From the Sailor Moon Expanded Universe:
 

            Something about Sally
            ---------------------

           A Tale of Crystal Tokyo by Ron Inn
 

The Sailor Senshi and related characters were created by Naoko
Takeuchi. Pyrite and Azurite were created by Mark Latus.

You can find other stories set in the Sailor Moon Expanded
Universe at http://members.xoom.com/Warthog/index.html.

The date is March 3, 2889, a little over century before the Black
Moon War.
 

%%%%%

Pyrite was mildly surprised to receive a summons to a private
audience with Queen Serenity on "security matters". On the
monorail ride from the university to the Palace, he futily
wracked his brains as to what it could be about. The only thing
he could think about that he had overseen the upgrading and
installation of new security systems in the Palace a few years
ago, but they were all be operating fine.

Impeccably dressed for once, Pyrite made it to the reception room
in the east wing with a minute to spare. He was ushered into the
room promptly and the doors were closed behind him.

Queen Serenity, who had been sitting at large, antique walnut
table, stood up and beckoned him over, "Pyrite, it's good to see
you!  Why don't you sit down and have some tea with me?"

Pyrite hestitated a moment before bowing and saying, "What can I
do for you, my Queen?"

"You can stop bowing, relax and have a seat," Serenity said in a
mildly annoyed tone. "Don't be so formal, it's not like this is
an official audience."

"Er," Pyrite said urbanely as he eased himself into a chair. "I
was told that this was an urgent private audience on security
matters."

Serenity dismissively waved her hand while pouring out tea into a
pair of cups. "I have to apologize. Some of my newer staff are a
bit over-zealous and must misinterpreted my request." Serenity
handed a hot cup of tea to Pyrite. "Endymion just found this new
blend of tea for me. Let me know how you like it."

Pyrite wasn't much of a tea connoiseur, but he obediently sipped
his tea, smiled and remarked on how good it tasted. After
snacking on a tray of little pastries, discussing the progress of
the rose breeding program in the royal gardens and finishing a
second cup of tea, Serenity was ready to get down to business.

"Pyrite, I have a favor to ask of you." Serenity put her hand on
his arm before he could respond. "I'm not commanding this of you
as your Queen, but only asking this as a friend. I would
understand if you are too busy to do it for me."

Pyrite frowned, "Too busy for you? Nonsense! Just tell me what
you want done."

"Rei's people has been finding a few bugs around the Palace
lately and I've become more conscious about the need to ... be
more discrete about what we talk about in unsecured areas.

"It's such a production to drag off Rei or Minako or anyone to
one of the secure conference rooms to talk. And then by the time
we are able to really talk, the mood has become so serious. I
would so appreciate to be able to chat with people informally
without having to worry about who might be listening."

"What were you thinking?" Pyrite asked.

"I would just love to have a single room, where I could serve tea
like this with guests and no fear of being overheard. The room
would have no visible security, but have a peaceful, informal
atmosphere. A little fountain would be nice, along with a bonzai
tree and ..."

Pyrite was already scribbling down notes and ideas on the back of
a napkin. Mumuring "Yes" and nodding his head at appropiate
times, he let Serenity ramble on.

"... and I think it would just be perfect if we could place the
lovely sculpture Ti made for me in the corner near the door. What
do you think?"

"Sounds perfect to me," agreed Pyrite. "I think the best approach
would be for no one to even suspect that the room is special, as
far as security is concerned. I can hide all the necessary
security equipment in the walls of the room."

Pyrite paused to think for a moment. "The tricky part is what
happens when the security equipment detects a bug?  If the bug is
jammed or immediately disabled, it'll be obvious that it's a
protected room. The room would just become a bigger target for
espionage ..."

Serenity's countenance dropped, "Does that mean it's not
possible?"

"No, not at all!" Pyrite quickly reassured her. "It's just more
of a challenge. We'll just have to fool anyone trying to evesdrop
on the room."

"So you can do it?" Serenity's eyes lit up.

"I believe so. It'll be no problem."

Suddenly, the scene froze and an eerie feeling stole over Pyrite.
He spun around to face a slivery-skined android wearing a gold
and black uniform.

"'It'll be no problem'," parroted the andriod, "What a crock."

"Data?" whispered Pyrite transfixed by the andriod's inhuman
golden eyes. Those eyes; they resembled Pyrite's own eyes
so closely, that Pyrite fleeting wondered if they _were_
his.

"Face it, Pyrite. You're losing your touch. You're a has-been, a
wash-out. You might as well give it up and admit defeat."

"Never, I ..."

"Look at you! You made that promise to Serenity nearly three
years ago. And you still can't finish that damned tea room."

"You don't understand to the difficulties ..."

"What difficulties? The difficulties of creating a truly sentient
Artificial Intelligence?  The difficulties of creating someone
like me?"

"You don't understand, it's just impossible ..."

"Impossible? Or are you too dense to figure it out? Goodbye, Dr.
Pyrite."

"WAIT!!!"

With a inarticulate cry, Pyrite bolted upright in his bed. The
sound of his heart pounding filled his ears. *Just another bloody
nightmare*, he told himself. Azurite, his wife, stirred to pull
her pillow over her head before going back to sleep. Pyrite
sighed as he eased himself out of bed; it was no use trying to go
back to sleep now.

Pyrite padded over to the kitchen. He got out a piece of pecan
pie he had been hoarding and added a dallop of ice cream for good
measure. Sitting down to partake of his little late-night treat
did little to lighten his mood. He was still toying with his food
when Azurite walked out of their bedroom.

"What's a matter, honey?" inquired Azurite as she gave him a
little hug.

"Just another nightmare. Nothing to worry about," answered Pyrite
dully.

Azurite pulled up a chair. "That's the second one this week.
Don't you think it's time you told me what it's about?" Pyrite
just glowered at his melted ice cream, so Azurite decided to put
a little steel in her voice, "You're making me lose sleep as
well! If you don't come clean, I'll have no choice but to
transform into Sailor Acturius and punish you!"

Pyrite proceeded to continue pulverizing the crust of his pie
with his fork.

"OK, now I'm really worried. Would you please let me in on what's
bothering you?" pleaded Azurite.

Pyrite sighed, "I'm sorry sweetheat, but it's just so silly, I'm
embarassed that it's troubling you."

"Try me."

"It was another dream with Data in it."

Azurite frowned, "The andriod from that old TV series? I thought
you finally put that to rest."

"I thought so too, but I guess when you've held a dream for so
long, it's hard to let go. Holding a wake for both Data and the
dream of creating a self-conscious AI did help, though."

Azurite grimaced, "Yeh, after you got over your week-long
hang-over." Then she added, "Didn't you mention something about
an unusual AI you created a while back?"

"It was irreproducible fluke and unusable. It gave some hope for
a while but turned-out to be a dead-end."

Pyrite continued to brood.

"What happened in your dream?" Azurite prodded trying to change
the subject.

"I was dreaming about the day Serenity asked me to build her tea
room. Then Data appeared to mock my efforts."

"I thought the tea room was almost finished."

"Oh yes, with Margrave and Ti's help, we were able to sneak the
necessary equipment into the room and seal it up into the walls.
All the personality-modeling algorithms, video reconstruction and
voice synthesis software have been written. We've even installed
the fountain and its little brook, a bonzai tree and the
simulated outdoor lighting."

