<pwinram@coastnet.com>

Enter Star Navigators

Chapter Seven
The Eagle Soars In

          Raye and Triese were alone in Raye's room, trading memories of the happy
times of their past on the moon and Mars.  They were both very glad to have
finally found each other; Raye because she finally had a "relative" close to
her own age who she could tell things to, and Triese because now she had new
memories and someone to share them with.  They'd spent most of the day
saying "Do you remember the time when..." and "Or how about when...", and
they had given each other fits of giggling over cute guys each of them had
had crushes on.  It was getting close to the time when Triese had to return
home when someone knocked on the door
        "Raye!" said Chad, "I can't find the scrub mop and pail, have you seen them?"
        "Oh, you're hopeless, Chad!" sighed Raye, "Come on, I'll show you where
they are."  She turned to Triese, "Want to come with me on a pointless
errand?" she asked.
        "Sure," said Triese, "It'll give me a chance to met this 'Chad' you told me
about."
        Chad was a little confused to see Triese, as he hadn't seen her come in,
but he simply assumed he had come in while she was busy working somewhere
else.  If Chad was a little startled, it was nothing on the shock of
recognition Triese got when she saw him.
        'So,' she thought to herself,' the Silver Crystal was kind to you, my
friend.  It seems your infatuation isn't dimmed even after all this time.
It truly is a shame your memory still sleeps, but that's really none of my
business.'  She quickly concealed her surprise from her cousin, and watched
with interest as Chad followed Raye like a dog brought to heel.  By the time
they had ditched Chad and returned to Raye's room, it was time for Triese to
leave.  She and Raye bid each other goodbye, and promised that they "Really
must do this again some time."
        Once she was back at the apartment, Triese started laughing.  "I can't
believe it!" she chuckled, "They've known him for months, and no one ever
realized that it was destiny that brought him!"
        "Who're you talking about?" asked Ailine, surprised to see her roommate so
amused.
        "Chad!  Have you met him?"
        "Of course I have.  He seemed quite infatuated with Raye."
        "You have no IDEA how funny that statement is!" laughed Triese, "Yes he is
infatuated with Raye, he has been as long as I can remember."
        " I don't understand, I thought you just met him.  Come on, let me in on
the joke!" complained Ailine.
        "Oh all right, the joke is this: Back in the Moon Kingdom I knew him as a
minor Lord named Lord Chadwick.  He told me he desperately wanted to meet my
'bewitchingly beautiful cousin' and asked me to let her know about him.  Of
course, none of you others recognised him, because you never knew him before
in the first place."
        ' And now he's living in the same place as her?" Ailine started to laugh as
well, "Well, I guess if he's happy as he is, there's no need to wake him up."
        There was a knock on the door, and Ailine let Elwing, Treyor and Caiona in.
"You two are in a good mood." commented Elwing
        Through fits of giggles, they explained the situation.  Elwing and Treyor
started laughing as well.
        "If you four can pull yourselves out of the fit you're in, there is a
reason we're here." said Caiona.
        "Party pooper!" complained Elwing, "Alright, what's the reason we're all here?"
        "After hearing about the difficulties you and Treyor encountered with the
latest Negaverse drone, I have decided that you definitely need some
practice using your skills in concert effectively."
        "Caiona's right." said Treyor, squeezing Elwing around the waist with the
arm which seemed always to be there, "You're not te scare me like that
anymore, Acushla
        "What's this, a nickname!?  Ooo how CUTE!" said Triese in exaggerated
tones.  Elwing blushed.
        "What does it mean?" Ailine asked Treyor quietly under Triese's laughter
and teasing about the colour Elwing's ears were turning.
        "It's Gaelic for 'oh pulse of my heart'" Treyor answered.
        "Triese, would you please stop laughing and let us get back to the
subject." said Caiona in a frustrated tone.
        "Alright, alright." said Triese, stifling her laughter.
        " Now, as I was SAYING, you need to get some training in combining your
powers in a combat situation.  We need to set aside some time each week when
you can do this."
        "Treyor and I both have Thursday afternoon off." ventured Elwing
        " I don't have any classes Thursday, so that works for me." said Ailine
        "Me too." added Triese.
        "Alright, that's decided," said Caiona, "now where are we going to go?  We
need some place secluded."
        "Why not Beacon hill park?" suggested Ailine.
        " yes, that would be good, Ailine.  So, since tomorrow is a Thursday, I
suggest you all get lots of sleep tonight, and we'll meet at the totem pole
at two o'clock."
        "Alright." they agreed, then the meeting broke down into Triese teasing
Elwing, trying to make her ears blush again.
        In the dungeon, the two prisoners were finally waking up.  Their eyes
opened at about the same time, and a s they saw each other, they both
scuttled backward to opposite sides of the small cage, getting as far away
from each other as possible.
        "Who are you?"asked The boy.
        "What are you doing here?"asked the girl.
        They both stared distrustfully at each other, neither willing to break the
silence first.  Finally the boy spoke.  "This is ridiculous.  If we're both
captives, then we have the same enemy.  My name is Travis."
        "And mine's Erina."  Said the girl in very clear English flavoured with
just a hint of German accent, "Did that man capture you too?"
        "Yes, and he made me tell him about the dream I'd been having."
        "He asked me the same thing.  He left me in here for what seemed like days,
then he kept coming back in here and interrogating me, and refusing to feed
me if he thought I'd hidden anything from him or made anything up."
        "He interrogated me as soon as I got here, and threatened me with a sword."
said Travis, " Why do you think he wanted to know about our dreams?"
        "I don't know.  All I know is that I'm glad I stopped having that dream, it
was horrible, everything crashing down around me, the dark winds and evil
cackling laughter of the shapeless THING which was blocking out the sun's
light..." Erina shivered.
        "My dream was nothing like that," said Travis, "it was peaceful and happy.
If the two dreams were so different, why would they interest him?"
        "He's a madman, I'm sure of it, and such men need no logical reasons for
what they do."
        "You're probably right.  Still, it would be good to at least figure out
what he wants us for.  Since there are two of us in this cage, I suggest we
take advantage of that fact, and sleep in shifts.  You can sleep first, Then
I'll wake you up and I can sleep.  That way he can't sneak up on us."
        "It sounds like a good plan." agreed Erina.

