05 Planet Fall

Planet Fall

The next morning found the guys and girls sitting separately, talking in their own little groups. Trowa and WuFei had appointed themselves the crew’s alarm clock, but had not been ready for some of the sights they had found at 6am that morning. WuFei had taken Duo and Heero, while Trowa woke Quatre. Trowa met up with a subdued looking WuFei at the table, who refused to say anything about what he saw until after Heero and Relena had emerged from their room. Even then, his comment was for Heero.

“I take it she woke up,” he said, watching as Relena ran over to hug Hilde, who was coming out of her and Duo’s room.

“Hn,” was all of Heero’s response for a moment, followed by, “Yeah, you could say that.”

Duo looked back and forth between the guys as he walked up and said, “Ok, who died?”

“No one,” said Quatre as he joined the group, “WuFei and Heero just haven’t come to grips with what’s going on here yet.” Both men in question turned somewhat annoyed looks on the blonde, who merely shrugged and said, “Get over it now. It’ll help you in the long run.”

WuFei swirled his water in his cup and said, “Would you kindly keep your empathy out of my head, at least long enough for me to screw it back on right, Quatre?”

“‘Screw it on right’, nice choice of words, ‘Fei,” snickered Duo. Everyone groaned at Duo, a few even swatting him. Duo just laughed. 

Over at the table Hilde was sharing with Relena and Schera, she turned to look at Relena and asked, “What did WuFei see?”

Relena giggled. “I woke up before Heero for once, and decided to take advantage of his generous gift.” She giggled again.

Hilde looked a little lost. “Gift…?”

“Yeah,” said Relena, barely containing a giggling fit, “it was rock hard, wrapped in a sheet, and it stood at attention for me when I unwrapped it.” Relena just got the words out of her mouth when she started laughing in earnest. The shocked look on Hilde’s face didn’t help matters any. She continued, “I guess he wasn’t expecting to see me bouncing up and down on Heero like he was a pogo-stick!”

Hilde looked back and forth between Relena and Schera, who was also laughing. She shook her head and asked Relena, “Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

Relena sobered up a little and looked at her. “Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Because this isn’t like you, ‘Lena. You’re always so prim and proper, at least in public,” said Hilde.

Relena shrugged. “I know. I should probably be aghast at my own behavior, but quite frankly, I can’t bring myself to give a flying fuck,” she said as she sat there and smiled brightly.

Scherazade chuckled and said, “You are definitely adjusting to be a pokégirl quickly. I’m so glad.”

Hilde frowned at Schera and said, “Glad? She’s not acting anything like herself and you’re glad? Is this what I have to look forward to? Forgetting who I am and what I stand for? If so, kill me now. I don’t want any part of your pokégenes.”

Relena frowned at Hilde as Schera looked taken aback. “Stop it, Hilde. She didn’t do anything to warrant that kind of tongue lashing. She didn’t expose us to the ‘Fever’, and she’s done everything she could to make sure we came through the sickness intact and whole.” She looked at Schera. “I know we haven’t exactly met, but I remember you talking to me, taking care of me while I was sick.”

Hilde looked at Relena again, and said, “Well, that sure sounds like you. I guess this is just your inner freak coming out to play, then, huh?” Her sarcasm was impossible to miss.

Relena turned to face Hilde fully before saying, “And I guess this is your inner prude? Since when did my best friend turn into such a bitch?”

Hilde looked taken aback for a full minute, then smiled sheepishly at Relena and Scherazade both. “Sorry,” she said, “I guess this is just all so new. I’ve never heard you talk like this, ‘Lena. That’s all. I’ve known you over six years, and I’ve never known you to act like this. It’s a little disconcerting.”

Relena smiled at her friend again. “I know. To tell the truth, it’s a little disconcerting for me too, but I think I like it. I mean, I know I’m acting a little strange, but it’s not like I’m being mind controlled or anything like that. I know I’m not acting so prim and proper. It’s my choice. The only weird thing is I’m acting on that choice. I still feel like myself. I still know everything I did before. I’m just a little different. I know it sounds strange, but for the first time in my life, I feel…free. Does that make any sense?”

