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The Correllian freighter wasn’t anything like anyone had expected. From A New Hope everyone had subconsciously connected the ships with rundown spice freighters. This ship was the direct opposite! Her streamlined hull gleamed faintly in the stark lights of the hanger. She dwarfed the rest of the ships. Instead of a more traditional white, the ship was colored like black fire. If you analyzed the actual color of the ship, it was a mingling of black, silver, and dark blue. At first glance, however, it seemed like the ship was engulfed in blue-black flames. The semi-dark hanger was a welcome relief from the blazing Tatooine suns.
A young woman walked out of the ship’s dark interior, tripping slightly over something unseen inside the ship. She caught herself on the hatchway with a greasy hand. The tall blonde glanced at the smear and then, shrugging, wiped it off with the rag in her hand. She finished wiping her hands off as she reached the end of the ramp. "Hi," she said, cheerfully, brushing her braids behind her ear. "My name is Seijoutai Priire. I’m your pilot."
"Hello," one of the girls said stepping up. "I’m Kyoko, Sailor Naboo." They didn’t usually tell their Sailor names, but Priire would have to be working closely with them, both as Sailors and as "normal" people. She went around and introduced the other girls. "This is Kirin, she’s Sailor Hoth," Kyoko said, pointing to the blue haired girl. "Kumo-chan, Sailor Bespin, over in the corner. Next to her is Megami Hisui, Sailor Vjun. Zyta is Sailor Tatooine."
Zyta grinned. "Hi, Priire!"
"Hi, Zyta," Priire responded.
Kyoko grinned. "Lastly, we have Numo-chan. She’s Sailor Dagobah and our newest Senshi." Kyoko also introduced the Jedi that was showing them around.
Priire smiled and bowed her head slightly to each girl. The bow she directed in the Jedi’s direction was larger, and more reverent. "I have a great respect for the Jedi way," she said, grinning. "They seem to turn up at the most opportune times. Anyway, let me show you around my Black Fire Dreamer."
As the girl turned, there was more of a chance to study her. Priire couldn’t have been much older than the Sailor Senshi. Her vibrant blonde hair was braided into thin braids that hung to her shoulders. She walked along easily on bare feet, stepping easily through the corridors. Her arms were bare, otherwise she wore a standard military flight suit. As she lifted her right arm to point out a set of controls, the Sailors saw a marking tracing the length of her arm from the shoulder almost to her elbow. It looked like it was made of sweeping lines, forming a four-petal flower. The flower had what appeared to be ribbons, or long trailing leaves. Priire grinned as she saw the Sailor Senshi looking at her. "Looking at this?" she asked, tracing the mark on her upper arm.
"Yes, we were," five of them said, speaking at once. They looked at each other and grinned. Priire raised an eyebrow and shot a surprised look at the Jedi. He shrugged. "They do that a lot," he told her, speaking in a quiet but rich voice.
"What’s your story?" a pretty blonde asked.
"I’ll tell you," Priire said, agreeably. She tended to tell her story to any available ear. It was both a pleasure, and precaution. "Anyway, this mark is all I have left of my past life. I’ve been told it’s a Seijoutai flower. Oddly enough, it was a Jedi who told me." She shrugged, and continued. "Seems I was orphaned at an early age. Three or four, maybe five. All I really remember is that my mom always told me I was-and I know this sounds trite-special, and someone would come tell me why someday. Weird, huh?" She grinned in sharp contrast to her sad words. "It gets stranger. So an aunt of mine took me in. When I was about nine, she unexpectedly took ill and died. Real suddenly and all that. Next, I go live with a different aunt and uncle on a planet light-years from all I’ve ever known. A car accident later, and I’m homeless again. For the next four years I was bounced from relative to relative until I got sick of it. I ran off at thirteen. I guess I was tired of not hearing anything but ‘Let’s get rid of her.’" She got a speculative look in her eye as she watched the Sailors for a second. "I mentioned I had a great respect for Jedi, right? After I lived on an asteroid miner for a few years I’d pretty much learned everything there was to learn about piloting. I could take a ship the size of my Dreamer in-between two asteroids so close that the proximity sensors started writing their wills, and come out without a scratch! Well," she paused, grinning. "there were the indentations from my co-worker’s fingernails…" She trailed off letting the laughter die down. "I spent a bit of time with a mercenary outfit too. Then one day, I was out working when an asteroid handler misjudged the tractor push needed, and sent it spiraling towards me." She frowned, her pretty face marred by the unhappy expression. "By sheer luck, or" she grinned again, brightening the room. "by the Force, there was a Jedi observer on the deck. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast or been so close to facing death. Not even in swoop races. He used the Force to simultaneously shove the rock to the left and pull me to the right. So he saved my life." As she spoke, her face became seriously intent. "Then he looked me right in the eye and told me to be wary of the anger building within me, that I was special, and someone would come tell me why someday. I seem to run into Jedi everywhere I go! Is that not the strangest?"
