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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.

Captain Hikaru Shidou sat in her office indulging one of her guilty pleasures. A vid of the ancient TV anime Magic Knight Rayearth was playing on her screen: It was her favorite episode - the one where Rayearth finds the Helm of Mythos, which Hikaru had lately come to wish she had. The ability to stop time would be wonderful. Her emerald green eyes shone with the thought of actually being able to shut them...her door buzzer rang and Capt. Shidou shot bolt-upright, a spray of mid length red hair flying around her head as she frantically searched for the remote-control for her wall-screen.

'Just a moment!' She spied the remote, quickly ended the vid, tidied her hair and uniform, and turned towards the office door. 'Come!'

Serena 'Bunny' Moon stepped into the room. It was obvious she'd rather be elsewhere, her sky-blue eyes were cast downward, and she was fidgeting with her shoulder-length sandy blond hair. Shidou mused, not for the first time that Bunny's nickname was perfect for her. She was the quintessential 'Beach Bunny': Tanned, beautiful, and dumb as a post.

'Yes, Ms. Moon? Can I help you?'

'Er, yes, Sir...er Ma'am!' Bunny corrected herself before Shidou could fix her with her patented Icy-Glare. She hated being called 'Sir', even if it were procedure. 'Um, Sammy...well, she's stuck in the spars of one of the Sailor's sails, and we need your key to move the cherry-picker to get her...she, um, she...has...ours.'

Shidou hung her head and reached out for the key on her desk. 'How,' she asked no one in particular, 'does she manage to do that every single week?' She suddenly wheeled on Bunny. 'And why, pray tell do you always give her the key?'

'Well, I can't take it, 'cuz I'm never near the 'picker. And Red can't 'cuz...well, you remember how he flushed the other one down the garbage disposal with the remains of his lunch that time...' Shidou moaned, pitifully, and wished, again, that she had the Helm of Mythos...

Chapter 2.

Hikaru was woken by the intercom buzzer. She looked at her clock: 11:00 hours, an hour 'till her shift, and a half hour before she had set her clock to wake her. She decided that it was as well to get up as not, and climbed out of bed, flipping the com to audio only, and disabling her clock's alarm.

'Shihou here.' She slipped out of her night dress and headed for the shower.

Radio Operator Darien Shields was at the other end. 'Sir,' Hikaru winced. She couldn't even tell Shields off - the Radio-Op wasn't directly under her command. 'You know the new model Sailors Takeuchi Interplanetary is working on?'

'Yes Mr. Shields, I know them. TI sent us the specs last week.' She turned the shower on and stepped in. The water was, as usual, 5 degrees lower than she ordered. Never failed - unless she ordered it 5 degrees hotter than she wanted it. 'Perfect Temperature Controls, my ass,' she muttered.

'Well, Sir,' WINCE 'One just had a minor collision in the Asteroid Belt and it's on the way here for repairs.'

'Why the hell isn't it going back to their shop?'

'Their shop's on Pluto, Sir. We're closer.'

Shidou swore under her breath. 'Alright, I'll tell my crew to be ready for it....' She flipped the shower off, stepped out, then did the same to the com. 'Well, actually, this could be a good career advancement situation.' She hummed as she got dressed. 'I'm going to be in charge of a crew that works on the new model Sailors! Yes!' As she was reaching for her top, she stopped. 'Oh, God. MY CREW is going to work on one of the new model Sailors? Nononononononono! My career is ruined!!!' She screamed.

On the other side of the station, Radio-Op Shields looked up, 'What the hell was that?'

Chapter 3.

Captain Shidou's headache was getting worse by the moment. Not only had Sammy managed to get caught in a Sailor's spars for the second time in as many days, but Bunny had managed to get tangled herself trying to rescue her.

'Can today get any worse?' Then she remembered the new model Sailor was going to be at Titan Maintenance Station soon. 'Why me...?'

'Sir?' The com hissed...connections were loose again... 'The T-NMS-1 is in Titan orbit awaiting permission to dock.'

'T-NMS...? Oh, the new model Sailor. Ok...um...' She looked at the already docked Sailor. Sammy and Bunny had managed to get off of the sail and into the cherry picker. 'Good,' she mumbled. 'If they don't see that, I can at least suggest that the crew wasn't experienced enough with the new model.' She turned back to the com. 'Alright, Shields, tell them to come in.'

'Check.' Shields turned back to the Surface-to-Ship com without turning off the Intercom. 'Alright, Captain Hououji, you're cleared for landing.'

'Hou...?' Shidou's eyes widened. 'Fuu?'