Hilde looked thoughtful before answering, “Yeah, I think it does.” She looked at Schera. “I know you probably don’t know much about Lena’s past but, she’s been in politics all her life, seriously filling political positions for most of her teen years. She’s not even twenty-one yet. Her political responsibilities completely took over her life. She lost both her real and adopted parents to political maneuverings; was separated from her only sibling by those same politics; then, was shoved into the spotlight and made Queen of the World, all before she was sixteen! As if that wasn’t bad enough, the public thought they had a right to dictate her life, even after the war was over, making her retain her station for fear war would break out again; she was forced to limit her contact with her own brother because of his part in the war, even though he was finally cleared of all war crimes charges, and she’s never been allowed to publically date Heero.” 

She looked back at Relena, and continued, “Now, we’re stuck in a completely different…what? dimension?...with no one who knows who you were or what you did, no one to tell you that you have to be a politician, no one to say you can’t date Heero. Yeah, I think it makes perfect sense. The only question is: How are we going to handle things when we get back to our own dimension?”

Relena shrugged. “You mean ‘if’ we get back to our own dimension. Who knows if we’ll be able to get back home?” Relena looked toward Heero, who was having one of those rare humorous moments, razzing Duo about something, before looking back at Hilde. “The odd part is, I don’t think I’ll miss my life before now. I’ll miss my brother and Lucrezia, but Milliardo is a big boy. He can take care of himself. And no matter where we are, as long as I have Heero at my side, I’ll go anywhere and take on anything.”

Scherazade finally spoke up again. “You seem very attached to Heero. I can’t imagine feeling like you seem to and not being able to let it show. How did you stand it?”

Relena shook her head. “By hiding our relationship behind half made promises and closed doors. Looking back, I don’t know how we made it so long this way. I still blame myself for the detached way Heero acts sometimes. I keep thinking it’s my fault he hasn’t opened up to the world, though I’m working on it. That’s something Iwon’t be doing anymore, holding out on him like I did,” she said, looking rather matter of fact. “I fell in love with him years ago. It’s time I act like it.”

Scherazade sighed lightly. Both girls looked at her quizzically. “I was just thinking that people from your world are so different from the people here. You’re used to mainly hetero and monogamous relationships. It’s so different here. One tamer is allowed an easy six or seven pokégirls, depending on how he runs his harem, and they’re all expected to share him. Or her, I suppose,” she added in. “I’m just hoping the strain of adapting to our way of life doesn’t pose too difficult for all of you.”

“Does every tamer have to have a full harem?” asked Hilde. “Can’t they just have one pokégirl and call it quits there?”

Scherazade shrugged. “They can…but unless she’s a very powerful pokégirl, it’s not advisable. There are so many types of pokégirls out there that it takes a well rounded harem for a tamer to even survive, let alone be successful. I can only assume Heero and Duo are going to make you two their Alphas. As such, you potentially have a lot of say on who does and does not get into the harem. So, if you really don’t want someone in your harem, say so. I highly doubt they’d ignore your opinions. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can be their only pokégirls; if your harem isn’t strong enough to win a pokébattle, you could be lost to another tamer as salvage, and trust me, native tamers aren’t nearly so nice nor understanding as your men are, generally speaking. They won’t think twice about tying you down with restraints and raping you until you Alpha bond to them. Once that happens, you probably still won’t like them, but it will pass slowly, until you’re actually happy to be their ‘girl.”

Hilde looked horrified. Relena merely shrugged and said, “I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got some hidden freak in me. We’ll just have to make sure we build strong harems, because I have no intentions of joining someone else’s orgy.” She seemed very confident as she looked at Hilde, who looked less sure, but nodded her agreement anyway.

~*~

“Ok, status report,” said Heero.

Everyone had separated after breakfast and took an inventory of the type and quantity of supplies left. This included the k-rations, energy packs, and various odd bits of stuff they’d managed to scrounge from the wreckage of the station, with the exception of the outer ring. All things considered, everyone had decided the outer ring was too dangerous until the security protocols could be overrode.

“We have enough blankets for everyone to have several, if you open the vacu-sealed ones we found,” said Duo.

“I found a few backpacks in the shuttle,” said Hilde. “Five in total, go figure.” She rolled her eyes even as she looked amused and elbowed Duo lightly. “You boys, you’re always thinking you’re the only ones that need to be ready in case of emergency.” Duo shrugged.

“We have plenty of first aid stuff,” said Trowa. “It’s all over the station. These people were every bit as prepared as we usually are.”

WuFei shook his head. “We can only hope so. We have several energy packs, and I even found a couple functional charging stations.”

