A hatch opened and steam rose from the green liquid that had been confined within it. A moment later the steam was followed by a cat, who struggled over the side of the tank he had been contained in and fell to the floor of the medical bay. "Ow..." he observed, lying limply on the floor, his fur still matted with the healing fluid. "Doc...?"
There was a chime from the ceiling and a serious voice spoke from the ceiling. "Lieutenant Apollo," greeted the ship's computer. "Please report to the drive room for debriefing."
The cat - a rather battered looking tomcat with gingery fur under the green goop and one empty eyesocket - gave the ceiling a sceptical look. "I just got out of the meditank," he spat. "What do you mean, report to the drive room? Where's the doc'?"
"The Orichalcum is currently without medical staff," the computer informed him emotionlessly. "Your presence is required in the drive room as an Alpha-One Command priority."
Apollo's one eye went wide and his hackles rose. "Alpha-One... Command?" he repeated in a horrified voice. "Impossible..." Nonetheless, he rose to his feet and began to stumble across the medical bay towards the door, which slid open as he approached.
The door led to a corridor, which in turn led to one of the ship's turbolift shafts. Apollo staggered inside and lay, gasping on the floor. His injuries, and the extended recovery time had sapped his endurance more than he would have believed possible, leaving him weaker than a kitten. "Drive Room," he ordered the turbolift and it set off with the familiar hum of electromagnetics.
"What's going on?" he asked the computer once his breathing had returned to normal. "Where is everyone?"
"They're dead, Lieutenant Apollo."
"What? Who is?"
"Everyone is dead, Lieutenant Apollo," the computer expanded.
"Everyone? What the hell? The Orichalcum has a crew of over ninety-thousand!"
"The current complement of the Orichalcum is one."
"One? Besides me?"
"One, including you, Lieutenant Apollo."
"Are you telling me that I'm the only person alive on the entire ship?"
"That is correct, Lieutenant Apollo," the computer confirmed as the turbolift reached it's destination and the doors opened to allow the cat access to the lobby of the drive room.
He crossed the divide on the deck and looked up at the massively reinforced hatch leading into the drive room, the holy of holy that could be accessed only by command personel. "You realise that I'm not allowed to go in there, don't you?"
"An Alpha-One Command priority overrides those restrictions," the computer said and the hatch opened. Behind it was another hatch, then third. Each was made up of four feet of battlesteel - the same material that made up the core of the ship's multi-resistant hull - and Apollo trod carefully along the four yard passage between them, watching them carefully in case they were about to close upon him. Not that he would be able to react in time if they did... the portals were designed to close as close to instantly as the best engineers available could arrange, sealing off the drive room from any external threat.
"Okay, I'm here," Apollo said, standing just inside the doors and looking at the empty chamber. It was circular, with twelve workstations around the perimeter, each partially sunk into the floor. An oval dais occupied about half of the space between workstations and in it's centre was the throne-like seat reserved for the ship's commanding officer. Royal regulation limited command of a Mithril-class SuperDreadnought such as the Orichalcum to officers of not less than fifty years of service and rank not less than Lieutenant-Admiral. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Take your seat," said the computer, for the first time taking a visible form, as a tiny holographic simulacram of Queen Serenity standing on the armrest of the command chair. "And assume command."
.oOo.
"So let me get this straight," Apollo said half an hour later. "While the Orichalcum was docked for repairs, there was an attack on the Moon Kingdom by some sort of daemonic army that overwhelmed the palace defenses and crippled the planetary life support. All contact with the palace was lost... and then everyone on the entire Moon (except me) vanished due to a major working of the Imperium Silver Crystal, purpose and effect unknown."
"Your summation is correct," the computer agreed.
"There's no contact from the rest of the fleet?"
"All vessels and bases have been queried and no responses have been received."
"Civilian contacts?"
"Lifesigns have been detected on the Earth. No transmissions have been detected however, from anywhere in the solar system."
"Feck," Apollo muttered. He was curled up in the seat of the command chair, licking away the healing fluid from his fur. "So why the Alpha-One Command priority? There's no one to command."