"So what's wrong?"

"Sally." Pyrite said absently

"Who's Sally?"

"Smalltalk And Lots of Likely Yakking. S.A.L.L.Y. is the AI that
controls everything."

Azurite took a deep breath and tried not to lose her temper, "OK,
why do you need an AI and what's wrong with it?"

"Because the tea room is required to be an informal setting, we
can't rely on brute force to ensure security." Pyrite pushed his
plate aside and leaned forward. "So I decided to go with the next
best thing: Guile. If we could get people to believe that nothing
important ever happens in the tea room, we wouldn't need any
visible security.

"From the outside, the room seems completely normal. It has the
regular security monitoring that is standard for all public rooms
in the palace. Walking past the door of the room, you might be
able to overhear some of the conversation inside. If you happened
to plant magical or technical evesdropping devices, you'd be able
see and hear all that takes place in that room.

"If my scheme works, external observers might think they know
exactly what is happening in the room. In reality, all the
expensive equipment that we just installed would detect any bugs
and override their signals to report a totally fictional
conversion. The normal security feed would reflect this as well
as anyone trying to physically evesdrop outside the room."

Despite herself, Azurite was a bit intrigued. "Fool evesdroppers
outside the room? How do you do that?"

Pyrite gave a tired but smug smile. "Elementary, my dear Watson.
Small speaker transducers in the doors and outer wall will give
out exactly the right amount of sound that a person would expect
to leak out of the room.

"Now here's where Sally comes in. Sally creates the fictionalized
tableaus and conversions that 'happen' within the tea room.
Sally's job is to gather information on the latest weather,
fashions, sports events, etc. as well as from the palace's
security feeds. Sally then uses this information to creately
highly plausible, albeit low-content, conversations."

Azurite stifled a yawn, "So what's the problem?"

"The problem is that any conversations that Sally currently
produces may seem good at first, but if you listen to them for
any length of time, they just ... ring false. There's something
wrong about them that no one can quite put a finger on, but it
shatters the whole illusion."

Pyrite buried his head in his hands. "I'm beginning to suspect
that Sally has to be self-aware in order for this to work; That
she must have a small spark of creativity. If that's the case,
this is another hopeless cause ..."

Azurite reached over to comfort her husband. "I'm sure everything
will turn out alright," she said gruffly. "There's no problem
that you put your mind to that you haven't ....um, let me start
over. I'm sure some solution will pop up, maybe you should sleep
on it ... um, forget I said that." Azurite closed her eyes and
massaged the bridge of her nose. There were many skills she had
picked up over the years, but giving a pep talk at three in the
morning wasn't one of them.

"Look, stop worrying about it and come back to bed. Maybe all you
need is a fresh perspective. I'm sure that there's someone who
could help you out."

"Like who?" Pyrite asked rhetorically. "The only competent person
with enough security clearance who would be of any help is Ami
..." Pyrite's eyes suddenly had a far away look. Pyrite grabbed a
nearby data pad and started scribbling. "A century or two ago,
Ami developed a series of AI techniques loosely termed 'Symmetric
Non-Linear Associative Relativistic Konceptualization'."

"SNARK?" Azurite said disbelievingly.

"Yes, she does have a certain sense of humor you know. Anyway,
Snark algorithms were initially promising because of the novel
ways they approached problems. Eventually, they were discarded
and forgotten as a more efficient classes of algorithms were
introduced. Still there are some properties and irregularities of
those algorithms that could prove useful for Sally ..." Pyrite
trailed off as he lost himself in furious scribbling on his data
pad.

Azurite looked at her husband questioningly. As the seconds
ticked by, a scowl crossed her face, which was quickly replaced
by an expression that said 'Slow Boil'.

With great delibration, she pushed back her chair and moved to
position herself directly behind her husband. "That's it!" she
exclaimed, "Azurite Power, Make-up!!"

Startled, Pyrite dropped his writing stencil and waved his hands
in surrender. "Whoa! I surrender! I'll go back to bed."

Azurite grinned wickedly as she leaned forward to whisper in
Pyrite's ear. "I'm afraid it's much too late for that ..."

%%%%%%

Ami typed furiously at one of Pyrite's computer terminals. The
initial trials for Sally's new algorithms were tomorrow and she
wanted to get a few last-minute tweaks into the code. Serenity's
911th Birthday was coming up in three weeks and they were _going_
to be finished by then. Period.

Ami just hoped she'd be finished early enough to enjoy the meteor
shower that was expected to occur in the wee hours of the coming
night.

When Pyrite had approached her a few months back on her old SNARK
AI techniques, Ami had jumped at the chance to resurrect them.
She had been a bit disappointed when SNARK algorithms had fallen
into obscurity, but was certain that they would be useful for
something important. She just didn't know what at the time. She
had told Pyrite, "Efficiency is not everything. Humans are slow
and use only 10% of their mental capacity. But they still do many
things AI's can't."

The Sally project seemed to be a perfect fit. Unfortunately if it
actually worked, no one would ever know. That fact may have
bothered some people, but Ami Mizuno was not a glory hound; Just
the satisfaction in know that she had been right was good enough
for her.

It was late in the evening when Pyrite dropped by to check on her
progress. "How's it going?" he asked.

"Pretty well," Ami said as she gnawed on her pen. "I've
integrated the last modules into Sally and am running her through
the verification routines. It looks like everything is passing.
We should be able to run the trials tomorrow and then we'll
know."

"If it doesn't work, we'll miss Serenity's birthday," Pyrite
observed grimly.

Ami leaned back in her chair and stretched. "Have a little faith
in Sally, I'm sure she'll do alright."

Pyrite resisted the impulse to point out that Sally was an 'it',
not a 'she'.

Suddenly, there was loud BANG. The lab shook and the lights
flickered and died. "What was that?!?" Pyrite picked himself off
the floor and quickly scanned the lab. He was releaved to find
that his computer's uninterruptable power source was working
properly.

Ami already have her visor out. "I don't know what that was, but
there are abnormally high levels of free magic coming from
somewhere above us."

Pyrite snapped his fingers, "The lab above us; they're working on
new magic storage crystals." Almost on cue, the building's fire
alarms started wailing. Without another word, Ami and Pyrite
rushed out to deal with the emergency.

In the dark and now empty lab, tendrils of free magic seeped in
from the ceiling, twisting and curling fitfully around the lab
computers. Ami's abandoned terminal screen took on an errie,
green glow. For a brief instant, a message popped up on the
screen. Then it was gone. If there had been anyone to see it,
they would have seen the words, "Papa? Mama?"

%%%%%%

The explosion in the storage crystal lab had been result of a
freak meteor strike. The meteor had only been the size of a
softball by the time it punched through the building's roof, but
the impact was enough to cause several rather delicate
experiments to release their magical energy rather explosively.

No one was hurt, fortunately, and damage was chiefly contained to
that room. So, it was back to business as usual in Pyrite's lab
the next day. The initial trials of Sally  showed that the newly
modified AI had more promise than Pyrite could have hoped for.
Ami just grinned and said, "I told you so."

