LEGEND OF GALACTIC GIRLS
By Rob Kelk
Based on the Drunkard's Walk and Girls Girls Girls fanfic cycles
created by Robert M. Schroeck
and the Fenspace shared-world setting
created by Sean M. Breen
Chapter One: Fenspace Explorers
29 May 2013
11:19 GMT
Stellvia main operations room
"Commander, there's an alert on my screen that I've never seen before."
Noah walked over to the duty officer's desk and looked at his console. "Oh, bloody hell." Then he thumbed the intercom on. "Engineering, there's a DQS in the Main Concourse! Seal it off, stat! Nobody gets in or out until I get there!" He switched off the intercom and turned back to the duty officer. "Full comms blackout -- all channels, all frequencies, cellphone, radio and interwave -- starting right now. Jam anything you can't turn off. Deny launching or docking permission to all ships, including emergency vehicles. No exceptions to any of this without my express approval. That's my approval, not Ms. Nikaido's or anyone else's. And get all the duty officers up here, no matter what shifts they're on -- you're all on duty starting now and until I say otherwise. You'll get double-pay for the overtime."
"Yes, sir. What's a DQS?"
"It's what we're trying to keep a lid on," answered Noah as he ran out the doorway that Yoriko was keeping open for him. What he didn't add was, because if Suzumiya finds out about this, she'll come back here so fast, she'll Break the Limit. And may all the Gods help us if the Boskonians find out about this.
As the duty officer proceeded to seal off the station, he couldn't help but think that he'd never seen his employer so worried.
* * * * *
Stellvia Main Concourse
The gateway closed behind the last of the travelers, who asked, "Are we there yet?"
"I don't think so, Dee," answered Lisa.
"Are you sure? Maybe we could find someboy who could tell us where we are." Nobody answered, so Delandra looked around ... to see dozens of slack-jawed people staring at the group. "Never mind."
"Oooohhh, computer parts for sale," sighed Skuld happily as she looked past the onlookers. She and Kaolla made a beeline for the stand, forgetting that they didn't have any local currency.
"" complained Sana, in Japanese, from the end of the corridor.
"There are people with fur and cat's ears over there!" exclaimed Nancy with a smile.
"Hey!" shouted the person behind the counter of a snack shop as he grabbed Chalotte's arm, much to her surprise. "Pay for that yakitori before you leave!"
* * * * *
As he and Yoriko reached the sealed-off section of [i]Stellvia, Noah's intercom beeped. "Scott here."
"Sir, it's Jake Hansen in operations. We've got the security camera feed from the Main Concourse connected to the intercom for you."
"Thank you, duty officer. Please relay it to my PDA," asked Noah as he thumbed the unit to video playback mode. He and Yoriko looked at the display. "Oh, dear. There must be a dozen of them, and a horse, and a motorcycle. Are they an invasion force that didn't know what they'd find here?"
Yoriko squinted. "I've never actually seen a horse, but something looks strange about that one to me."
He took another look, then looked again. "That's not a horse."
"Then what is it?"
"Let me think ... Oh, of course! That woman ..." -- he pointed at a dark-skinned blonde -- "... seems to be Lisa Vanette, and that one ..." -- indicating a fair-skinned raven-haired girl with what looked like a polo mallet strapped to her back -- "... is almost definitely Skuld. Unless a very lucky batch of 'scure-fen have managed to develop inter-dimensional teleportation, The Girls have finally followed Doug here." The way Noah said it, Yoriko could hear the capital letters.
"Who are they?"
"I'm not sure about some of them, so I'll identify the ones I recognize and see whether I can figure out the others."
Yoriko blushed. "Sorry, I meant 'who is this group of people and why are they here?' But I'd like to know who each of them are, too."
"Oh, sorry. The Girls are chasing after Doug Sangnoir for various reasons. You remember Doug, right?"
"How could I forget him?"
"Indeed. As for specific girls ... Lisa's a reporter, mage, and sometime-Senshi."
"Like Yayoi?"
