vile villain about to hack at
the broken body again. Her scream broke the silence of the moment. It
rang harsh on the silent cliffs and echoed weirdly through the air. As
if ripped from her soul, Victoria screamed, "DEATH RIBBON
DEVASTATION!!" Razor-sharp ribbons of deadly energy erupted from
Victoria and flew like arrows towards Dark Sailor...

...Mina approached the wreckage of what had been a human body. The
now-frozen flesh had been shredded, and bones had been pulverized. A
trail of splattered blood ran from the remains to a nearby door.
Having seen the body, Mina had a good idea of what had happened to the
unfortunate soul, but she had to open the door to confirm it. She
gently touched the control pad and the door opened, confirming
everything.

Mina entered a scene of chaos frozen still. Shattered glass crunched
under her feet. The few pictures and wall hangings in this room lay
strewn in tatters on the floor. The furniture looked as though someone
had taken an axe to it. As she was looking at the remains of the
couch, Mina saw the second body. It wore a Sailor uniform.

As Mina slowly rounded the shattered remains of the glass table that
had sat next to the couch, she could make out flowing black hair that
was matted by the frozen moisture from the air and splayed about
haphazardly. One hand rested limply against the metal remains of the
table top. The young woman's face was marred by thick lines of dark
red that ran from her nose and mouth. A small amount of blood had
pooled near her head. However, what caught Mina's attention was the
eyes that stared back blankly at her.

They were the eyes of a woman faced by something terrible...something
horrible.

Activating her suit's comm, Mina's shaken voice interrupted the
silence.

"I've found Victoria," she said as she briefly scanned the body. "She
died of a massive coronary failure."

==> * SM * <==

"Okay," Raye replied. "There's nothing we can do about it now. Head up
to the Bridge."

"But Raye..."

"Remember what Setsuna said?" Raye said, perhaps a little too
frostily. She too had been walking through corridors, past dead
bodies. "This isn't supposed to have happened, and if we do our jobs,
it won't."

"You...you're right," Mina replied, her voice wavering.

"Stay calm," Raye said with a reassurance she did not feel herself.
"And keep safe."

==> * SM * <==

Raye's searchlight washed over the corridor near Engineering chasing
away the dark. The only sound that

could be heard was the sound of her own breathing. The combination of
the dark and the silence gave the area a haunted feeling, and that was
without the bodies of the ship's crew.

"Oh come on," Raye murmured. "This is a ship. It's not haunted." Then
Raye saw one of the corpses of a crewman, his body half-in and
half-out of a doorway.

"It's not haunted," Raye repeated as if to convince herself.

"Not yet."

With that, Raye realized she was standing outside the double doors
that led to Engineering. Silently she touched the control panel and
the doors slid open....

..."I am Sailor Mars! In the name of the Moon Kingdom, I will fight
evil and defend the innocent! I will vanquish villains, and that means
you!"

"You go girl," The elder Mars nodded approvingly.

"MARS FIRESTORM FLASH!" The torrent of fire erupted from the younger
Mars, surrounded by a brilliant aura. The fire splashed on Hellfire
and seemed to devour him. The young Sailor continued the attack for
several seconds before it became evident that the attack had
absolutely no effect on the villain. Hellfire began laughing
hysterically.

"All that pain...all those special effects, the little light show," he
managed to get out between gasps of laughter. And still, all you can
manage is THAT?" Tears rolled down his cheeks as he continued to howl
with amusement. Cass flushed red with embarrassment and anger. She
looked to Raye for guidance.

"Keep going!" The elder Sailor shouted encouragement.

"MARS FIRE...IGNITE!" The younger Sailor brought up another fireball.
She held it in her hands a bit longer than usual, as if doing so would
increase the strength. Finally, she let it loose. It shot forward,
once again bathing Hellfire in fire. He started laughing even before
the fire died. He was totally distracted by his own mirth. Oblivious
to his surroundings, he did not notice the Elder Sailor Mars stoop
down and pick up the neosteel shard.

Hefting the metal shard, Raye readied herself. She pulled back her
throwing arm, and hurled the crude spear at the villain with all her
might. "Laugh at this!" She shouted. Her voice cracked. Just in time,
Hellfire turned. He raised his gauntlet to reflect the incoming
missile. The shard crashed into the upper portion of the gauntlet
heavily, deflecting forward and upward. The villain screamed as he
realized his fatal mistake, an instant before the neosteel shard
slammed into his head. It pierced his eye and drove into his brain,
shattering his skull. As the monster died, the primal energies that
infused his being faded and his smoking body toppled backward to the
ground...

