After The Fall, part 4
A Tale of Crystal Tokyo by Ron Inn
The Sailor Senshi and related characters were created by Naoko
Takeuchi.
What has gone on before:
Threatened with being put on an long vacation, Rei grudgingly
takes up Serenity's request that she oversee the rehabilitation
of a Nemesian prisoner, Ruby. With Pumice's help, Ruby pulls
out of her depression and Rei prepares to ensure Ruby's quick
recovery.
Meanwhile, it is revealed that Harry & Gracie are placing
taps into various portions of Crystal Tokyo's computer net.
Earlier parts of this fanfic can be found at SME's home page:
http://members.xoom.com/Warthog/index.html
%%%%
A nondescript man walked down a nondescript alley in New Rome. He
stopped at a dented, splintered door and gave it several careful,
measured knocks. Rustling was heard on the other side of the door
and an eye appeared in one of the door's many cracks.
With a creak, the door swung inward to reveal an old lady. The
man stepped inside. After receiving a wad of cash, the woman
scuttled back into the shadows and the man descended a narrow and
winding staircase to the cellar.
At the bottom of the stair, a single flickering bulb revealed a
small, dingy room with a single state-of-art, encrypted vidphone
in the corner. The man closed the door and activated the phone.
In seconds, a blurry image appeared on the screen which was
accompanied by a garbled voice. "So, will you take the job?"
"It's an unusual request," replied the man noncommittally.
"You don't think you can handle it."
"I didn't say that." The man opened his briefcase and pulled out
a manila envelope. "Why did you choose me?"
"You have a good reputation for getting jobs done. And you're
available."
"Quite right. One more question: Why her?"
"You ask too many questions. Now are you going to take the job or
not?"
The man paused and thought aloud, "Let's see ... good intel but
mysterious employer ... unusual job ... takes place in Crystal
Tokyo ... I'll have to double my price."
"Done. Half credited today; the other half upon completion of the
job."
The man pulled a funny looking hat out of the briefcase and
pulled it on. It was a old-style jester's hat with bells that
tinkled as the hat moved. "Done. The Jester is on your job."
The vidphone went blank and the Jester opened the envelope and
pulled a photo out from it. "Ruby. A pretty face to match a
pretty name," he mused to himself.
%%%%%
"Lady Mizuno, there are 1479 unread messages in your mailbox,"
chimed the desk computer cheerfully.
Ami gave the terminal a baleful stare. She had forgotten how much
of this job was signing-off endless reports, memos, purchasing
orders, staff requistions and other 'urgent' requests. After
this, she could look forward to mediating disputes between
bickering department heads and sorting out the logistical mess
caused by the recent influx of wanna-be bounty hunters.
Ami was briefly tempted to cheat and ask Sally to take care of
her mail but instead gritted her teeth and started going through
the stack.
There was a knock at the door and Ami's secretary cracked open
the door. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Lady Mizuno. There's a woman
from QA on the phone who insists she needs to talk to you
immediately. I told her that she had to make an appointment but
she was rather insistent."
Ami closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose. It
wasn't hard to guess who the woman from QA was. "I'll take the
call," Ami said resignedly and took a moment to compose herself
before keying her terminal to patch the call through.
When Rei appeared on the terminal's screen, she was greeted by
Ami's smiling visage. "Ah, Takae-san, how may I help you today?"
The smile never wavered as Ami listened to Rei's request.
"Why, Takae-san, I never knew you cared some much! Of course I'll
approve your request. Good luck and give Superintendent Miyamoto
my regards."
Closing the call, Ami shook her head before returning to her
mail. *I hope Rei knows what's she's doing.*
Rei soon found herself in front of a mirror fixing her hair; Or
rather, unfixing her hair in this particular case. Her reflection
in the mirror showed a woman in her 40's with a weathered face
and dirty blonde hair. It was tricky to get the right unkempt
look for which she was aiming.
Rei stopped to examine her handiwork and sighed. She was
impersonating a QA agent who was impersonating a prison inmate.
