Two: Africa

Less than a week after his dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Wakagi, Seiya found himself sitting in the main room of a rather large mansion in California, talking with friends he hadn�t seen in two decades. "When did you say Usagi will be back?"

"In a few minutes," Minako replied. At first she had jokingly asked Beruche if it was another one of their tricks, but the other woman had denied any knowledge of it. "Why are you so concerned with when she�ll be back, anyway? I hope you don�t expect things to be like they were when you left, Seiya."

"I know about Mamoru," the former singer replied. "If that is what you are referring to. I don�t expect things to be the same. It has been twelve years after all. At least in this world."

Minako nodded slightly. She was about to say something else when she heard the familiar squeak of Usagi�s wheelchair coming up to the doorway. She stood and smiled at her leader. "Usagi, you have a visitor."

Seiya stood and turned to face her. "Hello, Odango," he said, managing a slight smile.

Usagi stared at him for several moments before Rei, obviously pregnant, beaned her with a pillow from the couch. "Don�t just sit there catching flies all day. Say something. He�s come halfway across the universe to see you," she replied.

"Hello, Seiya," Usagi replied. She grabbed the pillow and threw it back at Rei before wheeling herself over next to the couch. She motioned for him and Minako to sit down before continuing. "I�m sure you came for much more than that. Why have you come here?"

Seiya sighed slightly. "I guess there�s no point in giving you the cover story. We came to find you, Usagi because our world is in trouble," he replied. "We need the help of Sailor Moon to take back Kinmoku."

"To take back Kinmoku?" asked Usagi, sounding much older now. "From who? I thought Kinmoku was an empty place, destroyed by Galaxia like so many other worlds. Weren�t you going to try to rebuild it somehow?"

"It rebuilt itself while we were away," said Seiya. "There were some survivors besides us, and they had begun rebuilding when we returned. But, yes, the planet was a mostly empty place, and others came to fill it up before our people were many again. We Kinmokunai found ourselves a minority on our own world."

Seiya went on to describe the conflicts over Kinmoku, between the outnumbered Kinmokunai and the settlers, and between different groups of settlers. "Finally we asked for the Hrrrrunai to help us. It seemed to work out well at first�but then Hrrrrunai began to arrive in greater and greater numbers. Fighting began again; more than a dozen armed factions formed."

"Most of the factions were yours, weren�t they," remarked Minako, the General of old asserting itself once again.

"Yes. Princess Kakyuu tried to stop them at first. But then Hrrrr reprisals grew so great, she began leading the resistance. But the Hrrrrunai were many and we were few. Finally the Princess agreed to peace. We were to take anyone who did not wish to live under the Hrrrrunai�s rule and leave the system. More than a million chose to leave. But we were attacked as we left, by a rebellious faction within the Hrrrr fleet according to the Hrrrrunai communications we have received since, but it might have been their empress herself who ordered this thing. With all the cadre of resistance in the evacuation fleet, our people remaining on Kinmoku are helpless."

"Are they all being killed?" asked Usagi�but she wasn�t really asking.

"No," Seiya admitted. "But they will be under the Hrrrr thumb now."

"But they will live on. Memories of the war will fade, and they will adapt. Your people are not that different from the Hrrrrunai. You can even have children with one another, can�t you, Seiya?"

Seiya was startled by the prescience of that remark. "Yes. It has not happened often, though . . ." Seiya refused to be distracted. Instead, he went down on one knee. "Sovereign of this system, will you help us take back our world?"

Usagi said, "No. It is no longer just your world. We can�t drag the Earth into a war that isn�t our business."

Rei spoke up. "But they attacked�"

Minako interrupted. "Usagi is right here, Rei-chan. To defeat their enemies we would have to kill many of them, perhaps even destroy some of their worlds."

"Hai," said Usagi, picking up the argument. "It is a dishonorable thing that has been done, but we are not sure who did it and perhaps we should not look now. I�m sure we can find homes for your people here, but they won�t be allowed to carry on their war from here."

Seeing the brief pillow fight a few moments before had almost convinced Seiya that this was the odango of old, but now she sounded like . . .

"Very well, Sovereign," said Seiya. "But I will continue to try to persuade you, on behalf of Kinmoku, and on behalf of myself."

"Our ears are open," said Usagi, "But you will not change our minds about this."

"Unless these Hrrrrunai are very stupid!" added Minako.

Seiya stared at the three senshi for several moments. "Does this have to do with all of those people outside? I know that they do not know you are to be their Sovereign yet, but--"

"I am not going to be their ruler, Seiya-san. Not now and not ever," said odango atama--with as much or more royal authority in her voice as Kakyuu-hime had ever manifested. Seiya noticed that Minako and Rei both stiffened at this outburst.

