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Ancient Moon (Sailor Moon/Stargate SG1) v. 2.0

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by AntonioCC, Jun 21, 2015.

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    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon
    Prologue

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)




    Major Samantha Carter home. Colorado Springs, Colorado.

    Sam Carter was tossing and turning on her sleep, as the same dream that she had intermittently since she started to work with the Stargate, and with increasing frequency after Jolinar, came to her again.


    She was in a vast chamber, operating a computer panel, which it seemed like Ancient technology, as people were crossing a kind of Stargate that was intimately familiar to her dream-self, but that she hadn't seen in her life. She looked up, looking at dream versions of Jack, Daniel and T’ealc, clad in unfamiliar garb and armed with strange weapons.

    Jack and Daniel wore some sort of short tunic and pants ensemble in light grey with silver motifs tones, quite similar to the one that she was wearing, now that she looked at herself, and they were all armed with pistols that looked like something out of a 50s sci-fi movie. T’ealc was wearing a crystalline armor with gold motifs, and armed with a rifle, which had been clearly done with similar aesthetics.

    There was another person, in the door to the chamber, a young woman with mid-length blonde hair and wearing a gold tunic over blue pants, clearly keeping watch over the corridor beyond, through the barely open doors. As the woman had her back to her, she couldn’t see much of her, but she couldn’t avoid a sense of... familiarity, as if she knew her. Suddenly, the woman moved and closed the door, as the last people crossed the event horizon of the wormhole, just before the time limit closed the wormhole.

    “Beryl's minions are in the hallways.” she said, matter of fact. Sam now recognized her, Jennifer Hailey, the young and brash lieutenant that she had met not too long before.

    “Plan E it is.” Said Jack, and then he looked at her. She nodded and got a crystal from the console and smashed it in the ground.

    “Done. The Gate can't call out now. It's an antique, anyway.” Sam heard herself saying. “this madness will stay confined in this system. At least Atlantis managed to get out before things went South.”

    Just in time, as it was, as somebody started to pound on the door to the room.

    "It seems, that we have to make a last stand." she said as the door started to dent.

    "It seems that way." Said Jack, who then faced her, smiling, picking her by the waist and kissing her deeply in the lips, just as the door started to buckle under the hits. They separated, with regret, but they looked into each other eyes and nodded, getting ready, although Jack couldn't avoid making a last observation.

    "We may not be the Princess Guard...” this prompted a hmph from Hailey, but Jack continued as if he hadn’t heard her “... they are holding the thick of the assault by themselves. But this sorry bunch will pay for this in blood." said Jack. “Any last words, people?”

    And Sam Carter awoke in her bed, the last strands of her dream hanging in her memory, as well as the familiar throbbing in her head that always accompanied these dreams, whose meaning escaped her. For a long time she had thought that it had been provoked by her anxieties about the Stargate, represented in her mind as a Fantasy worst case scenario. But this explanation was growing threadbare as the dream was gaining clarity as time passed, as if it was really a memory which was resurfacing, rather that a manifestation of her subconscious.

    'Focus, Sam, focus.' She thought, trying to get her mind out of those things, as she took a Tylenol 'It's only a dream, nothing more.'

    She looked at the hour and decided not to try to get back to sleep, she had to be in the SGC in a couple hours. She took her breakfast, showered and got dressed in her uniform, and every free moment her mind went back to her dream. It had looked so real. She couldn't shake the feeling that they were memories... and they felt like hers, not Jolinar's. Maybe she had to talk about it with Dad, well, rather Selmak in this case.

    Somewhere in outer space

    "It's strange that you came here in person... so to speak, giving your kind's penchant for hiding behind their brainwashed soldiers." a cold and harsh female voice said in a condescending tone, with barely a hint of surprise in her voice. "Now, before I lose my patience, worm, why did you want this meeting?"

    "As you probably already know, I'm not usual for my kind.." an inhumanly deep male voice answered, in a patient tone, like the one that one would use with a slow child. "Now, as for why I wanted this meeting... We are both the most powerful of our kind, and a fight between us will at least weaken the winner enough for our enemies to take us down easily, and very probably would destroy us both."

    "And...?" said the woman, archly.

    "I'm proposing an alliance." Said the male voice

    "An interesting proposal..." started to say the female voice, her voice fading in the background

    And then she saw an upright ring of stone, with engraved signs, and a glowing, watery surface in its center.

    Rei Hino, Sailor Mars, awoke with a gasp. Quickly, she reassured herself, she was in her flat in Tokyo, but she couldn't repress a shiver. She hadn't had a premonition so strong since all the mess with the Messiah of Silence.

    The part of her that was exclusively Sailor Mars, the Senshi of flame and passion, had recognized the ring, but the feeling had disappeared too quickly to find out its origin. This premonition puzzled her, as there was no clue of the identities of both enemies, as well as the lack of images, other than the ring of stone. Tomorrow she would try to get a vision on the fire, and warn the others, as apparently new enemies would show their face in a short time. She opened the window and looked at the lights of the city below, and then to the clouds hiding the few stars that could be seen in the middle of the city.

    "A storm is coming." She said, as she felt a gust of wind, full of the scent of the sea.

    The house shared by the Outer Senshi

    Two women, a tall blonde with short hair, and the other with shoulder length wavy teal hair were sleeping together in the same bed. Another woman, a tall, dark-skinned woman with long green hair opened the door for a moment before closing it. The noise awakened the blonde, who spent several minutes just looking at her partner, who was moving and mumbling in her sleep, seemingly in her way to awakening. The teal-haired woman finally opened her eyes, saying something under her breath.

    "What did you say, Michiru?" said Haruka Tenoh, Sailor Uranus, seeing the worried expression of her girlfriend.

    "I said, Haruka, that a storm is coming." Said Michiru Kaioh, Sailor Neptune, looking at her lover and partner directly in her eyes. "And I'm not talking about the weather. Pick your clothes, we need to talk with the others."

    Stargate Command

    Daniel rubbed his eyes after waking up, having fallen asleep over the pictures that he had examined, that had been taken by the SG-7 in PGS-345. Obviously, he hadn’t planned this, but with all the all-nighters he had pulled lately, mostly to avoid the weird dreams of last weeks, he hadn’t even finished with the murals. He took his notebook and started to take a few quick notes.

    They depicted mural writings in Ancient, although judging by the architectural style of the ruins where it was found, it was probably one of the most modern Ancient settlements in the Galaxy, dated only a few thousand years ago. If that world weren’t now under Baal’s control, he would be happy to spend there some time.

    Back to the pictures, it was a recount of one event that had been obliquely alluded in some other Ancient texts that they had recovered, the fall of an important system to an enemy. But it was told in a very mythologized form, which, together with some archaic turns of phrase, made him wonder if the Ancients in that planet had fallen into a Dark Age somehow...

    The story, as told in the inscriptions talked about how the enemy, which according to the text had been guided by “a spirit of chaos and darkness that had been hidden in the Sun” had been opposed by a group of female warriors, called the Anima Mundi, who had died defending their ruler. This ruler, also a woman, although the term used for her title was an Ancient word he wasn’t all that familiar with, Rexis, had used an artifact, Empyreon Argyrokrystalos, to “seal the darkness” and give the fallen defenders... something. Unfortunately the wall was damaged in that part, but seemed to be derived from the same root than the Ancient word for Ascension, although that was not clearly the case.

    “Good enough for now.” He told to himself before getting down to the mess hall for breakfast and a big cup of extra-strong coffee. Once he got this, he noticed Sam, sitting alone, picking absently from a tray while she was drawing something in a leaf of paper.

    “Hello, Sam. What’s the matter?.”

    “Oh, I came early to get the results from Takahashi team on P7X-326.” Sam said, still absently doodling in the leaf "But other than some preliminary data, they haven't transmitted much. And you?"

    "I fell asleep on my desk." Daniel recognized with a chuckle. "Too many all-nighters. Not to speak of..." he trailed off when he noticed what Sam had drawn, because that wasn't a doodle. "Sam, look at what you are drawing."

    "What? I was just..." said Sam, before looking at the paper. "Shit."

    '36 symbols, different looking chevrons, it's exactly like the one in my dream...' she thought 'And the signs that I have been drawing, mixed with modern letter... it looks like Ancient. Orlin, if this comes from you...' she send the thought to Ancient that she had befriended recently. There was no answer; not that she expected one, as there had been no word from Orlin since the destruction of the weapon in Velona.

    Daniel's attention were drawn to two words written in modern alphabet: Serenitas Rexis. Serenitas was the name of the ruler who had used the artifact in the story depicted in PGS-345 murals.

    "It's really Ancient or it's Ancient-sounding gibberish?· asked Sam, with a little hint of anxiety in her voice.

    "Ancient." Daniel confirmed "Look here, 'Astria Porta', that means..."

    "Stargate." Sam said

    "Yeah, and not only that, but the construction of some words is... archaic, more similar to Greek than Latin." Daniel said "In fact..."

    He was interrupted by the sudden sound of the alarm.

    "Later." Sam said.

    "Later." Daniel repeated, nodding.

    P7X-326

    “Doc, can’t you do it more quickly? Those Jaffa are almost here!” Captain Martha Mason, acting CO of SG-19, said to the head of the science team, Doctor Karen Takahashi, who was keying the address in the DHD, while the remaining members of SG-17 and SG-19 tried to hold the fort.

    "It's not easy to press the keys while dodging staff blasts, you know!" she shouted as she pressed the last symbol, and the wormhole opened. Just in time, as a Death Glider appeared on the horizon

    “Come on people!” Colonel Dixon, commander of SG-17, said as he and Captain Mason used suppression fire to give them time to scramble for the Gate.

    Doctor Takahashi, started to run up the stairs, but trying to dodge a blast, she stumbled and almost fell, only for Mason to pick her up and jump into the wormhole, just as the Death Glider gun bolts impacted on the gate.

    Somewhere

    "My head..." moaned Karen Takahasi, as she tried to get up, only to be kept in the ground by a gentle, but strong hand. She had her eyes open, but she didn't see anything.

    "Don't move, Doc." said the voice of Martha Mason, over her. Karen then felt something moving near her face "How many fingers do I have here?"

    Karen groaned as Mason's weird humor sense reared its ugly head again.

    "How the hell can I know? I can't see anything!' said Karen, as the darkness didn't alleviate as her head cleared and the details of the mission came back to her.

    "Okay, okay. And you're right, Karen, it's pitch black down here." said Mason, rummaging in her pockets. "Wherever it is."

    "Wherever? I was dialing the SGC!" said Karen, a bit of panic seeping into her voice.

    "Have you read how we discovered the Antarctica Gate, you know, the one that the SGC was using for some time." Said Mason, as she kept messing with her pockets.

    "Something involving the SG-1 trying to cross the gate under heavy... oh." she said as she realized what Mason was trying to say. 'Damn it! I studied the physics involved when I joined the program. Why didn't I remembered it?' she thought, and said aloud, analyzing the situation "The energy bolts from the Jaffa and that Death Glider must have overloaded the wormhole and deviated it to another gate."

    "Pretty much. Ah, here it is!" she said as she produced something from her pockets, she twisted it, breaking something inside and shook it, revealing that it was a glow stick. "Better to conserve the flashlight batteries, besides, I have like two dozens of these things, good for like twelve hours or so. How many have you?"

    "Uh... Standard load?" ventured Karen, she didn't remember how many did she had, honestly.

    "That makes another dozen, good." Said Mason. "At least we won't be sitting in the darkness." Using the light, Karen checked her own pockets. She had packed the standard load, indeed. And given how much a pack rat Mason was, they shouldn't have to worry for food for some time, so she looked around.

    The dim light of the glow stick revealed a rather spacious room, with the gate in an end and an open door in the other. The Stargate was different to any that they had seen, being darker and smaller with different looking chevrons. The symbols, though, looked like cruder versions of the ones in the normal Stargate. On one side, of the gate a control panel could be seen, pretty intact, for what she could see.

    She went to the control panel, but it looked like even if it was intact, it had no energy to operate. At least the signs on the different controls made identifying its origin quite easy.

    "Martha, I can be wrong, after all I'm not an archeologist, but I think that this is Ancient." Said Karen with a frown

    "The gates were build by the Ancients, so what..." started to say Mason

    "I mean that all of this." interrupted Karen, waving her hand around, "This installation was built by the Ancients, not the Goauld, and this..." she said, pointing to the Stargate "...could be a prototype Stargate."

    "Jumping a bit ahead, aren't we?" said Mason

    "Well, maybe." She conceded "But I want to explore these installations, who knows what could be here in the other rooms. Why don't you come with me?"

    "Are you mad?" said Mason looking at her like she effectively was mad "To go wandering around when they could find us in any moment?"

    "We have the radios to communicate and..." started to say Karen

    "And we don't know if they work through the walls of this place, or if there is some kind of dampening field in this place that could make them useless." interrupted Mason.

    "It has an easy solution. We can test, and I can use the glow sticks as bread crumbs to guide me back." Said Karen, reasonably.

    "But..." she started to say, but she stopped, as she didn't really had no counter to that.

    "But what?" said Karen, recognizing the sign.

    Mason sighed and raised her hand in surrender.

    "Very well, you can go to explore this, but I'm going with you. After all..." she said collecting her weapon"...we don't know what could be here. But remember, the moment that we find something remotely weird or dangerous, we come back."

    "..."

    "What?" said Mason as she got her notebook and scribbled a message to their would-be rescuers.

    "...All right." Conceded Karen.

    Mason didn't answer, as she was leaving the note under the glow stick, and the glow stick in the control panel, in case that a rescue party came, and followed the scientist through the corridors. She thanked her stars that the younger woman was quite coordinated, remembering stories about Daniel Jackson clumsiness back in the first days of the SGC.

    "So, what do you think that the planet looks like?" said Mason to make a bit conversation as they checked empty rooms along the corridor.

    "Small, thin atmosphere, probably quite arid..." said Karen

    "And how do you know that?" asked Mason

    "Well, gravity seems to be weaker than home, 0.8 times Earth gravity more or less, and..." she said as they opened another door and found a machine that seemed to be working. Karen went quickly to the control panel, and looking at the signs.

    "Ok, I rectify, this planet, if it's a planet, is probably uninhabitable." Said Karen, and pointed to the machine. 'I have to thank Doctor Jackson for that Ancient lexicon that he compiled for the other SG teams', she thought, before adding "That, if I'm reading this correctly, is an artificial gravity generator."

    "And that means..." said Mason in an interrogative tone

    "That if it have a functioning gravity generator, but it still 0.8 g, the planetoid must be quite small."

    "All right" said Mason, looking around, not seeing anything else in the room. "Let's keep going, then."

    They kept looking until they found, almost hidden in what seemed like a closet a thing that looked suspiciously like an access hatch, with a manual opening.

    "Shall we open it?" asked Karen "It could go into the vacuum."

    "I find it doubtful, unless the Ancients were complete morons. A double hatch or a forcefield is more probable." Said Martha.

    Karen, nodded and opened it a sliver. After no escaping air was heard, she opened it fully and saw... a ladder, but what was more important, it seemed like it was open up.

    "Forcefield, or some kind of bubble." said Karen "I'll go up, at least we'll get a glimpse of this world..."

    "All right." Said Mason, leaving space for the scientist to climb up the ladder.

    When she climbed all the way up, she found herself in a small observation post. Looking around, she was about to pass it when what she had just seen registered in her mind, the very familiar sight in front of her.

    "No... way..." said Karen.

    "What is the..." started to say Mason, stopping herself when she saw the same thing that Karen had seen. Because outside, hanging over an arid, whitish landscape, they could see a blue and green globe, a planet, a very familiar planet.

    Earth, as seen from the Moon.

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
  3. Starfox5

    Starfox5 Experienced.

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    Intriguing beginning. I like how you are fitting the two verses into each other. Will the SGC see newspaper reports from Tokyo about the Senshi, dismissing them as hoaxes? Or were the events three less publicized?
     
