Antonio Cabañas
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MoonGate Vol. I: Ancient Moon, Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2018-06-06 17:03:46 +0000 UTC Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGMSpoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.
Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, etc.)
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The Moon
'The flow of the time stream is becoming muddled. I wonder what it presages.' Thought Sailor Pluto, as she got up from the place where she had been trying to meditate.
She looked around, remembering the Palace gardens and the artificial lake that had been there, before the fall of the Silver Millenium, and remembered the words of one American astronaut, 'Buzz Aldrin, I think', about the Moon.
'Magnificent desolation, indeed.' she thought.
But it hadn't always been that way. When their people had come to this Galaxy, fleeing from their home, they had scattered all over the Galaxy, isolated from each other. While the first colonies in the System had been set in Luna and Terra, there had been plans to colonize all the planets in the Solar System. With the development of the Astria Porta, the first steps to form a galactic community had been given. She closed her eyes, remembering the marvels of what had truly been a Golden Age. But as the Bard wrote, all good things must come to an end.
And to an end they came.
The first sign of it was to come were the problems in the Golden Kingdom of Earth. There had always been people on Earth who resented that the Moon Kingdom was richer and more technologically advanced, having even fought some wars between Earth and the Moon in the dark years before Serenity’s crowning, but things had quieted since. But when a minor noblewoman called Beryl become their spokeswoman, that they became more than a nuisance. The fact that Prince Endymion had fallen in love with Princess Serenity, instead of some Earth woman, namely Beryl herself, who had pretended Endymion's hand before, also played into the fears of people who otherwise would not have given Beryl's faction a second thought.
The Atlantis Council tried to play as a mediator between the factions, but they failed. In the end, after Beryl physically attacked Endymion and Serenity, she and her followers were exiled to the North, where they founded a community, the so-called Dark Kingdom, with Beryl styling herself as their Queen. Other than some eye-rolling and mumbling in Avalon and Elysium for her presumption, it seemed that the peace had been restored on Earth, until the news of the Plague spreading in the Galaxy came to the Solar System.
Nobody knew where the first case had been diagnosed, or rather there had been so many first cases near simultaneously on many worlds over the Galaxy. When the first cases were diagnosed on Earth and the Moon, the Atlantis Council panicked and fled the Galaxy. This news led to unrest and riots, fostered by the agents that Beryl had either left behind or recruited afterwards, some times against their will. When that unrest reached its cusp, the Dark Kingdom struck and destroyed the Golden Kingdom. Some people managed to escape the attack and warn the Moon. It was then when the Queen heard for the first time the name of Queen Metalia, the infernal power that had been whispering to Beryl's ear for a long time, and was seen as a dark shadow over Beryl's army in the assault to Avalon.
Without real time for the Silver Millenium to prepare, the Dark Kingdom followed with an all-out assault into the Moon, helped by that infernal abomination, the same power that had aided Beryl in her plans. And it was the end of the Silver Millenium.
Uranus, Neptune and herself came too late to help in the fight, but the reunion of the three Talismans had accidentally invoked Sailor Saturn, the Senshi of Ruin and Birth, who had killed everything that remained alive in the Solar System. At least, for the scarce survivors had been a blessing in disguise, giving them a gentle death, instead of a slow, painful death by asphyxia, starvation, or worse.
Afterwards, she had reappeared at the Space-Time Door, beginning her lonely vigil that would last for millions of years. Fortunately, she had always been a loner, which was the reason why the Queen chose her to be its guardian. Her loneliness over the aeons had only been interrupted by the infrequent visit of those of her people that had Ascended, ever curious about their past, although they had become more and more stand-offish as time passed. And somehow, after her death stopping time, she found that she was still there, in the pocket dimension where the Door was placed, as well as outside, reincarnated as Setsuna Meioh, student in the Mugen Academy.
Her thoughts were interrupted by voices coming from a nearby place, one of the camouflaged observation posts, that were all over the old gardens. When she looked there she saw two people, standing with their backs to her, wearing some kind of uniform. They seemed transfixed looking at the Earth, which was full at that time. She approached in silence, noticing the flag on the uniforms as she got nearer.
'How have those Americans come here?' thought Pluto, pursing her lips. Objectively she knew that eventually, the remains from the Silver Millenium would be discovered, but she thought that it would be quite in the future, and she couldn't avoid feeling worried. Maybe she was doing Humanity a disservice, but she doubted that, as it was today, they had the maturity to discover their tech without blowing themselves up, and the underground levels under the Palace included research labs, armories, the old Command Bunker in the lowest level, and...