Unexpectedly it was Rei who spoke next. "Why don�t you stay a few days, Seiya-san? We have quite a lot to catch up on. You are not the only one among us who has lived through more years than we should have, you know"

"Perhaps later," Seiya replied. "I have to go contact Kakyuu," he replied. He quickly left the room and walked outside. <Why are they refusing to help? I thought for sure they would help us.>

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Usagi watched Seiya go and then looked at Rei. "I know what you�re thinking Rei, and it won�t work. Having him stay here will not convince me to help them fight their opponents," she replied. "We have enough wars here on our own world."

Rei sighed slightly. "Well the least you could do is talk to him. Would it hurt you to do that? I�m sure we could at least let them stay here."

"There are over a million of his people on their way," Usagi replied. "Quite a few more than I think we can fit in the loft. Those thoughts were so apparent, I�m surprised the two of you couldn�t read them."

Minako shrugged and walked over to the window where she could see Seiya on the front porch. "We could wind up fighting anyway. Their enemies will probably find their way here eventually."

Usagi shook her head. "If they are foolish enough to fight a war with us, then we will give them one. A short one, I think. Alvarson-sama would fight with us to defend this world." As she talked, she wheeled her way to join Minako, looking out. "But I would like our old friends to visit. Perhaps they will understand better after they live among us again for a time."

Rei nodded. "Then that is what we�ll do. I�ll help Olivia set up one of the extra rooms for him," she replied. She stood and rubbed her sore back for a moment before leaving the room.

Usagi remarked automatically, "Don�t do too much, Rei-chan." Then a devilish grin appeared. "You are not a great one for house chores, Rei-chan, and now you want to help Olivia?" Rei fought with Olivia more than she fought with Usagi. "Which one of the Lights are you after, Rei-chan? Seiya, Taiki, or Yaten?"

Pillows started flying again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Ami Suuri was well known and well loved surgeon in America, but after her husband and several friends were killed in a terrorist attack on the White House, she left her career and took her three children to Africa. In Africa, she found that not only would the children now be able to be near their grandmother a lot more, but she also still had the chance to practice medicine. Only now, she could do it without constant harassment from police and reporters. Yes, Africa seemed like an ideal spot to raise her family, except for one thing; the friends she had grown so close to, and had come to call her family, were half a world away.

It was late one day in mid November, as Ami was leaving to the building where she and her mother had set up their practice, when she heard a strange noise coming from somewhere in the south. "What is that?" asked Umoya, who had been talking with Ami and her mother.

Ami could see something in the sky, but it was far off. There was no one else around but her mother and Umoya, so she transformed into Sailor Mercury to use her visor . . .

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The US Air Force�s Space Command is the agency that monitors happenings for the United States with possible military implications in space. They are particularly interested in objects entering our atmosphere from space because one of these objects could always be a nuclear warhead. By the fall of 2009, there were entirely too many who could put such a device into space.

This object, however, was much larger . . .

It wasn�t a threat to the United States, though. It was going to land or impact somewhere in Southern Africa, or in the seas near the southern part of that continent. Coverage was spotty there; there were a number of nasty wars ongoing or waiting to break out in the region, but none of them were really considered to be the business of the United States after the end of the Cold War.

None of the nations there, not even South Africa, the most advanced nation on its continent, could have possibly built something as large as was entering the atmosphere. But was it a spacecraft, or simply a larger-than-normal meteor? Possibly it changed course, but that could be due to gasses jetting from the object as reentry heated it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

StarHealer opened her eyes and tried to focus on what had happened. Underneath her was warm sand and she could smell smoke coming from somewhere. It took a few moments for her to remember what she had been doing. She was coming to Earth to show Fuminori the world she had once called home. �<Fuminori ... Yo-ichi ... Miyo ...>� StarHealer tried to force herself into a sitting position when she felt hands pushing her back down.

"Don�t move. I�m no doctor, but you�re lucky to be alive," a voice replied in English. StarHealer could tell it was the figure pushing her down, even though she had barely understood what she had said. The figure stood and Healer could see that it was a woman, no, it was a senshi and it wasn�t one of Usagi�s friends.

Sailor Cirene moved from the gray-haired woman to one of the other people she had pulled from the burning ship, one of the two children. She knelt beside the teenage girl and sighed slightly. "I don�t know where you�re from, but if we don�t get you to the hospital soon, I doubt you�ll be going back," she replied in her native language. A shadow appeared beside her and she looked up as the gray-haired woman knelt beside her. "Are you trying to kill yourself? You shouldn�t be moving."

Sailor StarHealer looked at the other woman curiously for a moment. She had been speaking a language she hadn�t heard before. "Are you a senshi?" she asked in Japanese.