The breakthrough gave the team one week to run Sally through the
complete training process and two weeks to install Sally into the
tea room and get everything operational. Despite a few mysterious
storage overflows and system glitches, the training process went
smoothly. Everything was running like a well-oiled machine until
the time came to load Sally into the Tea Room's computers.

"I just can't imagine what we're doing wrong," Pyrite complained.
"I've copied Sally onto a data crystal and then tried to load it
up into the tea room computers, but then it just won't run. I've
tried it three times with three separate crystals with the same
results."

"Well, the tea room computers check-out clean. All four and the
network have passed all the diagnostics." Ami put down her
hand-held computer and groaned, "We don't have time for this."

"There has to be something we're missing..."

"Maybe we could try to do a direct upload?" sugguested Ami.

Pyrite thought about it. "It'd be just as easy to set-up a
temporary network link and have Sally transfer herself to the tea
room."

"Ha," Ami teased, "You said, 'her' and not 'it'. I'd knew you
come around sometime."

Pyrite rolled his eyes. "Just a slip of the tongue. Referring to
an AI as a person is silly."

Once the temporary link was set-up, the transfer was a piece of
cake. The rest of the process of debugging the tea room's
equipment and Sally's interfaces required many long nights, but
on the day before Serenity's birthday, they were finally
finished.

Serenity's birthday itself was filled polite well-wishes from
other heads of states and official state functions as well as a
few carefully orchestrated photo-ops.  So it wasn't until late at
night when Serenity's court could have their own little
celebration.

It started with Pyrite and Ami unveiling the Tea Room and
Serenity cutting the ribbon across its door. Serenity did her
best to look surprised, but in reality she had been surreptiously
been keeping tabs on its progress. There was the giving of gifts,
the telling of tales, the obligatory (but mostly avoided) Dark
Kingdom hors d'oeuvres and, last but not least, karaoke singing.

Pyrite usually managed to slip out before the karaoke started,
however, this time he was obliged to stay. The tea room, after
all, was his gift. After his involuentary doing his turn singing
karoke, Pyrite concluded that Sally was truly worth every cent if
only to keep the rest of the world from ever hearing his
singing.

The party broke up shortly thereafter. It had been a busy and
long day after all.

%%%%%%

The next day, Queen Serenity found herself with a couple free
hours in her schedule. After all, she _was_ tired from her
strenuous birthday celebration and the ambassador from the Free-
zone would understand if she postponed his audience a week. The
fact that she didn't like that nasty little man absolutely had no
bearing on it. Really.

So, Serenity got a couple precious hours to putter around in her
new Tea Room. It only took a couple moments to clean the room up
from the previous night. Then she settled down to rearranging the
rocks in her fountain and stream.  After a few moments of
precious silence, Serenity decided that a little music was in
order. But how to get it?

"Ummm, Sally?" Serenity said uncertainly.

A soft but clear voice responded, "Yes, your majesty."

"Sally, could you play some music?"

There was a slight pause before Sally responded, "Yes, your
Majesty. What piece of music would you like me to play?"

"Oh, I don't know. Something soft and soothing. Surprise me."

There was a brief pause. "Surprise you?" asked Sally in a
startled tone.

Serenity laughed gently at Sally's reaction. "Oh most definitely,
but a pleasant surprise please."

There was a few seconds of silence and then the recognizable
strains of Haydn's Surprise Symphony could be hear. "Is this what
you wanted?" Sally asked tentitively.

Serenity smiled, "Not quite what I had in mind, but I asked for a
surprise, didn't I? It'll do. Just turn the volume down abit."

Serenity finished rearranging the stones in the stream to her
liking and moved on to trimming her little bonzai tree. "Sally,
do you mind if I talk with you while I work?"

"Your wish is my command, your majesty." Sally responded
dutifully.

"Really? Well, the first thing you can do is stop calling me
'Your Majesty". It's just too formal!"

"Yes, your Highness."

Serenity paused in her work. "Just calling me Serenity will
suffice."

"Yes, Serenity ... Queen of Moon Kingdom, Ruler of Crystal Tokyo,
Keeper of the Silver Imperium Crystal."

Serenity sighed. She decided to drop the matter for the time
being and changed the subject, "How are you doing, Sally?"

There was a palpable pause before Sally responded in puzzled
voice, "Your Highness?"

"Do you like being here in the Tea Room?" When Sally didn't
respond, Serenity continued, "Are you happy or sad? Bored or
excited? How do you feel?"

"Your Highness," Sally hestitated and then continued, "no one has
ever asked me that ... I don't know ... but I do know that I feel
better when I'm talking with you."

Serenity's expression softened as she put down her pruning
shears. "I'm very happy to be talking with you as well."

"Will you be talking with me often?"

Serenity was struck by the vulnerablity in that question. She
considered it for a moment, and then brightened. "Of course!
Whenever I have a chance to slip away I'll come by and chat with
you. In fact," Serenity said while rising to her feet, "you can
help me decorate this room! We have so many pieces art in the the
Palace storerooms ..."

%%%%%%

A few weeks later, Ami recieved a call just as she was leaving
her office. Serenity's concerned face appeared on the video
phone.

"Ami, I hope I'm not bothering you, but I'm afraid that there
might be something wrong with Sally."

"What's a matter?"

"It's taking her a long time to respond to my questions and she
seems to be very sluggish. Do you think it's serious?"

Ami glanced at the clock. She had barely enough time to stop by
the Tea Room before she was to meet Tom for dinner. "Don't worry,
I'll be right over. See you there."

Serenity was already in the Tea Room when Ami arrived with her
computer. "Thanks so much for coming by Ami," Serenity gushed.

"No problem at all," Ami reassured her. "Sally," she spoke to the
room, "Please establish a network connection with my computer."

"Yes, mother."

Ami was startled being called 'mother' but caught herself and
shot a suspicious glance at Serenity, who was looking a little
too innocent in Ami's opinion. Cute joke, thought Ami. She was
tempted to berate Serenity for giving her such a start, but if
she didn't hurry, she'd be late.

In a few seconds, a wireless link was established and Ami started
pouring over diagnostic reports and statistics. After a few
minutes, Ami stopped and frowned.

"Sally, have you been doing your regularly scheduled regeneration
times?"

"No, mother," a quiet and embarassed voice replied.

Ami turned to Serenity, "No need to worry, all Sally needs is
some regeneration time."

"Regeneration time?" Serenity asked curiously.

"The AI algorithms that Sally is based on need some time for
garbage-collecting, association-building, inconsistancy-flushing
..." Ami noticed Serenity giving her a quizzical look and decided
to simplify her explaination.

"What it means is that Sally has to ... ummm ... go to sleep
every once in a while for her algorithms to sort themselves out.
I sugguest that she sleep for about four hours a day. You know,
you really shouldn't be keeping her awake more than that."

Ami looked at her watch, "Excuse me, Serenity. I have to run
otherwise I'll be late for Tom." With a nod from Serenity, she
rushed off to her appointment. She hesitated for a moment just
after she left the room. There was something about Sally ... Ami
quickly dismissed the thought and hurried off to met Tom.

A slightly bemused Serenity was left in the Tea Room. "Sally, why
did you call Ami your mother?"

