Ranma and Eternal Sailor Moon walked east across the dry land, dust rising from their footsteps. In order for Ranma to keep his head in Moon's air-bubble, he had to walk close enough to her that they were almost brushing shoulders, and if she moved ahead of him she would bump him with her wings. His feet were outside the bubble, and Ranma had to duck slightly, but he was relieved to find that at least he didn't need to stand so close to her that he would need to hold onto her to keep his balance.
In the distance there were what appeared to be rocky hills or low mountains - it was difficult to tell at this distance. The ground they walked on was quite rocky, but in between the rocks was a dusty mixture of sand and volcanic ash. The rock and ash varied between various shades of black, brown, red, and gray, but it was mostly red-brown, which along with the red-orange sky gave the landscape a monotone feel.
Wanting to break the silence, Moon commented, "It's kind of creepy walking outside and not even having any plants around. I mean, even in the desert there are usually a few plants, unless it's a sandy desert - right?"
Ranma shrugged. "Well, there are places in the mountains without many plants, but I don't know about deserts - Pops and I never traveled any deserts."
"Oh. I though you might have heard something in school - I tend to sleep through classes, so I've missed a few things."
"Actually, I tend to sleep through my classes, too."
Moon giggled. "Wow. We're kinda similar, huh?"
Ranma shrugged. "I guess. You don't do any martial arts, though, do you?"
"No... That's Makoto's thing."
"Huh. I'll have to try sparring with her sometime."
As Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn walked south, Pluto took note of the fact that they were going downhill slightly. "This way, Saturn," Pluto said, directing them in the direction the incline was the strongest. "We're most likely to find water where the ground is lowest."
Saturn nodded as she followed Pluto. After a few minutes, she asked a question that had been on her mind since they had gotten to the past, but she hadn't found a good time to ask about. "Setsuna-momma, why is the sky red? The sun isn't anywhere near setting."
"It's because of the chemical composition of the air in this time. You can ask Ami about it if you want a detailed explanation."
"Oh." Saturn considered asking Ami about it when they got back, but wasn't sure it would be worth the technical terms she would have to wade through.
Sailor Uranus and Neptune trudged west across the rocky plain mostly silently.
Spotting a formation of several rocks jutting several meters out of the ground, Uranus pointed to it and said, "Hey, you think we should check that out?"
Neptune shrugged. "I suppose we might as well."
As the two headed to the rock formation, Haruka asked, "So, you think we should trust that 'Ranma'?"
Neptune was silent for a moment, then said, "I'm not sure. Sailor Pluto has portrayed him as trustworthy, but... I find the story she told of why she was spying on him suspiciously incomplete."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. She could have been just summarizing to speed things up, but..."
Neptune nodded. "We will have to try to get the full story from her at some point. I just hope it wasn't a mistake to allow Ranma to accompany the Princess..."
"Whatever Ranma and Pluto's past is, I don't think Pluto would put the Princess at risk. Anyway, so long as the Princess checks in regularly like she told us to do, we'll know she's all right." Uranus paused, then added, "And speaking of checking in, it's about time to do that." She pulled out her communicator and prepared to contact the others.
While the exploration teams headed out, Rei tried to decide if she should transform to Sailor Mars to do her psychic scan. She hadn't actually tested her psychic powers in Sailor form, but she guessed they would probably be more powerful - and thus might compensate somewhat for the lack of a flame to connect with. On the other hand, sitting or kneeling on the rocky ground with bare legs didn't appeal to her.
She finally decided that being in Senshi form would just be one more change from her usual meditations, and it would be easier to focus in her miko robes (which she happened to be wearing, as she had been performing her duties at the shrine when they'd been drawn into the past).
She looked around for a spot without too many small or uneven rocks, and knelt down and closed her eyes. Slowing her breathing, she emptied her head of unnecessary concerns, and prepared to enter the proper sort of meditative trance for her psychic scan.
Mercury glanced at Rei as Rei knelt down, then Mercury turned her attention back to her computer.
Mercury had already checked for any incoming signals of any type recognized by the Mercury Computer (including modern radio signals) but had found nothing. She had then tried simple signals on both Senshi and common modern frequencies, but this had yet to raise any response. She was now widening her search, and trying to come up with a message that would be recognized by any intelligent species using electromagnetic transmissions for communication.