<Senshi? Strange, she doesn�t really look Japanese,> Cirene thought to herself. She had enough experience with Asian culture to know what the woman was referring to. "Hai. But I�m not from Japan," she replied, mixing Japanese and English.

StarHealer nodded slightly and looked at Miyo. The young woman had multiple injuries from where the console they had been using as shelter from the explosions, had collapsed on top of them during impact, bringing down the tactical station with it, right on top of the girl. She was covered in blood, although she didn�t appear to have many cuts on her at all. The older woman lightly touched the girl�s neck, feeling for a pulse. She let go of the breath she had been holding before she realized she couldn�t see Fuminori or her son.

Cirene watched the woman for a moment and realized that the girl must be family. She had, after all, tried to shield her and the little boy during the crash. The Botswana native placed her hand lightly on the other woman�s shoulder. "We have to get her to a doctor soon," she replied. She could tell the others didn�t completely understand her from the strange looks she kept getting. <I should have paid more attention during Japanese class.>

The gray-haired woman turned from the unknown senshi and started scanning the wreckage. She could see most of the other members of her crew lying not far from where they were, but still no sign of the ones she really wanted to see. Until she looked behind the dark-skinned soldier. There, lying in the sand and covered by blankets, were three bodies, one of them too small to be anyone but Yo-ichi. StarHealer started crying, even as she forced herself to stand and go to the bodies. The wind began blowing and the blankets that had been covering two of the bodies were blown away.

Cirene moved to retrieve the blankets and started covering the bodies once again when the other woman stopped her. "Do you know them?"

StarHealer nodded slightly and turned to face Cirene. "My ... family," she replied in English. She turned back to the twisted metal that was once her ship and screamed several curses in her own language. Before the other senshi could react, she fired an attack at the still-burning vessel. Her own rage and pain fueling the attack, the ship was reduced to nothing in a matter of seconds.

The darker woman watched in shock as the sand around what had once been the ship solidified into solid glass. Nothing else seemed effected, she was less than a hundred yards from it and she actually felt the temperature drop for a moment. "You ... you�re a senshi?"

The Kinmoku warrior nodded gravely as her body reacted to the violent use of her powers. She doubled over in pain, collapsing to her knees. She felt hands on her shoulders, trying to make her lie down, and looked up into the concerned faces of the unknown senshi and Sailor Mercury.

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Botswana is rich in culture and tradition, but poor and backward in its economy and technology. Still, at the request of the United States, South Africa, the European Union, and even Japan, the government of Botswana found some people to send out to the area where the object had come down. The government had had no idea it was there; the country couldn�t even afford air traffic control radar coverage of anyplace beyond the region of the capitol. They asked the doctors at the famous clinic what they knew of this. Both Drs. Mizuno and Suuri denied having seen anything unusual, as did the villagers that worked with them. When asked about the new faces in the hospital, Ami�s mother replied that they were her assistants and that several of them had fallen ill almost a week before. The others had gone to the capitol for more supplies. It was two days' travel; they had only returned the night before.

The agents left, satisfied that no one in the group had seen anything. They were still no closer to explaining the mysterious glass, but perhaps it had been a meteorite of some kind, or some piece of space junk--that had been seen before in the vast, empty back country of Botswana.

Once she was sure they were gone, Ami returned to the room where they were keeping the bodies of Yaten�s wife and son and the crewmember that had died. She found their new ally, Sailor Cirene, or rather, Umoya Womlambo, standing beside the little boy.

Umoya turned as she heard the doctor�s footsteps. "Have they gone yet?"

Ami nodded. "They just left. I really wish you�d stay. At least until Yaten wakes up," she replied. "I know she�d like to talk to you and thank you for helping."

Umoya shook her head. "I don�t think that would be a good idea. I know you trust your friend and his companions, but I don�t know them. Plus I have previous obligations in America," she replied. "How are they, anyway?"

"StarHealer is recovering. I think she fainted more from overuse of her powers than her injuries," Dr. Suuri replied. She placed her hand on the small boy�s body and sighed. "And the girl seems to be recovering quickly as well. She must be a senshi."

"Senshi? That mean �soldier�, doesn�t it? Your friend said the same thing when she first saw me."

Dr. Suuri nodded and looked at Umoya. "Your Japanese is better than you think," she replied. "Though it could just be her Kinmoku DNA. The rest of the crew seem to be healing faster than even I would have thought possible."

Umoya nodded slightly. "They do seem to heal faster than most. It�s still strange, in a way. Senshi from another planet, coming to Earth. Why would they want to come here? Didn�t you say that one of them was named Yaten? Is she a friend of yours?"

"Yes. The one that destroyed the ship is Yaten. Her powers must have grown since she was here last, though. The Yaten I knew could never have done that, even if he were angry."

"I thought you said Yaten was a woman."