"Sort of, but Lisa can fake metahuman powers with her magic. Skuld's a goddess."
"We're doomed."
"No, she's a nice and good person. I think. The others ... I think the one who looks a lot like Leda is a real Senshi -- Sailor Jupiter."
"Which one? Oh, yeah; she does look a lot like Leda; she could be Leda's half-sister. Her hairstyle's different, though. And she's asian. And she's got bigger --"
Noah quickly interrupted Yoriko. "Moving on --"
"Noah, your heartrate's increasing, and you're --"
"Are you jealous?"
Yoriko thought for a moment. "No ..."
"Then drop it, please. Moving on, the other dark-skinned blonde, the younger one, looks like a teen-age Kaolla Suu; she's a technologist of some sort. I don't remember Doug stopping at Hinata-sou, though."
"He said he wasn't telling us about every place he visited, Noah."
"Point. The albino with the feathered hairdo might be Rei Ayanami; if she is, then she's loosened up a lot since Doug met her."
"I've loosened up a lot since Doug met me."
"That's true, Yoriko. Okay, she's probably Rei. Which means she's an anthromorphic-mecha pilot, and a few other things besides. And the cute asian brunette fashion-plate looks like Mirai Ozora. If she is Mirai, then she's a real-live superhero."
"Like Doug?"
"No, she's more flamboyant than he is, and she maintains a secret identity. Now I start guessing about the others. The one that just came through the portal and went straight to the side of the not-horse is probably a Herald -- a particular sort of mage. And the not-horse is her Companion. What were their names ...? Oh, well. I have no idea who the one that looks like Sara Michelle Gellar or the teenager wearing the yellow tights could be. The short girl, wearing the woolen watch cap, is probably a Borrible ... and she's just been grabbed by Yamada-san. Damn. Damage control time; we'll get them to identify themselves later."
Noah thumbed his PDA off and opened the door.
* * * * *
The doors that Sana complained about opened to reveal an overweight white man and a short asian woman. He was wearing what looked like "business casual" clothes while she was dressed almost like a police officer, but the cut of their outfits was so similar that it was obvious they were in uniform. "Well, isn't this just wonderful," cursed the man. After he took a breath, he continued more calmly. "She's my guest, Yamada-san; please send me the bill."
"We don't have a hope of keeping this secret, Noah," whispered the woman.
"Of course not, Yoriko. There's too many of them, and they showed up in the middle of the Main Concourse. But maybe we can keep the news contained for a while. And they seem friendly, thank Ghu." Noah looked straight at most of the travelers and raised his voice. "Well, do you plan to disrupt everyone's life even more, or are you willing to come with us?"
Nobody moved for a moment. Finally, Lisa asked, "Who are you?"
"The name's Noah Scott. I own this space station."
"Space station?"
Noah rubbed his temples. "I already have a headache just from you showing up, and the carbon monoxide from that engine ..." -- he gestured towards Peggy's bike -- "... isn't helping any. Please don't all shout at once. Are you coming or not?"
They looked at each other as Peggy shut down her motorcycle. "We're coming," answered Dee. "Are you going to have any trouble with that door, Sylvath?"
* * * * *
11:57 GMT
Stellvia conference room
"Yes, Mr. Scott, we already know about transfictionality and how it means we're fictional in other universes." Lisa glanced at Makoto to underline her point. "I don't see why that means we should hide who and what we are."
"Well, Ms. Vanette," Noah replied after taking a bite of his sandwich, "in this universe, the people who've left Earth tend to be the type who enjoy the types of stories you're in. A lot of people are going to recognize your real names. Even I recognized half of you."
"Then we won't have to explain who we are," Rei replied. "How is that bad?"
Noah sighed. "You tell me which is worse -- the people who decided to live just like they think you do down to taking your names as their own, or the people who worship you as demigods."
Most of the women's reactions ranged from distaste to disgust. "I'm not a demigod," muttered Skuld.
"I still fail to see the problem," commented Rei.