It was even a little too convoluted for her tastes, but she
needed to get back to her real job as soon as possible. Rei
resolved that Ruby was going to get better whether she liked it
or not!
Superintendent Miyamoto looked over her shoulder. "Remarkable.
Quite remarkable. I didn't realize that glamour technology had
progressed this far. Don't forget to disguise your clothes as
well; the body armor is a dead giveaway."
Miyamoto had insisted that she wear light body armor during her
stint as a convict. *Like anyone in there could really hurt me,*
Rei fumed. Still, it behooved her to offer some small concession
after ramming this operation down their throats.
Closing her eyes, Rei envisioned the standard prison jumpsuit.
Keeping the image fixed in her mind she touched a small crystal
embedded in a band around her wrist. A quick burst of light and
Rei was arrayed in worn, beige splendor. "Pyrite Tech. Never
leave home without it," she quipped.
Pulling out a second band from her briefcase, she fastened it
around her neck. The small quartz crystal in the band emitted a
small flash before they both faded from view. "How do I sound
now?" Rei asked in an altogether different voice. It was higher
than Rei's natural voice and had a touch of an Irish lilt to it.
"Extraordinary! Quite Extraordinary" exclaimed Miyamoto. Rei
rolled her eyes.
After a final inspection, a pair of guards clamped restraint
cuffs on her and marched her into Cell Block B. Obediently
following her escorts through the security checkpoints, Rei
couldn't help but feel a slight chill as last of the massive
steel doors slammed shut behind her. Soon they stood before
Ruby's cell. Rei hoped to make a good first impression.
As the cell door opened, one of the guards called out, "Meet your
new cellmate, Ruby."
Rei took two steps into the cell and the door closed with a clang
behind her. A woman, slightly taller than Rei, languidly got out
of her bunk and stood before Rei. She could have been pretty, but
it was difficult to tell with the bruises and cuts that marred
her face, not to mention her matted and tangled black hair and
the weariness reflected in her eyes.
Ruby looked steadily into the eyes of the newcomer. "You mess
with me and I'll feed you your own entrails."
They glared at each other. Finally, Rei broke the silence.
"WAAAHHHH! She's so mean!" wailed Rei as rivers of tears streamed
from her eyes. As Ruby looked on incredulously, Rei fled to her
bunk and flopped down on it, sobbing all the way.
%%%%%
Nate was in a good mood. In fact, he whistled as he strolled to
work. It wasn't that he really enjoyed his job at Carl's
Convenience Store & Deli; he despised it. Neither was the sunny
morning the cause of his good cheer; nor any of the hundreds of
little things one might normally expect.
Nate had a secret.
Crystal Tokyo's fabled Internal Security was on the alert.
Attempting to pick-up any bounty hunters after Topass, they were
frantically screening all recent arrivals in the past two weeks.
But Nate had already been in Crystal Tokyo for over a month and
IS hadn't a clue. He chuckled to himself. Soon they would show
them up for the bumbling, pompous asses that they were.
Near the Crystal Tokyo Men's Correctional Facility, Nate took a
right turn down the street that led to his work and promptly
bumped into an elderly couple.
"Why don't you look where you're going, young man?" huffed the
old coot.
"Yeah, whatevers," replied Nate before nearly tripping over a
robotic black cat as he turned to go. *Black cat,* noted Nate
glumly. *That can't be lucky. But it's not real anyway.*
The old man glared at the back of departing youth. "Harry, forget
about it," Gracie cajoled him. "It's much too nice a day to allow
a little thing like that to spoil it. Besides, we've got a job to
do." Gracie beckoned her cat to follow them. "Come along,
Sophie."
By the time Nate reached the Deli, his good mood had broken.
*Stupid cat,* he cursed as he crossed the street.
A sharp whistle stopped him in his tracks. It was a police
whistle.
"You there! Stop!" shouted a woman in a blue uniform.