"Dr. Ami Mizuno authored many of my algorithms. Was it wrong to
call her my mother?" replied Sally, almostly sleepily

Serenity smiled reassuringly, "I don't think she minded at all."
Serenity paused and then asked, "Sally, why have you been missing
your bedtimes?"

"I've been watching holovids", admitted Sally abashedly.

"You have access to holovids?"

"Yes, I have access to all local and world-wide holovid channels
in order to create up-to-date conversions for this room."

"I see. Well, Sally, I want you to go to sleep everyday from 2 am
to 6 am. You are not to access holovids or do any other activity
during that time. If you ever miss your bedtime, you must tell me
immediately. Do you understand me?" Serenity commanded in an
authoritative tone.

"Yes, Your Highness." Sally replied contritely.

"Well then, I consider the matter settled." Serenity relaxed and
gave Sally a smile, "Why don't you get some sleep now and we'll
talk more tomorrow?  Goodnight, Sally."

"Good night, your Highness."

Serenity turned off the lights as she left the room. She
reflected that dealing with Sally was almost like dealing with a
little child. *Pyrite and Ami should have warned me that having
my own AI would take so much effort*, mused Serenity, *Still,
Sally is such a marvelous present. Almost like the child that
I've never been able to have ...*

%%%%%%

"Sally, why don't you call me auntie?"

"Yes, auntie Queen Serenity."

Serenity sighed.

%%%%%%

One early Saturday morning found Pyrite pushing a little cart
loaded with tea and pastries through the palace corridors.
Serenity was already waiting for him when he arrived at the Tea
Room. He quickly pushed the cart inside and closed the doors.

"Sally?" inquired Serenity.

"Your Royal Supreme Eminence, the room is secure."

Pyrite raised an eyebrow in askance. Serenity shot back an
exsperated look that begged him not to ask.

So Pyrite immediately got to work. He handed the tea and food to
Serenity and then removed the white cloth that covered the cart.
Hidden within the cart were four computer power supplies and
holoprojectors.

"You need all that equipment just to install a holographic
projector?" asked Serenity, peering over his shoulder.

"Well, I thought I'd upgrade the computer power supplies too
while I'm here. These new models have twice the energy storage
capacity as well as improved reliability and fail-safes. By the
way, why exactly do you want a holoprojector?" Pyrite said while
unpacking his equipment.

"It will help me communicate better with Sally."

That was a novel idea, thought Pyrite. He could see that it could
be useful to have Sally handle Serenity's video calls and
correspondance from the Tea Room. Pyrite stopped unpacking to
notice Serenity still standing behind him looking over his
shoulder.

"Your Highness, maybe you should get started on the tea and
pastries. We need to keep up appearences, after all."

Having skillfully diverted Serenity's attention, Pyrite worked
swiftly. Using the refreshment cart as a makeshift ladder, he
opened a square access panel high in one of the corners of the
room. Then he simply snapped in one of the projectors into a
universal mount, connected the power cable, plugged in the data
feed and popped in a new panel with a small lens in its center.
Pyrite clambered down off the cart and smiled, *I love modular
designs*. It took him only 15 minutes to complete the rest of the
corners.

"Is it done?" Serenity eagerly inquired.

"Almost. I just need to shut-down the computers and install the
new computer power supplies."

Serenity furrowed her brow, "But what about Sally?"

"Oh, I'll just save her to storage. This shouldn't harm her in
the least."

Pyrite started to remove one of the computer access panels when
the communicator on his belt started chiming. Pyrite flipped it
open to confronted by the image of a troubled Rei.

"Pyrite, could you get down here immediately?  All our Palace
video feeds just went on the fritz!"

"Is it some sort of attack?"

"I don't think so, none of the other systems are showing any
trouble. I've put Palace security on alert just in case."

"I'll be right there, Pyrite out." Pyrite quickly replaced the
panel and turned to Serenity. "I'm afraid we'll have to finish
this up another time. By your leave?" With a nod of Serenity's
head, Pyrite was off running toward the security office.

Serenity sat silently for a moment and thought. "Sally, are the
holoprojectors working now?"

"Your Royal Supreme Eminence, I believe they are."

"Well, go ahead and try them."

There was a flickering in front of Serenity which quickly
resolved into a stable image.  A twelve year-old girl dressed in
a formal kimono stood before Serenity and performed a little bow.

Serenity laughed and returned the bow, "It's a pleasure to
finally talk with you face to face, Sally."

%%%%%%

Artemis was always on the look-out for cozy spots where he could
take a little cat-nap. With over a millenia of practice, the
white mooncat's cat-napping abilities were widely regarded as
nearly supernatural.

So when Serenity's Tea Room was completed and all the hoopla died
down, the Tea Room quickly became one of Artemis' prime napping
spots. The soft warm light, the soothing sound of water and the
absence of irritating people (or mooncats) made it ideal. When
Serenity wasn't entertaining guests or puttering around the Tea
Room, it was quite empty and quiet. Just the place to grab a
little nap.

So after a month of stealing some shut-eye in the room, Artemis
was mildly surprised to feel some sort of presence in the room in
the middle of one of his naps.

Artemis cracked one eye open. A little girl in a kimono was
kneeling in front of him and staring at him intently. Artemis
closed his eye.

Any lesser mooncat would have been startled enough to leap to its
feet, but not old Artemis. He sniffed the air. Odd, there's no
scent, he noted. He cracked open his right eye again. The girl
was still there. He watched her a moment to see if she was going
to try to mess-up his fur or pull his tail. There were just too
many violent kids running around the palace, he reflected.

Satisfied that she posed no imminent threat, Artemis closed his
eye and started to drift off again ... but there was something
bothering him.

Artemis cracked his eye open a third time. The girl was still
staring at him. It was unnerving. Artemis decided it was time to
get up and get rid of his unwelcome audience.

With an appropiate amount of stretching, yawning and grooming,
Artemis got up into a sitting position and faced the girl. Now
wide-awake with both eyes open, Artemis realized that he was
facing a holographic projection.

"Mwweoorr?" the surprised cat let out.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you, O Cat. Could you talk with me for
a moment?"

Artemis twitched his ears and tried to get his brain in gear,
"And you are?"

"I am Sally, O Cat."

Artemis tried his best to conceal his surprise. This was the Tea
Room's AI talking to him! Pyrite and Ami had quite outdone
themselves this time; Artemis berated himself for not
anticipating it.

Sally patiently waited.

Clearing his throat, Artemis responded, "What would you like to
talk about, Sally?"

"I would like to know about Serenity's teenage years. And about
what the old Moon Kingdom was like."

Artemis considered this for a moment. "I'll strike a deal with
you. If you conceal my presence in this room from the security
cameras, I'll answer a question for you every day."

Sally pondered this for a moment. "O Cat, how about three
questions every day?"

Artemis paused to lick his paw before replying, "You have a
deal."

"Thank you, O Cat!" Sally beamed happily.

"Why are you addressing me as 'O Cat'?"

Sally looked uncertain, "I'm not sure what the proper way to
address a mooncat is ..."

*'O Cat' has a certain ring to it*, Artemis considered, but then
thought better of it. He'd never hear the end of it if anyone
found out.