"There's something worse. Remember the 'handwavium' that I described to you earlier?" After Rei nodded, Noah continued, "One of the things that it can do is physically change people -- we call that process 'biomodification'. But it can only grant trivial metahuman abilities, like Leda's 'electric eel hands' that can't be turned off. Now, if word was to get out that there's somebody who looks, acts, and has the powers of any one of you, then people are going to start experimenting with biomodification in order to get superpowers. And since biomods can't be undone, some of those ... people ... would likely experiment on other people -- most probably on unwilling people."
Everyone went silent as they realized the implications of Noah's statement.
Except for Sana and Rin-Rin, who didn't speak English. Sana took another gulp from her second can of Jolt cola and asked, "[/i]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
By Rob Kelk
Based on the Drunkard's Walk and Girls Girls Girls fanfic cycles
created by Robert M. Schroeck
and the Fenspace shared-world setting
created by Sean M. Breen
Chapter One: Fenspace Explorers
29 May 2013
11:19 GMT
Stellvia main operations room
"Commander, there's an alert on my screen that I've never seen before."
Noah walked over to the duty officer's desk and looked at his console. "Oh, bloody hell." Then he thumbed the intercom on. "Engineering, there's a DQS in the Main Concourse! Seal it off, stat! Nobody gets in or out until I get there!" He switched off the intercom and turned back to the duty officer. "Full comms blackout -- all channels, all frequencies, cellphone, radio and interwave -- starting right now. Jam anything you can't turn off. Deny launching or docking permission to all ships, including emergency vehicles. No exceptions to any of this without my express approval. That's my approval, not Ms. Nikaido's or anyone else's. And get all the duty officers up here, no matter what shifts they're on -- you're all on duty starting now and until I say otherwise. You'll get double-pay for the overtime."
"Yes, sir. What's a DQS?"
"It's what we're trying to keep a lid on," answered Noah as he ran out the doorway that Yoriko was keeping open for him. What he didn't add was, because if Suzumiya finds out about this, she'll come back here so fast, she'll Break the Limit. And may all the Gods help us if the Boskonians find out about this.
As the duty officer proceeded to seal off the station, he couldn't help but think that he'd never seen his employer so worried.
* * * * *
Stellvia Main Concourse
The gateway closed behind the last of the travelers, who asked, "Are we there yet?"
"I don't think so, Dee," answered Lisa.
"Are you sure? Maybe we could find someboy who could tell us where we are." Nobody answered, so Delandra looked around ... to see dozens of slack-jawed people staring at the group. "Never mind."
"Oooohhh, computer parts for sale," sighed Skuld happily as she looked past the onlookers. She and Kaolla made a beeline for the stand, forgetting that they didn't have any local currency.
"" complained Sana, in Japanese, from the end of the corridor.
"There are people with fur and cat's ears over there!" exclaimed Nancy with a smile.
"Hey!" shouted the person behind the counter of a snack shop as he grabbed Chalotte's arm, much to her surprise. "Pay for that yakitori before you leave!"
* * * * *
As he and Yoriko reached the sealed-off section of [i]Stellvia, Noah's intercom beeped. "Scott here."
"Sir, it's Jake Hansen in operations. We've got the security camera feed from the Main Concourse connected to the intercom for you."
"Thank you, duty officer. Please relay it to my PDA," asked Noah as he thumbed the unit to video playback mode. He and Yoriko looked at the display. "Oh, dear. There must be a dozen of them, and a horse, and a motorcycle. Are they an invasion force that didn't know what they'd find here?"
Yoriko squinted. "I've never actually seen a horse, but something looks strange about that one to me."
He took another look, then looked again. "That's not a horse."
"Then what is it?"
"Let me think ... Oh, of course! That woman ..." -- he pointed at a dark-skinned blonde -- "... seems to be Lisa Vanette, and that one ..." -- indicating a fair-skinned raven-haired girl with what looked like a polo mallet strapped to her back -- "... is almost definitely Skuld. Unless a very lucky batch of 'scure-fen have managed to develop inter-dimensional teleportation, The Girls have finally followed Doug here." The way Noah said it, Yoriko could hear the capital letters.