"Long story," Ami replied, smiling slightly. She took one last look at the boy�s body before leading the other woman out of the room. "Mother has already made arrangements for someone to pick you up at the airport. I still wish you could stay."

Umoya shook her head. "I think it�s better this way. For now, at least. Perhaps one day, your friends will become my friends," she replied. "But for now, it is better for both them and me. And I start a new job in a few weeks and it will take me that long to get used to living in California."

Ami smiled and nodded slightly. "You will hold on to the number I gave you, in case you have trouble? They are very dear friends of mine. And I�m sure they would help you," she replied.

"I will," Umoya replied. She picked up her bag and walked out to the rental car she had gotten for her trip across the desert. She turned back and smiled at the Japanese doctor before leaving for the airport.

<Perhaps I should tell here more?> thought Ami. But she would probably find out soon enough. Best to let her have a little more time to be just a young woman, before the obligation of being a bishoujo senshi came down upon her with its full, crushing weight.

When she saw Umoya was gone, Ami turned back inside and went to Yaten�s room. She found her old friend had changed back into his male form, probably from lack of strength. She sat down in the chair next to his bed and pulled out her communicator, planning on contacting the other senshi.

"Did she leave?" Yaten asked from the bed. He opened his eyes and looked at the blue-haired doctor.

Ami jumped and looked at her friend. "Yes, Yaten. She has to be in California in a few days," she replied. "She is not a very strong teleporter yet, so she will have to take one of our primitive aircraft. They must seem so quaint to you."

Yaten sighed slightly. "I wanted to thank her ... for saving Miyo."

"Miyo? Is that your daughter�s name?"

Yaten shook his head slightly. "Miyo is Seiya�s daughter. Yo-ichi was my only child," he replied. He closed his eyes for a moment, still weak from the crash. "Where is he?"

Ami thought for a moment before replying. "Don�t worry about that. We�ve taken care of everything," she replied. <I wish I could promise Dr. Goodman will help, but Naru wasn�t sure . . . One could never be sure it would work.> Ami placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled slightly. "You just rest, old friend. I promise I�ll take care of it."

Yaten opened his eyes and looked at his friend. "Where is my son, Ami?"

The blue-haired doctor smiled slightly. "Just rest. I have to go," she replied. She left before he could stop her, walking over to Miyo�s room. Pausing for a moment outside the door, she found her mother in the room, talking to the teenager. "I didn�t know you were awake."

Miyo smiled at Ami and nodded. "You�re Uncle Yaten�s friend, aren�t you? Your mother told me about Yo-ichi," she replied, her smile fading. "Do you really think your friend can help him?"

"She heard me talking to Usagi," Dr. Mizuno replied. "I didn�t know she spoke Japanese."

"Father insisted that we learn. Uncle Taiki also taught us English," Miyo replied. Her injuries had looked far worse than they were. Mainly, she just had a badly broken leg and a few bruised ribs. All of the blood she had been covered in had come from Yo-ichi.

Ami smiled slightly and sat on the edge of the bed. "I�m not surprised Taiki would remember the language, but I don�t think you�re Uncle Yaten does," she replied. "He barely seems to remember Japanese."

"He remembers. That�s all they ever spoke in the court, to keep the Hrrrrunai from understanding them," Miyo replied. She sighed slightly and then looked at Ami. "Do you really think Dr. Goodman can bring my cousin back? Your mother already said she didn�t think the doctor could bring back all of them."

Ami nodded sadly. "Would I be a widow if her powers always worked?" She put a hand to Miyo�s brow. "Don�t say anything to your uncle until we know more. If it does work, it might take a long time. For now, let�s just keep it our secret, okay?"

Miyo nodded. "Okay. Do you think you could find my dad and my sister? They don�t know I left the ship," she replied. She yawned slightly and closed her eyes. "They�ll be mad, but Uncle Yaten had promised Yo-ichi he would take him to Earth. I guess I let my curiosity get the better of me."

"It was not your fault, Miyo-chan," Ami replied. "You should rest now." Ami worked a small spell Naru had taught her, and soon Miyo was asleep. Then she turned to her mother. "We still haven�t been able to contact Kakyuu. Yaten is the only one that can. Our communicators won�t reach that far."

Dr. Mizuno nodded. "You can ask him to contact them, later. He needs to rest now," she replied. She motioned her daughter out of the room and toward her own bedroom she shared with her children. "And so do you. You�re no good to any one if you�re dead on your feet."

Ami nodded as she walked into her room. She looked at the sleeping kids and thought back to Miyo. <She looks at least 15, but it�s impossible for Seiya to have a daughter that old. Unless ... unless she was born before he came to Earth,> she thought to herself. She decided that as soon as she could, she was going to have to speak to Seiya about his daughter. But not while Yaten was around, if she could help it . . .