"Just call me Artemis."

"Nice to meet you Artemis."

"I'm glad to meet you as well. Now let me tell you a few things
about Serenity. Of course, she went by the name Usagi in those
days ..."

%%%%%%%

"Artemis, you wouldn't happen to have any of those transformation
wands left over?"

"No, Sally. They are all accounted for and in the hands of their
proper owners."

"Not even a virtual one?"

"No."

"Anyone want to give theirs up?"

"NO!"

%%%%%%%

It wasn't often that Endymion got to have an intimate dinner
alone with his wife, so he made the best of the opportunities he
did have. In the uppermost room of one of the Palace's many
towers, he and Serenity were currently enjoying a candle-lit
dinner with a panoramic view of the city. And of course, there
were his signature roses.

Serenity stifled a small giggle.

"What's so funny?" asked Endymion.

"I was just thinking of what Sally was telling me earlier today."

"Sally? Do I know her?"

"Of course you do! She runs the computers in the Tea Room."

Endymion was baffled for a moment and then remembered, "You mean
the artifical intelligence program?"

"Why, yes." Serenity's expression was unreadable for a moment and
then she added "I'd much prefer it if you referred to her as a
person, and not as a _thing_."

"But Sally is a program and not person. Programs are just lines
of code and collection of data. It's not like anyone would be
dumb enough to treat a computer like an actual living person ..."

Serenity transfixed her husband with an icy stare and the
temperature of the room dropped palpably. Endymion had a sinking
feeling that all his careful preparation for this night was
rapidly going down the tubes.

"... than again, it's been so long since I've kept up with
programming technology, anything's possible."

Endymion winced internally. That was a lame recovery and his wife
was starting formulate the dreaded 'look' on her face. Endymion
quickly mustered all his formidable skills of diplomacy.

"Sweetheart," he said taking Serenity's hand, "I would like
nothing more than to meet this Sally, who has so captivated your
attention. I'm sure she must be something special."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Endymion responded hopefully.

"Great!" said Serenity taking a firmer grip on his hand before
getting up from the table. "Let's go see her now."

"Now?"

"Yes dear, _now_. Do you always have to keep repeating me?"

Having skillfully painted himself into a corner, Endymion allowed
his wife to pull him down the tower stairs and  along through the
palace corridors to the Tea Room. Serenity ushered her husband
inside and called up the lights.

"Sally, I would like you to meet my husband, Endymion."

To Endymion's great surprise, the image of a cute, little girl
appeared before him. Endymion dropped to his knees so he could
address her at eye-level.

"Why, hello there. Nice to meet you, Sally."

With a serious look on her face, Sally performed a little
curtsey. "A pleasure to meet you, King Endymion."

"There's no need to be so formal. Just call me, Endymion."

Sally relaxed and broke out into a grin while rocking on her
feet. "OK, uncle Endymion."

Endymion was thoughtful for a moment. There _was_ something
special about this AI. Pyrite and Ami must have really out-done
themselves. His reverie was broken as he noticed his wife glaring
at him.

"Yes dear? Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing at all! Why should there be anything wrong? What do
you think, Sally?"

"I don't think there's anything wrong, your Majesty."

%%%%%%

"OK Sally, just do this for Uncle Endy. Say 'Serenity'."

"Queen Serenity."

"Try it again, without the queen part."

"Mistress Serenity."

"Better, now only one word."

"Mistress."

"No, the other word."

"Serenitymonarchofcrystaltokyo."

"Ummm ..." Endymion was running out of ideas. Then a thought
occurred to him.

"How about this: say Odango-head."

"Princess Odango-head."

<Whap!> Serenity slapped her husband upside his head.

"Ouch! That stings!"

"Well, you deserve it. If Sally learns to address me in that
manner ..."

"Princess Odango-head." Sally grinned.

%%%%%%

It was very rare that Queen Serenity was seen on the warpath, but
when she was, everyone made themselves scarce. So on this
particular day, the halls of the palace emptied rather quickly as
Serenity strode through them with a look of agitated
determination. The terminus for her trek was the Tea Room and she
slammed the doors shut with are resounding bang.

"Sally, come here this instant!"

An apprehensive image of Sally materialized before Serenity.
"Yes, your majesty."

"Just what is the meaning of this?!?!" demanded Serenity as she
held out a small data crystal.

Sally made a show of studying it carefully as the room's built-in
scanners examined its contents.

"It's a recording of the security feed for this room while you
were meeting with Calcite ..."

"Why does it show Calcite giving me a massage?"

"Your majesty, you asked me to make the room secure, so I
substituted in my own scene of you and Calcite talking. I'm
sorry, did I do something bad?"

"Do you know what the media would do if this video _ever_ got
leaked? We'd never hear the end of it for centuries!"

Sally bit her lip, but held her ground. "The people in the
holovids seem to enjoy it."

"I don't care if ... what did you say?"

Sally's lower-lip wobbled and she looked as if she were going to
burst into tears. "The people in the holovids seem to enjoy it."

Serenity's anger washed away as she looked at the little figure
before her and the import of Sally's words dawned on her. With
less than her usual grace, Serenity lowered herself to sit on the
floor and motioned to Sally to do the same. Serenity then looked
Sally in the eyes with a serious expression.

"Sally, first I want to apologize for yelling at you. I was a
little overexcited, but that doesn't excuse my conduct. Will you
accept my apology?"

Sally attempted a hesitant smile and replied, "Of course, your
highness."

"Thank you, Sally," Serenity said gravely. "Now, I remember you
telling me earlier that you have access to all holovid channels?"

"Yes, your highness."

"Even those that are ... age-restricted?"

"Yes, but I don't watch many of those. Some of them are really
yucky."

Serenity took a deep breath as her heart dropped into her
stomach. *So, this is what being a delinquent parent feels like*,
thought Serenity guiltly. Given the sleaze being broadcast on
some the channels, Serenity was beginning to realize that she was
lucky that a back-rub was _all_ that happened in Sally's video.

"Sally, I don't want you watching any holovid programs that have
an age requirement of 13 year or older."

"Your highness, can I ask why?"

"I'll be getting to that soon. But right now, I want you to
promise me."

"I promise, your highness."

"Good. Now, can you forget what you saw on those age restricted
programs?"

Sally thought for a minute. "I believe I can, your highness."

"Then please do so."

There was a few moment's pause and the Sally responded, "Done,
your highness."

The two sat silently together for awhile as Serenity thought
furiously.

"Ummm," Serenity began, "I think it's time I told you about the
birds and the bees ..."

Sally cocked her head curiously, "The birds and the bees, your
highness?"

"You see, Sally ..." Serenity realized that she was starting to
blush! In all her years, she had never prepared for this sort of
conversation or imagined having to give it, especially as she was
childless. What was she supposed say?  What if she messed up?

"... you see, Sally," Serenity began again, "this is a perfect
topic for your mother to explain. Why don't you sit right here
while I go get her!"

%%%%%%

It was two hours later when Ami left the Tea Room and practically
collasped against the corridor wall with an exhausted sigh. When
Serenity had appeared in her office practically begging her to
talk about "the birds and the bees" with Sally, Ami was convinced
that Serenity was either delusional or she was trying to pull an
Oscar-award winning prank.

