Inspired by the series 'Sailor Moon' (Created by Naoko Takeuchi, published by Kodansha, and animated by Toei) and DC Comics' Tangent imprint (created by Dan Jurgens)

Chapter 1

Capt. Shidou contemplated seppuku as Sammy tried to extract herself from the spars of a Sailor. ‘That’s a new record, Jurai. Twice in one day...not to mention three consecutive days....’

‘Ma’am?’ Red walked up to her. ‘We’ve got some real problems here. Just did a Hull Integrity scan....’

‘Yes, Red?’

‘Well, the HI came up with some very long micro-cracks....’

‘Well? Use the Microwelders.’

‘That’s the problem, Ma’am.’

‘/What/ is the problem, Red?’

‘They won’t let us use them. They say that until further notice, only basic tools will be available.’

‘What are you talking about, Chacha?’

‘Well, Ma’am, after doing the HI scan, I went to the tool storage area to get a Microwelder, and Michiru said that I couldn’t have one.’

‘Exactly what did she say?’

‘She said: "By order of Saturn Confederation President Cephero, all but the most basic maintenance and emergency repairs are off." Apparently fixing micro-cracks, unless they’re an immediate problem doesn’t count.’

‘President Cephero? Why would he suspend operations?’

‘I don’t know Ma’am.’

The PA came to life. ‘Captain Hikaru Shidou, Captain Molly Baker and Captain Naru Osaka please come to the Station Commander’s office.’

‘Well, you can ask the Commander, can’t you?’ Red hit the PA button. ‘Bunny where are you? Sammy’s still stuck!’

Chapter 2

Shidou stormed into the office. ‘Alright! What’s all this about President Cephero suspending operations?’

‘He’s about to tell us, Captain. Now, please, sit down.’ Commander Mokona Apapa gestured to the seat between captains Baker and Osaka. President Ferio Cephero and his twin brother ‘Guru’ Clef Cephero stood behind Apapa. Turning a bright red, Hikaru took her seat.

President Cephero stepped forward, his brother a step behind him, as usual. Everyone knew that Clef was the real brains of the pair - that was why people called him the Guru - but Ferio knew people. Clef was abrasive and had a tendency towards obscure wording, necessitating Ferio’s selling of Clef’s ideas.

‘Captains, I understand your concern about our actions. Rest assured, though we have our reasons.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Now, as to the changes in procedure....’

‘Wait just a damned minute!’ Hikaru stood, and the other shift captains cowered. ‘Why the hell are you suspending normal operations of the station?’

‘As I was saying. As to the changes in procedure until further....’

‘Don’t dodge my question! Why?’

‘Commander Apapa?’

‘Shidou. To your quarters - now. I’ll not have you disrupting this meeting. I’ll have a summary sent to your office. Until further notice you are on probation. One more dumb move and I’ll have to take disciplinary action.’

‘But Commander....’

‘Now, Shidou!’ Hikaru hung her head and left the office. Almost immediately she was intercepted by her crew.

‘Well, Captain, what did she say?’

‘Oh, shut up!’

***

Chapter 3

Shidou threw the summary down onto her desk. ‘Plenty of bull, but no enlightenment. Nothing in here that Michiru never told Red. Why the hell would the President /do this/?’ Suddenly her Comm came to life, startling her out of her brooding. She swore, and turned the Comm on. ‘Yeah?’

‘Captain Shidou?’ It was Commander Apapa. ‘Could you come to my office, please?’

‘On my way, Commander.’ She killed the Comm and swore. ‘Jeez, I guess I’m for it now....’

---

As Sammy was - for once - retrieving Bunny from entanglement with the spars - how /she/ managed it, Red wouldn’t even speculate - Red ran down the checklist with the Captain. It was the President’s Private Sailor, and had some odd modifications, so Red wanted to make sure everything was where he thought it was.

‘So, why is the President here? There’s no real damage, and you’re not scheduled for maintenance for a few weeks.’

‘The President has some business with your commanding officers. Don’t ask me what, I just Captain his Sailor, I’m not privy to his private discussions.’