Quatre sighed. “We only have another day or two of rations left, even if we make stew. The good news is the vaporizers are putting out plenty of water, so we’re not running out of that any time soon.”

Duo sighed and said, “Good. I’ll have something to take the Prozac with.” He half chuckled at the end, trying to hide the truth in the statement. He’d lived on next to nothing before the war, starving most nights while growing up on L2. While Duo had survived stronger for it, starvation had left its mark on the Deathscythe pilot. During the wars, he’d been known to hoard food when he found it and gorge himself after periods of being without. The rest of the guys had tried to help him as they got older. It had worked, for the most part. Now, instead of freaking out when he was out of food, he merely learned to eat just about anything. If he was somewhere he could catch food, he did. In situations where he couldn’t, he took his medication. Thankfully, he didn’t go anywhere without it. 

Hilde knew Duo’s troubles and patted his shoulder consolingly. She looked up and around, finally looking at Quatre and asking, “Where’s Schera?”

“I’m not real sure,” said Quatre. “She said she had found some interesting information for us, but she had to check something out. I heard her muttering about power converters and voltage regulators before she disappeared, but I still don’t know how that’s useful to us at present.”

Scherazade’s image came to life, appearing next to Quatre like she had been standing there all along. “I think I’ve figured it out!” she exclaimed. All eyes jumped to her face in time to see her annoyance as her image flickered. She sighed. “I’m not sure how long this halo-emitter will hold out, but I want to show you something.” Her image changed to one of a map of the inner section of the station. A red dot flashed in one room, while Scherazade’s voice wafted from the speakers. “You are here,” she said. A line streaked out from the dot, winding through the hallways, until it ended in another red dot. “I need you to come here.” Her image reformed and looked at Quatre pleadingly. “Please? Trust me, you want to see this!” She looked around the group. “All of you need to see this.”

Quatre looked at the guys. “She hasn’t led us wrong yet,” he said. “What do we have to lose?”

They nodded their agreement.

Twenty minutes later, the group found themselves in a section of the station they hadn’t explored yet. It was close to an area that had lost containment, and no one had deemed it necessary to risk their lives yet again just to explore another potentially useless room.

“I thought Schera said this part of the station wasn’t working anymore,” said Trowa.

Quatre shrugged. “She did, but she’s been working with the power relays, trying to get us access to more supplies. Maybe she found something really useful.”

They came to a set of double sliding doors, and Scherazade’s voice came out of a speaker on their right. “I can’t risk using the extra power to automate the doors. I have been able to disable their magna-seal function though. You should be able to pry them open without too much trouble.”

Heero and Duo made quick work of sliding the doors halfway apart, enough to easily squeeze into the next room. Inside, one of Scherazade’s holograms was standing behind a control panel on one side of the room, facing an alcove on the opposite side of the room. There was a rack on the wall behind her, containing some sort of metal hoops in recesses. The alcove was on a raised dais that appeared to be made of translucent floor plating. The plating had been molded into a pattern of three foot in diameter circles, ringing the edge, with a larger circle taking up the space in the center of the ring. None of the lights were on in the alcove, and it looked as powered down as the double doors.

Quatre found his voice first. “What is this, Schera?” Everyone was looking around in confusion.

Scherazade smiled. “This is our ticket to the planet.” Several people looked at her questioningly. She sighed good-naturedly and explained, “This is a transporter room. We can use it to send ourselves through space to the planet in a matter of seconds.”

Duo, who had been looking at the alcove, turned toward her and Quatre and said, “And exactly how does this thing send us to the planet? I mean, it’s easy to understand we’re meant to stand on this thing, in the circles, but I don’t get it. I mean, how does it get us to the planet?”

Scherazade continued to smile as she explained, “I figured you guys didn’t have these back home, but I think I’ve figured out an analogy you’ll understand. Transporters work kind of like cell phones. A cell phone takes a message, breaks it down into energy, and transmits that energy across great distances. At the other end of the line, the energy is reassembled into the original message. Transporters work pretty much the same. It will break down matter into energy, sending it wherever we program the controls for, and reassembles the matter on the other end.”

Duo’s eyes bugged a little in his head. “Like a cell phone? Have you honestly ever had a cell phone? Do you know what happens when the energy doesn’t all end up in the right place at the end?!”

Scherazade shook her head. “It’s not really that simple. Cell phones were the closest thing I could think of to illustrate the principle.” She looked at Quatre. “They’re really safe, Master. This is how the entire crew evacuated the station when Jim ordered us to power down.”