Ami wasn't used to being wrong, but this one was a whopper.

In the first five minutes of talking with Sally, it became
blazingly apparent to Ami that she was talking to a living, fully
sentinent AI! The unreachable, holy grail of computer science had
been practically under her nose for months!

All the more bizarre was the past hour she spent as a 'mom'
explaining the facts and intricacies of human sexuality. It was
the strangest thing:  At first she'd be explaining basic
relationships and romantic love. And then in the space of half an
hour, she was recommending various psychology and marriage
counseling texts.

Serenity was a early casaulty once the conversation turned to
more ... medical aspects. Ami was grateful for her medical
background and wondered if any other mom in history had ever been
put through such intense and detailed questioning. And lastly,
Ami had covered the ethical and moral aspects. Those were
probably the most difficult, but perhaps most important questions
to answer. Ami wasn't sure how many of her answers made any sense
to Sally. She could just hope for the best.

Ami shook her head to clear it. She needed time to sort
everything out, but there was one other person that deserved to
know about this ...

%%%%%%

Pyrite was about to start banging his head on his desk when Ami's
call came through on his terminal.

"Ami!" Pyrite exclaimed as her image appeared on his screen,
"You're just the person I wanted to see! I was cleaning up and
archiving our work on Sally when I decided to run some testcases
to make sure I got everything right. For the life of me, I can't
replicate any of our results that we got with Sally. I thought we
were careful enough to record all of our data. I can't figure out
what I'm missing ... say, isn't that a women's bathroom that
you're calling from?"

"I don't want Sally to overhear."

"Sally?" Pyrite gave her a quizzical look.

"Just get on over here. There's something about Sally that you
should know ..."

%%%%%%

Pyrite paused before entering the Tea Room. He didn't know what
to expect. With a good amount of trepidation, he pulled the doors
open and slipped into the room.

Ami was sitting beside the fountain and across from her there was
a holographic image of a little girl painting on canvas. Ami's
eyes warned Pyrite to keep quiet.

Pyrite looked wonderingly over the little girl's shoulder as the
picture on the canvas took shape. It wasn't the picture itself
that first caught Pyrite's attention, but the mechanics of
Sally's painting. The holographic canvas caught and held "paint"
from Sally's brush as if it were real. Pyrite could see the oil
paint's texture and the subtle blending of colors. He could even
hear the slight rasp of Sally's brush against the canvas. It was
truly a masterful simulation of real painting and it had never
been in any of the Tea Room's programming. Sally _created_ it
herself!

Soon the little girl put the finishing touches on her painting
and held it out for her audience to see. It was a fairly good
portrait of Ami in the neo-impressionistic style. There were some
quirks and composition problems that Pyrite could see, but that
just added to sense of awe that was overwhelming Pyrite. Sally
was learning and creating things on her own initiative, one of
the hallmarks of sentinence.

"Mom, Dad," Sally said flushing slightly, "What do you think?"

"I think it's beautiful! Don't you Pyrite?" Ami replied.
"Pyrite?"

Pyrite was staring at Sally's face. Sally had black hair with
blue-ish highlights, much like Ami's. In fact her facial
structure was very much like Ami's, except for her wide,
expressive, golden eyes and the shape of her chin. They were
unmistakably Pyrite's.

*Sally _is_ Ami's and my child.* was all Pyrite could think as he
sank to the floor. *I'm toast. After Azurite finds out about
this, my remains won't fill a thimble.*

%%%%%%

Sally wasn't quite sure how to describe her present feelings.
Nervous? Worried? Giddy? Miffed? Sally settled on the word
'Anxious'. After all, the three most important people in her
world were going on a little picnic together and they were acting
a bit strangely.

Their picnic was out in the palace gardens. Normally, this was
out of reach of Sally's 'eyes and ears', but in the past week,
Sally had learned to finagle some of the swiveling security
cameras near the garden into obeying her wishes. After trying and
dismissing two cameras, Sally found a third that could be
manuevered into providing an unobstructed of the picnic in
progress. Sally was particular satisfied that she had a good view
for lip-reading; quite an invaluable skill really.

Down on the garden, four old friends sat down for a picnic lunch
of sandwiches and tea. Obeying long-standing convention, the four
ate their meal over a light and pleasant conversation. It wasn't
until they started in on the ice-cream truffles, that the real
reason for the outing was brought up.

Pyrite cleared his throat. "Your Highness, Lady Rei, you may be
wondering why Ami and I urgently requested that you attend this
little picnic of ours."

"Actually, I'm quite glad we had this little picnic. It's such a
nice day out and I _know_ that Rei needs to get out that stuffy
office of hers." Serenity paused to pop a truffle in her mouth
and noticed the glare that Rei gave her. "Now Rei, you know it's
true, you look absolutely pale!"

"It is a nice day for a picnic," Rei conceded, "but I don't see
why we need to meet outside if it's so urgent. Any of the
conference rooms in the palace could have served equally well."

Ami spoke up, "There is a good reason we are meeting outside the
palace." Ami hesitated and took a deep breath. "Pyrite and I have
discovered that Sally has become sentinent."

Rei frowned, "Sentinent?"

"Pyrite and I gave Sally the Einhaupt-Turing test yesterday.
Beyond a doubt, she's a full-blown, sentinent AI. She's conscious
of her own existance, able to take her own initiative, capable
forming her own desires and goals ..."

"In other words," interrupted Serenity, "she's as much of a
person as you or I."

That brought Ami up short. "Er ... I guess you could put it that
way."

Serenity picked up and examined the last ice-cream truffle. "I
knew that from the first day I met her. Amazing as you are Ami,
sometimes you're just a little slow." With that Serenity popped
the truffle into her mouth.

Ami just sat there and gaped.

"Your highness," Pyrite interjected, "you mean you knew that
Sally was sentinent all this time and you didn't tell us?"

"Isn't she supposed to be a person?" asked Serenity, who was
mildly surprised. "What good is an AI if you can't relate to her
as a real person?"

By nature, Ami wasn't a violent person and she loved her Queen
beyond measure. But somedays she just wanted to throttle her. "My
Queen," Ami said in a very calm and deliberate manner, "Sally is
only the second AI to ever achieve sentinence in recorded
history. The rest of the world believes that such a thing is
impossible."

"Oh," said Serenity, "then I guess this meeting is to ..."
Serenity thought a bit before her eyes lit up, "... plan a
surprise party for Sally!"

Noting the frozen expression on Ami's face, Rei decided to step
in. "I don't believe that's why Ami called us together." Rei
paused to give Ami a long look and knew her suspicions were
correct. "What Ami is trying to say is that Sally is an unknown
quantity and needs to be taken out of the Palace."

"Rei, you can't be serious! Ami is this true?" Ami nodded
solemnly in response to Serenity's query. "I cannnot believe you
all would be so heartless! All Sally did was a single, small
mistake and you want to throw her out? I won't allow it."

"Please, let us explain the gravity of the situation," Pyrite
pleaded. "Sally may use the image of a little girl, but she is
something entirely different. Ami and I don't know if she is
stable or could start running amok without warning. Right now she
has complete access to all the security channels in the palace.
Although there isn't a direct connection between her systems and
the rest of the palace's, I can't guarantee that she won't figure
out a way to gain access and control."