Scorch marks seared paths across the metal deck and black patches
marked where fire bolts had done their work. Several charred bodies of
engineers littered the deck, the intense heat of fire bolts having
cauterized any other wounds they had sustained from whatever had
killed them, the damage barely illuminated by the emergency lights
that lit the room.

Looking at the damage and carnage, Raye knew who had killed these
people. The blast pattern matched her celestial fire attack. Somehow,
Sailor Mars was behind these attacks.

One corpse was different however. Aside from being charred almost
beyond recognition, a thick metal pole protruded from the torso of the
body.

Ignoring the destruction, Raye moved to a side control panel and
flipped open a small storage area on the sleeve of her suit. She
pulled a small wire out of the compartment and attached it to an
input/output port on the control panel. A tap on her suit's controls
and the control panel was fed a small amount of power from her suit. A
few taps on the control panel, and the lights began to whir, sending
the logs into the environment suit's onboard memory.

While the data flowed from one computer to the next, Raye examined the
Engine Room further. The huge cylinder that housed the ship's fusion
drive was as dark as the rest of the room. Next to the engine core lay
the body of Sailor Mars. Raye briefly stopped uploading the logs to
scan the body of her student. The result blinked back at her:
ASPHYXIATION

==> * SM * <==

The doors opened in front of Mina and revealed a scene of death and
destruction. Control panels and readout screens were smashed, chairs
were overturned, and bodies were scattered on the floor. As she turned
toward the science station, she saw Amy draped over the console.

Mina gently moved her friend out of the way with a glance toward the
command chair...and saw Sandra collapsed at its base...

...Sailor Moon was caught off-guard by this, and stammered,
"Well...uhh..ahh..my name is.." Then she calmed, as if inspiration had
struck. "I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice. And I say, on
behalf of the Moon, I shall right wrongs and triumph over evil." As
she finished the pose that went along with these particular phrases,
an angry-looking Sailor Moon said, "and that means you!"

Morga was unimpressed. "Sailor Moon? Never heard of you, and I'm sure
I never will again!" The monster raised her hands and shouted, "arise
my children and serve the great power that is the Negaverse!" As
Sailor Moon watched, the patrons of the store arose with a collective
moan. They all had blank, lifeless stares, and they moved forward like
zombies.

Sailor Moon backed up as the crowd of zombies approached. "Luna," she
half-pleaded. "Help me.. I don't know what to do." The overweight
woman-turned-zombie and several others hurled themselves at Sailor
Moon, who barely managed to dodge each of them.

Sailor Moon landed roughly on the floor near some of the stone pillars
which supported the building. An attack by Morga slammed Sailor Moon
against one of the pillars with a thud.

A near-panicked Sailor Moon stared with a glazed look at the floor.
"Oww. That hurt. I don't want to do this anymore."

Luna slipped up to Sailor Moon from behind the pillar. "Sailor Moon,
what are you doing? You must fight this evil monster, or the whole
universe could cease to exist."

As if hearing Luna's prediction of doom, Morga floated up to the
ceiling on the far side of the room and let out a blood-curdling
laugh.

Sailor Moon could not be moved. This was NOT a video game... "I don't
want to play this game anymore," she wailed. "Enough! I want to go
home!"

"Fine!" Morga shouted menacingly. "I'll send you away for good!" With
a growl, she shot her clawed hand out and down toward the
near-paralyzed Sailor.

The claws descended rapidly, and Sailor Moon could see their razor
sharpness...

Luna gasped as she sensed Sailor Moon's impending doom.

Sailor Moon screamed in terror...

...Sandra's arm lay outstretched toward another body, this one clothed
in a dress very prettily embroidered. A thin crown adorned her head.

Her hands seemed to clutch at her neck.

Mina didn't want to stop to consider the possibility that seemed to be
in front of her....that Sandra had killed her own mother.

==> * SM * <==

"I've figured out where this false timeline began," Setsuna said after
over an hour of pouring over the logs. She had insisted that Raye and
Mina's stories of the plight of the people aboard the Serena was not
relevant, and reminded them again that the timeline would soon be
corrected.

"But what happened to them?" Mina asked.

"They obviously died from exposure to space," came the reply.

"But what about the Sailors?" Mina asked. "What about the Queen?"

Setsuna sighed a small sigh. She had hoped that the minimal answer
would suffice, but apparently that was not so. "Human beings were not
meant to spend long periods of time in an area straddling two
dimensions," she stated. "The mind tries to hold on to both realities
and ends up losing them instead." *

"What?" Mina gasped.