Her voice and manner had kept the Sailor Senshi captivated. Priire was a master storyteller. "That’s really amazing," Kokyo said, her eyes lifting up. "Let me tell you what happened to us!" She launched into a rowdy re-telling of the Sailors’ story. The other girls chimed in every once and a while, adding details, clarifying points, and correcting. Priire listened with the intentness of a child, capturing every word. The Jedi watched her carefully. He’d heard stories of her being a space case, a relatively harmless one, but crazy nonetheless. Numa-chan finished off the tale with the story of how she’d met the Senshi.
"You thought my story was amazing!" Priire exclaimed. Quick to believe almost anything until proven otherwise, she was fascinated. "I’ve never heard anything like yours! To be normal girls in an another universe, then be transported here, and find out you were Jedi Sailors? This ‘transformation’ thing, what is it?"
Zyta explained brightly. "We change from being pretty much normal, to being Sailors. It’s really cool!"
"Show me," Priire asked.
The Jedi watched the tall blonde. He didn’t altogether approve of her being on this mission. With a girl like her, you never really knew if she was honestly interested or fishing for sellable information.
"Tatooine power, make up!" Zyta shouted. Priire looked incredulous as she changed from being Zyta, to the grinning Sailor Tatooine.
"Wizard!" Priire exclaimed.
"That sums it up," Kumo-chan said, then paused. "Wait, what did you say that flower was?"
Priire’s brow wrinkled. "It’s a Seijoutai flower. not anything from my home world...not the name atleast. Why?"
The other girl grinned triumphantly. "I knew I recognized it! Seijoutai is Japanese for asteroid!"
"What?" Priire said, with a confused grin. "I thought it was just a random association of letters!"
"You told us your name was Seijoutai Priire," the Jedi said. "Why?"
The blonde shrugged. "It was my last link to my past. You don’t really need a name in some places." There was an unspoken thought behind Priire’s last almost musing words. She didn’t seem ready to disclose it, however.
After a moment of silence, Priire seemed to come back to herself and laughed lightly. "Hey, let’s get this ship in the sky! We have some Sailors to find! And some dust to knock off the hull. You wouldn’t believe the amount of cleaning a trip to Tatooine requires!"
"Understand I do!" Numa-chan laughed.
"You want to go where?" Priire asked.
"A lush green planet called Dagobah," one of the Sailors answered. Priire had forgotten her name, not that it really mattered. She’d never stayed in one place long enough to really need to remember anything like that. She assumed it would be the same this time.
"Dagobah," the Jedi mused. "Master Yoda enjoys that place."
"Mine! Mine!" two of the Sailors said, sounding just like Yoda. "Mine, or I help you not!"
Kumo sighed. "I don’t know them," she said.
Priire laughed. "Oh, Yoda they are," she deadpanned, mimicking the Master. Her hands danced across the control panels as she flew and programmed in hyperspace coordinates. "Check my…ops, never mind."
"Check your what?" asked Zyta.
"Numbers," Priire answered. "Like I said, I spent a lot of time in a starfighter’s cockpit so I’m used to having my hyperspace numbers checked. Prepare for hyperspace."
The two Senshi paused from their Yoda game and strapped in. "Punch it, Chewie!" one giggled.
Priire pulled a lever and the ship leapt in to hyperspace. She had a half smile on her face as she watched the stars lengthen into streaks, then streams as they molded together to form the bright expanse of hyperspace. "Gotta love it. Ok, you can disentangle yourself from the harnesses and go back to your quarters. It’ll be a couple of hours before we reach the Dagobah system."
She turned back to the controls as the Sailors left. The Jedi stayed behind watching the stars. Priire leaned back crossing her arms over her chest. Feeling the Jedi’s eyes on her, she half turned to meet his gentle blue-eyed gaze with her semi-callused green eyes. "What?" she asked softly. Here, on the backdrop of eternity, quiet voices seemed necessary. Loudness would have been almost irreverent.