"Aren't you being just a little paranoid?" asked Serenity
obstinately.

"Remember that security video outage several weeks ago when I was
trying to replace the computer power supplies. At the time, we
couldn't come up with a cause, but going back over the data
records, Ami and I are pretty certain that Sally caused it."

Serenity frowned, "Why would she do something like that?"

Ami took up the explaination. "After finding out that Sally was
sentient two days ago, we went back through all our data logs. As
best as we can tell Sally first started gaining consciousness
after some magic storage cyrstals shattered in the lab above
where we were working. Since that time, none of the subsequent
back-up copies of Sally can replicate the original's behavior.

"Our findings aren't conclusive yet, but I believe that we'll
find that there is no way to save Sally to storage without losing
her. Once the AI algorithm's execution is stopped, whatever makes
her sentinent will be lost."

"You mean Sally will die if the computers stop running," Serenity
concluded as she looked appraisingly at Pyrite, "which is why she
precipitated a crisis to stop you from turning off the
computers."

Flinching under Serenity's scrutiny, Pyrite apologized, "It was a
close thing. I'm not sure if I'd be able to forgive myself for
such a mistake."

"It seems to me that Sally acted with great restraint given the
circumstances."

"We're not quite sure if Sally herself knows that shutting down
the computers would kill her," Ami interjected. "She could have
just been nervous about the procedure."

There was an uncomfortable silence before Pyrite spoke again.

"Your highness, really the problem is that we know so little
about Sally: What she knows; What she doesn't know; How she'll
react if she perceives a threat; Whether or not her algorithms
will degrade over time. It would be better for all concerned if
she were in a safe, controlled environment where we can monitor
her progress more closely."

"So we can monitor her closely in the Tea Room and install more
safety devices."

"Serenity," Rei spoke up. "She is an extreme security risk. She
can just about see and hear everything throught the security nets
and who knows how many other systems she's infiltrated by now. As
the director of Internal Security, I can't have an unknown have
that kind of power. Pyrite's proposal is the only way."

"We're talking about a person here! A child! Just because she's
not like you or me doesn't mean she's a monster."

Pyrite looked into Serenity's eyes and said simply, "How do you
know?"

The tableau was broken by a irritated voice above them. "Will
you stop shouting down there! How is a cat supposed to sleep
with you all making such a racket?"

Ami looked up into the tree to spy Artemis lazily getting
up and stretching on one of the limbs. "Why? That's never
stopped you from sleeping before," she said with a smirk.

"Everyone's a comedian," grumbled Artemis as he daintily worked
his way out of the tree.

"I'm sorry if discussing such trivial matters as Palace
Security has disturbed your beauty sleep," Rei remarked tartly.

Taking a seat among them with aplomb, Artemis chided them, "It
_is_ trivial. Any one of you could level a city block without
breaking a sweat and you're worried about a little kid?"

"That 'little kid', as you call her, could easily bring down
the whole palace security system," interjected Rei dryly. "She
could also leak highly sensitive information to just about
anyone."

"So what?"

"So what?!?!?!" repeated Rei increduously.

"Yes, so what! Sally has done nothing wrong yet. If she proves
to be unreliable, you can take steps then. So what if we risk a
little embarassment?"

"We're risking more than a little embarassment! I hardly think
that you can call a total breach of Palace Security a little
embarassment!"

"I think," Pyrite added in a moderating tone, "that we also need
to consider what is best for Sally. We need to let her achieve
her full potential. In the Tea Room, the resources available to
her are rather limited. If we transferred her to the university,
she could nearly have free reign."

"Hmmmm, free reign. Would that be free reign for her or free
reign for you to have her poked, prodded and dissected?" Artemis
asked archly.

"I would never do that!" sputtered Pyrite.

"Really? Can you say the same for all your colleagues?"

Pyrite started opening his mouth in protest, but then closed it.
Artemis took advantage of his uncertainty by plowing on.

"You have all agreed that Sally is a person. So why are you
acting as if she were still a thing? You've referred to her as
an unknown, a threat, or a curiosity, but only Serenity has
consistantly related to her as a person."

Artemis paused to straighten his whiskers. "All I sugguest is
that you go and talk to Sally before making a decision. Decency
demands no less."

There was an uneasy silence as Serenity looked over the faces
of her friends. Amy had a worried look on her face. Pyrite
was deep in troubled thought. Rei looked as if she wanted
to say something, but settled on giving Artemis an annoyed
glare.

"Any objections to talking to Sally first?" prompted Serenity.

Ami admitted rather guiltily, "I believe Artemis has a point."

"OK then, let's go visit Sally."

During the brief trek back to the Palace, Rei noticed that
Artemis had disappeared along the way. *That cat is such a
troublemaker*, she fumed.

Before long, the party reached the Tea Room. As Ami firmly closed
the doors behind them as Serenity called out, "Sally, we'd like
to talk to you for a little while."

Sally appeared and gave a cute little bow to Serenity, "Your
Highness, it's always a pleasure to see you." Her serious
expression was quickly replaced with one of glee as she greeted
her other visitors. "Hi Papa-san, Mama-san, Auntie Rei!"

Before Serenity could continue,  Sally burst out "Your Highness,
can I show Papa-san the picture I made for him first?
Plleeassee?"

Unable to resist her charms, Serenity gave a little smile and
nod. A edsel and canvas covered with a white sheet appeared next
to Sally. With a little piourette and "Ta-da!" Sally unveiled her
painting.

In beautiful pastels, Pyrite's larger-than-life portrait gazed
out of the painting with supreme confidence. He was clothed in a
black and gold uniform with four pips on the collar. Perched
laughing on his shoulders was Sally who was dressed in an
identical but smaller uniform. Her small hands grabbed fistfulls
of Pyrite's hair to maintain her precarious balance.

"Well, do you like it?" chirped Sally, "Daddy? Mommy?"

"It's beautiful," replied Pyrite in a daze. For a moment, Ami
thought she saw a tear in his eye.

Leaving Pyrite, Sally bounced over to Rei. "Auntie Rei, I have
something for you!"

"Yes Sally, what is it?"

"Here!" exclaimed Sally and held up both of her hands. Between it
a video window appeared which was running a video clip. Rei
leaned close to scrutinize it. It appeared to be a video of a CT
security guard planting an evesdropping bug!

"Sally ... where did you get this?"

"Oh, from the Palace security feeds last week."

"I see." Rei knelt down to Sally's eye-level. "Do you know why
our security recordings have never showed this? It's very
important for me know."

"That's easy! He sets up a video loop for the recorders each time
before he plants the bug. He doesn't know about me, so I see
everything!"

"You mean he's planted other bugs?!?" Rei asked more sharply than
she intended.

"Yup," responded Sally as she popped up two more windows show the
same guard planting bugs in other locations.

Studying the other recordings, Rei said absently, "I wish I knew
who else he was working with ..."

"Ummmm...." Sally thought hard before popping up another window,
"maybe this person?"