Setsuna gave Mina a grave look. "The people aboard the Serena died
from exposure....but they went insane before that. At one point,
someone damaged the ship's environmental controls and the atmosphere
bled into space."

"We've got to stop this from happening," Raye said.

Setsuna nodded briefly. "Now that I know what caused this, we can
prevent it," she said, "but we have to use the Timegate. Mina, please
set the course."

Mina nodded silently and started toward the cockpit of the shuttle.

==> * SM * <==

The Luna Foundation

"TIMEGATE ACTIVATION!"

The dome of the Timegate pulsed brightly and was filled by a swirling
green light.

"Your goal is simple," Sailor Pluto announced as she, Mina, and Raye
entered the massive room that contained the domed shape that was the
Timegate. "You are to insert the backup power pack into the auxiliary
equipment port, activate the port, and then use the increased power to
send a pulse through the fusion chamber. That should give the ship
enough of a push that it will cross into our universe."

"You said `should'..." Mina said a bit cautiously.

Raye clapped her friend on the back. "Hey," she said. "It sounds
easy."

"Anything we should know before we go?" Mina asked as she watched
Sailor Pluto at the platter-like device that served as the Timegate's
navigation system.

"Even though you are going back to fix a temporal error, try not to do
anything that doesn't go along with your mission," Sailor Pluto
replied. "I'd hate to have to go back in time to correct another
timeline caused by a mistake."

"Why don't we use those time gizmos that the other Sailor Pluto uses?"
Mina asked. "With them, we wouldn't have to worry about dealing with
the other Sailors in their condition."

"You also wouldn't be able to change the situation aboard the ship,"
Pluto replied. "There's something called the `Temporal Commonality
Principle", which says that in order for you to affect the ship, you
have to be in the same time continuum as it is.

"Why don't you come back with us?" Raye asked.

"The Timegate will vanish after you go through it," came the reply.
"Someone will have to stay behind and wait for you to return so that
the gate can be reopened."

A brief silence fell as the two women considered the task that lay
before them. Then Mina nodded slightly and turned to Raye. "We'll be
okay. Let's do this."

"Yeah," Raye replied quietly. "MARS STAR POWER!"

"VENUS STAR POWER!"

With a flash of brilliant white light, Mina and Raye began their
transformations from young women to fuku-wearing superheroes. Then the
two Sailors stepped through the Timegate and into the recent past.

==> * SM * <==

Port Section 32 - Engineering

Venus and Mars faded into existence in the darkened corridor near
Engineering and nearly immediately heard a dull THUD, then another.

"Plasma bolts hitting a wall..." Raye murmured. "Sailor Mars is in
Engineering. We're too late."

"Sailor Pluto knew what she was doing," Venus relied. "We have to
prevent Queen Serenity's death. The rest of this can be fixed later."
Venus then started toward the bulky double doors that led into the
Engineering Room.

A blistering ball of fire exploded near her as Venus entered
Engineering. She quickly dove under a nearby computer control panel
and hid behind the chair that sat in front of it.

"Mars! Watch out!"

"I meant to hit you!" Sailor Mars shrieked as the wall near the
entrance blackened from the pounding it had taken. "This is my ship
now, and I won't let minions from the Negaverse take it! In the name
of the planet Mars, I will punish you!"

"Definitely delusional," Mars quipped as she dropped down near Venus
on the other side of the computer terminals. A scorching blast of fire
above them sent sparks and molten metal flying.

"What do we do?" Mars asked.

"Create a diversion," Venus said. "Put a fireball over by those
stairs," she pointed to the stairs on the port side of the room that
led up to the ship's fusion reactor. "When she's distracted, I'll nail
her and knock her out."

"Sounds like a plan," Mars agreed, then: "MARS FIRE IGNITE!" A fiery
ball of energy formed at her fingertips and she aimed it toward the
staircase. The fireball roared across the room and slammed into the
stairs, reducing them to molten slag.

Seeing she was under attack, the younger Sailor Mars spared a brief
glance at the wreckage of the stairs before turning back to her
attackers. That was all the time Sailor Venus needed.

"VENUS CRESCENT BEAM SMASH!" The bright energy bolt stabbed outward,
crashing into the younger Mars. A glow enveloped Mars for a second as
the energy cascaded around her, then she collapsed.

"That was easy," Venus stated.

"It could have been worse," Mars said. "This must be another result of
her condition." She quickly retrieved the backup battery pack. "Where
is the auxiliary port?"