Nate immediately broke into a cold sweat. Time seemed to slow as
the officer approached. *OH CRAP! I've been made!* Nate tried to
remain calm, but each step the officer took toward him doubled
his terror. Finally he could bear it no more. With a shriek of
despair, Nate fled down the street.
Officer Miyasato of Public Safety looked on in stunned amazement.
She had merely been intending to give a stern warning on the
dangers of jaywalking. Her training soon took over and she
sprinted after him in pursuit. "Hey! Stop! I'm a police officer!"
she yelled to no avail. Triggering her comm crystal, she called
in, "I've got a runner! Back-up requested ..."
Nate ran on, bowling over any pedestrians that got in his way. He
could here the shouts and sound of pursuit behind him. *Oh man!
I'm so toast!* His panicked mind could only hold one thought:
*Got to get away! Got to GET AWAY!*
He had run two blocks before he spied a commuter on a grav-bike
stopped at a traffic light. Curious about the commotion behind
him, the business man turned in time to see Nate's fist connect
with his face. Shoving the man off the bike, Nate jumped on it
just as an IS Rapid Response Team teleported in around him.
Gunning the bike across the intersection, Nate narrowly missed
getting flattened by a moving van. "Yahooooo!" crowed Nate as he
weaved through traffic and left his pursuers behind. Wiping the
perspiration from his brow, Nate knew that he had beaten those
bastards.
Nate's feeling of relief lasted all of 16 seconds when the first
police aircar showed up with sirens blazing. Nate gawked in
disbelief as he saw it bearing down on him, skimming fifteen feet
above the street traffic.
Unaware of the high-speed drama rapidly approaching, Makoto
stepped gracefully out of her ground car to cheers of school
children. The Shinjuku East Elementary School had invited Sailor
Jupiter to give a talk on civic duty at a student assembly. It
was one of the more pleasant duties of a Sailor Senshi and Makoto
was glad to oblige. Makoto waved to the children as a small group
of them burst into a song for her. She thought she had
specifically suggested that such displays was unnecessary, but
appreciated the sentiment just the same.
Makoto was distracted by the approach of sirens. Down the street,
a gravbike swerved around stopped cars and into oncoming traffic.
Miraculously, the biker avoided several head-on collisions before
hopping onto the sidewalk and, gunning his engine, accelerated
toward Makoto.
Makoto didn't know who this biker was or what he was doing, but
with children all around her, there was no hesitation.
"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"
The blast of lightning threw the bike back down the sidewalk.
Carried on by forward momentum, the biker somersaulted off the
bike and bounced on the pavement before coming to rest.
Makoto took a combat-ready stance and waited. Wisps of smoke rose
from man's unconscious form. *Opps, maybe I hit him just a tiny
bit too hard,* she reflected guiltily. In moments, a rapid
response team teleported in along with paramedics.
There was shocked silence as the children tried to absorb what
they had just seen. The school's principal stepped forward and
said, "Thank you, Sailor Jupiter, for such an exciting
demonstration of your powers!"
The children responded with wild applause and cheering. Some of
the older kids started up a chant, "JU-PIT-TER, JU-PIT-TER,
JU-PIT-TER."
"That wasn't a demonstration -- That was for real!" whispered
Makoto back to the principal who was standing beside her.
"I know," replied the principal. "Let's see if we can get these
kids back inside, quickly." Raising his voice, he shouted,
"Everyone to the auditorium, so we can hear Sailor Jupiter
speak!"
As she helped herd the children back into the school building,
Makoto spared a glance back at the biker. Everything seemed to be
under control. She'd just have to wait until later to find out
what was going on. With a sigh, Makoto turned and walked toward
the school's auditorium with a mob of school children trailing
happily behind.
%%%%
Ruby squirmed on her bunk as she tried to ignored the wailing
that was going on a few feet away. She was flabbergasted at her
new cellmate's reaction. *Weren't all prisoners supposed to be
tough? Didn't she have to build a reputation so that no one would
dare to give her any trouble?* Ruby tried to ponder these
questions, but all she was getting was an incessant headache from
her cellmate's antics.