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  4. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    A bit of column A and a bit of column B. In the first version of the story I never reached the point where it was explained (I got bogged down in the first meeting between the Senshi and the SG-1), but there were additional reasons why knowledge of the Senshi in the States is marginal outside a minority of fans.
     
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  5. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    THe second part of the second chapter is becoming a real hassle (due to a near total rewrite), so I'm posting this snippet of the earlier part.​

    The Moon

    'The flow of the time stream is becoming muddled. I wonder what it presages. ' Thought Sailor Pluto, as she got up from the place where she had been trying to meditate.

    She looked around, remembering the Palace gardens and the artificial lake that had been there, before the fall of the Silver Millenium, and remembered the words of one American astronaut, 'Buzz Aldrin, I think', about the Moon.

    'Magnificent desolation, indeed' she thought.

    But it hadn't always been that way. When their people had come to this Galaxy, fleeing from their home, they had scattered all over the Galaxy, isolated from each other. While the first colonies in the System had been set in Luna and Terra, there had been plans to colonize all the all the planets in the Solar System. With the development of the Astria Porta, the first step of a galactic community had been given. She closed her eyes, remembering the marvels of what had truly been a Golden Age. But as the Bard wrote, all good things must come to an end.

    And to an end they came.

    The first sign of it was to come were the problems in the Golden Kingdom of Earth. There had always been people on Earth who resented that the Moon Kingdom was more advanced, having fought some wars in the dark years before Serenity’s crowning, but it wasn't until a minor noblewoman called Beryl become their spokeswoman, that they became more than a nuisance. The fact that Prince Endymion had fallen in love with Princess Serenity, instead of some Earth woman, namely Beryl herself, who had wanted Endymion's hand before, also played into the fears of people who otherwise would not have given Beryl's faction a second thought.

    The Atlantis Council tried to play as a mediator between the factions, but they failed. In the end, after Beryl physically attacked Endymion and Serenity, she and her followers were exiled to the North, where they founded a community and Beryl styled herself as Queen. Other than some eye-rolling and mumbling in Avalon and Elysium for her presumption, it seemed that the peace had been restored on Earth, until the news of the Plague spreading in the Galaxy came to the Solar System.

    Nobody knew where the first case had been diagnosed, or rather there had been so many first cases near simultaneously on many worlds over the Galaxy. When the first cases were diagnosed on Earth and the Moon, the Atlantis Council panicked and fled the Galaxy. This news led to unrest and riots, fostered by the agents that Beryl had either left behind or recruited afterwards, some times against their will. When that unrest reached its cusp, the Dark Kingdom struck and destroyed the Golden Kingdom. Some people managed to escape the attack and warn the Moon. It was then when the Queen heard for the first time the name of Queen Metalia, the infernal power that had been whispering to Beryl's ear for a long time, and was seen as a dark shadow over Beryl's army in the assault to Avalon.

    Without real time for the Silver Millenium to prepare, the Dark Kingdom followed with an all-out assault into the Moon, helped by that infernal abomination, the same power that had aided Beryl in her plans. And it was the end of the Silver Millenium.

    Uranus, Neptune and herself came too late to help in the fight, but the reunion of the three Talismans had accidentally invoked Sailor Saturn, the Senshi of Ruin and Birth, who had killed everything that remained alive in the Solar System. At least, for the scarce survivors had been a blessing in disguise, giving them a gentle death, instead of a slow, painful death by asphyxia, starvation, or worse.

    Afterwards, she had reappeared at the Space-Time Door, beginning her lonely vigil that would last for millions of years. Fortunately, she had always been a loner, which was the reason why the Queen chose her to be its guardian. Her loneliness over the aeons had only been interrupted by the infrequent visit of those of her people that had Ascended, ever curious about their past, although they had become more and more stand-offish as time passed. And somehow, after her death stopping time, she found that she was still there, in the pocket dimension where the Door was placed, as well as outside, reincarnated as Setsuna Meioh, student in the Mugen Academy.

    Her thoughts were interrupted by voices coming from a nearby place, one of the camouflaged observation posts, that were all over the old gardens. When she looked there she saw two people, standing with their backs to her, wearing some kind of uniform. They seemed transfixed looking at the Earth, which was full at that time. She approached in silence, noticing the flag on the uniforms as she got nearer.

    'How have those Americans come here?' thought Pluto, pursing her lips. Objectively she knew that eventually, the remains from the Silver Millenium would be discovered, but she thought that it would be quite in the future, and she couldn't avoid feeling worried. Maybe she was doing Humanity a disservice, but she doubted that as it was today, they had the maturity to discover their tech without blowing themselves up, and the underground levels under the Palace included research labs, armories, the old Command Bunker in the lowest level, and...

    'Of course, the prototype Astria Porta in the first level. That's how they arrived here.'
    She thought, mentally slapping herself for having forgotten about it. This also explained something that she had overheard as Setsuna Meioh, the physics student, before her awakening 'Yes, that would explain the American government sudden interest in wormhole experts a few years ago, they probably found the Atlantis Porta back then.'

    Unfortunately, she was so focused in the two women that she didn't notice that she was stepping on a small stone, making her lose her footing and fall on one knee. Worse still, the noise had attracted the attention of both women.

    When Mason turned, her eyes were still adapted to the light and only saw a crouched figure with a long staff, seemingly pointed towards them. She reacted on instinct, diving for cover and bringing up her weapon.

    Karen was not a trained soldier, and she haven't had the reflexes honed by dozens of firefights like Daniel Jackson, so by the time she had done like Major Mason, her eyes had already adjusted to the light and was capable of seeing the intruder more clearly. She saw a tall, dark-skinned woman, clad in a white leotard with a black sailor collar, a black miniskirt, a dark garnet ribbon in the chest with a heart shaped brooch, weird looking short sleeves, opera gloves with some weird black thing in the end, and black low-heeled knee-high boots with a white band in the upper side. The metallic staff in her left hand resembled a giant skeleton key, with a garnet colored sphere in the bow. It seemed somewhat familiar to her, but she...

    'Oh, God. It's her.' She thought. The uniform was somewhat different from the grainy pictures the she had seen in the message boards, but the woman was undoubtedly one of the unknown Senshi that had appeared in the last months. "You're a Sailor Senshi." She blurted out.

    "Sailor Pluto, to be precise." Stated the woman in a calm voice, speaking in slightly accented English. "We seem to have started on the wrong footing, though. I don't mean you harm, I like to meditate a bit further from the Palace and when I was returning, I heard your voices."

    Karen didn't answer, as she felt very out of her depth just now. 'I'm a physicist with archeology as a hobby, not a diplomat, for Pete's sake.' She thought, looking at Martha, who was eyeing Pluto with wariness.

    "It seems a show of good will is needed." said Pluto as she dropped the key-staff, and stood there with her arms crossed and waiting.

    Karen was the first to get up, while Martha slowly and carefully following suit, trying to remain under cover until she ascertained the situation. When she saw that the woman wasn't making any aggressive movement, she finally got up, keeping her weapon trained at her, while she examined the supposed 'Sailor Pluto' in detail. It looked genuine, from what she recalled from that images that Karen had shown her in her periodic bouts of fangirlism, but she had always thought that the group of supposed Japanese superheroines were either a hoax or a publicity stunt for some cartoon.

    Seeing the expression on her friend's face, Karen rolled up her eyes. Even after she had told how Sailor Moon, and the other Senshi had saved her butt when she was visiting her mother's family in Tokyo, the other people in the SGC remained skeptical about the Senshi existence.

    'I suppose that for a lot of people what they don't see in the CNN, or other news network, is not real' she thought.

    "Look, Karen, I have heard you gushing about the 'Sailor Senshi' enough times to know that you are a fan, but how do you know that it's not a shape shifting or telepathic alien messing with your head?" said Mason.

    "I think that in that case, Mason, it would have used a Senshi that I would have seen in person, not in grainy pictures, and one that would be more natural to find here, like Sailor Moon." retorted Karen, glaring at her friend, and Mason glaring back.

    Pluto sighed inwardly at the two women antics. 'They are worse than Haruka and Michiru' she thought. "Look, Major, you don't really have reasons to trust me." said Pluto "After all, I sneaked on you, after getting a real shock of having ended on the Moon, and the only word that I'm in the good side is the word of a self-professed fan."

    "Hmmmm... You are right. But a point in your favor is that you aren't trying putting the usual 'a god am I' or 'die, unbeliever' crap that we are used to find in our enemies" She said, releasing her grip on her weapon. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt... for now."

    That merited an arched eyebrow as a reaction from Pluto. That sounded decidedly odd...

    'Just on what did they run out there? Did the Ori start to invade? No, I don't think that Earth forces would be able to disrupt an Ori conquest of the Galaxy, so it has to be something else.' she thought. 'I need more information.'

    "Now, If you don't mind, I'll make a few educated guesses, about how did you arrived here." She cleared her throat and started to speak "Some time ago, your people found a ring of what looked like stone, with strange glyphs. Probably on Antarctica, I'd say."

    'Shit! How does she know?' thought Karen, as she was aware of the discovery of the Beta gate. Hell, before getting assigned to a SG team she was in the team that studied its DHD.

    'It seems that I was right' Pluto thought, seeing her expression, before she continued speaking as if she hadn't noticed

    "Upon further study you realized that it wasn't what it seemed and eventually you devised a way to activate it, opening wormholes back and forth. You started to explore using the Astria Porta, probably to get access to alien technology, but you stepped on some toes doing so. Something bad happened during one of those explorations and you accidentally ended here."

    'Fuck!' thought Mason. While a very general outline, she had hit most of the important points of the Stargate program. 'Although, why does she think we are using the Beta Gate?.'

    'Astria Porta? That sound like Ancient... it could be simply Latin, though.' thought Karen 'I wonder...'

    "Even if it was true, something that I'm not admitting, by the way, I couldn't discuss it with a foreign national... or anybody who didn't got enough clearance." said Mason

    "It's not that, Major " said Pluto, cocking her head "What I'm saying you is that I have a certain knowledge of how to operate the Porta..."

    "It's no use, the console is dead..." said Karen, shaking her head

    “Let me examine it at least.” Pluto said.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2015
  6. macdjord

    macdjord Well worn.

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    Even startled, opening fire on an unknown target that isn't doing anything obviously threatening isn't really an appropriate response. The SGC are generally more competent than that.
     
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  7. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    It was not that long that they had fled from a Jaffa attack, and they had just discovered that they were marooned with few hopes of rescue. Add to that, the fact that she had manged to sneak on them unnoticed, that Martha Mason's eyes hadn't yet adapted from looking at the full Earth, and that what she saw was a crouched figure with a staff pointing directly to them.

    Yes, it would have been better to take cover with Karen, but she thought she had a split second to make a decision. Hammond will probably chew her out later, and she will have to face some repercussions.

    In the other hand, one of the reasons for the rewrite was to take advice about improvements, so, taking in consideration the factors that I ennumerated earlier, how do you think she should have reacted?
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2015
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  8. macdjord

    macdjord Well worn.

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    There are several options:
    • Instead of actually opening fire on sight, have Martha go 'Holy shit!' and dive for cover while bringing up her weapon.
      • If you really want gunfire, have Pluto - herself a trained warrior - react by bringing up a shield or taking a combat stance or something; that would be a good enough reason for her to open fire
    • Have Pluto decide to scan them or cast something, and they catch sight of her just as she's bringing up her staff to do it. 'Unknown person pointing something sticklike in our general direction' isn't a good enough reason to open fire - not under these circumstances; it would be a different story if they were already in a firefight or had reason to expect a Jaffa ambush - but 'Unknown person bringing a staff up to point at us' is.
    • Reset the scene closer to their arrival, so that 'Oh shit there are Jaffa here too' is a reasonable reaction.
     
  9. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Something like this?:

     
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  10. macdjord

    macdjord Well worn.

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    Looks good to me.
     
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  11. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Thanks, I'll edit the snippet with the revised version.
     
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  12. Threadmarks: Chapter 1
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon
    Chapter 1
    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    <O>​

    The Moon

    'The flow of the time stream is becoming muddled. I wonder what it presages.' Thought Sailor Pluto, as she got up from the place where she had been trying to meditate.

    She looked around, remembering the Palace gardens and the artificial lake that had been there, before the fall of the Silver Millenium, and remembered the words of one American astronaut, 'Buzz Aldrin, I think', about the Moon.

    'Magnificent desolation, indeed.' she thought.

    But it hadn't always been that way. When their people had come to this Galaxy, fleeing from their home, they had scattered all over the Galaxy, isolated from each other. While the first colonies in the System had been set in Luna and Terra, there had been plans to colonize all the planets in the Solar System. With the development of the Astria Porta, the first steps to form a galactic community had been given. She closed her eyes, remembering the marvels of what had truly been a Golden Age. But as the Bard wrote, all good things must come to an end.

    And to an end they came.

    The first sign of it was to come were the problems in the Golden Kingdom of Earth. There had always been people on Earth who resented that the Moon Kingdom was richer and more technologically advanced, having even fought some wars between Earth and the Moon in the dark years before Serenity’s crowning, but things had quieted since. But when a minor noblewoman called Beryl become their spokeswoman, that they became more than a nuisance. The fact that Prince Endymion had fallen in love with Princess Serenity, instead of some Earth woman, namely Beryl herself, who had pretended Endymion's hand before, also played into the fears of people who otherwise would not have given Beryl's faction a second thought.

    The Atlantis Council tried to play as a mediator between the factions, but they failed. In the end, after Beryl physically attacked Endymion and Serenity, she and her followers were exiled to the North, where they founded a community, the so-called Dark Kingdom, with Beryl styling herself as their Queen. Other than some eye-rolling and mumbling in Avalon and Elysium for her presumption, it seemed that the peace had been restored on Earth, until the news of the Plague spreading in the Galaxy came to the Solar System.

    Nobody knew where the first case had been diagnosed, or rather there had been so many first cases near simultaneously on many worlds over the Galaxy. When the first cases were diagnosed on Earth and the Moon, the Atlantis Council panicked and fled the Galaxy. This news led to unrest and riots, fostered by the agents that Beryl had either left behind or recruited afterwards, some times against their will. When that unrest reached its cusp, the Dark Kingdom struck and destroyed the Golden Kingdom. Some people managed to escape the attack and warn the Moon. It was then when the Queen heard for the first time the name of Queen Metalia, the infernal power that had been whispering to Beryl's ear for a long time, and was seen as a dark shadow over Beryl's army in the assault to Avalon.

    Without real time for the Silver Millenium to prepare, the Dark Kingdom followed with an all-out assault into the Moon, helped by that infernal abomination, the same power that had aided Beryl in her plans. And it was the end of the Silver Millenium.

    Uranus, Neptune and herself came too late to help in the fight, but the reunion of the three Talismans had accidentally invoked Sailor Saturn, the Senshi of Ruin and Birth, who had killed everything that remained alive in the Solar System. At least, for the scarce survivors had been a blessing in disguise, giving them a gentle death, instead of a slow, painful death by asphyxia, starvation, or worse.

    Afterwards, she had reappeared at the Space-Time Door, beginning her lonely vigil that would last for millions of years. Fortunately, she had always been a loner, which was the reason why the Queen chose her to be its guardian. Her loneliness over the aeons had only been interrupted by the infrequent visit of those of her people that had Ascended, ever curious about their past, although they had become more and more stand-offish as time passed. And somehow, after her death stopping time, she found that she was still there, in the pocket dimension where the Door was placed, as well as outside, reincarnated as Setsuna Meioh, student in the Mugen Academy.

    Her thoughts were interrupted by voices coming from a nearby place, one of the camouflaged observation posts, that were all over the old gardens. When she looked there she saw two people, standing with their backs to her, wearing some kind of uniform. They seemed transfixed looking at the Earth, which was full at that time. She approached in silence, noticing the flag on the uniforms as she got nearer.

