|
|
“Zyta! How many times do I have to tell you? That does not say lunch, it says auto-destruct!”
“Why not? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you took the navi-computer apart.”
“Ouch, ouch! My hair’s caught in the keyboard!”
“Don’t bang your head on it!”
“Hey! What joker put electricity in this? And who turned off the lights?”
“I’d assumed they at least knew the controls,” Priire’s helmet whispered in Bothan.
“Saltan valoramosa n telval mord,” Priire cheerfully repeated her favorite Old Correllian phrase.
Translator circuits in the Talon’s headsets automatically translated. [Assumption is the first step to a shallow grave.]
Fon shuddered. “That’s awful.”
A frown wrinkled Priire’s forehead. “It’s true.”
They were silent as the small ship slid into hyperspace. Priire relaxed into the seat, sure now that Fon had control. Not much would happen from here to Coruscant. There were two systems they planned to stop in and change course to give the new pilots practice.
“Best I can hope for is a long life and a merry one,” Priire sang.
Fon looked out the front of the starfighter and sighed. “I love hyperspace. It’s so bright and lovely.”
Priire shrugged. “I prefer the black and deep space with just the stars as your friends.”
“Not me! I’d rather be in the light any…ahhh!”
Instinct made Priire brace herself…
No one could calculate the effect a black hole would have on its caricature, the gravity mines. One was set far too near to a black hole. A malfunction in its central processing unit caused it to explode. However, its proximity to the black hole caused it to live the last few seconds of its life indefinitely…
Ippin was curled up in a corner of the captain’s chair looking afraid. “I can’t feel her,” the redhead whispered. “She’s not there!”
Everyone knew she meant her dearly beloved twin. “Gather we did, here she is not,” Numako said, puzzled. “Always meetings she makes. What is wrong, I wonder?”
“You don’t understand.” Ippin’s harsh tone caught everyone by surprise. “She. Is. Not. There. Aster’s gone!”
The other trained Jedi in the assemblage had been searching for the lost pair with no more success than Ippin’s automatic link with her sister.
“What if they’re dead?” Audra ventured. “What will happen?”
Kousotsu looked at the younger girl. “She’s can’t be dead,” he told her. “We’ve got to find her!”
“We can’t!” Xarae looked as if she was going to cry. “Hyperspace goes on forever. No one can find them. They’re lost. They’re dead!”
Mara looked down then up again. “No, I’m sure it’s just one of her tricks.”
Solai rubber her hand, agreeing. “Yeah! That chick’ll be at Courscant just waiting for us, I’d bet my tail feathers!”
“You don’t have tail feathers!” Ippin and Schylar sighed.
“I think that heading on is best,” Kyoko decided. “We’ll meet her there.”
‘I don’t know.’ a voice that almost sounded older replied.
‘Is it very long?’ the scared voice came again. ‘I hope not.’
‘I think so. After all, it is forever.’
‘Will we be here forever?’
However, none of the Sailors paid any attention to the marvel of technology; they were looking for the Talon. The little ship was as elusive as the planet’s surface. No one in Control had any record of Priire’s starfighter. She was gone.
There wasn’t a Sailor with dry eyes. “What happens to us when we die?” someone whispered. The voice was too soft and raspy for anyone to identify it. It could have come from anyone of the teary-eyed females.
“I don’t know,” Ippin said.
Kumo-chan wiped a tear from her eye. “On Earth, the Senshi came back as normal humans…”
“Priire and Fon could never be normal.”
Someone almost laughed.
‘How should I know?’ the second voice asked, hurried. ‘Something’s happening to my ship!’
‘Oh no!’
There was silence for a few moments. Then the second voice spoke with more calm. ‘We’re landing.’
‘Are you in control of this?’ the first voice panicked.
‘Nope. It’s called a crash.’
Ippin’s tear stained face looked up at Kyoko. “The last time Priire almost died she told me to keep the black fire torch burning. I wonder…” The redhead let her fingers fly over the control panel. “I was right.”
An image of Priire’s cherry face filled the screen. “Hi everyone! More than likely, if you’re hearing this, then I’m dead.”
“Ak!” Solai cried. “It’s her will!”
Schylar hit him so he’d be quiet.
“Yes, this is my will,” the hologram continued. “To Coru, my sister, I leave all my ships. To Kairi-chan I leave all my spare parts. Go build yourself an empire. Kirin, you get my snowspeeder. No, I didn’t tell you about it cause you would have taken it earlier.” Priire laughed, then kept talking. “Kumo-chan, you get that really pretty statue in my room that you’ve had your eye on.” Priire continued giving away her things like it was a tea party. “To Kousotsu…well, what can you leave a man who has everything? I leave all my memories, everything good that has ever happened to me, and my blaster. To the Sailor Sith, I leave all my trouble and the great Murphy’s Law. May it suit you well.”