‘Oh, ok.’ Red put the checklist away. ‘Probably about the change in operating procedure.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Speaking of which! You’re not scheduled, meaning it’s not routine maintenance, and there’s no emergency repairs needed, so, if you could just move your ship off the platform, thank you.’ He turned towards the ship. ‘Bunny! Sammy! Once you get down, take a break, this one’s not scheduled!’ He grinned. He knew he was probably going to get in trouble, but hey, it’s fun!

---

Shidou slumped in her chair. ‘Commander, you can’t be serious.’

‘But I am Hikaru. Straight from the President’s mouth. Why he didn’t want to tell you people, I don’t know, but I couldn’t leave you in the dark. I’ve already told Molly and Naru. If you could keep it under your hat, for the next couple of weeks, it would help me a lot.’

Hikaru stood, and leaned across the desk. ‘Mokona, we’ve been friends for how long?’

‘Since before you and Fuu split. What does that have to do with anything?’

‘You should know me better by now. I’ve got better judgement than to just blab things like this around. Even my crew won’t know until it’s a fait acomplis.’ She sat on Apapa’s desk. ‘But /why/?’

‘It’s a better station on Ganymede.’

‘The moon is also a hole. Near arctic temperatures in all but the growing belt. Absurdly wet weather for a terraformed planet. In short: a /hole/!’ She stood and started pacing Apapa’s office. ‘And I can tell you why he wanted to keep us from finding out...so he could keep us from mounting a real opposition. Maybe I should tell everyone...don’t worry, Mokona, I’ll keep your name out of it, so I’ll only ruin /my/ career.’

‘Don’t be an idiot, Hikaru, it’s too late to really do anything but sabotage your career. And those of anyone who decides to join you. And not many will for just that reason. President Cephero is a powerful man.’

Hikaru slumped into the chair again and sighed. ‘You’re right, Mokona. As usual.’

‘That’s why I’m running the place, and you’re only in charge of one shift.’

Hikaru laughed.

‘Oh, shut up, Mokona.’

Chapter 4

‘May we join you?’ Naru and Molly stood next to Hikaru’s table, holding their trays. She didn’t feel like dealing with them, but she wasn’t going to let herself tear into them, so she nodded. She actually liked them, even if they could be a little dense.

‘Isn’t it terrible?’ Molly and Naru sat in unison.

‘I wish I knew why they were doing it!’

‘Naru, can’t you figure it out?’ Hikaru took a sip of her water, and fell silent. The other Captains simply looked at her. She sighed and continued. ‘Think about it. Titan’s a beautiful moon, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, it is, and Ganymede’s a very ugly....’ Molly fell silent, and nodded. ‘Ah. Aha.’

‘So...’ Naru tapped the table as she thought. ‘President Cephero thinks that a beautiful moon like Titan is being wasted on the station.’ She nodded. ‘He thinks putting a resort or something here would raise more money for the Confederation?’

‘That’s my theory.’ Hikaru had to admit that they weren’t quite as dim as they often came across. Maybe it was all an act. ‘But why GANYMEDE? Did the Jupiter Government not want to give us a good moon either?’

‘There /are/ no good moons around Jupiter, actually.’ Molly turned back to her food.

‘Pardon?’ Hikaru was surprised Molly knew that. Maybe it /was/ an act.... ‘Explain.’

‘Well, we all know what Ganymede’s like, right? Well, Europa’s even worse. Much colder - the whole surface is ice. The Europa station is under almost 30 meters of the stuff! And Callisto...well...Callisto was nicknamed Hell by the team that tried to terraform it. They succeeded - kind of. They never figured out why, but they were never able to make the place...well....nice. The weather’s unpredictable, going from droughts to deluges within hours. Terrible winds....really bad stuff. There’s still some people there, too! Some are trying to tame it, others just like the challenge of living there! The other moons are just too small.’

Hikaru was awed. ‘How did you know all that....?’

‘I find Solar System geography interesting.’

Chapter 5

‘I guess you’re all wondering why we’re having this meeting.’ Commander Apapa was standing at her desk, in the same place she was the last time they had had this kind of meeting, with President Cephero in the same place he had been. ‘Guru’ Clef was missing, though.

Hikaru, Molly and Naru moaned. ‘More bad news?’

‘Well...I’ll let the President tell you. Mr. President?’