Mercury privately thought her actions were pretty much a waste of time except for the hope it gave the others. While chances were good there was intelligent life alive at this point in time somewhere in the universe, the chances any would happen to visit this young and lifeless Solar System during the month or two they had was astronomically low.
She frowned as she detected interference several tens of kilometers to the northwest. It could be signs of technology, but from past experience it looked more like a thunderstorm to her. Hopefully it would miss them - they weren't exactly prepared for something like that yet.
The storm also reminded her of the limits of the Mercury Computer and Senshi Communicators. While they could reach each-other within a storm, the signals normally couldn't reach all the way from one side of a large storm to the other. This, along with natural barriers such as mountains, limited the range of the signals along the Earth's surface.
Meanwhile, when a signal from the Mercury Computer traveled through space it could reach beyond the orbit of the Moon, but by the time it reached as far as the orbits of Venus or Mars the signal would be weakened to the point one would need very sensitive equipment to detect it - and the normal communicators were even weaker. If she was going to broadcast a signal easily detected throughout the region in which an electromagnetic transmission could reach in the time they had, she would need to find a way to significantly boost the Mercury Computer's transmitter's power.
If she took apart all of the communicators, she could amplify the Mercury Computer's transmissions by a moderate amount, but it still wouldn't get the range Sailor Mercury wanted. Even dismantling the communicators and using them to build a larger transmitter would be a challenge, though, seeing as she had no tools with her...
Her musings were interrupted, when the the computer chirped to indicate an incoming transmission from Uranus. Mercury walked to the edge of the dome, as far from Rei as she could get, so she wouldn't disturb her. Mercury then opened the channel.
"Sailor Uranus reporting in."
"This is Mercury, I read you. You found anything?"
"Not really, just some big rocks. Any word from Sailor Moon yet?"
"No. You're a few minutes early."
"Oh. Well, let us know if she runs into any trouble or doesn't report in, okay?"
"Of course."
"Alright then. I guess we'll keep exploring."
"Okay. Good luck."
"Uranus out."
A few minutes later, Sailor Pluto contacted Mercury - exactly on time, Mercury noted.
"Mercury here."
"Pluto and Saturn here," Pluto said, as Saturn also signed in. "We've found a small pond. It's doesn't seem to have any inlet or outlet, but without any life to foul it, stagnation really isn't the problem it might be in other circumstances. The only problem I can see is if it dries up before we're done with it."
"Hmm. We should probably test it for any dangerous chemicals before we drink it, but so far it sounds good. I'll make a note of your position; why don't you keep searching?"
"We'll do that."
Just then, Venus and Jupiter contacted them. When Pluto, Saturn, and Mercury had all opened their connections, Venus commented, "Hey, we made it before Pluto signed off. I guess we weren't that late after all!"
Jupiter commented, "I told you your watch was fast."
While smiling slightly at Jupiter and Venus's antics, Mercury asked, "Anything to report, you two?"
"We haven't found anything yet," Jupiter told her.
Venus added, "Well, we did find a hill. We're climbing up it right now - I figure we'll be able to get a better view of what's around here from up top."
Mercury replied, "Good idea. If you decide to go down the other side, be sure to check in before you go too far - we don't know if the hill will block our communicators' signals."
Venus nodded. "Right."
Pluto spoke up. "Saturn and I need to get going. We'll keep in touch."
Mercury nodded. "Okay."
Pluto signed off; Saturn said "Bye!" before doing the same.
Mercury took a closer look at Venus and Jupiter's coordinates, then said, "By the way, you two seem to have veered off course a bit - you were supposed to go north, but your signals indicate you're actually to my northwest at the moment."
"Oops," Venus said sheepishly.
"It's not a problem - we'll probably have to do many more exploratory missions, so we'll just go north a different time. However, I've been picking up an electromagnetic disturbance further to the northwest - I suspect it's a thunderstorm. Can you see any dark clouds from where you are?"
Jupiter spoke up - "No, but there's kind of a hill in the way at the moment. We'll let you know if we do see a storm when we get to the top."