    'How have those Americans come here?' thought Pluto, pursing her lips. Objectively she knew that eventually, the remains from the Silver Millenium would be discovered, but she thought that it would be quite in the future, and she couldn't avoid feeling worried. Maybe she was doing Humanity a disservice, but she doubted that, as it was today, they had the maturity to discover their tech without blowing themselves up, and the underground levels under the Palace included research labs, armories, the old Command Bunker in the lowest level, and...

    'Of course, the prototype Astria Porta in the first level. That's how they arrived here.' She thought, mentally slapping herself for having forgotten about it. This also explained something that she had overheard as Setsuna Meioh, the college student, before her awakening 'Yes, that would explain the American government sudden interest in wormhole experts a few years ago, they probably found the Atlantis Porta back then.'

    Unfortunately, she was so focused in the two women that she didn't notice that she was stepping on a small stone, making her lose her footing and fall on one knee. Worse still, the noise had attracted the attention of both women.


    When Mason turned, her eyes were still adapted to the light and only saw a crouched figure with a long staff, seemingly pointed towards them. She reacted on instinct, diving for cover and bringing up her weapon.

    Karen was not a trained soldier, and she haven't had the reflexes honed by dozens of firefights like Daniel Jackson, so by the time she had done like Major Mason, her eyes had already adjusted to the light and was capable of seeing the intruder more clearly.

    She saw a tall, dark-skinned woman, clad in a white leotard with a black sailor collar, a black miniskirt, a dark garnet ribbon in the chest with a heart shaped brooch, weird looking short sleeves, opera gloves with some weird black thing in the end, and black low-heeled knee-high boots with a white band in the upper side. The metallic staff in her left hand resembled a giant skeleton key, with a garnet colored sphere in the bow. It seemed somewhat familiar to her, but she...

    'Oh, God. It's her.' She thought. The uniform was somewhat different from the grainy pictures the she had seen in the message boards, but the woman was undoubtedly one of the unknown Senshi that had appeared in the last months. "You're a Sailor Senshi." She blurted out.

    "Sailor Pluto, to be precise." Stated the woman in a calm voice, speaking in slightly accented English. "We seem to have started on the wrong footing, though. I don't mean you harm, I like to meditate a bit further from the Palace and when I was returning, I heard your voices."

    Karen didn't answer, as she felt very out of her depth just now. 'I'm a physicist with archeology as a hobby, not a diplomat, for Pete's sake.' She thought, looking at Martha, who was eyeing Pluto with wariness.

    "It seems a show of good will is needed." said Pluto as she dropped the key-staff, and stood there with her arms crossed and waiting.

    Karen was the first to get up, while Martha slowly and carefully following suit, trying to remain under cover until she ascertained the situation. When she saw that the woman wasn't making any aggressive movement, she finally got up, keeping her weapon trained at her, while she examined the supposed 'Sailor Pluto' in detail. It looked genuine, from what she recalled from that images that Karen had shown her in her periodic bouts of fangirlism, but she had always thought that the group of supposed Japanese superheroines were either a hoax or a publicity stunt for some cartoon.

    Seeing the expression on her friend's face, Karen rolled up her eyes. Even after she had told how Sailor Moon, and the other Senshi had saved her butt when she was visiting her mother's family in Tokyo, the other people in the SGC remained skeptical about the Senshi existence.

    'I suppose that for a lot of people what they don't see in the CNN, or other news network, is not real' she thought.

    "Look, Karen, I have heard you gushing about the 'Sailor Senshi' enough times to know that you are a fan, but how do you know that it's not a shape shifting or telepathic alien messing with your head?" said Mason.

    "I think that in that case, Mason, it would have used a Senshi that I would have seen in person, not in grainy pictures, and one that would be more natural to find here, like Sailor Moon." retorted Karen, glaring at her friend, and Mason glaring back.

    Pluto sighed inwardly at the two women antics. 'They are worse than Haruka and Michiru' she thought. "Look, Major, you don't really have reasons to trust me." said Pluto "After all, I sneaked on you, after getting a real shock of having ended on the Moon, and the only word that I'm in the good side is the word of a self-professed fan."

    "Hmmmm... You are right. But a point in your favor is that you aren't trying putting the usual 'a god am I' or 'die, unbeliever' crap that we are used to find in our enemies" She said, releasing her grip on her weapon. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt... for now."

    That merited an arched eyebrow as a reaction from Pluto. That sounded decidedly odd...

    'Just on what did they run out there? Did the Ori start to invade? No, I don't think that Earth forces would be able to disrupt an Ori conquest of the Galaxy, so it has to be something else.' she thought. 'I need more information.'

    "Now, If you don't mind, I'll make a few educated guesses, about how did you arrived here." She cleared her throat and started to speak "Some time ago, your people found a ring of what looked like stone, with strange glyphs. Probably on Antarctica, I'd say."

    'Shit! How does she know?' thought Karen, as she was aware of the discovery of the Beta gate. Hell, before getting assigned to a SG team she was in the team that studied its DHD.

    'It seems that I was right' Pluto thought, seeing her expression, before she continued speaking as if she hadn't noticed

    "Upon further study you realized that it wasn't what it seemed and eventually you devised a way to activate it, opening wormholes back and forth. You started to explore using the Astria Porta, probably to get access to alien technology, but you stepped on some toes doing so. Something bad happened during one of those explorations and you accidentally ended here."

    'Fuck!' thought Mason. While a very general outline, she had hit most of the important points of the Stargate program. 'Although, why does she think we are using the Beta Gate?.'

    'Astria Porta? That sound like Ancient... it could be simply Latin, though.' thought Karen 'I wonder...'

    "Even if it was true, something that I'm not admitting, by the way, I couldn't discuss it with a foreign national... or anybody who didn't got enough clearance." said Mason

    "It's not that, Major " said Pluto, cocking her head "What I'm saying you is that I have a certain knowledge of how to operate the Porta..."

    "It's no use, the console is dead..." said Karen, shaking her head

    “Let me examine it at least.” Pluto said.

    Stargate Command Infirmary

    Major Dixon awoke to find General Hammond and Doctor Frasier, looking at him with concern.

    "Sir!" he tried to stand, but his body was aching all over, specially the left half of his face, where he could feel, barely, a bandage over a good part of his face.

    "At ease, Major." Said the general, "Now, what happened in the planet?"

    Dixon closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started to speak

    "Colonel Keller is dead, sir. We run into an ambush from Anubis' Jaffa, we think that they were Anubis, at least, and he got killed..." he got silent for a moment remembering his superior officer, a man he deeply respected, die before his eyes, blown to pieces by the simultaneous impact of several staff blasts.

    "Major, if this is..." started to say Hammond

    "I can do it, sir. Allow me a moment to collect my thoughts." Said Dixon, who then continued talking "I assumed command and we ran back to the 'gate. I managed to get a security perimeter around it, but we were under heavy fire... We lost Maxwell and Sorkin..." his voice nearly broke for a moment, before he steeled himself and continued speaking "We had barely managed to get the gate open when they got a Death Glider to strafe on us. We ran toward the gate as the Glider shot at us, and when we got in the room we were flying... and I don’t remember any more, until I awakened here."

    "Thank you, Major. " Said the general, who then turned to leave as the doctor adjusted the IV that was attached to the Major’s arm. Dixon lied down in the bed, his eyes closing as the sedative stated to make effect.

    Tsukino residence. Juuban district, Tokyo

    Usagi Small Lady Serenity Tsukino, Crown Princess of Crystal Tokyo, Sailor Senshi in training, and known in the present era as Chibiusa Tsukino (or not so nicely as "the pink spore of doom") couldn't sleep. She deeply missed her family in the future. She missed going to her parents' bed when she was afraid, feeling that reassuring warmth, and sleeping without a care in the world. She missed the Senshi of her time, not that hanging out with them in the current era wasn't fun, especially Saturn, but...

    She yawned, she really was sleepy, she realized. She really missed mommy and daddy, but she'd settle for the next best thing. She found Usagi sleeping peacefully, with her face softly illuminated by the moonlight. She smiled, remembering how she had found her mother many times the same way, and did the same that she had done many times before. She kissed her in the forehead, where the Moon mark would stand in the future, and quietly, trying not to awaken her, she laid into Usagi's bed, curling just between Usagi's arms.

    In her sleep Usagi felt her future daughter and unconsciously hugged her, enveloping the little girl in a warm embrace. Chibiusa smiled, falling asleep without a care in the world.

    Computer lab. SGC

    "...three times. Three times! And I had ‘Dry’ check other two, just in case. It's not a computer error, Sam." Monterosso said, her Californian accent thicker than usual.

    "But that result doesn’t make sense.” Said Sam, who suddenly grew thoughtful “Unless...”

    "Yeah, exactly." Nodded the black-haired computer scientist. “There is another one out there.”

    Sam nodded slowly, her mind, strangely, going back to the strange Stargate in her dream.

    “Well, I’m not understanding anything. Can you brainiacs please explain what’s going on?” said the third person in the room, Monterosso’s assistant, Darius “Dry” Summer. “In small words, please.”

    Sally Monterosso sighed with affectionate exasperation to the antics of her best friend since kindergarten before starting to answer.

    “Well, Dry, what we mean is that according to this…” She said, pointing to the computer “…the Stargate address they were deviated was the same they had keyed. That is, Earth.”

    “So that’s why you had me check the code and the circuits.” Said Summer. “So there is another Stargate on Earth.”

    “Probably, Mr. Summer. Although…”

    Her explanation was cut short by the intercom buzzing.

    “Computer lab here, Sally Monterosso speaking.” She answered teh com.

    “Ah, doctor. I’m Sergeant Harriman, the General wants to know if Major Carter is there.”

    “Yes, she is. We were discussing something that we found when analyzing the data collected by the dialing computer during the incident.” Said the doctor “In fact, we were about to call him about that.”

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
  13. Threadmarks: Chapter 2
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon

    Chapter 2

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.

    <O>

    A NID secret base. Somewhere in the USA

    The Colonel stepped out of the lift, returned the salute of the guard, and went toward the lab section where a fifty-ish blonde scientist, the woman who he had handpicked to be the head of the project, was running toward him.

    "Colonel Simmons!" said the scientist, slightly out of breath, as her superior got near enough "We didn't expected you this soon."

    "I wanted to know the progress of the project, doctor, and if it could be accelerated." Said Simmons curtly. Seeing the quizzical expression in the doctor's face, he added in a low enough voice that only the doctor could heard him "There had been some problematic developments, and we may need your work earlier than we anticipated."

    The doctor nodded, understanding that he was referring to the SGC, and guided the colonel to one office, with a big crystal window, from where they could overview the work that they were doing in the lab below. Simmons looked briefly as one technician passed between the equipment with a container full of some kind of pink goop, which seemed to move on its own accord inside the container. His attention returned to the doctor as she coughed to call his attention.

    "Let's start with the easier part, doctor. Cybernetic enhancements." Said Simmons "From your last report I understand that the result have been promising."

    "Yes, sir. But we seem to have hit a snag. Apparently the type of cybernetics developed by the professor, tend to cause some kind of neural feedback that result in brain damage." Said Walsh "From his notes, apparently he was aware of this, but he was somehow sure that his test subject would not suffer that problem." She added, with a hopeful look in her eyes.

    "And you want to get your hands on her, to see what makes her tick." he sighed "Doctor, while I agree those aliens need to be studied, this is not the right time yet. In a couple months, maybe, but just right now is not possible. Let that matter rest for now, doctor."

    Recognizing her defeat, she nodded and asked.

    "I suppose that the next item are the biological constructs, aren't they?"

    "Yes, what have happened with them?" said Simmons "You said that you had hit a wall in your last report, but apparently you seem to have that part of the project underway."

    "Oh, that?" she said smiling, and with a small note of pride in her voice "We had a stroke of luck, for a change. As you said, we had hit a wall, but checking old notes, we discovered that he based the biological constructs in his previous genetic research. Once that we knew that, and his obvious lunacy notwithstanding, we were able to work with his notes and what we managed to recover from the destroyed lab, managing to replicate the creation process."

    "How advanced is the production process?" asked Simmons

    "We have already produced one hundred and twenty specimens already. Also, we are looking at ways to automate the process, so we could be doing a few hundreds a week." said the doctor, smiling broadly.

    "Good work, doctor." Said Simmons and the asked the question that the scientist had been fearing "And the bonding process?"

    "That is still a work in progress, and our luck have been worse in that regard." she honestly admitted, though the smile was gone now "Apparently the few successes that the Professor had in a perfect bonding were a matter of luck, rather than any particular process that he used. There are some notes that talked about psychological and physiological preparation of the subjects, but by that point..."

    "Yes, I have seen the report." he interrupted her, grimacing. He had sent a man to investigate what Tomoe had been doing with the money that the NID had given him, through cutouts, to the professor. They never found all his body parts. "Could we use the result of imperfect bonding in any way, at least?"

    "In my opinion, they would make excellent cannon fodder, sir." said the doctor, passing her hand through her short hair "They're dumb as a post, but extremely resilient and aggressive. The problem would be to get them not to attack our own people."

    "That is our problem, not yours." said the Colonel, who then added "In your opinion, could we use one of the test subjects of the cybernetic implants in the bonding process?"

    "It is possible, we speculated that the physiological preparation referred to the cybernetic implants, but according to the notes only one of his experimental subjects needed that process, due to prior injury." said the doctor "It would be worth a try, though."

    "I'll leave now, I have to be in Washington in a few hours, doctor W…, excuse me, Doctor Erickson, I forgot that you just went back to your maiden name." Simmons said.

    “It was time." she said without elaborating

    “Pretty well, I expect a full report in my table tomorrow morning." Simmons said, turning back to the lift.

    "You'll have it, sir." Said the scientist. "I'll include the possible ways that we have devised to automate the production, as well as possible ways to control the imperfect bonding specimens, and if we have it, the first result of the bonding in a cybernetically augmented subject... "

    Simmons curtly nodded and went through the corridor, leaving Maggie Erickson to her thoughts.

    'Soon, Souichi, soon.' She thought 'The world will know of your genius.'


    Simmons stepped out of the lift to the decrepit Air Force installations that served as a cover for the NID base. It was a very "black" operation, so, fortunately, not even his superiors knew where this installation was located, and they didn't know, in detail, what was being done here. And, of course, no paper trail anywhere that pointed to this location, or so he hoped. If he had learned something of the Maybourne debacle, was to not leave a paper trail in his more controversial operations.

    Once back in his plane, he mentally checked the operations in course, and silently cursed Maybourne. Not many people knew that there were two sides in the NID: the people who, like him, were not afraid to do what was necessary, and the pussies who were. Just now his side was in control of the Agency, but Maybourne's exposure had given weapons to the other side to attempt to wrestle control from his people. Fortunately Maybourne failures hadn't exposed his own operations, although his failure to capture the alien who had followed that blonde bitch through the gate had cost him some points.

    'But those Senshi in Japan are going to be a good replacement.' He chuckled darkly 'Since we started with this project, doctor Erickson had wanted to get her hands on them, for what she calls 'a thorough study'. And if the negotiations with Conrad go ahead, that bitch will follow the same road.'

    Under the Moon Palace.

    While they were walking through the corridors of the upper underground level, Pluto's mind was firing all cylinders trying to decide what to do, about the obvious danger that the off-world sojourns of the Americans had unleashed. She knew how the princess would see it, signing in without thinking... No, that wasn't fair to her. She would think about it, but she would do what her heart would dictate, trying to help, while scolding the Americans for having ended in that mess.

    And that's why she was wavering. They needed to know more about this operation. Judging by the people that they had here, they were good people, but she knew from bitter experience that good people could do bad things if they thought that it was worth it. And she had the uncomfortable feeling that to some people, try to gain access to the power that they wielded would enter that definition, although... you had to start trusting somewhere.

    "Well, here are we, Miss..." Said Mason, interrupting her thoughts, as they entered the Gate room.

    "Pluto, call me Pluto." Said Pluto.

    "You know, you are hitting a good deal of the points of the superhero genre. Aloof, mysterious, an obvious alias..." teased Karen, while Mason rolled up her eyes, suppressing ruthlessly a bit of irrational jealously.