Ruby got up and examined her cellmate. Admittedly, she didn't
seem like much of a threat while she was lying face down on her
bunk and sobbing hysterically. "Look, I'm sorry if I scared you,"
Ruby started. The crying subsided a bit an eye peeked from under
an arm to regard Ruby. Encouraged, Ruby plowed on. "I just don't
want any trouble. I didn't mean to threaten you..." *... much,*
added Ruby under her breath.
The girl sat up in her bunk and wiped her eyes dry. "... so you
aren't going to chop me up into little pieces and then eat me?"
she said hesitantly.
"No, of course not!"
"Yipee!" cried the girl, her tears forgotten. "Then we can be
friends right?" She extended her hand. "I'm Sue-Ellen."
Ruby regarded the outstretched hand. Her first impulse was to
pull away, but thought better of it -- Anything was better than
setting off another round of crying. Ruby reached out to clasp
Sue's hand. "I'm Ruby."
"Glad to meet ya'!"
"Sure," grunted Ruby as she retreated to her bunk. Lying down
again, she grateful for the return of peace and quiet.
On her own bunk, Rei breathed a silent sigh of relief and
afforded herself the luxury of a smile. One couldn't live a
millennia with ol' odango-head and not pick up a few of her
tricks.
%%%%
Sally smiled inwardly as pink-pigtailed hurricane known as
Chibi-Usa whirled out the Tea Room door after her mother. If
there was one solid benefit of being an intangible hologram, it
was that she could not be called upon to baby-sit Chibi-Usa for
any stretch of time. There had been a short period where Sally
could make enough threatening sounds to subdue Chibi-Usa, but the
precocious little br... lady soon learned that the most Sally
could really do was to call in reinforcements -- not nearly
enough incentive to curb Chibi's mischievous impulse of the
second.
Sally nodded to herself. Queen Serenity would be busy with
Chibi-Usa for awhile which meant she had some time before she was
needed as the Queen's Personal Assistant. Her image flickered out
of the Tea Room and she reappeared in her own living room.
In actuality, it wasn't a room at all, but a virtual reality
construct running on the Tea Room computers. A detailed
recreation of one of the smaller palace suites, it even had a
window view of the park surrounding the palace. A painting of
herself and Pyrite adorned one wall and next to it was one of
herself and Ami.
Also mounted and framed was a replica of her Master's degree in
Psychology. She gotten it over twenty years ago through Crystal
Tokyo University's cyber-extension program. Sally looked at it
and sighed. That diploma had been difficult to achieve while
keeping her true identity and nature a secret; It would be
impossible to get a doctorate in the same way. Her Queen had
hinted that a day would come when she could finally step out of
the shadows. As much as she loved serving Serenity, Sally
couldn't help hoping for that day to come soon.
Ignoring the little sculptures that filled the corners of the
room, Sally plopped down on a sofa and reached over to pick up a
puzzle trinket from a nearby coffee table which was littered with
small knickknacks.
The virtual room was unnecessary, of course, as Sally was an
Artificial Intelligence who could work and function in cyberspace
without the encumbrance 'real-world' analogs. Still, Sally
indulged herself by operating like a human when she could. It
made her feel more like a person and that was strangely
comforting.
She was setting the puzzle down when she heard some scratching
noises from the door. "Come!" Sally said.
The door opened to admit one huge Rottweiler. Spotting Sally, the
brown and white dog trotted over to bestow a wet, slimey kiss on
his mistress.
"Max! Whatyahup to boy?" Sally asked as she vigorously hugged her
pet.
Max looked back to the door and barked, "WWHHOOOOF!" A nearby
sculpture toppled over from the blast.
"Something wrong, Max? What's a matter?"
"WOOF! WOOF!"
Not for the first time, Sally wondered about the wisdom of
creating Max and his six other brethren to be so similar to their
real world counterparts. Semi-intelligent software agents, Sally
had created them to help her patrol the Palace network as well as
for companionship.