'Of course, the prototype Astria Porta in the first level. That's how they arrived here.' She thought, mentally slapping herself for having forgotten about it. This also explained something that she had overheard as Setsuna Meioh, the college student, before her awakening 'Yes, that would explain the American government sudden interest in wormhole experts a few years ago, they probably found the Atlantis Porta back then.'
Unfortunately, she was so focused in the two women that she didn't notice that she was stepping on a small stone, making her lose her footing and fall on one knee. Worse still, the noise had attracted the attention of both women.
When Mason turned, her eyes were still adapted to the light and only saw a crouched figure with a long staff, seemingly pointed towards them. She reacted on instinct, diving for cover and bringing up her weapon.
Karen was not a trained soldier, and she haven't had the reflexes honed by dozens of firefights like Daniel Jackson, so by the time she had done like Major Mason, her eyes had already adjusted to the light and was capable of seeing the intruder more clearly.
She saw a tall, dark-skinned woman, clad in a white leotard with a black sailor collar, a black miniskirt, a dark garnet ribbon in the chest with a heart shaped brooch, weird looking short sleeves, opera gloves with some weird black thing in the end, and black low-heeled knee-high boots with a white band in the upper side. The metallic staff in her left hand resembled a giant skeleton key, with a garnet colored sphere in the bow. It seemed somewhat familiar to her, but she...
'Oh, God. It's her.' She thought. The uniform was somewhat different from the grainy pictures the she had seen in the message boards, but the woman was undoubtedly one of the unknown Senshi that had appeared in the last months. "You're a Sailor Senshi." She blurted out.
"Sailor Pluto, to be precise." Stated the woman in a calm voice, speaking in slightly accented English. "We seem to have started on the wrong footing, though. I don't mean you harm, I like to meditate a bit further from the Palace and when I was returning, I heard your voices."
Karen didn't answer, as she felt very out of her depth just now. 'I'm a physicist with archeology as a hobby, not a diplomat, for Pete's sake.' She thought, looking at Martha, who was eyeing Pluto with wariness.
"It seems a show of good will is needed." said Pluto as she dropped the key-staff, and stood there with her arms crossed and waiting.
Karen was the first to get up, while Martha slowly and carefully following suit, trying to remain under cover until she ascertained the situation. When she saw that the woman wasn't making any aggressive movement, she finally got up, keeping her weapon trained at her, while she examined the supposed 'Sailor Pluto' in detail. It looked genuine, from what she recalled from that images that Karen had shown her in her periodic bouts of fangirlism, but she had always thought that the group of supposed Japanese superheroines were either a hoax or a publicity stunt for some cartoon.
Seeing the expression on her friend's face, Karen rolled up her eyes. Even after she had told how Sailor Moon, and the other Senshi had saved her butt when she was visiting her mother's family in Tokyo, the other people in the SGC remained skeptical about the Senshi existence.
'I suppose that for a lot of people what they don't see in the CNN, or other news network, is not real' she thought.
"Look, Karen, I have heard you gushing about the 'Sailor Senshi' enough times to know that you are a fan, but how do you know that it's not a shape shifting or telepathic alien messing with your head?" said Mason.
"I think that in that case, Mason, it would have used a Senshi that I would have seen in person, not in grainy pictures, and one that would be more natural to find here, like Sailor Moon." retorted Karen, glaring at her friend, and Mason glaring back.
Pluto sighed inwardly at the two women antics. 'They are worse than Haruka and Michiru' she thought. "Look, Major, you don't really have reasons to trust me." said Pluto "After all, I sneaked on you, after getting a real shock of having ended on the Moon, and the only word that I'm in the good side is the word of a self-professed fan."
"Hmmmm... You are right. But a point in your favor is that you aren't trying putting the usual 'a god am I' or 'die, unbeliever' crap that we are used to find in our enemies" She said, releasing her grip on her weapon. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt... for now."
That merited an arched eyebrow as a reaction from Pluto. That sounded decidedly odd...
'Just on what did they run out there? Did the Ori start to invade? No, I don't think that Earth forces would be able to disrupt an Ori conquest of the Galaxy, so it has to be something else.' she thought. 'I need more information.'
"Now, If you don't mind, I'll make a few educated guesses, about how did you arrived here." She cleared her throat and started to speak "Some time ago, your people found a ring of what looked like stone, with strange glyphs. Probably on Antarctica, I'd say."
'Shit! How does she know?' thought Karen, as she was aware of the discovery of the Beta gate. Hell, before getting assigned to a SG team she was in the team that studied its DHD.
'It seems that I was right' Pluto thought, seeing her expression, before she continued speaking as if she hadn't noticed
"Upon further study you realized that it wasn't what it seemed and eventually you devised a way to activate it, opening wormholes back and forth. You started to explore using the Astria Porta, probably to get access to alien technology, but you stepped on some toes doing so. Something bad happened during one of those explorations and you accidentally ended here."