"Let's see," Venus muttered as she tried to remember. Pointing to the
terminals along the starboard side of the room, she began to name them
off... "Engineering subsystems....communications
subsystems...there..." She pointed.

"Damn," Mars said. "I knew this was going too easy."

The auxiliary port for the sublight engines was a hulking mess. It was
where they had just been hiding.

"What now?" Mars asked.

"There's something we've missed," Venus said. "The Engineering station
on the Bridge has a auxiliary port. I'll take the battery pack there
and plug it in. When I do, you engage the engines."

"Gotcha," Raye said as she handed the battery pack to her friend.
"Just be careful."

"Hey," Venus replied with a wink, "it's been easy so far."

==> * SM * <==

As the doors to the Bridge opened, Sailor Venus prepared herself for a
murderous spree of anarchy. What she saw was controlled tension as
Sandra tried to control a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of
control.

"Amy, report. What is our engine output?"

Amy turned to Sandra with a look of worry on her face. "Engines are at
60%." She said. "The damage from the EMP has disrupted too many relays
to give us any more." Despite her worries, Amy's voice was the calm in
the midst of the storm.

"Divert all power to the engines," Sandra ordered curtly. The Sailors
and Bridge crew scrambled to obey.

"It's not enough," Amy reported. "Engine power up to 67% and the power
levels are fluctuating."

Sailor Venus saw that Sailor Neptune was at the Engineering station.
Amy was hovering between her post at the Science station and the
Tactical station next to it. Both were concentrating on trying to coax
more power out of already-tortured power lines and didn't notice when
Venus approached the computer terminals.

"Sandra!"

Queen Serenity rushed to the side of her daughter, who was slumped in
the command chair, one hand rubbing her forehead. Meanwhile, Venus
went to the Engineering station as Neptune approached Sandra to
assist.

Sandra looked up from behind her hand and saw her mother standing
nearby. With a growl, Sandra launched herself at her mother. "You!"
She shouted as her hands clutched her mother's neck in a vise-like
grip. Serenity tried to back away while Amy and Sailor Neptune grabbed
onto Sandra and tried to pry her loose.

Venus spared a quick look over at the struggle, then she grabbed and
turned the handle on the door to the sublight auxiliary port. Pulling
the door out, Venus could see the circular holster where the
cylinder-shaped

battery pack would be placed. She slipped the battery pack into the
auxiliary port and shut the hatch. Touching a few controls allowed the
sublight drive access to the battery pack.

Meanwhile, the struggle on the other side of the Bridge continued. As
people tried to separate Sandra and her mother, she howled, "You did
this to me! You sent me to face Morga alone!"

Venus quickly looked over to the helm station and saw Sailor Uranus,
who looked like she wanted to join in on the battle to save Queen
Serenity, but she was busy trying to get the ship loose from the
dimensional barrier.

"Uranus!" Venus shouted. "Put all power into the sublight drive!"

"It's already there!" Uranus shouted.

Venus finally got the attention of the other people on the Bridge.
Sandra saw the Sailor senshi and her face screwed itself into a mask
of fury. "Imposter!" She shouted as she drew her pistol

"Do it now!" Venus yelled.

"Okay," Uranus said simply, and touched a couple controls...

==> * SM * <==

"Shuttle 2 to Serena," Mina called into the ship's comm system as she
looked out the window. The object of her concern hung unmoving a short
distance away.

"Shuttle 2, this is Sailor Neptune, aboard the Serena," a voice said.
"You don't have a damage control team aboard, do you?"

"No, we don't," Mina replied.

"In that case, please have the Luna Foundation send out a group of
shuttles to tow us in," Neptune replied after a short pause.

"Will do," Mina said.

"How did the mission go?" Raye asked.

"With the exception of a few bumps and scrapes," Neptune said, "we've
completed the mission. The Cybersailors are destroyed."

"Well," Mina said. "Prepare to let us dock." She wanted to
congratulate her friends in person.

"And welcome home."

FINI

Editor's Notes:

* - Setsuna's theory about what happened aboard the ship is quite
similar to the idea behind the interphase zone in Star Trek's "The
Tholian Web"

Fanfic ©2000 - John Brengman and Artemis Publishing

Sailor X series inspired by Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,

© 1992 by Toei Animation Co Ltd. and based on Kodansha's

manga production of "Sailor Moon", written by Naoko Takeuchi

This fanfic is freely distributed. Release date: July 10, 2000

Release: 3^rd Edition: February 11, 2001