"General Order Seven dictates than in the absence of the specified civilian command, the senior military officer available is to assume temporary civilian authority and execute such emaergency measures are required. You are the sole remaining member of the Orichalcum's chain of command and by default the senior military officer on the Moon."
Apollo blinked at that declaration, but did not manage to voice a protest before the computer continued inexorably. "As of your return to health, you are automatically Commanding Officer of the Royal Moon Navy Ship Orichalcum, Senior Naval Officer of the Royal Moon Naval Base Zero-One and Regent of the Moon Kingdom."
The somewhat overwhelmed feline gave voice to a somewhat plainitive noise that could best be expressed as "gw?" The computer, its explanation now complete, waited for the new Commanding Officer's next orders.
There was a low rumble from Apollo's belly and he used one paw to rub at his eyes. "Is there any immediate actual crisis that I need to deal with in the next, say, twelve hours?"
The computer considered that. "No," it confirmed.
"Right..." Apollo muttered, wondering why it had been so important to rush him here in that case. Then he shook his head. With an Alpha-One priority, such minor details as food and non-critical medical demands would not be considered relevant. "In that case, I need something to eat, someplace to wash and someplace to sleep, in that order."
The computer hummed happily. "A meal will be provided in the Commanding Officer's quarters. Bathing and sleeping facilties are available there." A small mote of golden light floated in front of the chair and started to slowly move towards the doors. "Please follow the guide light."
Apollo shook his head disbelievingly and obeyed.
.oOo.
Although the quarters of the Commanding Admiral were designed for a human rather than for a mooncat, Apollo had no complaints. The food, provided by the automatic systems, was a cut or two above that usually enjoyed by a mere Lieutenant. The bath washed away the remaining gunk from his fur and the towels were fresh, warm and pleasently scented.
The only thing that even slightly spoiled his sleep as he curled up in the precise centre of the bed was the vague expectation that he would wake up to discover a furious Lieutenant-Admiral wanting to know what had led to a Mau winding up in her bed.
This did not in fact happen, and he awoke, still undisturbed, with no more pressing crisis other than a rumbling stomach. After breaking his fast he returned to the drive room to try to work out what he should do next - assuming that he could actually accomplish anything at all.
There was certainly a lot to be done, he realised. Although the Orichalcum had only been peripherially involved in the battles, its previous damage had not been repaired - only the barest beginnings had been made in clearing away the damaged components. Now, if this work was to be done, it would have to be done without the support of the large dockyards of Naval Base Zero-One. The task would be herculean - Mithril-class superdreadnoughts were the largest vessels in the Royal Moon Navy, a staggering seventeen kilometers long - and only the enormous degree of automation would render it possible at all.
The Royal Moon Navy maintained a small fleet of Mobile Fabricators, highly automated factory-ships that, given resources and time, could construct virtually any vessel in the fleet's inventory, including themselves. The Orichalcum contained four factories of equivalent capability. All four were damaged to some extent, but by stripping parts from three of them, the least damaged could be restored to operation and from there, with the guidance of the Orichalcum's core computer, rebuild the rest of the ship. However, given the existing damage, the repairs would demand most of the ship's power and all of its maintenance robots.
"How long would that take?" Apollo asked thoughtfully.
"Assuming that resources are available from the dockyard's stockpiles, which would seem probable, not less than eight years," the computer replied.
Apollo winced. "Great. And we can just about guarentee that someone else out there will come to see what's happened to the Moon Kingdom before then. We'd be annexed within a year, or worse, they'd start fighting over our remaining resources."
The computer remained silent. Political and diplomatic theory were not within it's area of expertise.
"Great," Apollo said after a minute. "I guess I'll have to figure out how to get more of the fleet back online. Is Fleet HQ still around?"
"Fleet HQ was overrun by the second wave of invaders," the computer said, and then, anticipating the question. "Secondary command posts survive however. The nearest is at Castle Magellan, the home of Sailor Venus."
Apollo nodded. "Right then. I'll need a skiff to make it there as fast as possible. From there I can recall any vessels still operating under automatic control. But before I go I'd better get the maintenance robots started on rebuilding our factory units."