Quatre looked thoughtful. “Why didn’t you tell us about this before now?” he asked.

“It’s in need of repair,” she said, “but it won’t take much to repair it. Unfortunately, I can’t merely fix it without asking for permission.”

“For what?” asked WuFei.

“Parts.” When WuFei merely arched an eyebrow, she continued, “Parts from your shuttle.”

“Why from our shuttle? Don’t you carry spare parts for this thing on the station?” asked Hilde.

Scherazade nodded. “We do, but the parts for this particular technology were stored in the nearby section that depressurized. Everything vented…including the parts.” She sighed as her hologram flickered again. “What I wouldn’t give for non-malfunctioning holo-emitters,” she muttered. 

“When did it break down?” asked Heero, who was looking over the panels on the wall closest to the alcove. A few of the panels looked to have scorch marks on the edges, coming from behind them.

“About 200 years ago,” she answered. “We had a solar flare, and some of our electronics went haywire. Our shields had taken several previous hits from small asteroids and couldn’t stand up to the radiation. It sent shocks through the systems, overloading several circuits in the process. Several of our current systems problems stem from that flare.”

“Why didn’t you fix them sooner?” asked Trowa.

“Because I couldn’t take the chance of going feral,” she said in a small voice.

Quatre walked over to stand next to Scherazade’s hologram, reaching out a hand to stroke her cheek, even though it was insubstantial. Quatre looked at the others. “Schera is only completely stable as a hologram. She doesn’t feel the need of taming unless she’s in her physical form. Confining herself to being a hologram was the only way she could keep her sanity while being alone for three centuries.” Quatre looked back at her hologram and smiled gently.

Scherazade shook her head ruefully. “I don’t know what I did to deserve such an understanding Master, but I’m glad I found you.” Quatre smiled at her brightly.

Relena exchanged a loaded look with Hilde and smirked. Duo just rolled his eyes.

~*~

Duo, Heero and WuFei had taken it upon themselves to be the ones to start tearing the alcove’s fried components out, while sending the rest of the group to get new components from the shuttle. Scherazade stayed busy leading Hilde and Relena to various portions of the station after the few things that didn’t have to come from the shuttle. Once Heero had pried the scorched panels off the wall, it was quickly apparent which fuses and circuits were fried. 

Several hours later, WuFei pulled himself out of the wall panel he was half buried in and wiped his hands on a rag. “Well, with the exception of being cobbled together from two different universes’ parts, I think it’s a close as we’re going to get to ‘good as new’.

Heero helped him up and Duo slid the panel back into place. “That’s the last of them,” said Duo. “All we need now is a test run.”

“I hope you don’t want to move anything overly huge,” said Scherazade. She had come down about an hour ago when the holo-emitter finally gave up the ghost. “We don’t have a lot of spare energy. If it weren’t for the fact I don’t want my Master going down on it untested, I wouldn’t waste the energy on a test run.”

“We really need to, Schera,” said Quatre. “We have to be sure it’s going to complete the sequence correctly.” 

Scherazade merely nodded. “I know, but I’d still suggest getting everything you want together before we try the test. I don’t know which parts of the station might lose containment.” She looked around the room at the others, “If there’s anything you might want to go back for, now’s the best time.” 

Heero nodded. “She’s right. If containment is lost anywhere near here, I don’t want the only thing standing between us and this room to be a blown out section of hallway. Everyone, get your gear and anything else you think is pertinent, and meet back here in an hour.”

Scherazade put a hand on Quatre’s arm, holding him back until the rest of the crew had filed out. He looked at her expectantly once they were alone. “Apologies, Master, but I wanted to ask your permission to grab a few things.”

“What things, Schera?”

“You know the stones that Heero and Duo brought out of the R&D lab?” At Quatre’s affirmative nod, she continued, “They are evolution stones, and some are worth a good deal. I wanted permission to go back to the lab and pack several up to take with us as trade goods. It will get us some currency for supplies, not to mention, you can actually use them on your ‘girls if you want to.”

Quatre looked thoughtful. “Those are the stones that actually induce evolution, right?” Scherazade nodded. “Well then, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have several of them on hand. You once told me it was fairly common for Tamers to carry a few of these stones because of their girls, so get as many as you think wouldn’t stand out of place, and we’ll split them up between everyone in the group once we get planet-side.” Scherazade nodded once before taking off for the outer ring.