“No,” someone moaned as the hologram waved cutely and shut off. “She can’t be gone…”
Priire opened an eye. “I don’t know.”
“You still don’t know?” Fon asked.
“Well, it’s kinda dark.”
“I hate darkness.” Fon was silent for a moment while Priire ran her fingers over the Talon’s controls trying to pierce the crushing blackness.
“What?” Priire asked after a minute or two. Fon was mumbling something that the Talon’s translator circuits couldn’t pick up. “Something wrong?”
“I was just praying for daylight,” she said quietly. “Priire, I’m scared of the dark. Can’t you turn some lights on?”
“Give me a second.” The blonde unstrapped her restraining belt and ducked under the control board. She didn’t hit her head because she knew the little starfighter well. “Aha. Here you go!”
Fon shrieked. “Turn them off! Turn them off!”
Slightly annoyed, Priire poked her head over the controls to see what had her friend in such a fuss. “Sithspit!” she cursed. In front of the ship was a Sailor Sith. It was the third of the set that no one had seen for a while. Except she didn’t have a head.
Peeking up from behind the chair, Fon’s bright eyes were wide. “What happened?”
Priire shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“It moved!”
“What the…?” Priire almost cursed again, but this time remembered that there was a Princess in the ship. “I think we have problems.”
“Hey cat.”
The tabby turned his head to look at the newcomer. “Hey, Chrone.”
“Not very perky, are we?” the golden-furred Sailor sighed. “I miss Priire, and I hardly knew her.”
“Me too.”
The two felines turned to see Ippin walk in. “Have a seat, beautiful,” Solai offered.
The three sat quietly in Priire’s room, looking around. None of them were very surprised when, a few minutes later, Kousotsu walked in. He sat down and Solai curled up on the Jedi’s lap.
Every few minutes, another Sailor would come in. Numoko joked half-heartedly that she was glad Priire’s room was the largest in the ship. Annika brought in a bowl of pudding and raided Priire’s I-Have-Everything draw to procure spoons. Oola toyed, depressed, with the chain around her neck. Kairiku had a hydrospanner and was twirling it around. Yukiko had pictures of the two vanished Sailors and was shuffling through them. Xarae was aimlessly braiding and playing with Mori’s hair. Chikako had some flowers, asters and roses that she was arranging around the room. Mara remarked quietly that it was like a wake. Like they were waiting for Fon and Priire to come back and laugh.
Fon shook her head. “I’m not looking.”
Priire opened her eyes and confirmed that there was indeed a headless lady Sith walking around. “I have to get out there and fix the Talon, otherwise we’ll be here forever.”
“How long is forever?”
Shaking her head, Priire laughed. “This is not the time for a philosophical discussion. Ask me later.”
Finally laughing, Fon waved at her. “Keep your helmet on so I can talk to you.”
“Yes, mother!” Priire said as she went out. The air was breathable, but she closed the hatch behind her. “Sorry if I flash you,” Priire muttered as she walked around the cockpit bubble to check the engines. There was a little carbon scoring from a previous fight, nothing serious. However, the rocks lodged in the right exhaust were serious. “Sithspit. Ops, sorry, Princess.”
“Do you need any help?”
Priire looked over her shoulder at the speaker. The before headless Sith had put her head on…backwards. “Ah, no, I can do it.”
“Ok!” Geri said. “Hey, watch this!”
Fon screamed as the Sith spontaneously combusted. She kept screaming as Geri re-formed and grew wings.
“Pretty neat, huh?”
Gasping for breath, Priire nodded shakily. “Yes.” Turning the helmet to internal speaker she muttered to Fon, “We have a deranged Sith on our hands.”
Her eyes couldn’t get any wider, Priire thought. Fon’s eyes were the size of saucers. The blonde turned back to the ship’s engines and noticed Geri was doing an impression of Fon and her eyes were growing. The ex-mercenary forced herself to pay attention to the engine, not the crazy Sith.
“Hey hey hey hey, did you know that only the Dark Siiiiiiide works here?” Geri asked, drawing out some of her words like taffy. Then she giggled.
Priire’s head shot up. “Sithspit!”
Geri obliged her by spitting on the ground.
“Fon, they won’t be able to find us. They’ll think we’re dead. Again,” Priire said, thinking back to another time she almost died.
Suddenly the lights went out.
“Sithspit.”