    Giving her a brief smile, Pluto got ahead of them, a gesture that made Mason lift slightly her weapon, in case she had to train her weapon on her in a moment.

    "What are you doing?" asked Mason, a bit alarmed

    "What I told you earlier, I hope to get the Porta in working order, and then you can be in your way." Said Pluto, very calm. "And while are on this, we can talk."

    "I can't..." started to say Mason, but she stopped as Pluto reached the console, and put her hand on it, bringing it back to life.

    "How...?" started to say Karen, when all the pieces fit in a big picture "Oh, my God, you are an Ancient!." Said Karen

    "Ancient? Hmmm, well I could see how we could have been called that, given that we predate current Humanity by several million years." said Pluto, as she read the error code that the console was giving. She frowned and knelt, opening a hatch on its base "Damn, one of the control crystals is gone. "

    Karen looked to Sailor Pluto in awe. Since she started to work in the SGC she had assumed that the Senshi were a group of advanced humans, Hok'tar as the Goauld called them, but seeing that at least one of them was an Ancient make her question how it could be possible.

    'Damn, I'm gonna have to pay fifty bucks to Sally.' thought Karen, her mind going back to the only other fan of the Senshi that she knew on the SGC, Doctor Sally Monterosso, from Computer Sciences, with whom she had bet fifty dollars about the nature of the Senshi.

    Together, they had sent several memos about contacting them in order to get their help against the Goa'uld, but there hadn't been any answer, probably having been punted into the paper basked by some hidebound bureaucrat. As if sensing her thoughts about her, Sailor Pluto looked back at the Japanese-American scientist.

    "I know that you have many questions, but I can't answer them just now." Said Pluto, making an apologetic gesture "I have to consult with my partners, the other Senshi, in this matter." She paused, and sighed again "And we can't call with this Porta, somebody removed one of the control crystals."

    "And why don't you give us a ride back on your spaceship?" said Mason, and seeing her expression, she asked "You have an spaceship, right?".

    "No, Major, I don't have an spaceship, Major." Said Pluto "I... teleported here, and unfortunately, I can't carry anybody with me, it's pretty dangerous for normal humans." Only the other Senshi could come with her through her portals. Normal humans couldn't be exposed without protection to the energies that ran through the Time Vortex.

    "You teleported here, all by yourself? How does that work?" said Karen, clearly excited about the possibilities before reining herself in "I mean... one moment"

    She stopped talking, as an idea had started to take form in her mind.

    "Pluto, you mentioned that you couldn't carry normal people. But, do electronics survive the travel?" asked Karen.

    Pluto looked thoughtful for a moment before she answered.

    "I think so, but even if I'm wrong, there are ways to accomplish that." answered Pluto. "What's your idea?"

    "Well, I'm sure that Sam could McGyver some subspace transmitter or something like that with what we have here, but I'm just a Astrophysicist whose hobby is Archeology." Karen said, while producing an small digital recorder from a pocket, not noticing the look that Pluto gave her when she mentioned Sam. "But I have become used to take notes when I'm in the field."

    Pluto looked at the recorder with interest, it was small enough to fit in a pocket of her civilian clothes, so there would be no damage to it, if she changed back for a moment and then back.

    "What are you planning, exactly?"

    "Well..." she gave a meaningful look to Martha "I think that I need to talk with my friend for a moment, before I can continue."

    "I'll stay here, and I won't eavesdrop." Said Pluto, suppressing a startled reaction as she felt that the timeline was becoming even more muddled than before. 'Oh, shit. I have call the others, NOW!' she thought.

    Pluto kept an eye on the other women as they walked down the corridor, while she sat on the platform where the Gate was placed and activated her communicator silently.

    "Pluto here, don't answer, it is not secure." Said Pluto in a voice low enough to not be heard outside the room "Assemble all of the Senshi, including Chibi Moon and Saturn, and use Sailor Teleport to come to the Moon Palace, as soon as you can. If you have heard it, press two times the alarm button." She breathed in relief as the symbols of Uranus, Neptune, and surprisingly Mars appeared, acknowledging the message. "See you." she said and cut the communication. 'Now to wait.'


    A bemused Martha followed Karen down the corridor, until they entered one of the empty rooms, leaving the door open to keep an eye on Pluto.

    "So what is your latest brainstorm?"

    "She goes to Earth, call the SGC and play the message that we record on the phone. Simple, isn't it?" Karen said "The question is: who to call?."

    "Hmm, there is a Public Information Office number for the Deep Space Telemetry program cover..."

    "Oh, yes." she said, raising her hand to her face "When I joined SGC they talked me about it. If any of us found something that could be related to the SGC in a public venture, there was a number set in case we couldn't find a secure phone. And the problem is what to tell her. Obviously we can't tell too much about the SGC"

    "I thought that you would desire to be as open and frank with her as possible."

    "I'm not an idiot, Martha." Karen retorted "Besides, you heard her, she had already guessed a good deal of what we do. I think we should tell her enough to give an outline of our problems with the Goa'uld, so she will be better disposed to us. And while she is not the leader, I'm pretty sure that Sailor Moon values her advice"

    "I would say to wait until we make contact with the SGC to ask permission, but we really can't."

    "Not necessarily. She may agree to call again at a later hour, record the answer and bring it back." Karen said

    "I'm not happy with this, but I can't think of anything else." Martha said with a sigh "We are way out of our depth."

    "Do you think that I don't know that?" said Karen "This is the crap that is usually managed by the SG-1, but they aren't here, we are." she sighed and looked away, before starting to speak again "So, what we do, then?"

    "What you suggested." Said Mason "Now, let's go to talk with her."

    Cheyenne mountain, a few hours later.

    Jacob Carter, wearing his Air Force uniform, strode through the corridors of the base. He was thinking about what Major Davies, the officer who had come to collect him in Peterson, after managing to squeeze a bit more speed from the hyperdrive, and arriving earlier than planned, had told him. Basically, it had been a briefing about the situation that had made Samantha unable to collect him. After Davies had finished, he considered the unasked question in the briefing and assured Major Davies that if the missing personnel turned to be unable to reach the Stargate, he would use the Tel'Tac to assist any rescue operation that would be mounted.

    After a quarter hour walking through the corridors he finally arrived at his destination, his daughter's lab. He stayed on the doorway, looking as she was checking something in the computer, while taking a glass of water, pretty absorbed in her work. And as always when she was so absorbed, she was rubbing the pendant that her mother bought for her in her eleventh birthday. Curious, he tried to see what she was looking in the screen.

    'Hmm..., it looks like seismic records... odd' he thought, but decided that it was probably related to the current crisis.

    "Sam?" he said, knowing from long experience that she hadn't noticed his entry

    Sam looked back, startled, which prompted a smile in his father's face. It was the same expression that she had when she had been eight and had caught her with her hand in the cookie jar.

    "Dad!" she exclaimed, smiling and running to hug her father. "I'm sorry for not having been able to go to get you at Patterson, but with all this mess..."

    "I understand, kiddo. A few ops went pear-shaped in my time." Said Jacob, grimacing at those memories "In fact..."

    A phone ring interrupted him. With an apologetic smile, Sam answered it.

    "Major Carter answering...Yes, sir...Through there?... Sir, it is authentic?... Colonel O'Neill is not going to like that, sir... All right, sir. Where are they?...THE MOON!? How is that fu... I mean, how is that possible?... Oh...Yes, he is here..." said Carter to the phone and then passed the phone to his father "It's General Hammond, we have received news of them from a third party, and we have managed to authenticate it. They ended in..."

    "The Moon, I heard. I suppose that I'm going back to space shortly. And I would love to hear how they managed to get the message here without alerting half of the planet." Said her father taking the phone, and noticing the Tylenol blister in the table "Hi, George...I have heard...You have my full collaboration in this matter...So when do we take off?"

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2017
  14. macdjord

    macdjord Well worn.

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    Whelp. There goes secrecy. They just sent a radio signal from the Moon to Earth - one powerful enough to be picked up by people who weren't specifically listening for it. Which means every radio astronomer on the Earth (or at least the half of it currently facing the moon) is now wondering how and why someone set up a megawatt broadcasting station up there. Some of them will even recognize the frequency and encryption as being US military.
     
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  15. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Okay, I dun goofed. Any idea to resolve this?
     
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  16. macdjord

    macdjord Well worn.

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    Easiest solution I can think of is for them to just record a message and have Pluto teleport back to Earth, call the SGC, and play the message into the phone. Of course, that means the message has to mention they are not alone - in order to explain how they got the message to Earth - which means no 'surprise reveal' scene next chapter. Although, really, not at least mentioning Pluto in whatever message they send is the sort of foolishness you see in TV shows to maintain suspense over a commercial break - like someone shouting "Sir, you need to see this!", rather than giving any useful information with "Sir, we've got a dead jaffa over here!"
     
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  17. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Much simpler than the alternatives that I was going for, actually. I'll see what I can do.

    Of course. The message was always intended to mention the Senshi, the Moon Gate and the Palace, although we weren't going to see it, only the gist of it being mentioned in a briefing to teh SG-1 in the next chapter.
     
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  18. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Preliminar version of the rewritten passage.

    Does it work?
     
  19. macdjord

    macdjord Well worn.

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    Seems good to me.
     
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  20. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Ok, thanks. I should have the revised version up in a while or so.
     
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  21. Threadmarks: Chapter 3
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon
    Chapter 3

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers:
    Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.

    A.N. 3:
    this chapter is mostly exposition, so you are forewarned.

    <O>​

    Cheyenne Mountain. Briefing Room

    "Sorry, I know that I'm late..." Daniel Jackson started to say when he entered the briefing room, only to find that the only people there were Jack O'Neill and Jacob Carter, who were talking about old acquaintances.

    "On time, for once." Said Jack, looking at the clock.

    "And hello to you also, Jack." Said Daniel, who then looked to Sam's father "Jacob, Selmak"

    "Hello, Daniel." Said Jacob "Selmak is also glad to see you, but he is weary from the voyage."

    "Ok, now that that is out of the way, where are the rest?" asked Daniel, as he was sitting.

    "Sam is gonna be late, she has to prepare something for the briefing, the general got a call from the Pentagon and Teal'c is in the restroom." Said Jack, turning to face the archeologist "So, tell me, space monkey, I heard that they found our missing people."

    "Jack, the situation is a bit more complex than that, and I think that we should wait for Sam, to explain this better." Said Daniel "In fact..."

    Whatever Daniel was going to say was interrupted by Sam entering the room, carrying a laptop, with Teal'c and a dark-haired woman in pale make-up, black lipstick, black clothes and a incongruously white labcoat, in tow.

    "Where is General Hammond?" asked Sam, who clearly expected the commanding officer of the SGC to be there, absently rubbing a small, white pendant she was wearing, while the other woman started to connect the laptop to the screen in the briefing room, and Teal'c sat in his usual place.

    "No idea." Said Jack "Probably some pencil pusher in the Pentagon raised a ruckus about how much we spend in toilet paper."

    "Or the reason why they are hiring archeologists to work in Deep Space Telemetry." Said Daniel, rolling his eyes "Military bureaucracy can be orders of magnitude worse than anything that I have found in academic circles, something that I would have never thought possible."

    "I wouldn't go that far, Doctor Jackson. Although, this time it has a relation to our case." Said General Hammond entering the room, which prompted everybody to rise from their seats. "At ease, gentlemen."

    When they went back to their chairs, and the goth woman sat besides Carter, Hammond started to explain the situation for the benefit of those who hadn't been informed of it yet.

    "As you probably already know, at 09:12 AM, SG17 and SG19 were sent to P7X-326. They were escorting a team of civilian specialists to study the anomalous magnetic field of the planet."

    "And things went South." Said Jack, rolling his eyes "As they always do."

    "Yes, Colonel, the situation went South, as you have put it, when they were ambushed by Anubis' Jaffa." Said Hammond, which prompted a grimace on Jack's face. This new Goa'uld was proving to be a greater nuisance than Apophis had ever been "Colonel Keller, commanding officer of the SG17 was killed in the first ambush. Major Dixon took command of the situation and ordered a retreat to the Gate. Under heavy fire they managed to return, but unfortunately Major Mason of the SG19 and Karen Takahashi, a physicist, who were the last ones in crossing the gate, didn't arrive at the SGC with the rest."

    "Been there, done that." said O'Neill, realizing what had happened "I'd guess that they were rerouted to another Gate."

    "That's right, Colonel. The circumstances were very similar to the ones that led to the discovery of the Beta Gate." said Hammond, who then looked at Carter "Major, would you take the briefing from here?"

    "Yes, sir. The analysis of the feedback produced by the Gate led us to theorize that, as Colonel O'Neill has guessed, Major Mason and Doctor Takahashi had been rerouted to another gate." Said Carter, who paused and took a deep breath before continuing "This is when the situation started to get strange."

    "Stranger than crossing a wormhole, created by an artifact of an ancient alien civilization, to go to other planets every other day, Major?" asked Jack, in a perfect deadpan tone

    "Yes, Colonel, stranger than that." said Sam, chuckling, and then she looked at the other woman "Sally? Your turn."

    "For those who don't know me, I'm Doctor Sally Monterosso, from computer sciences. I was analyzing the feedback signal given by the gate in the incident, specifically the parts that showed a variance from the usual, when I noticed that one of the channels that is always blank noise showed a pattern now. I won't enter in the details of how I managed to decode that signal, but when I did it, it showed an Stargate address." She paused, for a moment "Earth's"

    "Are you sure...?"

    "...That is not an error? As sure as I can be, Colonel. I rechecked three times, and got another person to check again twice. I even checked our logs from the discovery of the Beta Gate, and now that I know where to look, I noticed that the same event happened." Said Sally, who then looked back to Carter "Sam?"

    "Sally called me to check if she had done something wrong with the records or the connections. As far as I can say everything was fine with her setup. And then, at 19:23 hours, when we were discussing that, we got a... communication from the two missing people."

    "From your expression, I gather that it wasn't through a normal channel."

    "No. Somebody called the Deep Space Telemetry program Public Information Office and told us that she had news from Major Mason and Doctor Takahashi." Said the General "She apparently had a recorded mesage from them. According to the message, which by the way use all the correct codewords to indicate that they are well and not coerced..."

    "That doesn't mean that they couldn't have been snaked, exposed to nish'ta or some of the other things that we have found out there." Remarked Jack.

    "That's why Doctor Frasier is going to go with you in the mission to retrieve them, Colonel." Hammond said "According to the message, they are on the Moon, in an Ancient underground complex, placed under a building that they have described as a Palace, somewhere in the Mare Serenitatis."

    "Okay, that really qualifies as strange." Commented Jack "Do we have something about the woman?"

    Doctor Monterosso denied with her head.

    "She called from a burner phone, somewhere near Colorado Springs." She explained. "She totally turned off the phone afterwards."

    "Okay, she doesn't want to be found." Jack said "And there is something in the recording about her?."

    The goth scientist looked at the general, who denied with his head.

    "Colonel, there was something, but it would be better to leave it for later, as it pertains to the weirder aspects of the case.."

    "Very well, but, just a thing, if that Palace is really there, how is it possible that it escaped all the probes that we have sent?" asked Jack, sitting straighter in his seat.

    "We don't know, sir." Said Sam, shrugging "Maybe it's under some kind of cloaking or sensor dampening screen or something."

    "It's the 'something' that worries me, Major. I'm warning you that I'm not sticking my head in one of those Ancient head-sucking things this time around." Jack said, trying to inject some levity into the conversation.

    Daniel rolled his eyes in response to Jack's jest, although he couldn't repress a shiver. They had almost lost Jack that time around, only managing to save him thanks to the same Ancient knowledge that had been killing him, and the fact that the Asgard knew what they had to do.

    "So there is a Stargate in the Moon, Major, then." Said Hammond, trying to get the briefing back on track.

    "It seems so, sir. From what Doctor Takahashi could tell us in the message, the complex houses what looked like an older model of Stargate, with an, unfortunately non-functional, DHD equivalent." Said Sam "The complex has also, apparently, a gravity generator, an atmospheric generator and some kind of force-field that keeps the atmosphere inside, and that somehow is still working after all these years."