***

'Certainly can't mistake that for one of the old models, can you?' Bunny nudged Sammy as the crew watched the T-NMS-1 land.

'You probably could,' Hikaru muttered under her breath. Then she laughed. Even Bunny could never mistake the Takeuchi New Model Sailor for one of the old designs. For one thing, there were no physical sails. Retractable spars on the four 'Sail Points' generated what Takeuchi were calling 'Virtual Sails' to deal with the varying intensities of the Solar Winds. Shidou was unsure of the physics behind them, but the design was straight-forward enough that even her crew should be able to make repairs. And the thrusters for infra-atmospheric flights were less prominent but more powerful and easily controlled. An almost perfect vessel from an engineering standpoint.

The T-NMS-1 came to rest, and the hatch opened. A man about Shidou's age stepped out onto the Gangway. He was tall, delicately featured, with black hair tied into a pony-tail which terminated just above his ankles. He was wearing the sleek black uniform of Takeuchi Interplanetary R&D, with a name-badge reading Hououji. He smiled and adjusted his glasses - a small wire-rimmed pair that hadn't been fashionable in a decade. 'Hikaru! Long time no see!'

'Hello, Fuu,' She responded, weakly - but with a smile.

Chapter 4.

'Hello, Fuu,' Hikaru smiled, and her voice trembled. 'It's...it's been too long.'

'It has. So, you're running this place, huh?'

Hikaru laughed - giggled actually. 'This shift, actually.'

Bunny jabbed Red in his ribs. 'She giggled! I've never heard her giggle before!'

Red, a bearded giant of a man, ran his hand through his shaggy mane of dusty red hair. 'I didn't know she was capable of it.' He laughed - a booming laugh well suited to his bear-like frame. This caught Hikaru's attention.

'Oh, Fuu, let me introduce you to my crew,' She turned towards the others who quickly lined up. 'This is Serena Moon. She deals with the electrical and electronic components.'

'Call me Bunny,' Bunny nodded and waved, and gave him her most devastating smile.

'Nice to meet you, Bunny,' He smiled back, and Bunny swooned.

Sammy looked sidelong at Bunny and whispered, 'Slut.' Bunny kicked her in the shin, without moving any other part of her body, and kept smiling at Fuu.

'Fuu Hououji, Sammy Jurai,' Hikaru pointed at the petit woman next to Bunny. 'She deals with any of the moving parts.'

'They call me Pretty Sammy,' She had short brown hair, and a slender figure, and certainly lived up to her name.

Bunny burst into laughter, 'I knew we should never have given her that name. It's given her a swelled head,' Sammy elbowed her in the stomach, causing her to double over.

Hikaru began to rub her temples again. 'I'm working with the Three Stooges....'

Bunny cocked her head. 'Three Stooges? Who are they?' Hikaru shook her head.

'Never mind,' Fuu grinned. He'd introduced Hikaru to the old Stooges films. 'Anyway, This is Red Chacha. He's in charge down here on the floor.'

'They call me Red Riding-Hood. A bit of a joke.'

Red extended his hand which Fuu took and gave a firm shake. 'Y'look more like the Big Bad Wolf to me.'

Another man came down the gangway. 'Sir? I've got the damage report.'

'Ah! Thanks, Ray. Red Chacha, this is my First Officer, Ray Hino. Ray, Red. You'll be working together on this. I'll let you guys get to work.' He turned to Shidou. 'Hikaru, there a place to eat around here?'

'Um, sure, follow me.' Hikaru and Fuu walked out of the bay towards the commissary.

Chapter 5.

Hikaru's office door slid open, the clock showing 19:59 hours. 'Just a minute.' As the clock showed 20:00, the office rearranged itself - into her quarters.

'Nice room. You always had a real knack for decorating.'

'Thanks. Drink?' She held up a bottle of brandy and poured herself a glass, then another when Fuu nodded. 'I'd heard you were working at Takeuchi, but they make it damned hard to track their employees down.' She handed him his brandy and sat on her bed.

'Yeah, they do.' Fuu sat in the only chair in the room. 'They don't want their employees or designs getting taken by the competitors. I take it you gave up after being "interviewed" by Amy?'

'Actually, I got as far as Tenchi Masaki before I said fuck it.' Hikaru laughed. 'But that Amy chick! I think the little sadist enjoys her job!'

Fuu chuckled. 'Ooooh! Believe me, she does! She does!'

'So, the new Sailor's your design, huh?'

'Yeah. Beginning to end, it's my baby.' He put down his drink and turned to Hikaru. 'I really should have tracked you down. I missed you.'