Once in the outer ring, Scherazade sped up a little. She knew these halls better than anyone and didn’t worry about running into anything as she sped haphazardly through them. She had thought about going planet-side several times. She knew that a lone pokégirl wouldn’t make it long on her own, especially before going feral, but she had thought she could bribe a few good tamings out of wayward Tamers with little bits of things from the station. Now, she knew her new Master and his family, as she knew that’s how Quatre thought of them all, could use the baubles she had catalogued in her memory so long ago. She knew she didn’t have a lot of time, and she didn’t want to worry Quatre with being late, so she quickly ran for the part of the ring that had housed the production plant. 

So much of the planet’s current pokégirl technology came from deliberate leaks on Sukebe’s part, leaking the tech he had invented during the war so that humans could better take care of their ‘girls. Everyday items like pokéballs, poképacks, and pokédexes were all based off of Sukebe’s designs, though Jim’s versions were still more advanced than the versions the Leagues produced today. Sukebe had put a small production plant on the station to supply the troops he had left in charge there. When everyone else had abandoned the station, she had taken note of several extra supplies that had not been taken planet-side. She had vacu-sealed some of the items, like the packs, and made sure to keep everything else in its proper places so she could find them later. 

Scherazade hit the small production facility running, racing toward her target: storage. Once there, she quickly opened several of the stored poképacks and began filling them with assorted items from the surrounding shelves and bins. She worked quickly, grabbing anything she thought pertinent or plausible, before grabbing the backpacks and running out the way she came in. Making her way to the R&D section of the outer ring was slow going due to the sheer amount of debris in the hallways. Some hallways were completely collapsed, necessitating detours that frustrated the Video Girl. Thankfully, she knew where to turn and which hallways to take so as to not have to backtrack.

Scherazade skidded to a halt outside R&D Lab #4, kneeling in front of the control panel, her interface cables popping out from under her skin and jacking into the lab’s data-net. She entered the maintenance code she used last time and the door swished open beside her. Scherazade took a few backpacks with her, leaving the rest outside the lab, and rushed through the open doors. She tapped her foot impatiently as the outer doors shut and the yellow light flashed. Soon enough, the light turned green and the inner doors opened. She dashed over to the cryo-chest containing the stones and lifted the lid. The cool mist came rolling out at her, quickly dissipating to reveal the rainbow of colorful stones contained within. She quickly dug several small, paper-back book sized packages that looked to be made of aluminum out of a backpack. When she ripped the end off one, the vacuum seal released and the small package expanded. Scherazade shook out the aluminum to a four by six foot sheet, which she placed on the floor. Then, she began piling stones from the chest onto the sheet, taking care to fold the sheet over as a separator between different types of stones. After she thought she had enough stones on the sheet, she gathered it up and stuffed it into a backpack. She repeated this process with more of the aluminum sheets, until she was satisfied that she had enough. She quickly zipped the backpacks closed, shut the door of the chest, and bolted for the door. She got into the decon chamber and re-entered the security code. When she looked up from the control panel, she got a start. Quatre was standing outside the lab, hefting two of the poképacks she had left outside. She got clear of the doors and rushed forward.

“What are you doing here, Master?” she asked.

Quatre smiled at her. “Would you believe I missed you?” he asked. He pointed at the other packs and continued, “Besides, I thought you could use some help. I wasn’t sure how much stuff you were packing, but I figured if you were anything like my sisters, then it was probably way more than we needed.” He readjusted one of the packs on his back. “I think I was right.” His tone clearly stated he was amused.

Scherazade shook her head. “Trust me, Master. I may have packed more than what we need of some things, but they’ll help us get the things I don’t have access to here on the station.”

Quatre nodded. “Ok. Is there anything else you want to try to pack, or is this it?”

She shook her head again. “No, this is it. I knew I was going to be cutting that hour close as it is. If we had more time, I know several other things that might come in handy, but we don’t have time to go through the security precautions. I don’t want another episode like the ‘Fever’ happening.”

Quatre nodded. “Agreed. Let’s head back. I’ve already packed up our quarters and dropped our duffle of at the transporter room.”

Scherazade nodded and lead the way back through the debris cluttered hallways. Soon enough, they were walking through the doors into the transporter room. Everyone else had already made it back ahead of them. 