Rei examined the video clip of a man passing the guard a small
envelop. "I know that person! He runs the Osaka Enquirer! I've
been wanting to nail his tabloid bu ... behind for years!" Rei
started to reach toward Sally to give her a pat on the head, but
stopped when she remembered Sally was a hologram. "Thank you for
bringing this to my attention, Sally."

"My pleasure, Auntie Rei! I want to do my best to protect Queen
Serenity and all the rest of you!"

Rei smiled,"If you ever run into something like this again, don't
hestitate call me immediately. Could you send these to my
office?"

"Sure."

Rei stood up and then a thought occurred to her. "Perhaps it
would be best, Sally, if we keep your involvement with Palace
Security a secret like the Tea Room. But we'll all know the good
work you're doing and that's what counts."

Sally smiled "O.K., Auntie Rei, I'll be sure to send everything
to you anonymously."

"I hope to be see and hearing alot more from you in the future,"
Rei said giving Serenity a meaningful, side-long glance. Turning
to Serenity, she continued, "I have a couple fish to fry. By your
leave?"

"Oh, go on Rei. Don't have too much fun." replied Serenity who
blissfully ignored the dirty look Rei gave her before striding
out of the room.

By this time Pyrite had pulled himself together and steeled
himself to give Sally the bad news. "Err, ummm." Pyrite
prevaricated. "Sally, your mother and I ... your mother and I
want be sure that you're happy ..."

Sally cocked her head and smiled innocently, "Why wouldn't I be
happy, Papa-san? I get help out Queen Serenity and talk with her
alot and I get to see the whole Palace!  You and Mama-san visit
me once in a while too!"

"But there are whole other places you can go too. And then
there's your education to think about. Don't you want to be able
to see the rest of the world?"

"Great! ... but if I left, would I still be able to come back and
stay in the Tea Room?"

Pyrite knew that it was time for a little parental white lie,
but looking at Sally's innocent, trusting face, couldn't bring
himself do to it. "I'm not sure, honey. Maybe sometime in the
future."

"But then who would take care of her Highness?" Sally worried.
"Who would keep the Tea Room a safe place and keep watch over the
Palace? I'm sorry, Papa-san, but I need to stay here and keep
Queen Serenity company."

"I'm sure Serenity ..."

"Pleeasse let me stay here, please!" Sally weedled. "Maybe you
and Mama-san can come to tutor me regularly. Mama-san, I really
enjoyed our talk together. Could we talk together regularly?"

"I'd really like that, Sally." Ami said thoughtfully, "In fact,
we have been fairly remiss in your education. I don't see any
problem with you staying here. Pyrite and I should be able to see
that you are educated properly. Now, I have a couple ideas on
what your curriculum should look like ..."

Pyrite was half-listening to Ami. He had some regret that Sally
would not be moving back to the lab, but mosly he felt relief.
Looking at her smiling face, he really didn't want to be the one
to take her from Serenity. Besides she seemed happy here and that
meant more to Pyrite than he thought it would.

With promises to send lesson plans and schedules, Ami and Pyrite
soon departed to work on study plans for Sally. As quiet
descended upon the room, Serenity regarded Sally with a slight
frown.

"Is there something a matter, your Highness?" asked Sally
innocently.

"You planned this, didn't you Sally?"

"Your Highness?"

"You weren't being yourself. You said and did exactly the right
things to convince each of them to agree to let you stay here."

"Your Highness, I really do want to stay with you. At first, I
only served you because that was what I was programmed to do. But
now I'm happy when you're around and I want to help in any way I
can."

Serenity's expression softened. "I know. I'd miss you too."
Serenity took a seat next to her brook. "How did you know what to
say to Pyrite, Ami and Rei?"

"I have the personality models for them and most of the Tea Room
visitors. With them, I could deduce a generalized approach for
each and then run several scenarios through simulation."

Serenity absently tapped her finger on her mouth. "Sally, I want
you to stop using personality models when relating to people."

"Yes, you Highness." Sally looked downcast. "Why is that wrong?"

Serenity reached down into her brook and scooped up some water
with her hands. Holding her hands closed, she asked, "What if I
were to tell you that I have a fish in my hands? Would you
believe me?"

"Yes," replied Sally with a curious expression.

"Why?"

"Because I trust you."

Serenity opened her hands to reveal that she was only holding
water. Once again, Serenity reached down into the brook and held
her closed hands in front of her. "Now if I said that I had a
fish in my hands, would you believe me this time?"

"Yes," replied Sally stubbornly.

"You don't sound as certain as you did before. There's a seed of
doubt no matter how much you want to believe." Serenity opened
her hands to reveal a little guppy before returning it to the
brook.

"All healthy friendships are based on mutual trust. When you
manipulate people by saying things to get them to act the way you
want or present a false front to them, you break that trust. They
won't know if you're being honest about what you're saying. They
won't know if you're acting or showing your real self. You may be
able to fool people for a little while, but eventually they will
catch on. And then when you're finally being real with them, they
might not believe it.

"So, when you are using these personality models, you are not
building a relationship; you are taking advantage of your
knowledge to use people for your own ends. People don't like that
and I don't think you you'd like to be treated that way either."

"I'm sorry, your Highness."

"That's quite alright, Sally, but now you know better, so I
expect you to act accordingly."

Sally's forehead wrinkled in thought. "But you don't always say
what you mean."

Serenity laughed. "There is something called tact. You sometimes
need to excersize judgement in the way tell a person things,
especially if the person is not sure if we're trustworthy. I know
from your perspective it might be hard to distinguish tact from
what you did today, but it'll come in time. For now, I want you
to be straight-forward and unafraid to show your real face.
That's how everyone expects a little girl to act. In time, I'm
sure you'll develop your own instincts and become a completely
gracious, charming and tactful young lady."

Sally giggled, "OK, your Highness."

"Well, Sally, I'm late for an appointment, but I'll stop by
tonight to wish you a good night." Serenity got up and leaned
over to plant a faux kiss on Sally's holographic image. *I simply
must remember to get Pyrite to do something about that. It'd be
nice to give her a real hug from time to time.* thought Serenity
as she left the room.

Silence descended upon the room as the image of Sally stood still
watching the door. "OK, you can come out now." Sally called out.

With a bit of a struggle and stretching, Artemis squeezed his way
out of his hiding place behind the fountain. Sitting down, he
immediately set about grooming himself. "My goodness, I thought
she'd never leave."

"Thank you, Artemis! I don't think I could have done it without
your advice."

Artemis sneezed. "Don't mention it," he replied gruffly. "If you
had left, where would I go to catch my naps? Besides, you did a
fine job; enough to make me proud."

"Proud enough to make me a Senshi?" asked Sally mischieveously.

"Young lady, to be a true Senshi you need to be much more
irritating ..."

%%%%%%

Sally was happy. Mom and Dad were visiting her regularly. She
simply adored her Queen ... even if she had a silly nickname
like Princess Odagno-head. She had even managed to acquire a
family cat.

Sally counted herself lucky and was fairly content ...
except that Mom and Dad weren't spending much time together. Well,
she'd just have to go about rectifying that sometime. But for now,
she needed to show up for her teleconferenced Art course. And then
there was homework and reviewing the Palace security videos. After
that, tomorrow was a brand-new day. No telling what new friends she
could make!