***

'So, Ray, how'd you manage to crack that thing up?' Red chewed on a liquorice whip as he examined the damaged spar.

'Our pilot's new. He misjudged the distance to Eros, and tried to get fancy with his maneuvering...It's only because of Capt. Hououji's design that we didn't end up cracked up on one of those rocks. It's a lot easier to readjust the symmetry of the sails and keep control than it is with other designs.'

'Damn. Can't wait for these babies to go into production. I'll feel a damn sight safer.' He hit the PA call button. 'Bunny! Where are you?'

'Right behind you, Red.' She stepped past him, and examined the stump of the spar. 'So, Ray, didja manage to recover the rest of the spar? I think I can repair it, but I really don't want to have to try to rebuild it from scratch.'

'Yeah, it's in our cargo bay. C'mon.'

Chapter 6.

Saturn dominated the sky on Titan. Fuu fell back onto the ground, his eyes fixed on the planet, and sent a cloud of white dust flying. 'Good Lord. I haven't seen anything that magnificent since I went to Pluto.'

'I really like the view. It's nowhere near as impressive the view of Earth from Luna, but at least they've terraformed Titan.'

'Ugh! Yeah! No artificially recycled air! I haven't breathed real air in...in a long time. They can't terraform Pluto or Charon - for obvious reasons, so it's like living in a spaceship for 10 months out of the year. Luckily, we're given two months leave. I usually spend it on Earth.' He sat up, and picked a long blade of pink 'grass' from beside him. 'Pretty. Odd colour though.'

'There's a lot of plants that look like that on Titan. They were engineered from plants found here when the Terraforming Survey Crew arrived. When the actual Terraformers showed up, they found that the plants were able to fill the roles of Terran plants - except for food, we grow that in the equatorial region - and so they just altered them so that they didn't die in an Earth-like atmosphere, and let them grow. They're chemosynthetic, which is why they're not green...' Hikaru laughed and sat down in a patch of the grass. 'I'm probably boring the hell out of you, huh?'

'Well, yeah.' He started to pull the blade of grass apart. 'You always loved botany, why'd you become an engineer?'

'I enjoy this too. And I got better marks on the entrance exams.' She grinned. 'I kinda wish I had become a botanist, though, sometimes. Um, about my crew...'

'They seem a nice bunch.'

Hikaru stopped short. 'Um...well...yeah, they are, I guess...but, um...forget it.'

Fuu grunted and fell back again. 'Magnificent view.'

Chapter 7.

'Hikaru?' Fuu broke the silence that had fallen over them.

'Yeah, Fuu?'

'Hikaru, I...Never mind.'

'What is it, Fuu?'

'Hikaru, I have something to ask you.' He stood and offered Hikaru his hand. She took it, and he helped her to her feet. 'Hikaru...' He kept hold of her hands and looked into her eyes. 'I...'

'Don't. I know where you're going.' She pulled her hands from his, and turned away. 'I...I love you, yes.'

'Then you...' He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders, 'You will...'

'No, Fuu, I can't. You know I can't. Our careers are too important to us. We can't, not now.'

'But...'

'No, please, don't...' She stepped away again. 'Now isn't the time. I can't ask you to give up your career...'

'You can, you can!'

'No, I can't, and you shouldn't ask it of me. You know this as well as I do, Fuu. Maybe...maybe some time in the future, or maybe if we had when we last met....but now? No.'

Fuu fell to his knees. 'Hi...' His voice wavered and he sobbed. ''Karu...' He was weeping, now.

'You know it's true, Fuu.' She knelt beside him. 'Come here...' She held him and he wept onto her shoulder.

***

Fuu walked around the T-NMS-1, examining the repaired spar. 'Good, good.' Ray walked behind him, checking each inspection point as Hououji established it was in order. The repair crew watched from outside the landing pad, grinning as Fuu checked each point of their repair.

---

Hikaru was conspicuously absent, watching the proceedings on a security screen.

'Captain?' Security Chief Haruka Ten'ou leaned on the console, her braided hair brushing the screen. 'If it interests you so much, why aren't you on the floor?'

'I can't, Chief, it's...forget it.'

---

Fuu turned to the crew. 'Good work, I'll be sure to put in a good report about you people when I get back to Pluto.' He crisply turned on his heel and walked up the Gangway, followed by Hino. The hatch closed and the Gangway retracted as the Sailor's thrusters warmed up. The T-NMS-1 turned and exited the Station.

---

Hikaru watched the ship leave. 'Goodbye, Fuu.'

---

Fuu watched Titan recede on the Sailor's screens. 'Goodbye, Hikaru.'

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