    "My Tel'Tak is yours, to go to the Moon, or wherever would be necessary." said Jacob, looking at Hammond "Assuming, of course that the owners of the Palace, whom the unknown woman who called with the message is presumably connected to, allow it."

    "Thank you, Jacob. She agreed to call in about..." said Hammond looking at his watch "...an hour, to give another message to us and agree to the mode of the retrieval. And the woman is not precisely unknown." who then looked a Sam, "Major Carter, if you can continue..."

    "Don't tell me, she is the wife of the Man on the Moon." said Jack, with the tone of 'here we go again'.

    "No, sir. In their message, doctor Takahashi told us that the woman self-identified as Sailor Pluto..." Jack snickered upon hearing the name, but Sam continued as if he hadn't said anything "...a member of a group of Japanese vigilantes that are called the Sailor Senshi." answered Sam.

    "The what?" asked Jack, who clearly hadn't heard of them.

    'To be sincere, neither had I, before today.' thought Sam, and the said aloud "The Sailor Senshi, Sir."

    "Sailor... Soldiers?" ventured Daniel.

    "That would be the usual translation, Daniel. " Said Sam "Doctor Monterosso has previous knowledge of them, so I'll leave it to her."

    Sally nodded and pressed some keys in the laptop, which brought several images to the main screen. The images showed a number of young women, dressed in what looked like a pervert's idea of a school uniform, if the tight leotards, the short skirts and the high heels were any indication.

    "These are the Sailor Senshi, a group of Japanese vigilantes that have shown to have superhuman abilities." Doctor Monterosso said.

    This got everybody attention, from the frown on Daniel's face to the incredulous look of Jack, to the arching of an eyebrow of Teal'c, something that she understood well, as the precedents were not exactly encouraging.

    "Are they Hok'Tar?" asked Teal'c finally, voicing what was on everybody's mind.

    "Apparently, that was also Doctor Takahashi first guess, but according to the message, Sailor Pluto, that's the one with long hair and a staff that looks like an skeleton key, recognized, after a bit of prodding, that she was an Ancient." Said Sally, which brought another batch of shocked reactions from the rest of SG-1, followed by interest in the case of Daniel, remembering Oma De Sala. "By the way, supposedly she was also the one who left the message."

    "How...?"

    "According to our people she can teleport, but apparently though a way that is not safe for normal humans."

    "Are you sure that they are not another bunch of snakes?" asked Jack "Or maybe some group of alien con men... con women, rather."

    "We don't think so, sir." said Sam "From what Doctor Takahashi and Major Mason had reported, she seems to be a bit aloof and quite reserved, but at no moment has shown any of the behavior that we usually associate with Goa'uld. And she activated a piece of Ancient technology that had been inert until then."

    "Uhuh, so no grandstanding, 'kneel before your God' or 'die, unbeliever' then? That usually would exclude snakes, all right." said Jack "So, Sam, assuming that they are genuine, what do you think about them being really Ancient, hiding under our own noses all this time?"

    "Given what we know about them, it fits. The Stargate in the Moon seems to be non-functional, and if they are a group as small as they seem, they may not have had the necessary resources to unearth the Beta Gate. In addition, from what our people in the moon have managed to glean, they don't know about the Alpha Gate, which was brought to Earth by the Goa'uld." said Sally, and added with an apologetic gesture, seeing Jack's expression "Too many 'maybes' and 'could be', I know, Colonel. But there are also their actions during the time that they have been active."

    She pressed a key in the laptop and the image changed to a blonde Japanese teenager in a suit different to the others that had appeared before, resembling more a real school uniform.

    "This was the first one to appear, more than three years ago, Sailor V..."

    Over the next quarter hour Sally told the people in the briefing room a summation of what she could find on the Internet about what the Senshi had done in the last years. She didn't hide that most of her info came from the Senshi Fan Club website, which she was a member, stressing on its incompleteness and relative unreliability.

    Afterwards Major Carter was asked to give her opinion.

    "...my own impression, sir, given the fact that they have assumed names based on the planets is that they think of themselves as some kind of protectors or guardians of the Solar System. When we return from the Moon, I would like to do a more thorough examination of the data, to offer a baseline for their powers." Said Sam, looking at Daniel who seemed to be mulling over something in his head.

    "Very well, Major." Said Hammond, who had also noticed Daniel's reaction "Doctor Jackson, if you have something to add?"

    "I would have liked time to do a bit of research, general. But when Sam said they considered themselves guardians or protectors of the worlds, I remembered a text that I have been working on over the last days. It talked about a group of female warriors called, in Ancient, Anima Mundi..."

    "The Souls of the Worlds?" said Sam, remembering that Ancient was similar to Latin.

    "That's a possible translation, but Anima in Ancient also meant guardian spirit. If those Sailor Senshi are indeed Ancients, they may be the current versions of the Anima Mundi," said Daniel, and then shrugged "I know that this is a long shot, and that I may be wrong, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..."

    "Its' really a bit farfetched, Doctor Jackson." recognized Hammond "But I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, your instincts have served us well in the past. Anything else?"

    "It's the Palace and the underground installation, General. There are bits of folklore all over the world about visitors from the Moon, like the Japanese legend of Princess Kaguya, the related Chinese legend of the Chang'e, the Hawaiian story of the goddess Hina, and other similar legends." Daniel said, her tone almost like a professor imparting a class. "A good numbers of those bits of folklore involve people coming from the sky and/or being retrieved up into it. So, I have been thinking that, at least in part, they may hearken back to visits of Ancient from the Moon." said Daniel

    "And what do you base that affirmation on, doctor?" asked Hammond "From what Doctor Takahashi said, the installation seemed to be older even than the one in Antarctica."

    "General, from what we have managed to find, the Ancients came from outside our Galaxy, and there were two different waves of arrivals. The Stargate network and a number of the relics that we find seem to date from the earlier era, several million years ago, afterwards they seem to disappear all of a sudden." Explained Daniel "But the Alliance of the Four Races, and most of the things that we have found are from the later period, six to ten thousand years ago, which is coincidentally, or maybe not, the period from which we date the rebellion against the Goa'uld. It wouldn't be impossible for them to reoccupy one of their old bases if it was reasonably intact."

    "So, you are telling us that before becoming the pricks that they are now, the Ancients may have helped us to get rid of Ra's ilk?" said Jack. "It's a bit difficult to swallow, given our experiences with them."

    "Pretty much. But from what we know, that may had been their last hurrah before retreating to higher planes of existence, or maybe it was..." said Daniel, who snapped his fingers as he realized something "And I think that I may have proof."

    Daniel paused for a moment while he browsed his notes, until he found what he was looking for, a picture of a stone with writings on the ancient alphabet.

    "Yes, just as I remembered." he said under his breath, turning to face the others "In the last few days I have been trying to translate a few fragmentary texts found in the more recent known settlement of the Ancients in the Milky Way. One of those fragments, the one that I mentioned earlier, dealt with the Anima Mundi and an ancient, no pun intended, conflict in which they were involved."

    He then took a deep breath, before continuing.

    "Well, another stone fragment had a narration about a figure that we only know through Jaffa legends. The story was told in a vaguely disapproving tone, which may indicate that the decision to help the rebellion wasn't supported by most of the Ancients." Daniel said "It was about a woman with great powers, that they refer to as Aurora Gerula, or 'she who brings the dawn'. It was also said that the servants of the False Gods called her the Dawn Bringer."

    Teal'c arched both eyebrows, a gesture that on him was practically goggling. It was strange to see such a reaction from the usually stoic Teal'c.

    "Are you sure, DanielJackson?" asked Teal'c, after a pause to recover his composure

    "Yes, Teal'c, I'm sure." said Daniel, and then looked at Teal'c "But I think that it would be better if a Jaffa told it."

    "It's a story that many Jaffa have heard about, even if the Goa'uld have tried to suppress its spread." He said "It is said that in the first world, when the Gods reigned, a woman appeared, a mighty warrior that even the Goa'uld were afraid to face in combat..."

    "What a surprise... not" commented Jack sarcastically

    "...It was said that her bow could destroy the chariots of the Gods in the skies, her daggers were made of light and could pierce even the shields of the Gods, her hair was golden like the Sun in the sky and the Jaffa called her the Dawn Bringer." continued Teal'c as if Jack hadn't spoken. "But greater than her power, great as it was, was her capability to inspire the people to believe that they could be more than slaves to the gods. Her rebellion spread, until they drove Ra off of the planet."

    "And what happened to her?", said Sam, who seemed to be fascinated with the legend, without noticing that Jacob had given the control of his body to Selmak.

    "Her fate afterwards in unknown to the Jaffa, SamanthaCarter." said Teal'c "If the story told something afterwards it has been lost in the fogs of time."

    "I may have something to add." Selmak said. "With your permission, general."

    "Of course, Selmak."

    "The racial memories of the Tok'ra reach to that era, as Egeria was around during the rebellion. While she chose not to pass to her progeny many of her memories of that time, we remember that she, the one that the Tok'ra calls the Dawn Bringer, was offered the throne of Ra and rejected it," said Selmak. "But beyond that, there is not much else in our memories, as Egeria left Earth shortly after the rebellion. She heard, time afterwards, that the Dawn Bringer died fighting one of the remaining Goa'uld on Earth in a land far away from the Mediterranean."

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
  22. Threadmarks: Chapter 4
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon
    Chapter 4

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.


    <0>

    Near the Hikawa Shrine, Juuban district, Tokyo

    Usagi and Chibiusa yawned simultaneously as they reached the infamous bus stop, where the case that had brought Rei to them started. Usually they would have gone to the Crown Arcade, but today Motoki was going to install the new arcade game that everybody was talking about, and there would be too many people in the place to sneak into their headquarters. Ami arrived just a moment later.

    “Sorry, I had to stay a bit later in cram school.” Said Ami.

    “We just arrived, ourselves.” Said Usagi, who looked embarrassed. “I went to take a nap and overslept. And later...”she said, rubbing her left arm, which now that she looked it, seemed to be a bit stiff "...I was almost ran over by one of those Nerima whackjobs ."

    “Let me see.” She said in a no-nonsense tone, wondering briefly if Neo Queen Serenity had to be nagged continuously to arrive on time to a royal reception, as she produced a first aid kit from her handbag. "Nothing wrong, I would say that you go to see a doctor, but given the speed we heal, I'm sure that it will be fine in an hour or so... or when do you transform."

    “Thanks, Ami. ” Usagi said, with an smile.

    “It’s nothing.” Ami answered, matching her smile, and then she looked back at the bus stop. ‘Have she ever arrived early anywhere?’ she wondered.

    "Okay, do you have any idea on why Setsuna called us?" asked Usagi, interrupting her thoughts, as they were starting to climb to steps before the shrine.

    "No, but I talked with Rei by phone earlier." Answered Ami. "Apparently, she had some premonition last night."

    Usagi's answer was cut by the opportune arrival of Rei, clad in her miko robes.

    "You are late." Said Rei as they arrived at the upper steps, and then looked at Usagi. "As usual."

    Usagi, Chibiusa and Rei looked at Ami strangely as she let out a giggle. Rei shook her head, before turning and waved them to follow her to the place where the others were already gathered. After the usual pleasantries, Rei told them of Pluto's call and of the dream that she had last night.

    "I didn't hear those two voices." said Michiru, talking about her own premonition. "I saw a woman in golden armor sitting on a throne, talking to another person, who was hidden under a heavy cloak. I didn't heard anything, but somehow that scene left me cold."

    She shivered after saying this, which prompted Haruka to hold her in her arms. "Thank you, my love." Said Michiru.

    She took a deep breath and continued speaking. "It didn't end there. I saw a fleet of pyramid-shaped starships closing on an Earth-like planet with three moons, and then I saw the ring of stone, erupting in flames. Just before I awakened I heard a voice saying 'Hallowed be...', but the last word was drowned by the crackling of the flames."

    "What is that supposed to mean?" asked Rei to Michiru, who shrugged.

    "No idea, but whatever enemy or enemies are coming up, I have the feeling that they are different from everything that we have fought before." Answered Michiru, and she turned to Chibiusa, who seemed to be fidgeting. "Chibiusa, do you have something to say?"

    "...I think that I saw a ring of stone like that in a museum once." said Chibiusa, after a pause. "I don't remember much about what Mercury said to mom, but I think that it was supposed to be an artifact from the Silver Millenium."

    This news made everybody start to speculate like crazy from what they remembered from their previous lives, getting them bogged down in reminiscences about their past lives

    "All of that is very interesting, but Pluto is waiting for us at the Moon." said Haruka, cutting Minako off as she was explaining an amusing and embarrassing anecdote involving Princess Serenity as a toddler and a puddle of mud in the Moon Palace gardens, while Usagi tried to keep her quiet. "So let's go, time waits for nobody." She added, smiling as a blushing Usagi mouthed 'Thank you'. "So what...?"

    "If you can wait a moment, can we do it in the garden? It would be easier to conceal a crater in soft earth than here, in stone." said Rei, pointing to the stone surface on which they were standing, and looked around. "Besides, that way we'll have a better cover."

    They nodded and started to follow Rei to a secluded place in the back of the temple, inside a small grove of trees. They looked at each other and transformed into their Senshi forms.

    "What exactly do we have to do now?" said Uranus.

    "You haven't done this before?" asked Venus incredulously.

    "Hey, this is going to be our first foray in space in this life." Said Uranus defensively. "The only time that we teleported, we left it in Pluto's hands."

    "Venus, Uranus, now is not the time." Admonished Moon, who then faced Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. "Before everything, send a signal to Pluto, to let her know that we are coming." When Uranus had done that, she continued "We're gonna hold our hands in a circle and focus our power in our destination, the Moon Palace. I'll do the rest."

    They did as Moon said, their auras glowing in their respective colors, and suddenly, Moon opened her eyes and looked to the sky where the Moon could be still faintly seen, a faint sliver of silver against the blue sky.

    "SAILOR TELEPORT!" she said loudly and they disappeared in a flash of multicolored light, leaving behind only disturbed earth and fallen leaves.

    In a nearby building, a man sent the recording that he just had taken to his superiors in the States.

    Headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau, Division Six

    Senior superintendent Natsuna Sakurada, head of Division Six was waiting for her number two. She glanced at the calendar on her desk and smiled wistfully.

    'Two years? It feels like a lifetime ago...' she thought, her mind going back to the days before she was only one of the trusted subordinates of the head of the division, before... the incident in the old headquarters. The smile disappeared from her lips when she remembered, what had happened back then. It had been a massacre, and it could have been worse if T...

    'Midori, that's the name she is using now.' She reminded herself. If Midori hadn't been there, there would have been many more dead. 'Including myself.'

    Those two... things had managed to decimate the entire Division with terrifying ease and had isolated the survivors in the basement, unable to call for help. Even with Midori's help, it had been dicey.

    She sighed. After that, as the senior survivor, she became the head of the department that had to deal with the strange and unexplained. In this time she had seen many things, things that were not meant to see the light of the day. She mused if some of the... things that they had fought, had been the ultimate origin of some hentai stories, to not talk of others that looked straight out of Devilman...

    A good thing that came from the battle was that had been an eye-opener for many people in the high echelons of the government. The division funds had become, not lavish, but quite ampler than before, enough to equip the new headquarters, and they had asked no questions when quite irregular requests reached them...

    The door opened, interrupting her train of thoughts. An attractive red-haired woman, dressed in a police uniform with an inspector rank insignia entered the room. According to the files in Personnel she was Midori Nanami.

    'Speaking of the devil...' she thought, suppressing an smile. 'And that's quite literal in this case.'

    "Did we manage to identify the Senshi stalkers?" asked Natsuna, going into work mode.

    "Yes, superintendent Sakurada." Answered Midori "They are Americans, and if my contacts in the PSIA (1) are right, they are working for one of their Intelligence agencies."

    "Damn, I was hoping that I was wrong." Commented Sakurada, who had suspected as much. "Which one?