"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"
Someday, she'd have to give them verbal speech, but for now she'd
have to do this the direct way. Sally placed her hand on Max's
forehead and *looked* deeply into his code. There _was_ something
troubling Max, though not something specific that his neural
algorithms could identify. Sally lifted her hand. *Well, that was
certainly helpful,* she thought sarcastically as Max looked at
her expectantly.
Sally got up from the couch. "Come on, Max. Let's go take a look
around. I want to especially check out the firewalls." With Max
bounding at her heels, Sally went out onto the Palace network.
A sysop, who happened to be repairing the network fabric in the
area, noticed an information agent pass-by which was closely
followed by a search bot. Now why would a search bot be tailing
that agent like a ...dog? It reminded the sysop of an incident
last year where they collared a hacker who had broken into one of
the Palace network firewalls. The hacker insisted he'd been
surrounded and sat on by a pack of Rottweilers -- but there were
no programs on the network that used that kind of icon! The sysop
attributed to yet another unexplainable event; one of the many
that often happened in the Palace. With a mental shrug, he went
back to work.
%%%%%
If there is one thing you have a lot of in prison, it's time. So
it wasn't very long before Ruby and Rei started talking.
"So, Sue-Ellen. What are you in for?"
"Mmmmmm. Well ... I sort of bounced someone off the wall ..."
"How do you 'sort of' bounce someone of the wall," Ruby asked
skeptically.
"Well, there was this guy who was saying some really nasty
things. I got mad and started shaking him. Then he slipped out of
my grasp and bounced off the wall."
"That doesn't seem too serious ..."
"... after hitting the wall, he landed on his head and had to be
rushed to the hospital."
" ... " Ruby made a mental note to be nicer to Sue-Ellen. "So,
how did you get caught?"
"I did it in the middle of Internal Security Headquarters."
"What were you doing in IS Headquarters?!?"
"I had a janitorial job taking out garbage. Anyway, some of the
higher-ups took real offense to my little accident and sent me
down here."
"Sounds like you got a bum rap."
"Yeah, don't it?" Rei paused to straighten out her hair. "What
about you, Ruby?"
Ruby groaned. "It's a long story."
Rei shrugged. "I got time."
"You know I'm from Nemesis, right? Well, it all started when I
volunteered for this special mission. It seemed like a good idea
at the time ..."
%%%%%
Padding down the corridors of the place, a moon cat stopped in
front of the pair of double doors that led to Makoto's suite. He
pushed a doorbell button especially made for the extremely-
vertically-challenged and was rewarded by a series of melodious
chimes. A short while later Makoto answered the door.
"Hi Artemis, what brings you here?"
Artemis walked through the open door. "I heard about the incident
down at the school and thought you could use a friend."
"If you're going to tell me that it's not my fault that that poor
biker is in a coma, I've already heard it. It doesn't help."
"Well, it really isn't your fault and you shouldn't be beating
yourself over it." Artemis leapt up onto a window ledge and
peered into the palace courtyard. "But that really isn't what I
came to tell you." Artemis paused for dramatic effect.
Makoto flopped down in a nearby chair. "Look, you old, mangy
furball," she said with rough affection, "I've had a real crummy
day so far. Why don't you just spill the beans already?"
Artemis glared at Makoto before relenting. "That 'poor biker'
that you apprehended earlier today is Nate Somerville. He was
employed in a local convenience store and entered Crystal Tokyo
on a temporary working visa two months ago."
"I didn't know we gave out working visas for convenience store
workers."
"It gets even stranger. He has a New Rome passport, but the New
Rome embassy denies that it has any record of him."
"That's certainly fishy. How did you get wind of this?"
"I have a certain nose for trouble. And I was riding herd on the
IS investigator assigned to the case."
"You'd think that IS would be eager to look into it."
Artemis shrugged. "Right now their main priority is rounding up
all the bounty hunters out to collect on Topaz. Nate was in Tokyo
over month before the bounty was placed. Investigating a simple
illegal alien case really isn't a high priority for IS at the
moment."
"I don't suppose Mr Somerville is slated to wake up any time
soon?" Makoto asked wistfully.