"What didn’t you tell them?" he asked, matching her quiet tone.
Priire shrugged. "I didn’t not tell them anything," she legalized. "I don’t think they know what a merc is. Or what one does."
"I know what they are and what they do," he replied. "Which band were you with?"
She shrugged, trying to make light of it. "I was with the Red Haze set."
He winced out of habit. While not the worst, the Red Hazers were no one to play around with.
"Yeah," she grinned. "I only went on a few raids. They found out that even though I was really to young to lead a raid, I had a pretty good mind for strategy. You know the…umm…" She looked a little sheepish. "The raid a few years back on the spice freighter convoy lead by Fallen Stars of Paradise?"
He started laughing. "You didn’t!"
"Oh yes I did," she laughed. The raid she’d referred to was one in which a band of pirates had hired the Red Haze. The mercs had arranged the hijacking of the convoy in a relatively spectacular way. Someone had hacked into the computer systems, and reprogrammed the navi-computer. The ships came out of hyperspace just outside a small dying star. The star emitted certain radio waves the wreaked havoc with the communications, propulsion, and life support systems of the vessels. They were easy prey for the experienced hunters. What made the planning so amazing was not only the blending of the disorganized pirates and the highly organized mercenaries, but she had navigated the ships on a course far different from their first with no one suspecting. Plus, she convinced the aggressive aliens to lay down arms. It was a feat of no little strategic planning. He was glad to have her on their side.
Priire yawned. "Sorry, I’m sleepy. The time change from planet time to space time is a killer. For me at least."
"Would you like me to take the controls?" the Jedi asked.
She gave him a hawkbat-like look. "Are you certified to handle this class of ship?" Priire hated to use the autopilot. She space-wise girl had heard one to many stories of ships flying off into the Unknown Regions while their masters slept.
He nodded. Priire seemed reluctant to put her ship in someone else’s hands, but she had a basic trust in Jedi that told her the Dreamer would be safe.
"Dagobah!" Numa-chan exclaimed. "Wow, beautiful it is! This is only the second planet I’ve ever seen from space."
Priire looked at the planet again, trying to see it from a different point of view. The Sailor was right, it was beautiful. Her eyes usually turned to the stars, Priire sometimes missed the planet-bound beauty.
"Well," she said brightly. "Let’s go down!"
After making arrangements with some of the seldom-seen and often changed crew, Priire took the shuttle’s controls in her gloved hands. She navigated carefully, Dagobah’s swamps put a perpetual mist in the air. Guided by the Jedi and the Sailors, she set the small shuttle-named the Black Fire Clone for it was a small copy of it’s mother ship-down on a semi-solid patch of ground.
"Oh, yuck!" Priire wrinkled her nose at the muck her ship was sinking into. Usually impartial, she couldn’t help but exclaim the injustice of her ship getting so dirty. "This place is…"
Suddenly, a voice came from behind them. "Carefully chose you words you should. My Sailor planet this is!" the green Sailor told them. She grinned. "Sailor Dagobah, remember?"" she told them.
"Hi. I’m Priire," Priire teased. "I knew that, I really did!"
"Sure you did," Numa responded.
While the others were chatting about Numa-chan’s mysterious past, Priire was listening. Not to the girls necessarily, but to the underbrush. She shot a look at the Jedi, and was less than pleased when he nodded. Both of them had sensed a hostile presence. Priire had acute senses, and the Jedi had the Force. Priire glanced around. Some of the Sailors were also alert, poised for action.
Priire let out a yell just before the attack came. As one, the five other girls transformed into their Sailor forms, shouting "Dagobah Power Make-up!" "Tatooine power make up!" "Bespin power make up!" "Hoth power make up!" "Naboo power make up!" The five girls transformed, and started attacking.
"Figures," Priire said, under her breath. She was the only female not a Sailor. She shrugged and pulled a blaster. As she was scything blaster fire over the attackers, the Jedi was watching her, lightsaber deflecting blots of energy back into the forest. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "That’s it! ‘I was special, and someone would come tell me why,’" he quoted.
"Right," she said, still aiming and firing at the attackers.
He grinned, "I just figured you out!"