.oOo.
If the blasted ruins of the Moon Kingdom's capital were mournful, the empty corridors of Castle Magellan were eerie. Apollo made himself known to the command computers and after almost an hour of deliberation, the three massive computers verified his identity and the authority invested in him due to the emergency. After jumping from the job of a lieutenant to that of a lieutenant admiral, Apollo wouldn't have thought that taking on the role of a Fleet Marshal to be such a shock to him. He was wrong.
In fairness, there wasn't exactly a Fleet Marshal's command left of the Royal Moon Navy. The bulk of the fleet had been attacked over Venus by the same forces that had devestated the surface of the world but failed to penetrate the defenses of Castle Magellan. The ships had been gutted by vicious fighting aboard them and only a handful of vessels responded to Apollo's signals. Scattered detachments around the system responded however. Each had been emptied however, in the same way that the Orichalcum had.
In total, his 'fleet' consisted of a couple of dozen cruisers, three battlecruisers and a single Mobile Fabricator. The latter was invaluable of course and Apollo set it to bringing the operational vessels up to their full capability as soon as possible. A plan was beginning to take shape in his mind.
He returned to the Orichalcum and spent several days observing matters on Earth through long range sensors.
Whatever had struck at the Moon Kingdom had been almost as devestating for the Earth. There had been no planetary life support to be lost but massive loss of life had taken place and hundreds of cities had been levelled by magics of mass destruction, with a domino effect upon the infrastructure. What was left of the great world spanning civilisation had splintered over the following months into dozens of successor states squabbling over the remnants and as often as not destroying them in the process. Not that it made a difference, for somehow the magisphere had been damaged, and much of the equipment used by the Moon Kingdom's earthbound cousins had depended upon it to function. It would be a millenium at least before it would be possible to rebuild using those tools.
The irony was a bitter one. The Moon and the other planets had a wealth of tools and infrastructure but lacked population or the ecosphere to support them. The Earth had people and a viable ecology, but was inimical to the tools and infrastructure remaining to it. Apollo was honestly wary about even sending a ship down, wisely as it happened, for when a cruiser descended under remote control it suffered a massive system failure and crashed (into a depopulated region of the southern hemisphere).
"If there's going to be any rebuilding it will have to be from the Protectorates," he decided. "It's almost certain that they'll be under threat from our neighbours once they realise we've dropped out of contact. I think it's going to be necessary to renegotiate our treaties with them."
He grimaced when the computer presented him with the text of just one of those treaties. Several hundred pages that he would have to decipher before he could even begin to make a credible attempt at rearranging those treaties. "Just great. I'm gonna need a dictionary just to figure out what all this crap means."
.oOo.
Ten Thousand Years Later
Apollo blinked lazily as the stasis field fell away. There was grey in his fur these days and the patch over his empty eye was emblazoned with the arms of the Moon Kingdom. Despite spending most of each year in stasis, awoken only for emergencies, he had been active for over one hundred and twenty years by his personal chronology. Mau lived longer than humans, but not that much longer without serious magical intervention.
The stasis chamber was in the heart of the Orichalcum, itself hovering in the centre of the fleet that he had built up over the long, lonely years. Thirty-five more superdreadnoughts formed the immediate escort and they were surrounded by more than two hundred dreadnoughts and more than twelve hundred each of battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers. Lesser vessels patrolled the Protectorate worlds and their colonies, somewhat expanded over the years, reporting back to him here and to Castle Magellan where an identical fleet hid within the disguising fog of the Venusian atmosphere. Not one other living being existed within either fleet, and Apollo had begun to wonder, over the years, if it might be wise to arrange a successor.
"What's the situation?" he asked the computer (now much augmented). "Don't tell me it's another border violation by the Kzinti. I would have thought that that they'd gotten the idea by now."
"Castle Magellan reports possible activity on Earth."
Apollo frowned and scratched behind his ear. "On Earth? Huh. Show me the latest profile on them."