President Cephero stepped forward. ‘Thank you Commander Apapa. Hello, all.’ He looked at Hikaru. ‘I hope you’ll be better behaved this time, Captain?’ He smiled at her, and it struck her as absurdly insincere, but she smiled back.

‘Of course, Mr. President.’

‘Good. Now, I realize you have all been wondering why normal operations have been suspended. Well, it’s been decided that the station will be moved to Ganymede.’

Hikaru stood. ‘May I ask why?’

‘Certainly Captain. It has been decided that Ganymede would be a better location than Titan.’

‘Why?’

‘The location is more central to the Sailors’ routes.’

‘So there’s no truth to the rumor that you simply wanted to open Titan to more profitable inhabitants than the Station?’

Apapa gestured for Hikaru to stop, and Cephero flustered. ‘Of course not! That-that’s positively ridiculous!’

‘Alright. Thank you for your honesty.’ Hikaru sat down, and Apapa slumped into her chair. President Cephero smiled.

‘The fully functioning new station will be opened in two weeks, Thank you for your cooperation.’ The President shook Apapa’s hand and left the office.

‘He’s lying.’

Chapter 6

Hikaru propped her feet up on the seat across her table, and started flipping through the novel she had bought in the Sailor’s gift shop. When the waitress came by to take her order, she looked at Hikaru’s feet and glared. Hikaru glared back. ‘Not hungry just now, thanks.’ The waitress wandered off, only to be replaced by Bunny and Sammy.

‘Captain, may we join you?’ Hikaru dropped her feet, and continued to flip through the novel, though she couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. It seemed to be a detective novel, set a few years after a war with angel-like aliens. It was utterly confusing, but she tried to make sense of it, since she most certainly was not in the mood to deal with people. ‘Captain, can we ask you something?’

Hikaru put down the novel, and looked at Bunny and Sammy. ‘Shoot.’ She figured at least if she answered their question, they might go away.

Bunny leaned forward. ‘Why are you so upset? I mean, it’s just another moon, right? It’s not like they’re sending us to Calisto, or anything.’

Hikaru glared at her. ‘Is that your question?’

‘Yeah.’

Hikaru sighed. Why was she so upset? Ganymede wasn’t a pleasant moon, sure, but like Bunny said, it could be worse. ‘It’s because Cephero was so sneaky about the whole thing. If they had told us: "We’re going to move you to Ganymede, so until the new station’s finished, only basic ops are going to happen.", then I could have dealt with it. Hell, I might not have spotted the sneaky SOB’s real motives if he’d done that.’ She felt her blood pressure go up, so she picked up the novel, and went back to reading.

Chapter 7

The T-NMS-1 touched down in Ganymede Station’s repair bay, the crease from the impact of the unidentified object running along its back nose to tail. Fuu stepped down, followed by Ray.

‘Damn, but it’s cold!’

‘At least it’s not Calisto.’ Hikaru and her crew automatically responded.

‘Eh? O...k....’

‘Doesn’t matter. Hi, give me a hug!’ Hikaru embraced Fuu, who hugged her back.

‘Now, ’Karu, is there anywhere in this station that you couldn’t store meat?’

Hikaru laughed, and took his arm. ‘Sure c’mon.’ She turned to Red. ‘You guys can get along without me?’

‘Sure.’ Red turned to Ray. ‘So, what the hell’d you guys hit?’

Hikaru and Fuu walked through the sliding doors into the station proper, where Fuu’s shivering abated slightly. ‘This is better....sort of.’

‘It’s warmer in the actual living areas. They didn’t think it was cost effective to actually heat the corridors to comfortable levels. But, you want /warm/? Follow me.’ She dashed down a side corridor, Fuu at her heels. She peeled off her cold weather clothes and put them into a locker beside a door marked ‘Hothouse’ in bright red letters. She then hit the open button, and stepped into the ‘Hothouse’, which, Fuu soon found out was exactly what it was. ‘There’s geothermal activity below us....well, I think that’s what Commander Apapa said. Geology isn’t my thing. The ground’s hot here. We get our electricity, and heat from this place, as well as some fresh fruits and vegetables. She stepped out on a catwalk that was part of an elabourate network among the plants.

‘Beautiful. So, do you like it here?’

‘Well, it’s no Titan, but, it could be worse.’

End Sailor Moon