Setsuna knew of many technologies that did not exist in this world, but could have if things had gone differently. She knew of the magic-tech of the Moon Kingdom, and technologies still in the future. Once she had settled into her service with Master Yosho, and Master had given her permission to do so, she had done her part to assist and accelerate the development of certain key technologies that mankind would need. Indoor pluming had been at the top of her list. Despite these efforts, this was a sparsely populated world compared to some of the ones that could have been. Fewer people meant fewer people doing research and inventing things, so this world did not have airliners or bullet trains they could use for this journey.
It did have airships with bags of gas and propellers driven by steam or by some unique magical or technical construction. Teams of slaves running in large wheels were also used as a power source, but only where entertainment for passengers was more important that actual thrust as it was highly inefficient. Mistress Tennyo and Mistress Akiko were taking an airship ahead with some supplies and to make arrangements for lodging.
It also had trains, which she and her two sister-slaves had been using. They had other stops to make before reaching their final destination. It wasn’t a standardized national system. The authorities had noticed long ago that most men liked to tinker with things, and that some of them were very good at it. If a man’s tinkering proved to have useful applications or benefits, then he might be subsidized and encouraged to use that money in the purchase of slaves that could help him with his work. In the case of the railroads, each area that had enough people to make rail lines worthwhile had a local system built, maintained, and/or managed by someone as their own life-size train set. As with the airships, most ran on steam, but some would have custom engines that might or might not be reproducible by others. Some might not be reproducible by the original creator. And no two lines had the same standards for tracks, so travelers had to switch from one train to another at the edges of these domains, sometimes having to walk a ways between stations of rival lines.
Currently Setsuna and her two companions were on one of the longer continuous rail systems, running through Osaka and the surrounding cities. They shared a bench in one of the better cars, meaning the bench had cushions and a girl selling snacks and water would come through every so often. They had no need for snacks at the moment, but they were thankful for the cushions. At least, Setsuna was consciously thankful for the padding. Haruka and Michiru had worn each other out last night but had taken their time about it, so the sounds and rocking of the train had quickly put them to sleep. Setsuna held the softly snoring slaves (well, Haruka snored, Michiru managed to maintain a delicate dignity even while asleep) nestled against her sides and reflected on how nice it was to have friends and comrades.
That was one of the things she went on her knees before Master to thank him for. Of course, going on her knees before Master was part of the entertainment built into their relationship, so she did it quite often and sometimes with rather flimsy pretexts for doing so. However, forcing her to leave her solitude and acquire friends and students was, and always would be, a genuine wellspring of gratitude in her heart towards the Lost Prince of Jurai.
Her solitude over the millennia had not always been voluntary. When the Old Kingdom fell, that many people being wiped out that fast had caused something of a panic in this section of the Galaxy. That many inhabitable planets and moons becoming lifeless rocks that fast was even scarier to folks who thought in terms of worlds and systems rather than people. The powers of the galaxy put a very strict (as in looking at it with a telescope too much might get you in trouble) quarantine on the entire system. Pluto, as the last survivor capable of contacting the rest of the galaxy, had pleaded for aid and assistance in rebuilding. She was ignored. In desperation she asked the one person she had never wished to speak to again for help, the person she had fled from in the journey that eventually brought her to this system. But not even Mother’s political skill and influence could help. In fact, those efforts had prompted the galactic powers to label Setsuna as part of the problem and she herself had been quarantined on her lonely little world.
This had left her with a classic Catch 22. The phrase hadn’t been invented yet, and might not be, but it was one of those odd details that sometimes sprang out of the general trends the Gates usually provided when viewing the far future. She needed to serve her Queen by preparing for the Princess. Her ability to do so came from the oaths and bonds established with her Queen. The Queen and her entire line, including the once-and-future Princess, were bound by similar oaths to the Empire of Jurai. Jurai was enforcing the quarantine on what had once been one of its provinces, which now included her “house arrest”. Violating the quarantine meant knowingly opposing Jurai in a very direct manner, possibly having to actively fight Jurai. This violated her oaths to the Queen by violating the Queen’s oaths to Jurai. Violating the oaths would strip her of the powers she needed to accomplish the goal driving her into opposition to the quarantine in the first place.
Then, an up-and-coming young noble of Jurai got into a fight with something a little too tough for him. He ended up on Earth, (despite the quarantine) fell in love with a local girl, carried her off to the stars, (quarantine be damned) and the quarantine quickly became “special protective status.” Setsuna didn’t know how, but she would bet her tiara that Mother had something to do with this.
Special protective status meant she couldn’t bring in help or resources from outside the system. She couldn’t introduce scientific, technological, or magical advances into earth’s culture, and she couldn’t tell earthlings about things on or from other planets, which included virtually everything about the Old Kingdom. She did, however, have permission to run around the solar system and interact with earthlings as long as she didn’t violate any of those rules. Thanks to the Queen’s efforts, the reincarnation of the Princess showed up in the gates like a lighthouse. She could steer towards it and it illuminated other events around it for her to see, but there had still been problems to cope with.
The most ironic source of those problems had come from within herself. After more than a thousand years of solitary confinement with only the images in the gates for company, after more than a thousand of years trying to find a way out of an inescapable paradox, her perceptions and reasoning had been a little…skewed. There had been many bad habits that Master had been required to break her from, but one of the big ones had been her view of herself and her mission as the ONLY hope for humanity. Tied to that had been a complete unwillingness on her part to seek out help or share the burden. Setsuna hugged her fellow Senshi to her and kissed their foreheads, prompting some mumbled protests from Michiru and a half-hearted instinctual groping from Haruka. Thanks to Master, many other women had walked by her side over the last 600 years, but still, she was so glad to have her friends from so long ago returning to her now.
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(Posted Thu, 07 Oct 2004 17:48)
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