Orichalcum obediently began to display the results of dozens of long-range scans over the last decade. Mankind had been of little concern to the Mau Regent of the Moon Kingdom for eons, but of late they seemed to have devised means to circumvent the limits of the still recovering magisphere. Indeed, they had accomplished manned flight almost a century before, prompting him to order the removal of all active facilities from the Moon. There would be plenty for them to find there, if they ever discovered the remaining ruins of the Moon Kingdom, but he didn't see any point in letting them get access to one of his bases until he had had time to explain matters to them.
"The hell?" he asked, flagging up one report based on an intercepted televideo transmission from an eastern archepelago. "How long have Sailor Senshi been running around? And why wasn't I told?"
"Two lunar cycles. The report was judged to be fictious on evaluation," the Orichalcum answered, a little defensively. It was possibly the oldest semi-autonomous system in operation and Apollo occasionally wondered if it's pretense of sentient behavior might be more than an act by now. "It was flagged for routine checking however, which has determined a possibility of active use of a Silver Millenium computer system of military grade."
Apollo grimaced. "Military grade? Any chance of penetration of our security?"
"Unlikely," Orichalcum replied. "All codes have been updated routinely since the discovery and a full audit has detected no contact with our own systems. It is possible that there may be a connection operating with the Palace mainframes but this has been impossible to verify."
"And can we penetrate their system?" Apollo asked. He knew that neither the Orichalcum nor Castle Magellan would attempt the feat without his authority or a direct attack, but that wouldn't keep them from evaluating the possibilities.
"Prohibited," the computer told him flatly. "The system is Senshi-grade and hardwired instructions forbid any attempt to breech security of that classification using military systems."
"Senshi-grade military hardware?" Apollo asked in surprise. "How the devil did that wind up on Earth of all places?"
"Unknown."
"Well, notify the Palace of all information," he ordered after a moment. "You never know, it might prompt some action. And..." He hesitated. "Computer, can we insert a message onto the system without violating the instructions for Senshi equipment?"
.oOo.
Mizuno Ami looked at the Mercury computer in surprise. "Luna?" she asked. "The Mercury Computer says that a video file has been transmitted to it. Was that you?"
The mooncat frowned. "I didn't send you anything," she said. "Perhaps it's from Control. It's unlikely to be dangerous though. What does it say?"
"I haven't checked yet," Ami admitted. She brought up the file and hit play.
The face that looked out of the screen at her was that of a cat, marked with the same cresent moon as Luna. However, this cat was a grizzled ginger-and-black tomcat and one eye, incongrously, was covered by a black eyepatch that carried the same crescent moon, surrounded by a circle of symbols Ami could not make out at first glance, although she made a mental note to have the computer magnify and clarify the images later.
"Greetings," the cat said, his voice authoritive but also tinged with curiousity. "I do not know who is receving this message, but I would be interested in conversing with you. I am Senior Fleet Marshal Apollo of the Royal Moon Navy, Regent of the Moon Kingdom and Governor-General of the Moon Kingdom's Protectorates. Hail Serenity!"
"If you wish to know more, please reply through the same channel that I despatched this message. If not, then I shall assume that you do not reciprocate my interest and shall respect your wish for privacy."
Without further salutation, the message ended.
.oOo.
"Senior Fleet Marshal?" Usagi asked. "Sounds like this guy's gone off his rocker, Ami."
"It was a genuine rank in the Moon Kingdom, Usagi," Luna advised her charge, "although no one had actually held the rank in almost a thousand years - in peacetime the Royal Moon Navy simply didn't need more than a single Fleet Marshal."
"There were some Mau in the Navy," Artemis allowed. "I don't recall this one, but the most senior Mau officer at the time the Kingdom fell was only a Lieutenant-Commander..."
"Perhaps his memory's been damaged as well?" Makoto suggested. "You don't remember everything Artemis, he could just be confused. What's the harm in talking to him?"
Luna sighed. "Makoto, for whatever reason, he's declared himself Regent and Governor-General, which are civil posts. For a military officer to usurp those posts is treason, which means he's either totally insane or... no, I can't even think of an alternative."