Heero looked up from behind the control panel to see them come in. “That’s everyone then. What is all that?” he asked, looking at the backpacks Quatre and Scherazade were dropping on the floor. 

“Supplies,” said Scherazade, who was digging in one of the packs. 

“Trust me, we’ll explain once we make planet fall,” said Quatre as he shrugged out of the last pack.

Heero nodded, watching as Scherazade pulled a handheld medical scanner like the ones in the infirmary out of her pack. Walking behind Heero, she carried the scanner to the wall with the recesses containing the hoops. She plucked one out of a recess and held it up for everyone to see. It was thin, about half an inch wide, with a one inch long gem set flush into one side. The metal looked like it was made of some sort of silver. The gem looked like lapis.

“This is how the transporter keeps track of us on the ground. It’s a communication bracelet. It has circuitry embedded into and underneath the gem that the transporter equipment uses to lock onto its position and beam whatever it’s connected to up here. It also makes transporting down to the planet marginally easier, but that’s not the main reason to have them when teleporting down. There were, and still are, several hidden bases Sukebe set up on the planet. Each of them has a transporter pad, but they also have security features built into them to handle anyone that popped in unexpected without the proper clearance. These bracelets will get us into a secure facility, without getting blown up, shot or worse.”

She held up the medical scanner and pressed the bracelet against its back. “These things will magnetize to almost any metal. This is how we used to move large items up to the stations without having to haul them back to a base.” She looked at Quatre. “With your permission, Master, I’d like to use this scanner as our test run. It’s light, highly technical, and won’t be missed if we have something go wrong.” When Quatre nodded, Scherazade put the scanner on a pad in the alcove. She walked behind the control panel, Heero moving out of her way but staying close enough to her side to watch what she was doing. Her fingers flew over the panel, pressing buttons quickly while watching information feeding over the screen. Heero was determined to watch how this tech worked. She looked up, saying, “Okay, due to our current orbit, I can either test the Indigo base or the Sunshine base. Which would you prefer?”

“Which country will be the easiest for us to blend in?” asked Trowa.

“Well, if I had a choice, I’d rather have Sunshine. They’re friendlier,” she answered.

“Quite frankly, that could be a good thing,” said Quatre. “We need a calm country to start in so we can get the feel for the way things run here.”

“Firstly, remember, they are not countries anymore; they’re Leagues,” Schera said mildly. 

Quatre nodded, committing that factoid to memory. Schera started typing again. A minute later, she looked up at the group. “The Sunshine League base is under the remains of a pre-Sukebe city. Unfortunately, it’s in a Forbidden Zone. There’s a nearby city, Golden Cunt, that – ”

“Are you serious?” asked WuFei indignantly. “Is the city truly named…that?” 

Schera suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. The faintly reddish tone WuFei’s skin was taking on did not help her composure. “Yes, they really named the city Golden Cunt. I would suggest you get used to it. After the Leagues took over, they perverted almost every town’s name.” 

“Can they truly get much worse?” asked Hilde.

Schera looked at her. “Well, I don’t know about worse, per se, but there are other town’s in Sunshine with names just as bad. For example, there is also a Longcock and Blowjob.”

Duo snickered. Hilde smacked him. Heero didn’t even look phased. 

WuFei ran a hand over his face. “This place is not conducive to my sanity.”

Trowa put a hand on his shoulder. “I would either learn to adapt to the new reality, or throw sanity out the window, my friend.” His mirth was obvious, dancing in his eyes.

WuFei responded by glowering at the European.

Schera couldn’t help a small smirk, but only said, “If everyone would please step away from the transport pad…” She waited until everyone got as far against the opposite wall as possible, before engaging the transporter. The alcove glowed with a bright light that concentrated around the scanner. Five seconds later, it was gone. Schera tapped a few more keys, then looked up at Quatre. “It worked,” she said. “Target is in the right vicinity. No alerts seem to have been triggered by its arrival.”

“Good,” said Quatre. “Bring it back up please.”

Schera nodded in response and started typing the necessary commands into the control panel. “Retrieval commencing,” she said. The alcove began to glow again, the light coalescing into the vague shape of the scanner, when suddenly the lights dimmed in the whole room, alcove included. “Shit!” said Schera. She stopped typing and her interface cables popped out, connecting her to the panel. A visor like construct made of light appeared on her face like sunglasses, lines of code visibly streaming across it while her eyes moved rapidly, keeping up with the information racing by.