    "They didn't dared to make a guess, but based on their amateurish methodology and shoddy OpSec, I would bet on the National Intelligence Department, ma'am. Even the CIA in their worst days would have been a bit more professional." Said the woman, consulting her notes. "If the data that we have about them is right, this incident, as well as the others, are right up their alley."

    Natsuna nodded, after becoming head of the division, she had familiarized herself with the different foreign intelligence agencies operating on Japanese soil. Iif the data that the PSIA had provided, with the usual caveats about credibility, was right, the ones doing this shit wouldn't probably even be the NID, but a rogue faction inside it. What was worse, according to that same data, that faction would be perfectly at home in the darkest chapters of Japan's history

    "Although, I have good news, well, if you can trust the black onis in this." said the inspector, using the in-house nickname for the PSIA, as she sat in front of her boss, and then added, "According to them, what they think is the American equivalent of Project Masamune..."

    'Our last, best hope, if the Senshi fail.' thought Sakurada, thinking of the secret project that she and her trusted number two had been briefed in, and of its origin, tied to the truth behind ancient legends.

    "...is under the control of the Air Force and they have locked horns with the NID on several occasions." Ended Midori

    "Good. I still have nightmares of those... things from the Infinity Academy." Said Sakurada, shivering for a split second before steadying herself. "So, in recap, we have some evidence that an agency of the United States government had been funding a deranged scientist in very dangerous, and very unethical experiments, on the home soil of an ally, namely our country. The same agency seems to have retrieved some equipment from the site of those experiments, as well as stalking the people responsible for stopping the mess, when said scientist started to follow his own agenda."

    "Pretty much." Said the other woman, nodding. "A pretty fine mess, if you ask me."

    "And this is exactly the kind of mess that I hate." Said Sakurada, grimacing. "You know what... certain politicians are going to do if this bomb falls in their hands."

    "If you are talking about Takashi Hino, of course I do." Said the woman, not quite snarling. "Being skilled in intrigue... no, I'm not going to sugarcoat the truth, being an expert backstabber was a survival trait under... my old boss. He would have thrived there, all right."

    "If you want this seat, it's all yours." Said Sakurada in jest, to which Midori snorted.

    "After seeing all the crap that you have to put up with?" she said. "No, thanks, Natsuna, I had enough of that shit with Jadeite."

    Natsuna smiled, the woman in front of her had become her friend. A surprising thing given her past, who she had worked for, and the circumstances where they had met.

    "Speaking of jerks, how are things with Wasagi?" she asked, moving from the boss-subordinate to the friend mode.

    "He invited me to go out to the movies this evening." She smiled, and then looked at her watch. "If there isn't anything else..."

    "No, you can go, Midori." Answered Sakurada, to which the other woman nodded and left the office. After she left she thought 'Wasagi, if you don't treat her well, there will be hell to pay.'

    Moon Palace. Gate Room

    Sailor Pluto sat down, breathing hard, after returning to the Gate Room under the palace. After her last communication with the Americans, where they had arranged the hour they would arrive, she had taken an small detour to the lower levels, that had lasted twenty minutes, where she had, figuratively speaking, ran ragged, trying to get the defense systems online.

    She thanked her stars that the computer had recognized her access codes, after all these millennia, even if her unfounded fears that her DNA didn't exactly match her earlier incarnation, due to spillover from being reincarnated, had been accurate.

    First she had to check how were the energy reserves of the system, which were nearly depleted. Unfortunately, the system to replace spent Quantum Energy Modules was off, as an energy saving measure, she had to do the replacing by hand, while cursing all the way the long-dead moron who had compiled the energy saving program. And then she went to curse the moron that had designed the transport modules of the QEM, as it had been a real hassle to manipulate them

    Then she had to put the defense systems on stand-by, being ready to be activated at a moment notice if the Princess gave the signal. Then she had gone to seal completely the access to the Space-Time Gate, just in case. She was probably being a bit too paranoid, but the possible consequences of somebody gaining access to the gate would probably be catastrophic. And finally she had to appraise the Queen AI, who had left an active subroutine to awaken her if somebody started to fiddle with the systems, of the situation. All in all, she was nearly exhausted.

    "What happened? You look tired." Said Doctor Takahashi, looking worried.

    Her first thought was not to say anything, but even if relationships with the Americans went through the drain, it would be better that they knew what was going on.

    "After I sent the second message I went to put the defense systems on stand-by.” She stalled their answer, raising her hand. “Think about it for a moment. A cache of Ancient tech in Earth’s own doorstep is going to be awfully tempting for some people. "

    “Come on, isn’t that a bit paranoid?” Karen said.

    “It is? Can you tell me, honestly, that nobody in your organization had ever advocated to take advanced technology by force?”

    Martha pursed her lips. Just as she had joined the SGC, she had been approached by Colonel Makepeace. The talk had been innocuous enough, but his mentions of his preferences for a more “aggressive policy” took a more sinister meaning given what happened not too long afterwards…

    Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise, and the room shaking a bit.

    'Here they are, a Sailor Teleport' thought Pluto."They have just arrived." She said, keeping her expression stern as she started to walk toward the main surface access.

    TO BE CONTINUED...

    (1) Public Security Intelligence Agency, the Japanese intelligence agency
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2015
  23. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    I have rewritten a part of teh talk between Natsuana and Midori, specifically the part where they identified the NID. If you don't want to dig through the chapter, here is the modified part:

     
    Ddmkm122 and Prince Charon like this.
  24. Threadmarks: Chapter 5
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon
    Chapter 5

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.

    <0>

    Cheyenne Mountain Complex. SGC levels. Infirmary.

    Doctor Frasier looked at the results of the scanner of her friend, Samantha Carter and shook her head.

    “Sorry, Sam, but there seems to be no explanation for those headaches.” She said apologetically “The only thing that remains to be done is repeat all of this next time you have one.”

    “Thanks, Janet. Unfortunately, right now we have to go...” Sam said

    “Yes, I know. I was going to get into my own BDUs right now. I hope that the instrumental have been loaded right.” She said “Jokes aside, what worries me are those visions you are having. Are you completely sure that they didn’t come from your time as host of Johlinar?”

    “Positive, the... flavor, so to speak, is not the same. They are more like memories of events that never took place, as far as I know.” She said calmly, though her hand grasping the pendant betrayed her nervousness.

    “Hmmm.” Janet said, and turned to the man that was sitting in her desk, examining some papers that Sam had brought with her. “General Carter.”

    “Selmak, actually.” Said the man in the deep voice of the symbiote “And, while a dead symbiote memories resurfacing on a former host is not unheard of, as Samantha can tell you from her own experience, what she is describing is literally without precedent.”

    “And I started to have those... visions before I became a host, anyway, when I started to work with the Gate. At first I dismissed the, figuring that they were the result of my anxiety about the program, dressing them a bit in a worst case scenario.” Sam said “But they recurred, and became stronger with time. This morning, I draw that Stargate, the one of my dream. And that seems to match the description that Karen and Major Mason gave of the Stargate up there in their report. ”

    Janet stepped back, having remembered something that she had heard from a friend that worked in DARPA.

    "Samantha, while I can't verify if your... visions are accurate or not, I can tell you that this kind of Stargates do indeed exist." He sighed before speaking "It shames me to admit, but Anise and my previous host were in a relationship, a century or so ago, and she showed my previous host a few artifacts, including a fragment of one Stargate like this, discovered in a world with Ancient ruins. She said that it was far older than any of the standard Stargates that we have found."


    "Damn." She said, hearing the answer that she had feared. "But what the Hell those dreams mean? One moment..." She said, as her mind kicked into scientific gear "You said a fragment, that meant that the Stargate was broken, but anything able to destroy an Stargate would level any kind of buildings in the site, and half of the continent around it, if not further."

    Selmak smiled sadly before answering, while in the background, Janet was checking something in the computer.

    "I asked the same to Anise, and from what she said, those Stargates were built in less durable materials than the ones that we see most, so they were less able to resist the ravages of time. She thought that those Stargate were early test models." He then shrugged "I'm not a scientist, Samantha, I can't say if she was right or not."

    "Thanks, Selmak." Said Sam, still troubled "But I still have the feeling that there is something else about those dreams..."

    Selmak put his hand on Sam shoulder and looked into her eyes before speaking.

    "Samantha, I have seen your father memories, and I am sure that whatever is happening to you, you'll pass with flying colors."

    “I may add something to that, if you don’t mind.” Daniel said, from the door. “The parts you wrote in Ancient, I managed to translate them. It was a dialect from Ancient, somewhat more similar to Greek than Latin. It’s fascinating, really, how the language can have drifted...”

    “Daniel, focus.” Sam said, used to Daniel losing himself in the minutiae of his chosen career, not that she was much better when she was in her lab.

    “Oh, sorry. Anyway, most of it seemed like the fragment of a report or a memorandum. The gist of it was that Atlantis wanted to dismantle the Stargate in the Moon, but somebody called Serenitas had blocked them.” Daniel said.

    “One moment, Atlantis? As in the city that sank under the sea?” Sam said.

    “Yeah, I checked that I was transliterating the name correctly, and it was indeed Atlantis.” Daniel explained. “It makes a bit of sense, you see, if the legend did come from the Ancients and was preserved in Egypt, as Plato said... Well, just an idea that I had.”

    “Okay, we can discuss this on flight.” Sam said. “Janet?”

    “I’m with you in a moment, I have to call somebody.” Answered Janet.


    In another part of the complex, a technician retrieved a little device and replaced it with an identical one. A couple hours later, after the end of her shift, she would leave the device, until them hidden carefully in her bra, in the breast pocket of a jacket that she would send for cleaning. There, a laundry employee, would take it, and send the file recorded by the device through a private server and an encrypted connection to his bosses in the National Intelligence Department, where the recording would be transcript and sent to the desk of Colonel Simmons, to be read next morning. It contained the recording of everything spoken in the main briefing room of the SGC in the last two days. Little could anybody know the storm that that little bit of news would cause.

    The Moon​

    When they arrived to the surface, using the proper access this time, they found ten people waiting for them, eight teenager girls of varying ages and two preteens, all of them clad in the uniform that the Senshi Fan Club had dubbed ‘sailor fuku’. Karen recognized most of them from the pictures published by the Fan Club, although she only could hazard to guess the names of the two oldest and the pink-haired girl, and she hadn't seen the black-haired girl with the odd-looking polearm anywhere before.

    "Puuu!" said the pink-haired girl, running toward Pluto and practically jumping into her arms before Sailor Moon or the black-haired girl could restrain her.

    "Sorry for Chibi Moon, she can be a bit... over-enthusiastic, sometimes." Said Pluto. "And before you ask, only Uranus, Neptune, Mercury, Venus and me speak English with a certain degree of fluidity. "

    She started the presentations, addressing the Senshi who didn't speak English in Japanese. This way they learned that the Senshi who Karen didn't know where Uranus, Neptune and Saturn, and of course Chibi-Moon, whom Pluto had already named. After the presentations, Pluto went to talk to the Senshi far enough of Karen and Martha, so they would not to be eavesdropped.

    "Now, if I have understood well, the Silver Millenium was one of many settlements of the Lunarians..." said Mercury, after Pluto had told them a brief version of the history of their people arrival to the Milky Way.

    "Actually the proper name would be Celestians, given that our original homeworld was called Celestis." corrected Pluto "But that's not important just now. What it's important is that we developed a net of wormhole portals, the Astria Porta, or Stargate. That way we only needed to key an address in a calling device and we'd be there almost instantaneously.."

    "How...?" said Mercury, her quick mind starting to process how could this be possible.

    "I don’t know the specifics, it was never my field of expertise, but the computer should have some of your own work with them back in the Silver Millenium." answered Pluto.

    Making a mental note to check it later, Mercury nodded. She knew that her computer held a lot of info that she hadn't yet checked, specially from her former self wide range of interests... including some things that she really hadn't wanted to know about her.

    "I always got the impression that the Moon and Earth Kingdoms were nearly alone in the Galaxy." said Mars "Having been a great number of settlements are news to most of us."

    "The reason why you got that impression was because when Metallia appeared they were under quarantine." continued Pluto "There was a Plague, which forced the survivors out of the Solar System to eventually flee this Galaxy."

    "And the Stargates remained," said Uranus "Which I suppose paved the way for the current mess."

    "Pretty much." said Pluto. "Apparently a few millennia ago, a race of parasitic beings with delusions of Godhood called Goa'uld, took over Earth, using reverse-engineered versions of our own tech to pose as the gods of the old mythologies, before being expelled by a rebellion."

    "So the Ancient Astronaut thing is real?" said Venus, and promptly added, answering to the incredulous glances of some of the other Senshi "What? I like to read those books, if only to see if some of those authors got it right about the Silver Millenium."

    "Anyway, they still control a good chunk of the Galaxy." continued Pluto, obviating Venus interruption. "The Americans found the old Stargate, and ended in a conflict with the Goa'uld. And by accident two members of the organization that manages the Stargate were sent to the old prototype Gate in the underground levels of the Palace. And that's how we ended in this situation." said Pluto, who then looked to the two women in Air Force uniform and added, more quietly "Or at least all that have been explained to me."

    "You think that they have been lying to you about what they have been doing." asked Mars, always going to the heart of the matter.

    "No, but they haven't told me all what they know, Mars." answered Pluto.

    "Pluto, does that... Stargate look like a big, upright ring of stone?." asked Neptune, thinking of her dreams. Seeing her friend reaction, she said "It does, isn't it?."

    "How..." she asked, with a shocked expression, something that was very rare to see in her face.

    "We have a lot to discuss, Pluto. And I think that it ties into what you have said about those Goa'uld." said Neptune.


    Karen and Martha, on their own corner of the ruined gardens, were talking in hushed tones, so the Senshi couldn't hear them.

    "Did you get Pluto to let slip something?" asked Martha.

    "Nope." Said Karen "So you realized that I was playing it up?"

    "Well, I had my doubts. You are such a geek sometimes..." started to say Martha, as Karen punched her in the arm "Hey! It's true!"

    "I admit that I had a bit of a 'geekgasm' upon meeting Pluto here. I'm a Senshi fangirl, after all." Said Karen with an sly smile "But I can use my geekiness to make people think that I'm harmless."

    "And it worked?" asked Martha.

    "Not at all." Answered Karen with a sigh.

    "Well, some people... " Started to say Martha, who then noticed that the Senshi had ended talking and were now approaching them. "Sshhh, they are coming."

    "The girls want to see the Stargate." Said Pluto, who seemed to have been chosen as the unofficial spokeswoman of the Senshi "We're going down, but we should be back with enough time to receive the rescue party."

    "Actually, there is something that I wanted to ask. How are they going to find this.” She said moving her arms as if encompassing the palace. “It would not do if they had to overfly half of the Moon to find us."

    “In the last message I gave the approximate location. I assumed that your radio gear has enough reach to reach them when they will be flying over Mare Serenitatis.”

    “Probably.” She said, and then produced her notepad “Do you mind if we go with you?”

    “What for?”

    “Autographs.” Karen said, smiling and offering the notepad to Pluto.

    'Really smooth, Karen' thought Martha.

    Pluto looked back, while Mercury translated what they had said. After thinking for a moment, Moon nodded.

    "Suit yourself." Said Pluto, shrugging, as she started to walk toward the entrance to the underground levels.

    They went in silence, while Karen was collecting the autographs of the Senshi. While they were walking through the corridors of the subterranean, the Senshi were trying to keep their expression neutral, but just seeing the place was awakening some memories inside them. Memories of the Silver Millenium.

    Mercury, in particular, was the most affected, as she seemed to have been a frequent visitor. She suddenly remembered finding Venus talking with an old man in the uniform of the Royal Guard and a younger blonde scientist in civilian clothes. Strangely Venus was not wearing her Sailor Fuku, but an orange sleeveless short tunic, with sky blue tight pants underneath, shoulder length gloves and dark orange boots, with the only part resembling her usual uniform was her tiara.