"How much of a problem would it be if he is crazy?" asked Rei. "I mean, what if he does have a spaceship?"
There was a chime from the ceiling and a serious voice spoke from the ceiling. "Lieutenant Apollo," greeted the ship's computer. "Please report to the drive room for debriefing."
The cat - a rather battered looking tomcat with gingery fur under the green goop and one empty eyesocket - gave the ceiling a sceptical look. "I just got out of the meditank," he spat. "What do you mean, report to the drive room? Where's the doc'?"
"The Orichalcum is currently without medical staff," the computer informed him emotionlessly. "Your presence is required in the drive room as an Alpha-One Command priority."
Apollo's one eye went wide and his hackles rose. "Alpha-One... Command?" he repeated in a horrified voice. "Impossible..." Nonetheless, he rose to his feet and began to stumble across the medical bay towards the door, which slid open as he approached.
The door led to a corridor, which in turn led to one of the ship's turbolift shafts. Apollo staggered inside and lay, gasping on the floor. His injuries, and the extended recovery time had sapped his endurance more than he would have believed possible, leaving him weaker than a kitten. "Drive Room," he ordered the turbolift and it set off with the familiar hum of electromagnetics.
"What's going on?" he asked the computer once his breathing had returned to normal. "Where is everyone?"
"They're dead, Lieutenant Apollo."
"What? Who is?"
"Everyone is dead, Lieutenant Apollo," the computer expanded.
"Everyone? What the hell? The Orichalcum has a crew of over ninety-thousand!"
"The current complement of the Orichalcum is one."
"One? Besides me?"
"One, including you, Lieutenant Apollo."
"Are you telling me that I'm the only person alive on the entire ship?"
"That is correct, Lieutenant Apollo," the computer confirmed as the turbolift reached it's destination and the doors opened to allow the cat access to the lobby of the drive room.
He crossed the divide on the deck and looked up at the massively reinforced hatch leading into the drive room, the holy of holy that could be accessed only by command personel. "You realise that I'm not allowed to go in there, don't you?"
"An Alpha-One Command priority overrides those restrictions," the computer said and the hatch opened. Behind it was another hatch, then third. Each was made up of four feet of battlesteel - the same material that made up the core of the ship's multi-resistant hull - and Apollo trod carefully along the four yard passage between them, watching them carefully in case they were about to close upon him. Not that he would be able to react in time if they did... the portals were designed to close as close to instantly as the best engineers available could arrange, sealing off the drive room from any external threat.
"Okay, I'm here," Apollo said, standing just inside the doors and looking at the empty chamber. It was circular, with twelve workstations around the perimeter, each partially sunk into the floor. An oval dais occupied about half of the space between workstations and in it's centre was the throne-like seat reserved for the ship's commanding officer. Royal regulation limited command of a Mithril-class SuperDreadnought such as the Orichalcum to officers of not less than fifty years of service and rank not less than Lieutenant-Admiral. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Take your seat," said the computer, for the first time taking a visible form, as a tiny holographic simulacram of Queen Serenity standing on the armrest of the command chair. "And assume command."
.oOo.
"So let me get this straight," Apollo said half an hour later. "While the Orichalcum was docked for repairs, there was an attack on the Moon Kingdom by some sort of daemonic army that overwhelmed the palace defenses and crippled the planetary life support. All contact with the palace was lost... and then everyone on the entire Moon (except me) vanished due to a major working of the Imperium Silver Crystal, purpose and effect unknown."
"Your summation is correct," the computer agreed.
"There's no contact from the rest of the fleet?"
"All vessels and bases have been queried and no responses have been received."
"Civilian contacts?"
"Lifesigns have been detected on the Earth. No transmissions have been detected however, from anywhere in the solar system."
"Feck," Apollo muttered. He was curled up in the seat of the command chair, licking away the healing fluid from his fur. "So why the Alpha-One Command priority? There's no one to command."
"General Order Seven dictates than in the absence of the specified civilian command, the senior military officer available is to assume temporary civilian authority and execute such emaergency measures are required. You are the sole remaining member of the Orichalcum's chain of command and by default the senior military officer on the Moon."
