This is a revision of the story posted originally in SB and SV. If you are familiar with the...
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AntonioCC | 11 |
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.
There are several options: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?
Instead of actually opening fire on sight, have Martha go 'Holy shit!' and dive for cover while bringing up her weapon.
Draft of a revised scene said:Unfortunately, she was so focused in the two women that she stepped on a small stone, without noticing, losing her footing and falling 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.
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.
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!"
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 Wright-Patterson, 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 Al-Kesh 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. 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...
"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
"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."
"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 pretended.