Everyone waited, watching as the panel’s lights dimmed further, and the glow in the alcove was completely lost. The lights in the room dimmed, flickered several times, then went out all together. Several variations of “Crap!” were heard in the darkness. Much worse than that were said as the low hum of the grav plates cut out and people felt themselves floating free of the floor. Luckily, everyone in attendance was familiar with zero-g.

“Schera?” asked Quatre, even his voice showing some strain.

“Working on it, Master. Just another minute,” she replied quickly.

Several tense moments later, the lights in the room and alcove both came back on, followed by the grav plates re-engaging. No one had moved during the ensuing darkness and weightlessness, so no one fell when everything came back on.

Quatre walked over to stand in front of Schera at the control panel. “What happened, Schera?”

Her lips thinned, the code still streaming across her visor. “The two uses of the transporter took more of a toll on the power reserves than I had anticipated. Life support and gravitation systems failed and tried to reset. I over-rode the programming, but I had to completely shut down life support in the ring and artificial gravity on the whole station. I re-routed power to this level to turn both back on here. The central hub is now the only place with functioning water and air and, this level the only one with gravity.”

“What about the transporter?” asked Heero. “Can we still use it?”

Schera nodded. “Yes, but it’s going to be a one-time use sort of deal. I can shut down the vaporizers and life support systems in the rest of the hub, making this the only level with any kind of life sustaining environment, and shunt all that power into the transporter and repair systems. The solar collectors will continue to charge the flux capacitors, and with a little luck, we might actually be able to use the station again. It might be several months before that happens though.”

“So, this is it then. We no longer have a choice,” said Duo.

Schera shook her head. “I’m afraid not, Duo.”

“Right then,” Duo nodded, picking up his and Hilde’s duffels, and placing them in the center of the transport pad. “Then let’s get this over with.”

While Schera continued to stand at the control panel, Heero grabbed several of the comm bracelets out of the recesses and passed them out amongst the group. “Everyone, put one on and attach one to each of the bags.” He slipped a few spares into one of the duffels.

Everyone did as they were told, then loaded their duffels and backpacks onto the center of the pad, and took up positions around the outer edge. Quatre was the only one not on the pad. He was standing in front of Schera, watching her eyes work. 

Several longs minutes later, Schera spoke up, saying, “While I know the initial transport would have been a success, I do not know if there will be any complications once we get down there. Relena and Hilde should be ready to protect the rest of you if the need arises.”

The sound of several clips being switched filled the room as the pilots near simultaneously checked and changed out their space safety rounds for standard 9mm rounds.

“If there’s danger, we’ll be ready,” said Duo.

Schera shook her head. “I just hope we don’t run into a feral pokégirl down there. Those pop guns of yours will more than likely just scare them into attacking. That’s the last thing we need, a feral attacking one of the humans.”

“Hn,” was the best response she got from the lot of them.

Finally, the visor dissipated and her interface cables released from the access port. Schera looked at Quatre. “That should do it. Everything’s ready. If you would please get on the pad, I’ll join you shortly.” Quatre took his place with the rest of the crew while Schera grabbed a bracelet and put it on. She pressed a few buttons and then quickly took her place on the transport pad next to Quatre. No sooner had her feet hit the deck than the alcove began to glow brightly. The glow grew more intense, and for one second, Relena was reminded of the bumpy flight that had brought them to this universe. One moment they were staring out of the alcove at the control panel, the next they were gone, the feeling of weightlessness coming back to them as they were literally transformed into their constituent atoms and beamed through space and atmosphere, only to be reassembled on the other end, in an alcove very similar to the one they started out in.

When the light faded, and their eyes readjusted to the gloom of the room they were now ensconced in, the group found themselves standing in a room in a horrible state of abandonment and disrepair. There was dust everywhere. It didn’t look like anyone had been here in decades, if not centuries. At once, six weapons leveled themselves at a single point in the room. An elderly looking woman with silvery hair was standing in the middle of the room, watching them calmly. For her age, her eyes looked extremely bright and intelligent. She was wearing a comfortable looking blue robe with arcane looking sigils sewn into the hems with silver, a few pieces of jewelry, and a pin attached to the left side of her robe. It was blue, with a bronze looking star hanging from the bottom.

No one moved when the woman finally spoke up. “Hello. You may call me Granny. I’ve been expecting you.”