Priire stared at him, blaster forgotten. Her words were almost sarcastic. "I’ve been trying to do that for 15 years. What did you just figure out?"
"You. Say ‘Asteroid Power, Make-up,’" he instructed. When he looked into her laughing eyes, it seemed the laughter had turned bitter. So this was the girl that the fun-loving Priire had to be when she fought.
She gave him a strange look.
"Just say it!" he commanded, putting the full power of the Force behind his words.
As Priire spoke the words, a transformation came over her. Suddenly, in the place of a black flight suit, she had on a short, deep blue skirt. Her torso was covered by black. The spacer’s gloves she’d been wearing were exchanged for a set of elegant black ones that went up to her elbow. She looked at herself. "Not bad. Not bad at all," she decided. "Asteroid Shower Power!" she yelled, loosing a spray of first sized rocks. "I could get to like this!"
She grinned at other Sailors. "Asteroid Null G Power!" Flipping into the air, she perched on a tree. "What a view. Sailor Tatooine, I’m going to lift you up here, ok?"
Sailor Tatooine grinned and responded, "Okeydey!"
Carefully manipulating her newfound powers, Priire lifted the other girl into the air and up to the branch. "Alright," Priire explained. "When you’re up here, the Sandstorm Attack has a greater range. But when you use it, the survivors will be able to pinpoint you position…" She continued on, detailing her plan.
Swinging down from the tree, Priire hung upside down, talking to Sailor Bespin. "Use your gas attack, and confuse them, ok?"
Moving towards Sailor Naboo, the blonde sent a spray of fist sized asteroids in the general direction of the attackers.
After talking with all the Sailors, and the Jedi, they were ready. Priire let loose a wild yell that traveled up and down the scale. Suddenly, organized chaos flooded the area. Naboo, Tatooine, and Hoth let their jewels, sandstorm, and blizzards fly from the trees. Dagobah used her Levitation Attack to pluck the girls out of the trees that were now falling prey to a holocaust of blaster fire. Bespin let her foggy gas attack seep up around the legs of the attackers, confusing them as a rain of Force-driven asteroids fell down on them. Vjun Lightning lit up the foggy area, punctuated with yells. Soon, all activity from within the cloud stopped. Bespin let it dissipate as the Jedi walked in. Coming back out, he shook his head. "Your plan was almost too good," he told Sailor Asteroid. "Few of them are still alive. Those that are, are unconscious."
Sailor Tatooine was of the mind to go help them right away, but Sailor Asteroid stopped her. "First, we need to change back into our so-called normal selves. Then we can help them without fear of them finding out who we are."
The other girls agreed, and soon were helping the three men that were left.
"Priire, that is a bad idea."
"Is not," Priire responded quickly.
"Question them?" the Jedi broke in calmly.
Priire nodded. "Something like that."
Kyoko frowned and started where she’d left off. "We should let a professional do it."
"I am a pro!" Priire protested.
The Jedi nodded. "Let her question them."
After Priire had been in there for almost an hour, she came out disgusted. "This is crazy!"
"Crazier than being a Sailor?" Kirin asked.
Priire half-smiled. "Crazier than that. Try this phrase on for size. ‘We were just looking for slaves!’" She shook her head. "That’s the line two of them gave me. The other one was raving about Sailor Sith. What’s a Sailor Sith??"
The Jedi explained, frowning, that a Sith was basically an evil Jedi. Kyoko took up where he left off, explaining to Priire what Queen Amidala had told them of the Sailor Sith and their evil queen, Kouga Ada in the first dream on back earth.
"So now we have evil Sailors?" Priire asked.
"Who knows?" Zyta replied, unsure. "Maybe he was just crazy."
"That’s what the other two said. I’m not inclined to believe them. They aren’t pirates," Priire said, annoyed that the solution was not presenting itself.
"Waiting seems to be the best answer," the Jedi told them. "Meanwhile, we can go to the next planet on our list. Kashyyyk."
The Sailors grinned, ready for a new adventure.
The Hawkbat Cycle flys farther into danger and closer to the edge in Hawkbat With Talent!
About the Senshi in this story:
Priire (Sailor Asteroid)
Kyoko (Sailor Naboo)
Kirin (Sailor Hoth)
Kumo-chan (Sailor Bespin)
Hisui (Sailor Vjun)
Zyta (Sailor Tatooine)
Numa-chan (Sailor Dagobah)