"Please do. I'll also keep track of the disturbance to see if it's moving - if it is a storm and it's headed our way... Well, hopefully someone finds shelter and we can all make it there in time, because I don't know if our Senshi powers would be enough to protect us from a storm..."
Venus said, "Okay. Anthing else?"
"No, that about covers it."
"Talk to you later then." Venus replied.
Jupiter added her own, "Yeah, later."
"Bye," Mercury said, realizing they were waiting for a reply. Venus and Jupiter then signed off.
Mercury went back to her work; it was another five minutes before Moon finally contacted her.
"Sorry I'm late, Mercury! Ranma and I got to talking and we totally lost track of the time!"
"It's alright, Sailor Moon. At least you're getting along. Have you found anything yet?"
"Well, not really. There are some steep hills off to the east a bit further; Ranma thinks they may have some caves so we're going to check around there a bit."
"Okay. Don't go into any caves without reporting in first - the rock might block you signal and we'll need to know where you are in case anything happens."
"...'Anything happens'...? Like what? You don't think there are Youma around, or something?"
"Er, no. I was thinking more like a rock-slide or a cave in; or if you got lost in the dark."
"Oh... Um, maybe we shouldn't go exploring too deep into caves until we can all do it as a team."
"That sounds like a good idea."
"Speaking of teams, how is everyone else doing?"
"They're fine." Mercury gave Moon a recap of what the others had told her.
Moon said, "Looks like we're making some progress. Good. ...I just hope that thunderstorm of yours doesn't come our way - I hate thunderstorms! Anyway, Ranma can't do any exploring without me, so I guess I should let you go..."
"Alright. Talk to you later."
"Bye-bye!"
As Venus and Jupiter continued trudging up the hill, Venus said to Jupiter, "You know, Jupiter, I've been thinking."
"Oh?" Jupiter said wearily.
"It's about Ranma..."
"Hold on--! Moon said to wait on fighting over him until we get back!"
"I'm not fighting over him!"
Jupiter eyed Venus skeptically.
Venus sighed. "Look, like I said I was just thinking. Pluto says we're trapped in the past, right?"
"Yeah..." Jupiter said, obviously wondering where this was going.
"Ami and Rei are looking for alien life, but even if they find some, it won't be human, not this far back in time."
"I suppose not."
"That means that Ranma is probably the last guy we'll ever see."
Jupiter said suspiciously, "If you're about to start talking about how you deserve to be the one to date him..."
"Date?! Jupiter, I don't know if you noticed, but there aren't a lot of places to go or things to do on a date around here."
Jupiter was a bit taken aback by this, as she hadn't really considered it. Thinking about it a little bit, she decided she still wanted to try a relationship with Ranma (he was a hunk and seemed nice enough) - but she wondered what form that relationship could take in this environment.
Venus interrupted her thoughts. "Like I was saying, Ranma is the last guy we're going to see - any of us. Micheru and Haruka have each other, and Setsuna might be with them - it's hard to tell. Usagi... well, she had Mamoru, but she isn't likely to see him again - will she want to be faithful to a guy who isn't born yet? ...But even if she does stay single, what about the rest of us?"
Jupiter shrugged. "Well, yeah, but what can we do? There's only one of Ranma and what - four or five of us?"
Venus ticked off on her fingers, "You, me, Ami, and Rei. Hotaru's a little young, but if we only have weeks and she's interested it wouldn't be fair to exclude her... Maybe Setsuna, maybe Usagi. So at least four, maybe up to seven of us who could be interested in Ranma."
Jupiter pointed out, "I don't think Rei actually expressed any interest in Ranma."
"Okay, three to seven. Anyway, the point is, there are more of us looking for guys than guys available, and the number available isn't going to change in our lifetimes. The way I see it, there's really only one fair solution."
"I'm almost afraid to ask," Jupiter said.
Venus exclaimed excitedly, "We share!"
Jupiter nearly stumbled at this. "I can't believe you-- " She stopped herself, then shook her head. "No, I should have expected that."
Venus pouted. "You don't sound very enthused with the idea."
"Look, Venus --" Just then, they reached the top of the hill. Both girls stared out at the sight that awaited them on the other side.
"Jupiter, is that...?"
"It is, Venus. It's --"
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Chronos the Cat
(Posted Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:06)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.