    She shook her head for a moment, trying to clear her mind 'Where the Hell did that come from?' she thought. As far as she knew, her Sailor Fuku had been her uniform back in the Silver Millenium... 'I have to ask Pluto about this.' She thought.

    Moon on her part was thinking about what Pluto had just told them. It seemed so... big. A galaxy-wide conflict raging on during the last years, and they, the self-appointed guardians of the Solar System hadn't known about it. It was a bit humbling, actually.

    And it actually gave more weight to something that she had been thinking about in the last weeks. Their victories had almost always been a thing of luck, well if you can call luck at having the right McGuffin at the right time. But they couldn't depend on that forever.

    'And even if I got it from an anime, I think that I have an idea of how to deal with it.' She thought, with a feeling of finality.

    Tokyo

    To everybody they looked like another couple in a date. They had just seen a movie and were walking through the park. He was talking, while she answered only with monosyllabics. Suddenly she realized that he had stopped talking and was looking at her worried.

    "What is happening, Midori? You have been weird since we saw the movie." Said the man.

    Midori Nanami sighed and closed her eyes. He may be a bit of a jerk, but he was quite perceptive on occasions.

    'Just like Jadeite.' The thought came unbidden to her mind, only to be angrily dismissed. 'Brainwashing or not, nothing excuses what he did to me.'

    "It's that scene... you know the one, when they get overloaded by the rage... it brought back memories." She finally said, her eyes closed.

    Toshio nodded. He and the boss were the only that knew the real identity of ‘Midori Nanami’. It was scary to know that the young woman besides him had memories of things that were literally older than the mountains themselves.

    "Do you want to talk about it, Midori?" said Wasagi in a soft tone.

    "No, Toshio... but I need to." She said, not facing his eyes.

    "Let's sit down, then." He said, sitting in one of the park benches.

    Midori sat without a word, and when she started to talk it was in a flat tone. She explained briefly about the Moon Kingdom, the Golden Kingdom and the Dark Kingdom and about Atlantis, and the Plague.

    "...One day we heard that Atlantis had taken off, apparently they had a case of the Plague in the city and they had panicked." Said Midori "This only heightened the tensions between the Golden Kingdom and the Dark Kingdom, and Prince Endymion was accompanying Princess Serenity, who often visited Earth, to the spaceport when they were surrounded by assassins sent by the Dark Kingdom."

    "Who they wanted to kill, Serenity or Endymion?." Guessed Wasagi, having heard already about Beryl's character from Midori.

    "We never knew, but I'd guess that the objective was the Princess." Said Midori "Endymion was wounded by the assassins, and the Prince's closest advisors, the Shitennou, were captured trying to cover their flight. Including Jadeite, my boss."

    "And...?" asked Toshio, knowing that there was something else there.

    She closed her eyes, before continuing.

    "Beryl, that bitch, did... something to them, some kind of brainwashing. That's the only way that they would be leading the assault against the capital, not a day later..." She leaned back in the bench and looked at the night sky where the moon could be seen against the backdrop of stars.

    "If you don't want to follow..."

    "No, Toshio, now that I have started, I have to tell it to the end." Said Midori "Anyway, as the Shitennou were high in the chain of command in the Golden Kingdom military, it was easy for them to take the capital, as they knew the disposition of the defenses and the best way to neutralize or bypass them." She shook her head for a moment, trying to contain the tears that the memory were bringing, as she remembered how so many young soldiers had died in that battle. She took a deep breath and with a strained voice, she continued "Even wounded the Prince tried to reason with them, but it was no use." She let out a mirthless chuckle "Valiant to the end, Prince Endymion was. We had to sedate him to get him out of Avalon."

    She paused for a moment, steeling herself from what was going to come now.

    "We retreated into the spaceport. It was only a temporary refuge, at best, but we had wounded, including the Prince, and a man from the Princess entourage, one of his tutors, I think, who had refused to be evacuated with the Princess. Fortunately, there was still one of the Moon Pilots available to send them up to the Moon. If I had known what Beryl was going to do, I would probably have tried to get everyone of us in ships to go to the Moon."

    "Why? I mean, her objective was the Moon anyway, and I don't think that a few more troops would have changed the final result." Said Toshio

    "Not the result, but at least they would have died like people, not like crazed beasts." Said Midori "We had noticed an strange increase in sunspot activity over the last days, but we didn't gave it importance. Even with the news that they had seen... something accompanying Beryl in the assault to the capital, I dismissed the thing about the sunspots as a coincidence." Said Midori. "And then, next day..."

    Somewhere in the wilderness of the Golden Kingdom. A long time ago.

    She had been feeling uneasy over the last hours since they marched out of the Spaceport at nightfall. Now that they had stopped and she could think about, she realized what was making her feel so uneasy. There had been no flights at all over them, or patrols, or anything, after Beryl's soldiers had taken the spaceport. It was as if they were readying to attack the Moon almost immediately after taking the capital. But that made no sense at all.

    Any invasion force had to go first through the Moon Navy, and there were no way that the Dark Kingdom could have so many ships. Hell, even the Golden Kingdom at its zenith could have not mounted that kind of operation with an acceptable possibility of success. Not to speak of the possibility that remaining Golden Kingdom forces could mount a counterattack with so many of their forces involved in the invasion.

    'They must be up to something, but what?.' She thought

    She got he answer as a noticeably darker and redder Sun climbed over the horizon line. She only had time to gawk for a moment as something clicked inside her brain, unleashing a pure, unadulterated murderous rage inside her, a rage that she unleashed on the person next to her, who gave as well as he received. To her the next hours would always be a blur of blood and gore, but she always had the distinct and nauseating memory of ripping somebody's jugular with her own teeth after gouging out his eyes.

    Suddenly her mind cleared, and found herself, disheveled, covered by blood, swinging a makeshift club against somebody who she knew well, her former boss, Jadeite, with his immaculate uniform and his infuriating smirk. But there was also something in is eyes that it wasn't there before, cruelty and coldness. Jadeite picked her club effortlessly and threw it away, which make her start to notice her surroundings, She saw the mutilated corpses around her and the blurry memories of the last hours came back, making her fall onto her knees and vomit in the spot.

    "Well, girl, as I see it, you have only two options: join me or I let you go back into the madness and die." Said Jadeite...

    A park in Tokyo. Present day.

    "...And to my eternal shame, I chose to join him. He put his hands on my head and I fell asleep. When I awakened, I was in front of Queen Beryl and Jadeite...and I felt very different about everything. I became an outright monster. I suppose that they used the same thing that they used on the Shitennou." Said Midori and added in a whisper "I became Jadeite's right hand again, and... Well, you know the rest."

    "Midori, what were your intentions when you accepted?" said Toshio, while holding her hand.

    "To gather intelligence, and later escape." She said, "I should have known that..."

    "How? You knew that the Shitennou had been turned, but you didn't know how Beryl had done that." Said Toshio, patiently. "You took a risk and it backfired on you..."

    "And many people paid the price." Said Midori. "That's why I'm so driven in the Section, Toshio. I have seen the consequences of failure first-hand."

    "All right, Midori." He said, recognizing defeat. He knew that when Midori sank in on of her funks, there were few things that could make her lift her spirits. Fortunately, he knew one of them "You know, it's not too late, and I know a good restaurant..."

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
  25. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    As noted in another forum, there was a discrepancy about Endymion's fate that have now been corrected. If you don't want to search in teh post, here is the relevant part.

     
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  26. Threadmarks: Chapter 6
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon
    Chapter 6

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.


    <O>​

    Dixon residence. Colorado Springs

    "Are you sure that is not going to be a problem, Cassie?" asked Lainie Dixon, wife of Major Dixon to Cassie Fraser, who had offered to babysit their quadruplets as she went to visit Dixon. "My four daughters can be quite a handful."

    "Don't worry, I know how they are." said Cassie smiling "I already babysat them, don't you remember?"

    "Sorry, Cassie, is that with David wounds, and... the current emergency in the base..." She said stopping herself just in time. She knew that Cassie knew, and that Cassie knew that she knew, due to having been working in the SGC before retiring to marry David, her childhood friend and high school sweetheart, but they were in the front yard of their house, where every neighbor could hear what they were talking.

    "I'm sure he is going to be well, Mrs. Dixon." Said Cassie, reassuringly. "Then…the usual with the girls, no one have developed any allergies or something?"

    "I knew that I was forgetting something. If you let them see TV, look that there were no rabbits anywhere in the program. For some reason they seem to be very afraid of rabbits."

    Cassie blinked for a moment before nodding.

    “Ok, so no Looney Tunes, no 'Who framed Roger Rabbit', and be careful about documentaries. I got it." Said Cassie, as Lainie started to walk toward the door. "See you."

    The Moon Palace

    Sailor Mars looked at Moon with worry. She had known her long enough to know that she was worried about something, despite her attempts to hide it. And that was another worrying sign, Usagi carried her heart on the sleeve, so an attempt to hide her emotions was a troubling sign.

    Right now, she was with Ami and the American scientist, Takahashi. While Mercury’s questions were her usual genius stuff, Moon was asking things about working with the military, while the blonde Major, whose name she hadn’t caught, and Uranus looked at each other warily.

    Her eyes went back to Usagi, when she noticed she was moving, leaving Ami and Takahashi alone to go back to the group. As she walked to her side, she whispered, barely loud enough to be heard by the other Senshi.

    “Come along, we need to talk.” She said, in an authoritative tone that was very rare to found on her lips, and that she had come to associate with the rare glimpse of Princess Serenity in Usagi.

    “And Mercury?” Jupiter asked.

    “She’ll come along in a moment.” Moon said. As if she had been hearing then, Mercury said goodbye to the scientist and walked towards them, something that Usagi took as a sign to start to get away from the Americans while the others followed along.

    “What is worrying you, Moon?” Jupiter asked, without waiting for the pigtailed blonde to start.

    “Was I so obvious?” Moon replied, with a sheepish smile.

    “Only to those who know you well, odango-head.” Mars answered. Rei mentioning her old nickname served to diminish the tension that seemed to have installed in the group.

    “Thank you, Mars.” Moon said “Well, I have been thinking about all of this since we learned about this. And all what I have come with is this plan…”

    Tokyo. Mamoru Chiba's flat

    Night had already set in Tokyo while Mamoru checked a set of documents. He had been offered a scholarship in America in a prestigious medical school, and he was thinking of accepting... but he didn't know how to tell Usa-ko about that.

    Suddenly, he heard a knock in the door. When he went to check through the peephole, he saw a young woman, dressed in navy blue sweater and pants with a white overcoat. The woman looked familiar, but she couldn't place her at the moment. Then she had a sudden flash of this same woman, dressed in the uniform of the Golden Kingdom military, reporting to Jadeite.

    'Another reincarnation? How?' he thought. He sent his thoughts to the jewels that housed the essences of the Shitennou, but they seemed to be dormant.

    He silently summoned a rose in his hand, leaving his more powerful attacks in reserve for the moment, while he opened the door just a bit enough to be able to talk with the woman.

    "Who it is?" he asked to the woman in front of him.

    "Mister Chiba? I'm Inspector Nanami, from the Tokyo Police. We need to talk..." she then neared the door and lowered her voice so only he could hear her "...Prince Endymion, or do you prefer Tuxedo Mask?."

    "Of course, Inspector." He said, opening the door, while transforming silently into Tuxedo Mask. He closed the door after she entered the flat, and turned to face the woman. "Who are you and what do you want?"

    "In this life I am Midori Nanami, inspector in the Tokyo Police..." she said before putting a knee on the floor and bowing to him "But I am also Thetis, one of the lieutenants of Jadeite of the Shitennou, Your Highness. And, for why am I here..." she looked at Mamoru briefly, and then looked away "I just... don't know, since I was told that you were the reincarnation of our Prince, I wanted to... meet you, to find... some sort of closure."

    "Stand up, please. The Golden Kingdom vanished long ago, and I'm only the reincarnation of Endymion, and all those reverences make me feel uncomfortable..." he said.

    “Sorry, it’s just…” Midori said as she stood up

    “Don’t worry, but…” Mamoru started to say before stopping himself “How did you know...?”

    "Jadeite. " she said, almost snarling the name "He picked me again, and brainwashed me again. I was only freed thanks to Metallia's death." said Nanami, looking at the ground. The things that she had done in that time still weighed heavily in her soul. "I did horrible things, you Highness, when I was a pawn of the Dark Kingdom."

    "A simple Mamoru, or if you can't avoid being formal, Chiba-san will suffice, Nanami. As I said a moment ago, I’m only the reincarnation of Endymion." Said Mamoru, sighing "But what I wanted to know is how do you know about me?"

    "Sorry, I..." she started to say.

    "You said that you are in the Tokyo Police." Interrupted Mamoru, having realized something "You are working for Natsuna Sakurada, aren't you?"

    She opens her mouth, then snapped it shut.

    'If Venus had told them about the boss, it wasn't that difficult to guess.' She thought, suppresing a smile, as she remembered some of her boss antics. She still had that full body poster of Sailor V in her office, even.

    "...Yes, I am." Said Midori "But understand that I can't tell you about what we do."

    "I am not going to ask, Midori." he said. ‘Although I can hazard a pretty accurate guess.’

    Silence hung heavy in the room for a few moments, until Mamoru spoke first.

    "I wanted to ask you something..." He said. When Midori gestured him to go ahead, he continued speaking "What happened after my death? I got the cliff notes version from the Senshi, but you were there."

    "It was bad..." she said, starting to tell the same history that she had told to Wakagi not too long before, up to the point Jadeite's offer "...Bastard. And after the reincarnation, he went and picked me again."

    "You were brainwashed by Beryl, and she did the same with them.” Mamoru said “Hell, she did the same to me.”

    “What?” Midori said, not having heard it.

    “Yes, Zoisite severely wounded me, and I was captured.”

    “Natsuna said that your relationsip with the Senshi seemed to have cooled off all of a sudden, after the apparition of that fake ‘Sailor Moon’.” Midori said with a thoughtful expression “I suppose that the fake was Zoisite, he always looked good in drag.”

    “Exactly, but what I meant was that you have to understand that Beryl went and brainwashed the reincarnated Shitennou, again." Said Mamoru, opening a drawer. He then picked a translucent green jewel that seemed to shine dimly with its own light.

    "What is...?" said Nanami.

    "Beryl tried to bring Jadeite and the other Shitennou back, after the Senshi killed them, but she only managed this, something like a Soul Stone." He said, pointing to the stone "Through it, I have contacted his soul, clean of Beryl manipulations, a few times."

    "So?" she said, trying not to think of the obvious.

    "It is quite obvious that you have unfinished business with him." He said offering her the stone.

    "Shouldn't Mars...?" she said, trying to stall for time, mentioning the woman who had been Jadeite on-and-off couple for a long time before everything went to hell.

    "She already did." Said Mamoru "As well as Mercury with Zoisite, Venus with Kunzite and Jupiter with Nephrite."

    Nanami doubted for a moment, before gingerly taking the stone in her hand. While Psychometry wasn't one of her talents, as it was an ability that rarely manifested outside the Royal Line, she thought that the personal connection with him would be enough.

    She closed her eyes, and focused her mind. For a moment, she saw images of the past, from the Far Past and the recent past, including a glimpse of Beryl brainwashing a Jadeite in modern clothes. And then... contact.

    The Moon Palace

    “…And that the gist of it.” Moon said “Before we commit, I want to hear what do you think.”

    “I don’t like it.” Mars said “We have been doing it well until now, why change it?”

    “Unfortunately, that ship have already sailed, Mars.” Pluto said “Earth is involved in an interstellar conflict against those System Lords. Even if we don’t follow the Princess’ plan, how much time until one of them try to invade Earth?”

    Mars and Pluto locked gazes for a moment, but the Senshi of fire was the first to look away.

    “You are right, but I don’t like it.” She said, stubbornly.

    “Do we need to commit right now?” Venus said.

    “Weeeeell…”

    “You haven’t thought much on how we do it, have you?” Mars said.