        In his laboratory, Colg chuckled.  "Pathetic little bugs, I can put them to
sleep with one wave of my hand." he continued to chuckle as he watched them
on the viewer.

        On Thursday morning, Elwing and Treyor had math class, and for Elwing, this
start didn't bode well for the rest of the day.  First of all was the fact
that the teacher flat-out refused to call her by her chosen name.  She had
asked him previously if he would, and he had said he would consider it, but
he had decided it would be just too confusing for him, so he insisted on
calling her Claire.  In addition to this, they got back their first quiz,
and Elwing found that she had barely passed with a score of 50%.  To top it
all off, Class went on extra long, and by the end she was getting a headache
from the florescent lights.  When class ended she was, to say the lest, in a
bit of a bad mood.  "Well, I'm definitely ready for combat training," Elwing
told Treyor, "All I would need to do is picture some tree as our teacher and..."
        Treyor, being polite, didn't mention that their powers were really only
defensive.  "Well, we've lots of time, and I fancy stretchin' me legs a bit,
so why don't we walk te the park?"
        "Sounds good," said Elwing, "But lets pick up some lunch on the way, All
that math made me hungry!"
        Ailine and Triese sat at their apartment eating a leisurely lunch, since
they were much closer to the park.
        Ailine was humming her most recent assignment.  "So, how was your sociology
class?" she asked Triese.
        "Not too bad, but it's so annoying; just when I start to get a good
discussion going with the teacher.."
        "You mean argument." interjected Ailine.
        "Yeah, whatever.  As I was saying, whenever I get a good ARGUMENT going
with the teacher, this annoying blonde guy steps in and ruins it with logic."
        Ailine had to take a drink of milk in order to hide her smile.  She knew
Triese well enough to know that she would find being interrupted
mid-argument very annoying.  "Have you talked to him about it and told him
how much it bugs you?" she asked Triese.
        'I haven't had a chance to educate him on that topic yet, no.  Every class
he's already disappeared by the time I get out of the room."
        "Lucky for him, I guess." laughed Ailine, "the kind of 'education' you give
usually involves numerous bruises."
        "Yeah, well, the next time he does it, he's going to find out just how
annoyed I can get."  Triese looked at her watch, "We'd better get ready to
go, or we'll be late for practice."  They cleaned off the table, then left
for Beacon Hill Park.