Apollo blinked at that declaration, but did not manage to voice a protest before the computer continued inexorably. "As of your return to health, you are automatically Commanding Officer of the Royal Moon Navy Ship Orichalcum, Senior Naval Officer of the Royal Moon Naval Base Zero-One and Regent of the Moon Kingdom."
The somewhat overwhelmed feline gave voice to a somewhat plainitive noise that could best be expressed as "gw?" The computer, its explanation now complete, waited for the new Commanding Officer's next orders.
There was a low rumble from Apollo's belly and he used one paw to rub at his eyes. "Is there any immediate actual crisis that I need to deal with in the next, say, twelve hours?"
The computer considered that. "No," it confirmed.
"Right..." Apollo muttered, wondering why it had been so important to rush him here in that case. Then he shook his head. With an Alpha-One priority, such minor details as food and non-critical medical demands would not be considered relevant. "In that case, I need something to eat, someplace to wash and someplace to sleep, in that order."
The computer hummed happily. "A meal will be provided in the Commanding Officer's quarters. Bathing and sleeping facilties are available there." A small mote of golden light floated in front of the chair and started to slowly move towards the doors. "Please follow the guide light."
Apollo shook his head disbelievingly and obeyed.
.oOo.
Although the quarters of the Commanding Admiral were designed for a human rather than for a mooncat, Apollo had no complaints. The food, provided by the automatic systems, was a cut or two above that usually enjoyed by a mere Lieutenant. The bath washed away the remaining gunk from his fur and the towels were fresh, warm and pleasently scented.
The only thing that even slightly spoiled his sleep as he curled up in the precise centre of the bed was the vague expectation that he would wake up to discover a furious Lieutenant-Admiral wanting to know what had led to a Mau winding up in her bed.
This did not in fact happen, and he awoke, still undisturbed, with no more pressing crisis other than a rumbling stomach. After breaking his fast he returned to the drive room to try to work out what he should do next - assuming that he could actually accomplish anything at all.
There was certainly a lot to be done, he realised. Although the Orichalcum had only been peripherially involved in the battles, its previous damage had not been repaired - only the barest beginnings had been made in clearing away the damaged components. Now, if this work was to be done, it would have to be done without the support of the large dockyards of Naval Base Zero-One. The task would be herculean - Mithril-class superdreadnoughts were the largest vessels in the Royal Moon Navy, a staggering seventeen kilometers long - and only the enormous degree of automation would render it possible at all.
The Royal Moon Navy maintained a small fleet of Mobile Fabricators, highly automated factory-ships that, given resources and time, could construct virtually any vessel in the fleet's inventory, including themselves. The Orichalcum contained four factories of equivalent capability. All four were damaged to some extent, but by stripping parts from three of them, the least damaged could be restored to operation and from there, with the guidance of the Orichalcum's core computer, rebuild the rest of the ship. However, given the existing damage, the repairs would demand most of the ship's power and all of its maintenance robots.
"How long would that take?" Apollo asked thoughtfully.
"Assuming that resources are available from the dockyard's stockpiles, which would seem probable, not less than eight years," the computer replied.
Apollo winced. "Great. And we can just about guarentee that someone else out there will come to see what's happened to the Moon Kingdom before then. We'd be annexed within a year, or worse, they'd start fighting over our remaining resources."
The computer remained silent. Political and diplomatic theory were not within it's area of expertise.
"Great," Apollo said after a minute. "I guess I'll have to figure out how to get more of the fleet back online. Is Fleet HQ still around?"
"Fleet HQ was overrun by the second wave of invaders," the computer said, and then, anticipating the question. "Secondary command posts survive however. The nearest is at Castle Magellan, the home of Sailor Venus."
Apollo nodded. "Right then. I'll need a skiff to make it there as fast as possible. From there I can recall any vessels still operating under automatic control. But before I go I'd better get the maintenance robots started on rebuilding our factory units."
.oOo.