    “Not really…” Moon said, sheepishly.

    “Typical you, baka.” Mars replied.

    “Before you start your usual comedy routine, can you let Venus say what she was going to say?” said Uranus, her tone a bit more acerbic than she intended.

    “I think that I remember where one of the old armories was located. We can offer something as a proof of good intentions, regardless of what we will end doing.”

    “That’s… a good idea.” Said Uranus looking at Venus oddly, who only smirked in return. While it was true that Venus behaved like a zany airhead at times, the Outers tended to forget that she had been operating alone as Sailor V for most of a year before contacting the Inners.

    Selmak’s Tel’Tak Cargo Bay.
    Peterson tarmac

    “Sam? Can you come here?” said Janet, who was unpacking some of the medical equipment that they would be carrying to the Moon.

    “Is it going to take long?” Sam said, carrying a box of equipment. “I have to connect this to the sensors.”

    “It will only take a moment.” Janet said, producing a small, diadem like device from one of the boxes.

    “What’s that.” Sam said, putting the box on the ground

    “A friend of mine was developing this for DARPA. It will allow me to monitor your brain activity remotely.” She said, producing an small tablet “And given its size, it will be pretty much invisible under your cap.”

    “Thanks God.” Sam said as she placed the device on her head, and replaced the cap “I see the Colonel cracking ‘Spock’s Brain’ jokes non-stop all the way to the Moon.”

    “He would do that, wouldn’t he?” Janet said. “This is the kind of mission that the SG-1 handles most of the time, isn’t it? First contact, trying to win the trust of possible allies…”

    “…getting to blow more alien computers or false Gods than Captain Kirk.” The Colonel said from the door “Though, we have never done it on Earth's own Moon. “

    “We are trying to gain allies, Colonel.” Sam said.

    “Excuse me for being a bit skeptical about the possibility that a group of Ancients have lived undetected under own our noses.” Jack said “For all that we know they could be a masquerade for a group of aliens looking for a brain.”

    Sam groaned. This was being to be a loooong flight.

    TO BE CONTINUED…
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2017
  27. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    Just as a note, I have posted teh fic in AO3, here.
     
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  28. steamrick

    steamrick Matter: protons, electrons, neutrons and morons

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    Did you mean intended?
     
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  29. AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    :oops:
    Yes. I'll correct it in a moment.
     
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  30. Threadmarks: Chapter 7
    AntonioCC

    AntonioCC Verified Procrastinator

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    MoonGate: Part I
    Ancient Moon

    Chapter 6

    Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM

    Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.

    Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)

    A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.




    Astral plane (sort of)

    Midori found herself in a featureless gray space, standing before Jadeite, who was clad in the pseudo-military uniform that he had worn as one of the Shitennou.

    "Thetis, as beautiful as ever." He said, smarmily, and bowing a bit in her direction.

    "Cut the pleasantries, Jadeite." She said in a brusque tone "Why...?"

    Jadeite closed his eyes for a moment, while he changed to a more serious stance. Midori, who had known him pretty well, looked at him as fascinated as ever with the speed that he dropped his “smarmy Casanova” persona, and became all business.

    "Why did I went and brainwashed you... both times?" He said, with a sad expression in his face "Beryl’s brainwashing stripped us of any sense of morality and common decency, adding, of course, an engineered loyalty to her, while keeping our basic personality intact... And I couldn't think of a better aide than you, even afterwards."

    “All right, is good to know that you felt that I was so useful that you went to all the trouble to find me again.” She said “But what get my blood boiling is that I got Tainted in the process, something that, by the way, none of you, Shitennou, got.”

    “Beryl was a twisted bitch.” Jadeite said, with a grimace “I didn’t know beforehand, if that helps, although I doubt it makes a difference.”

    “And you would be right. It doesn’t help any.” Midori said “Beyond that feeble attempt at excuses, you have something else to say?”

    Jadeite sighed before answering. Thetis had always had a snarky streak a mile wide, and reincarnation hadn’t changed that.

    “Yes, there is.” Jadeite said, his expression growing even more serious all of a sudden. “Just as the Senshi arose when Princess Serenity needed them, Endymion is going to need his new Guardians.”

    “And...?” Midori said before the implication sank “No... You want me to be their Magistra.”

    “Yes.” Jadeite bluntly said “You worked and trained with us, and know of our powers and how they work.”

    “But the Senshi...” she started to say, but she stopped realizing why she had been asked that “No, the powers of the Guardians and those of the Senshi, though superficially similar, are too different in essence.”

    “Exactly, each Senshi power are derived from their attunement to their Planet Crystals, while ours were derived from the Golden Crystal through the Anima Stones.” Jadeite unnecessarily explained.

    “Yes, I know, it was part of the syllabus in the Academy, but why now?” Midori asked “Endymion had been in danger before and her guardians hadn’t awakened.”

    “We don’t know. We only know that the time is drawing near.” Jadeite said, shaking his head. “And that our successors are going to be badly needed in whatever is going to happen.”

    “At least you saved me the cliched cryptic warning.” Midori said. “Is there anything else?”

    “Not really.” Jadeite said “I was going to ask for forgiveness, but given your mood earlier...”

    “I never said that I hadn’t forgiven you. I knew that you were under the same kind of brainwashing than me.” Midori said, with a sigh “It was the taint that bothered me more, once that I regained my senses. Knowing that every time that I use my powers I can go full youma if I’m not careful.” And then, she smiled “But without that, I wouldn’t have met Toshio.” She noticed the startled reaction of Jadeite when she mentioned that name. “What’s wrong?”

    “Toshio Wakagi?” asked Jadeite, and after Midori quizzical nod, he explained “I met him. Kind of a jerk.”

    ‘Keep it short. Better that she never know.’ He thought.

    “Look who’s talking. You two look and act so similar, that I thought that he was you at first.” Said Midori.

    Selmak's Tel’Tak. Flying at 300 feet over the Moon surface.

    "Ok, I recovered the signal. Now I can triangulate" Sam said, as she made a set of calculations, after checking the sensors augmented by some of the special equipment that they had embarked, even if the console that she was manning, one of the additions, stuck like a sore thumb in the Tel’Tak cockpit. "Aha, they should be in these coordinates" she added, sending a set of data to the control console.

    "All right." Selmak said, turning the ship with skill into the new course.

    They flew in silence for a few minutes, aided for the fact that Jack had been banished from the cockpit after the hundredth 'Are we there yet?', helped by Doctor Frasier producing a syringe with a really big needle. As they neared the point, they saw a faint glow in the distance.

    "What the Hell is that?" asked Daniel, pointing to the glowing area.

    "Doctor Takahashi mentioned a forcefield." Sam said, rubbing her temples. She kept her face composed, hiding the fact that her headache had returned with a vengeance "It must be surrounding the palace area, keeping the air inside and protecting it from harmful solar radiation. "

    "Will we be able to pass through?" Selmak asked.

    "I won't know until we are nearer." Sam said, apologetically. "If we can’t, we brought enough of the new prototype heavy-duty spacesuits for everybody and a few spares."

    "Part of the 'special equipment', I gather." Selmak asked.

    "Of course." Sam said with an smile that masked her throbbing headache. "It's not everyday that we can do a field test of our new tech that doesn't involve combat. By the way, Teal'c..." She said, turning to the big Jaffa, who had just entered the cockpit. "What are Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Frasier doing?"

    "I was taking a nap. Janet is checking the equipment, again." O'Neill said. He was been behind Teal'c, just out of the door. "Look, I haven't entered the cockpit."

    "We are nearly there, Jack." said Jacob, Selmak having given him back control.

    "Really?" Said Jack, looking ahead to the glowing patch.

    “Yes, if these reading are right, we’re ten minutes from the Palace” Sam said, standing up “Call me if I’m away more than five minutes, I need to talk with Janet.”

    She got up and went out of the cockpit to the cargo area, where she was getting the medical equipment ready for a makeshift sickbay, as well as keeping an eye in the tablet that was connected to the monitoring equipment that she was wearing under the cap.

    “Hi, Sam.” She said.

    “Hi.” Sam answered “Janet, my head is killing me right now.”

    Janet looked at the tablet and opened his eyes wide.

    “The activity is quite higher than a couple minutes ago and… well, I have seen this kind of activity before, back in college.” Janet said, worried “I picked an elective in Neuropsychiatry, and one of the demonstrations dealt with seen the change in brain activity as they recovered a suppressed memory. This is very similar.”

    Unconsciously Sam’s hand went to the pendant, and then paused and looked at it carefully for the first time in years. It was an hexagonal crystal mounted in gold, and it looked like just like the cheap trinket that she knew her mother had thought it was back in Japan. Frowning, she removed it and placed it in a vest pocket, she had the oddest feeling when she had looked at it… And now the headache seemed to abate, not disappearing completely, but going back to the levels of the morning.

    “Any change?” Sam asked

    “Not really, it’s still there. It has been attenuated a bit, but it hasn’t disappeared.” Janet said “Maybe it was acting as an amplifier for whatever…”

    “But why now? I have been wearing the pendant for years, even working of pieces of Ancient technology with it.”

    “Can you give it to me?” Janet said holding out her hand.

    Wordlessly, Sam handed it to Janet who walked a few paces, to get herself as far of Sam as she could. Sam didn’t notice any difference, even as she walked in the opposite direction. She looked at Janet, who shook her head.

    “I think we should keep it here, just in case.” Janet said. “And don’t forget to take a tablet of Tylenol.”

    “Yeah, it would be better.” Sam acknowledged, clearly not happy with parting with a memento of her mother. “I’m going back to the cockpit, they’ll probably will need me soon.”

    “I’m going with you.” Janet said, taking the tablet and putting the pendant in an empty box “This is as ready as it can be.”

    They arrived at the cockpit, and Sam resumed her seat, just as the glowing patch had resolved into a glowing transparent dome, with a few interconnected buildings under it.

    "So, that is the palace." Sam said.

    "It match the description of our people there." Said Daniel, looking with greater attention "Sam, can you project a clearer image of the palace?"

    "I can do something better." She manipulated some of the controls of the enhanced sensor equipment and an holographic projection of the Palace came to life.

    "Thanks, Sam." Said Daniel, who then looked at the hologram from several angles "Hmmm..., it's strange..."

    "You mean, apart from finding a palace in the Moon, spacemonkey?" asked Jack.

    "Jack, I mean that it's strange that the Palace don't resemble, as far as we know, Ancient architectural style." Said Daniel "In fact, the palace seems to have been built in an style reminiscent of European Renaissance, with elements of Byzantine architecture and the Neoclassical period."

    "Maybe the Ancients had regional styles, it's not like we have found that many remaining structures." Said Sam, shrugging.

    "Maybe. But if that's the case, it suggests that the Ancient culture had regional variants, at least in the older period of settlement. It's fascinating, really..." he paused, seeing the blank looks in the others face, except for Janet who seemed to be checking a tablet that she had in a pocket. "Well, it is for an archeologist."

    "We noticed." Said Sam, smiling, before turning back to the console "Now that we are near..." she checked the results "All, right, we can pass through the forcefield with the ship." She said, sounding vaguely disappointed.

    "You really wanted to test those spacesuits, kiddo?" said Jacob, smiling.

    "I have been working on them for quite some time." Acknowledged Sam, with a smile of her own. "Well, maybe we can take a bit of an stroll out of the forcefield, as a test." She shrugged philosophically, and moved toward the Comm station, activating it "Lost Children, this is Fairy Express. Do you copy?"

    "Fairy Express. Lost Children here. We receive you loud and clear." Said the clear voice of Major Mason through the speaker of the Comm unit "We are ready to leave NeverNeverLand, ma'am." She said using the first part of the code words to confirm that the extraction could proceed.

    "We are coming. How are things there?" asked Sam, waiting for the confirmation

    "Things are just peachy, ma'am." Said Mason, providing the second part of the code, the one that indicated that there would be, probably, no problems in the extraction.

    "Glad to hear it. Now can you indicate a good place to land the ship?" asked Sam.

    "One moment, ma'am." Said Mason, who left the channel open, probably to let them hear what was being said. So, Sam cranked up the volume.

    "Well, where can they land the ship?" asked Mason.

    After a pause, they heard somebody asking something in Japanese.

    "Where can we leave them to land the ship, Princess?" translated Daniel, almost simultaneously.

    Another voice answered in a quite decisive tone that belied her apparent youth, Daniel again providing a simultaneous translation "The front courtyard."

    "Moon has offered the front courtyard of the Palace." Informed the first of the two unknown voices, speaking this time in English with a slight accent. "That is the big open space on the other side of the Palace from where we first met."

    "Okay. Thanks, Pluto, Moon."
    Said Mason, who, presumably, then went back to talk to the radio, while Sam quickly cranked the volume back to the original value. "Fairy Express, the landing zone is..." she said, giving them indications of where they could land the Tel’Tak.

    "Thank, you, Lost Children, we'll see you in a short while." She said, cutting out the communication. She got up her seat. "And if you excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom." 'And take that Tylenol. It’s not as bad as before but it’s still grating.'

    The Tel’Tak maneuvered to get through the glimmering forcefield, which they did without issue, as well as landing where they had been indicated. That way they gave a good look at the Palace as they moved.

    "Pretty, in a Disney sort of way. The only thing that we need is a pretty Princess." Said Jack, as they started to gather.

    "Jack, Sailor Pluto called Sailor Moon Princess." Said Daniel, before musing to himself "Moon Princess... I wonder if she is called Kaguya."

    As they landed they prepared for getting out. In order to look less threatening, they had agreed that they'd only wear their sidearms and zats, and in the case of Teal'c, his staff. While Selmak (and obviously Jacob) would come with them, another Tok'ra, Rakor, would stay in the vessel, ready to take off at a moment notice, and pick them with the rings, while Janet monitored them from afar. They didn't think that the escape would be necessary, but it never hurt to be ready.

    SG-1, followed by Jacob, who was wearing a standard Tok'ra tunic and pants, walked out of the ship and saw the twelve people who were waiting them. The two familiar figures in military fatigues only seemed to enhance the sheer weirdness, to them, of the appearance of the other ten people. The pictures haven't really readied them for seeing them in the flesh.

    "They look like children!" said Jack, verbalizing the thought that was in everybody's mind.

    "Children or not, sir, they hold the keys to this." said Sam, making a gesture as if to encompass the entire palace. "It's imperative that we don't antagonize them."

    A grunt that charitably could be taken by a sign of agreement was Colonel O'Neill only answer, but he knew as well, as his XO, that to find a cache of Ancient tech on, literally, Earth's doorstep could, probably, be considered a gift from Heaven

    Washington, D.C. The Pentagon.

    Colonel Simmons finally arrived at his office. He had been summoned by the bean counters to talk about the last budget allocation request. And then, he had spent more than three hours defending the minutiae of the budget allocation of his branch of the NID, which translated into lying through his teeth to people who were not authorized to know about his activities, but thanks to the wonders of management theory, had a say about them.

    So he was not exactly in his best mood when he started to check the pile of papers on his table. After several documents that only merited a cursory glance, he took a coffee cup, and found the transcript of the previous days activities on the SGC. He was in the second page when he saw the transcript of the briefing about the Senshi. That made him spit the coffee into the cheap desk. He didn't waste time into cursing, though, instead, he started to make a few calls, the first one to a number that had been supposedly off the grid disconnected for several years, and that unless called from a few specific extensions in this building, would reject all calls.

    "Doctor Erickson? Remember the eventuality that we discussed past week?... I fear that the events have overtaken us badly." He said to the phone, speaking "Yes, the ones who underwent process C... Make sure that the ones marked will be injected with the serum...I want one of my people to have the button...Look, it's simply a matter of operational security...Very well, you win. But it will be Doctor Kincaid, he has been in the field before and know hat to do...Yes. Same as the last time...Two days...I expect your report...Goodbye, doctor Erickson."

    He then started to contact the black ops assets that the NID had already lined up for this and not engaged in other operations, as well as setting the ways that the operatives in place will be notified of the activation of the Operation Planetarium.

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2016
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