'Fuck!' thought Mason. While a very general outline, she had hit most of the important points of the Stargate program. 'Although, why does she think we are using the Beta Gate?.'
'Astria Porta? That sound like Ancient... it could be simply Latin, though.' thought Karen 'I wonder...'
"Even if it was true, something that I'm not admitting, by the way, I couldn't discuss it with a foreign national... or anybody who didn't got enough clearance." said Mason
"It's not that, Major " said Pluto, cocking her head "What I'm saying you is that I have a certain knowledge of how to operate the Porta..."
"It's no use, the console is dead..." said Karen, shaking her head
“Let me examine it at least.” Pluto said.
Stargate Command Infirmary
Major Dixon awoke to find General Hammond and Doctor Frasier, looking at him with concern.
"Sir!" he tried to stand, but his body was aching all over, specially the left half of his face, where he could feel, barely, a bandage over a good part of his face.
"At ease, Major." Said the general, "Now, what happened in the planet?"
Dixon closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started to speak
"Colonel Keller is dead, sir. We run into an ambush from Anubis' Jaffa, we think that they were Anubis, at least, and he got killed..." he got silent for a moment remembering his superior officer, a man he deeply respected, die before his eyes, blown to pieces by the simultaneous impact of several staff blasts.
"Major, if this is..." started to say Hammond
"I can do it, sir. Allow me a moment to collect my thoughts." Said Dixon, who then continued talking "I assumed command and we ran back to the 'gate. I managed to get a security perimeter around it, but we were under heavy fire... We lost Maxwell and Sorkin..." his voice nearly broke for a moment, before he steeled himself and continued speaking "We had barely managed to get the gate open when they got a Death Glider to strafe on us. We ran toward the gate as the Glider shot at us, and when we got in the room we were flying... and I don’t remember any more, until I awakened here."
"Thank you, Major. " Said the general, who then turned to leave as the doctor adjusted the IV that was attached to the Major’s arm. Dixon lied down in the bed, his eyes closing as the sedative stated to make effect.
Tsukino residence. Juuban district, Tokyo
Usagi Small Lady Serenity Tsukino, Crown Princess of Crystal Tokyo, Sailor Senshi in training, and known in the present era as Chibiusa Tsukino (or not so nicely as "the pink spore of doom") couldn't sleep. She deeply missed her family in the future. She missed going to her parents' bed when she was afraid, feeling that reassuring warmth, and sleeping without a care in the world. She missed the Senshi of her time, not that hanging out with them in the current era wasn't fun, especially Saturn, but...
She yawned, she really was sleepy, she realized. She really missed mommy and daddy, but she'd settle for the next best thing. She found Usagi sleeping peacefully, with her face softly illuminated by the moonlight. She smiled, remembering how she had found her mother many times the same way, and did the same that she had done many times before. She kissed her in the forehead, where the Moon mark would stand in the future, and quietly, trying not to awaken her, she laid into Usagi's bed, curling just between Usagi's arms.
In her sleep Usagi felt her future daughter and unconsciously hugged her, enveloping the little girl in a warm embrace. Chibiusa smiled, falling asleep without a care in the world.
Computer lab. SGC
"...three times. Three times! And I had ‘Dry’ check other two, just in case. It's not a computer error, Sam." Monterosso said, her Californian accent thicker than usual.
"But that result doesn’t make sense.” Said Sam, who suddenly grew thoughtful “Unless...”
"Yeah, exactly." Nodded the black-haired computer scientist. “There is another one out there.”
Sam nodded slowly, her mind, strangely, going back to the strange Stargate in her dream.
“Well, I’m not understanding anything. Can you brainiacs please explain what’s going on?” said the third person in the room, Monterosso’s assistant, Darius “Dry” Summer. “In small words, please.”
Sally Monterosso sighed with affectionate exasperation to the antics of her best friend since kindergarten before starting to answer.
“Well, Dry, what we mean is that according to this…” She said, pointing to the computer “…the Stargate address they were deviated was the same they had keyed. That is, Earth.”
“So that’s why you had me check the code and the circuits.” Said Summer. “So there is another Stargate on Earth.”
“Probably, Mr. Summer. Although…”
Her explanation was cut short by the intercom buzzing.
“Computer lab here, Sally Monterosso speaking.” She answered teh com.
“Ah, doctor. I’m Sergeant Harriman, the General wants to know if Major Carter is there.”
“Yes, she is. We were discussing something that we found when analyzing the data collected by the dialing computer during the incident.” Said the doctor “In fact, we were about to call him about that.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