If the blasted ruins of the Moon Kingdom's capital were mournful, the empty corridors of Castle Magellan were eerie. Apollo made himself known to the command computers and after almost an hour of deliberation, the three massive computers verified his identity and the authority invested in him due to the emergency. After jumping from the job of a lieutenant to that of a lieutenant admiral, Apollo wouldn't have thought that taking on the role of a Fleet Marshal to be such a shock to him. He was wrong.
In fairness, there wasn't exactly a Fleet Marshal's command left of the Royal Moon Navy. The bulk of the fleet had been attacked over Venus by the same forces that had devestated the surface of the world but failed to penetrate the defenses of Castle Magellan. The ships had been gutted by vicious fighting aboard them and only a handful of vessels responded to Apollo's signals. Scattered detachments around the system responded however. Each had been emptied however, in the same way that the Orichalcum had.
In total, his 'fleet' consisted of a couple of dozen cruisers, three battlecruisers and a single Mobile Fabricator. The latter was invaluable of course and Apollo set it to bringing the operational vessels up to their full capability as soon as possible. A plan was beginning to take shape in his mind.
He returned to the Orichalcum and spent several days observing matters on Earth through long range sensors.
Whatever had struck at the Moon Kingdom had been almost as devestating for the Earth. There had been no planetary life support to be lost but massive loss of life had taken place and hundreds of cities had been levelled by magics of mass destruction, with a domino effect upon the infrastructure. What was left of the great world spanning civilisation had splintered over the following months into dozens of successor states squabbling over the remnants and as often as not destroying them in the process. Not that it made a difference, for somehow the magisphere had been damaged, and much of the equipment used by the Moon Kingdom's earthbound cousins had depended upon it to function. It would be a millenium at least before it would be possible to rebuild using those tools.
The irony was a bitter one. The Moon and the other planets had a wealth of tools and infrastructure but lacked population or the ecosphere to support them. The Earth had people and a viable ecology, but was inimical to the tools and infrastructure remaining to it. Apollo was honestly wary about even sending a ship down, wisely as it happened, for when a cruiser descended under remote control it suffered a massive system failure and crashed (into a depopulated region of the southern hemisphere).
"If there's going to be any rebuilding it will have to be from the Protectorates," he decided. "It's almost certain that they'll be under threat from our neighbours once they realise we've dropped out of contact. I think it's going to be necessary to renegotiate our treaties with them."
He grimaced when the computer presented him with the text of just one of those treaties. Several hundred pages that he would have to decipher before he could even begin to make a credible attempt at rearranging those treaties. "Just great. I'm gonna need a dictionary just to figure out what all this crap means."
.oOo.
Ten Thousand Years Later
Apollo blinked lazily as the stasis field fell away. There was grey in his fur these days and the patch over his empty eye was emblazoned with the arms of the Moon Kingdom. Despite spending most of each year in stasis, awoken only for emergencies, he had been active for over one hundred and twenty years by his personal chronology. Mau lived longer than humans, but not that much longer without serious magical intervention.
The stasis chamber was in the heart of the Orichalcum, itself hovering in the centre of the fleet that he had built up over the long, lonely years. Thirty-five more superdreadnoughts formed the immediate escort and they were surrounded by more than two hundred dreadnoughts and more than twelve hundred each of battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers. Lesser vessels patrolled the Protectorate worlds and their colonies, somewhat expanded over the years, reporting back to him here and to Castle Magellan where an identical fleet hid within the disguising fog of the Venusian atmosphere. Not one other living being existed within either fleet, and Apollo had begun to wonder, over the years, if it might be wise to arrange a successor.
"What's the situation?" he asked the computer (now much augmented). "Don't tell me it's another border violation by the Kzinti. I would have thought that that they'd gotten the idea by now."
"Castle Magellan reports possible activity on Earth."
Apollo frowned and scratched behind his ear. "On Earth? Huh. Show me the latest profile on them."