"There are some things that can't be rushed even in this day and
age."
"Isn't this just a simple illegal alien case?"
"What do your instincts tell you?"
Makoto sat back and considered. "Could you use another body to do
some old-fashioned legwork?"
Artemis grinned. "I was hoping you would say that."
%%%%%
It took quiet a bit of will-power for Rei to listen to Ruby's
story and not pump her for information on Nemesian operations.
After all, what Ruby needed now was a sympathetic ear. A wrong
question now could break the delicate trust that Rei had worked
so hard to build.
So Rei was politely attentive and made all the appropriate noises
as Ruby wound up her story. Rei reflected that Ruby didn't seem
to have much of a life outside of her career.
Having finished her story, Ruby got up, stretched and walked over
the cell's terminal. "Say, do you know if we can get any music
out of this thing?" she asked.
"Sure, you just need some credits."
"Credits? I thought Crystal Tokyo's currency was the yen."
"Didn't they tell you anything when they admitted you? The entire
prison economy is run on credits. If you want better food, better
attire, privileges, or whatever, you have to pay for them with
credits."
"So how do I get these credits?"
"Well, you can start by earning good behavior points:
participating in morning calisthenics, keeping the cell clean,
personal hygiene; that sort of thing.
"Your case worker also has a rehabilitation plan for you and you
can earn credits by participating in recommended activities.
Also, there are jobs within the prison, but you have to first
earn the privilege to apply for them."
"I have to earn the privilege to work?"
"You bet! Getting credits from working opens up a lot of other
opportunities. Besides working is much better than staring at
four walls all day."
"So, if I wanted to use a holoprojector room?"
"Major amounts of credits. But first, you'd need to earn the
privilege of moving to a medium security cell from this high
security cell."
"I see." At one time, the mere notion of cooperating with any
Crystal Tokyo authorities was revolting to Ruby, but now what did
she have to lose? She was beaten; there was no use in denying it
any longer. Ruby took a deep breath. "I guess I'd better schedule
an appointment with my caseworker."
"Great! That's the spirit!"
Shortly thereafter, the chimes heralding lights-out sounded.
Settling down to sleep, Ruby asked, "Sue, did they put too much
starch in your clothes? They sort of sound funny when you move."
"Er, that's it," replied Rei, made acutely aware of her slightly
stiff body armor. "The girls in laundry must be having a little
joke on me." *Well, at least now I have a good excuse to ditch
the armor now,* thought Rei.
Before long, soft snoring sounds informed Rei that her cellmate
was asleep. *Great,* Rei thought dourly, *I forgot to bring some
earplugs.* The last time she had to put up with snoring was
Minako's camping fiasco over a century ago. After placing her
pillow over her head, Rei somehow drifted off to sleep.
%%%%%
The chat room was pitch black except for two circles of light
illuminated by an unseen source. A raven hopped into one circle
and was shortly followed by Mort who glided into the other.
A deep, disembodied voice spoke out of the inky blackness.
"Raven, one of your agents has been captured. I trust will not be
a problem."
"He knows nothing," croaked the raven.
"Still," continued the voice, "if Crystal Tokyo security becomes
suspicious, it could bode ill for your other operatives."
"IS busy searching for bounty hunters and is not concerned over
one illegal alien. Besides, the agent is in a coma. My sources
say that he is not expected to wake for at least a week."
"If IS has a chance to question him, they may start investigating
further. That would be unfortunate. Especially for you."
The raven bobbed his head in deference.
"Mort," the voice turned its attention to the cloaked figure.
"When will you be ready to move?"
"We just got our last datalink in place today. It will take time
to crack Crystal Tokyo's nets. It could take weeks."
"Your team must be ready to move before the captured agent
wakes."
"We will be ready."
"I will hold you to that." With that parting remark the voice was
gone.
The raven smiled. "Nevermore!" he croaked.
"Was that really necessary?"
"One has to keep up appearances, you know."
<To be continued in After the Fall, part 5>