        Caiona, having nothing better to do with her time, had gotten there early
and was scouting around for hidden clearings which were unoccupied (said
clearings being popular during the summer for those who wanted seclusion).
She found, to her delight, a row of them which would suit her designs
perfectly.  Noting their location, she headed back in the direction of the
totem pole which was to be their meeting place.  She arrived just as Ailine
and Triese, and Treyor and Elwing, were rounding the corner from opposite
directions.
        "Well, you're all here on time I see, that's good." said Caiona, "Now, if
you'll follow me, I'll explain how today's training session is going to be
conducted.  I'll create an illusion of a drone and some victims.  I'll show
you where the drone is, but you have to do all the rest, including locating
the victims.  Now, since none of you have your offensive attacks yet, I will
also eliminate it when I judge you have distracted it long enough that all
the victims have been dealt with and someone with an offensive attack has
had a chance to attack it.  Oh, and Triese, if you get too close to the
drone it will no doubt be able to attack you, so I don't suggest you try to
attack it directly, skilled though you are.  The drone illusion will behave
just like a real drone, which means it can hurt you.  The only difference is
that its attack will only slightly weaken you, instead of incapacitating
you.  Is everything clear?"
        "Yes!" they all answered.
        "Good then, transform and prepare yourselves." ordered Caiona.
        "Elwing Navigator Power!", "Vega Navigator Power!", "Polaris Navigator
Power!", "Rigel Navigator Power!" they shouted and transformed.
        In the series of clearings, Caiona had previously found, she created four
piles of three victims each, and a large beetle drone, then found a safe
spot to watch.
        "Okay, here's the plan." Sailor Elwing tole the others, "Sailor Polaris
will find the victims and let me know where they are and I'll get them to
safety.  Sailor Vega and Sailor Rigel, you will have to keep it away from
me, and keep it from recapturing the victims.  You can use whatever means
you deem necessary, but try not to do anything that would attract a lot of
attention or put any of us in danger, please."
        "Right!" the other three Navigators nodded, And Sailors Elwing, Vega, and
Rigel spread out around the clearing surrounding the beetle, while Sailor
Polaris headed off in the direction of the "victims"
        Everything was going just as planned; Sailor Polaris had found the first
three victims and Sailor Elwing was transporting them to safety.  The beetle
had gone off in completely the wrong direction in response to Sailor Vega's
creation of the sound of a crowd, and Sailor Rigel was up in one of the
trees weakening branches so that when it headed back in their direction it
would be pummelled.  Everyone was so busy that they never noticed a young
man with longish feathered blonde hair and spiked bangs walk up.  Suddenly
they were all lifted up about three feet off the ground, and Sailor Rigel,
who had been almost out of the tree, was floated into the centre of the
clearing.  Sailor Polaris came running back in response to Sailor Elwing's
surprised shout, and he too was lifted into the air.
        "Who are you and what are you doing to those people?" the young man yelled,
a grey-blue wing glowing on his forehead.  As it began to fade, he suddenly
looked confused, and the Navigators dropped to the ground.  Sailor Rigel
quickly rose to her feet, dusted herself off and advanced on him, her face
livid.  At that point, the beetle drone illusion decided to make its
reappearance.  Everyone scrambled around, and Caiona decided that the
training session was pretty much ruined anyway, and negated her illusions.
        "Where did they all go?" the young man demanded.
        "They were all just illusions." Caiona explained to him, dropping a yellow
power stick with a blue-grey wing inside a crescent moon at his feet.  "Yes,
to save the annoying questions, I can talk.  Pick up that stick and say
'Altair Navigator Power!' and it will all make perfect sense."
        He looked a little confused, but he did as he was told.  A flurry of
blue-grey feathers showered down around him and became a male version of the
Sailor Suit with blue-grey shorts and a yellow bow.  Three feathers fused
into a wing shape and floated to his forehead where they became a silver
filet bearing a tourmaline wing as its device.
        "Hello, Caiona." he said, "Thanks for waking me up again.  How is everyone?
What has my cousin Princess Jupiter been doing, getting into fights?"
everyone nodded.  "I should have known.  Well, Duke Altair is back to moderate!"
        "I don't think she'll appreciate that much!' said Sailor Rigel.
        "Caiona, since the training session is over, why don't we get back to
ourselves." suggested Sailor Vega.
        "Good idea." agreed Caiona, and they all detransformed.
        "I guess I should introduce myself properly.  My given name is Ardu Iolar,
but please, use my craft name, Tair.  I get so tired of people getting my
name wrong and calling me Arthur." said the young man they now knew to be
Sailor Altair.
        "Hey, I recognise you, you're that annoying guy in my Sociology
class!"exclaimed Triese.
        "And you're the one who's always trying to disrupt the class!" answered Tair.
        "I think a Mutual apology is in order here.  We're a team and need to act
as such, and I can't have silly old grudges standing between you." Caiona
told the two of them.
        "Silly!  They said in unison.
        "I'm serious!" Caiona insisted.
        "Oh, all right!" sighed Triese, and held out her hand in a gesture of
peace, "Truce?"
        "Truce!" he said, and shook her hand.
        "Caiona sighed in relief, "thank goodness!  I guess some things can change.
Neither of them used to be so reasonable!"

FIN