There was the sound of someone spitting again and Fon shrieked.
“What? Nom, you have got to be kidding.”
The Force-witch glared at Yukiko. “We have to find them. And I do not joke.”
Nom had given each of the Sailors in the room a map of their three hyperspace jumps and the slightly degraded hyperspace trails they found afterward.
“Ok. The first jump,” Kyoko said, holding up the map. “It took us from here to here.”
“Calculate what could have gone wrong,” Xarae instructed. “The Talon is smaller than any of the other ships. What could have affected her that the other ships wouldn’t have felt?”
“Blue dwarf star.”
“Asteroid belt.”
“Space station.”
“Chocolate.”
“What?”
“Keep going,” Xarae sighed. Maybe the brainstorming idea wouldn’t work.
“Black hole.”
“Gravity mines.”
Annika looked at the two who had spoken at the same time. “Coru? Kousotsu?”
Kousotsu explained first. “Here’s a black hole that we skimmed close to.”
“It’s one that pirates had gravity mines set near,” Ippin added. “Priire and I would sometimes race through this sector. She’d always win,” the redhead sighed.
“Let’s go!” Zyta shouted. “Maybe they were pulled off course and spiraled down somewhere near there!”
Kumoko nodded. “That has to be it.”
“They have to be there,” Ippin whispered. “They have to!”
“Why not?” Priire growled through the light in her teeth. She was trying her best to fix the engine while Geri ranted and raved about everything. Plus cutting the lights off to scare Fon.
“Beeeeecause there’s a shieeeeeeeld!”
“Then how did we get in?” Fon ventured. Geri made a face at her by inverting her eyes. Fon ducked behind the seat.
“I don’t know,” the Sith giggled. “Maybe there’s a break in the shieeeeeeeld!”
“Shut up!” Priire snarled. She had no patience left for the troublesome Sith.
Geri pouted. “You’re no fun.”
Suddenly, there was a wave of Dark Force power and the Sith disappeared. “That’s trouble,” Fon predicted.
The Sailors were on Coruscant, preparing to leave. However, before they could even leave the Temple, the Sailor Sith appeared.
“We can’t be held up by these goons!” Sailor Hoth said. “We’ve got to find the others!”
Igyaru giggled. “That’s what they said.”
“They?” everyone said at once, Sith and Jedi alike.
“Yeeeeeah. Those two girls on my rock. They were mean,” she pouted.
“We’ve got to get them!” Sailor Yavin said, frantically. “It might me them!”
Sailor Iridonia agreed. “Let’s get it.”
“Not if we get there first!” the Evil Queen yelled.
Coruscant looked over her shoulder at Sailor Yavin. “Your staff or mine?” she offered.
“Mine,” Yavin said quickly. “Let’s go!”
“All right!” Fon said. She smiled into the darkness. “Hey, look!”
Priire watched the spot on her screen grow. In the pitch-blackness it looked like…
“Daylight!” Fon exclaimed. “It worked!”
“But whose daylight?” Priire wondered aloud. “Could it be…”
The blonde pilot threw the levers forward, sending the starfighter into a sharp climb. Priire dove into the area of daylight…
“Coru!” her sister yelled back.
The two hugged like they’d not seen each other for years. “Coru, I missed you!”
“Hah, I can go one better. I thought you were dead.” She turned to Fon. “It’s like you’re back from the dead.”
Everyone gathered around for what Solai proclaimed was “An overly sappy group hug! Awwwww!”
After everyone was done hugging, Fon and Priire walked back to their rooms. Priire smiled, as she walked into hers. “Ah. Home sweet home…where’s all my stuff?”
“I didn’t do it!” Ippin yelled.
Fon just laughed. “It’s your fault for being dead!”
“Ooooo…wait’ll I get my hands on you!”
Everything was back to normal.
About the Senshi in this story:
Priire/Aster/Sailor Asteroid
Zyta/Sailor Tatooine
Boshi/Sailor Shooting Star
Fon/Sailor Teta
Ippin/Coru/Sailor Yavin
Annika/Sailor Bakura
Kairiku/Sailor Chibi Naboo
Numako/Sailor Dagobah
Audra/Sailor Alderaan
Kousotsu/Tuxedo Jedi
Xarae/Sailor Iridonia
Mara/Sailor Vjun
Kyoko/Sailor Naboo
Kumoko/Sailor Bespin
Yukiko/Sailor Hoth
Chrone/Sailor Cathar
Oola/Sailor Ryloth
Geri/Sailor Sith Iyagaru
Nom/Sailor Dathomir
Kendra/Kougo Ada
Seiun/Sailor Coruscant