Orichalcum obediently began to display the results of dozens of long-range scans over the last decade. Mankind had been of little concern to the Mau Regent of the Moon Kingdom for eons, but of late they seemed to have devised means to circumvent the limits of the still recovering magisphere. Indeed, they had accomplished manned flight almost a century before, prompting him to order the removal of all active facilities from the Moon. There would be plenty for them to find there, if they ever discovered the remaining ruins of the Moon Kingdom, but he didn't see any point in letting them get access to one of his bases until he had had time to explain matters to them.
"The hell?" he asked, flagging up one report based on an intercepted televideo transmission from an eastern archepelago. "How long have Sailor Senshi been running around? And why wasn't I told?"
"Two lunar cycles. The report was judged to be fictious on evaluation," the Orichalcum answered, a little defensively. It was possibly the oldest semi-autonomous system in operation and Apollo occasionally wondered if it's pretense of sentient behavior might be more than an act by now. "It was flagged for routine checking however, which has determined a possibility of active use of a Silver Millenium computer system of military grade."
Apollo grimaced. "Military grade? Any chance of penetration of our security?"
"Unlikely," Orichalcum replied. "All codes have been updated routinely since the discovery and a full audit has detected no contact with our own systems. It is possible that there may be a connection operating with the Palace mainframes but this has been impossible to verify."
"And can we penetrate their system?" Apollo asked. He knew that neither the Orichalcum nor Castle Magellan would attempt the feat without his authority or a direct attack, but that wouldn't keep them from evaluating the possibilities.
"Prohibited," the computer told him flatly. "The system is Senshi-grade and hardwired instructions forbid any attempt to breech security of that classification using military systems."
"Senshi-grade military hardware?" Apollo asked in surprise. "How the devil did that wind up on Earth of all places?"
"Unknown."
"Well, notify the Palace of all information," he ordered after a moment. "You never know, it might prompt some action. And..." He hesitated. "Computer, can we insert a message onto the system without violating the instructions for Senshi equipment?"
.oOo.
Mizuno Ami looked at the Mercury computer in surprise. "Luna?" she asked. "The Mercury Computer says that a video file has been transmitted to it. Was that you?"
The mooncat frowned. "I didn't send you anything," she said. "Perhaps it's from Control. It's unlikely to be dangerous though. What does it say?"
"I haven't checked yet," Ami admitted. She brought up the file and hit play.
The face that looked out of the screen at her was that of a cat, marked with the same cresent moon as Luna. However, this cat was a grizzled ginger-and-black tomcat and one eye, incongrously, was covered by a black eyepatch that carried the same crescent moon, surrounded by a circle of symbols Ami could not make out at first glance, although she made a mental note to have the computer magnify and clarify the images later.
"Greetings," the cat said, his voice authoritive but also tinged with curiousity. "I do not know who is receving this message, but I would be interested in conversing with you. I am Senior Fleet Marshal Apollo of the Royal Moon Navy, Regent of the Moon Kingdom and Governor-General of the Moon Kingdom's Protectorates. Hail Serenity!"
"If you wish to know more, please reply through the same channel that I despatched this message. If not, then I shall assume that you do not reciprocate my interest and shall respect your wish for privacy."
Without further salutation, the message ended.
.oOo.
"Senior Fleet Marshal?" Usagi asked. "Sounds like this guy's gone off his rocker, Ami."
"It was a genuine rank in the Moon Kingdom, Usagi," Luna advised her charge, "although no one had actually held the rank in almost a thousand years - in peacetime the Royal Moon Navy simply didn't need more than a single Fleet Marshal."
"There were some Mau in the Navy," Artemis allowed. "I don't recall this one, but the most senior Mau officer at the time the Kingdom fell was only a Lieutenant-Commander..."
"Perhaps his memory's been damaged as well?" Makoto suggested. "You don't remember everything Artemis, he could just be confused. What's the harm in talking to him?"
Luna sighed. "Makoto, for whatever reason, he's declared himself Regent and Governor-General, which are civil posts. For a military officer to usurp those posts is treason, which means he's either totally insane or... no, I can't even think of an alternative."
"How much of a problem would it be if he is crazy?" asked Rei. "I mean, what if he does have a spaceship?"