"Who are they?"
"I'm not sure about some of them, so I'll identify the ones I recognize and see whether I can figure out the others."
Yoriko blushed. "Sorry, I meant 'who is this group of people and why are they here?' But I'd like to know who each of them are, too."
"Oh, sorry. The Girls are chasing after Doug Sangnoir for various reasons. You remember Doug, right?"
"How could I forget him?"
"Indeed. As for specific girls ... Lisa's a reporter, mage, and sometime-Senshi."
"Like Yayoi?"
"Sort of, but Lisa can fake metahuman powers with her magic. Skuld's a goddess."
"We're doomed."
"No, she's a nice and good person. I think. The others ... I think the one who looks a lot like Leda is a real Senshi -- Sailor Jupiter."
"Which one? Oh, yeah; she does look a lot like Leda; she could be Leda's half-sister. Her hairstyle's different, though. And she's asian. And she's got bigger --"
Noah quickly interrupted Yoriko. "Moving on --"
"Noah, your heartrate's increasing, and you're --"
"Are you jealous?"
Yoriko thought for a moment. "No ..."
"Then drop it, please. Moving on, the other dark-skinned blonde, the younger one, looks like a teen-age Kaolla Suu; she's a technologist of some sort. I don't remember Doug stopping at Hinata-sou, though."
"He said he wasn't telling us about every place he visited, Noah."
"Point. The albino with the feathered hairdo might be Rei Ayanami; if she is, then she's loosened up a lot since Doug met her."
"I've loosened up a lot since Doug met me."
"That's true, Yoriko. Okay, she's probably Rei. Which means she's an anthromorphic-mecha pilot, and a few other things besides. And the cute asian brunette fashion-plate looks like Mirai Ozora. If she is Mirai, then she's a real-live superhero."
"Like Doug?"
"No, she's more flamboyant than he is, and she maintains a secret identity. Now I start guessing about the others. The one that just came through the portal and went straight to the side of the not-horse is probably a Herald -- a particular sort of mage. And the not-horse is her Companion. What were their names ...? Oh, well. I have no idea who the one that looks like Sara Michelle Gellar or the teenager wearing the yellow tights could be. The short girl, wearing the woolen watch cap, is probably a Borrible ... and she's just been grabbed by Yamada-san. Damn. Damage control time; we'll get them to identify themselves later."
Noah thumbed his PDA off and opened the door.
* * * * *
The doors that Sana complained about opened to reveal an overweight white man and a short asian woman. He was wearing what looked like "business casual" clothes while she was dressed almost like a police officer, but the cut of their outfits was so similar that it was obvious they were in uniform. "Well, isn't this just wonderful," cursed the man. After he took a breath, he continued more calmly. "She's my guest, Yamada-san; please send me the bill."
"We don't have a hope of keeping this secret, Noah," whispered the woman.
"Of course not, Yoriko. There's too many of them, and they showed up in the middle of the Main Concourse. But maybe we can keep the news contained for a while. And they seem friendly, thank Ghu." Noah looked straight at most of the travelers and raised his voice. "Well, do you plan to disrupt everyone's life even more, or are you willing to come with us?"
Nobody moved for a moment. Finally, Lisa asked, "Who are you?"
"The name's Noah Scott. I own this space station."
"Space station?"
Noah rubbed his temples. "I already have a headache just from you showing up, and the carbon monoxide from that engine ..." -- he gestured towards Peggy's bike -- "... isn't helping any. Please don't all shout at once. Are you coming or not?"
They looked at each other as Peggy shut down her motorcycle. "We're coming," answered Dee. "Are you going to have any trouble with that door, Sylvath?"
* * * * *
11:57 GMT
Stellvia conference room
"Yes, Mr. Scott, we already know about transfictionality and how it means we're fictional in other universes." Lisa glanced at Makoto to underline her point. "I don't see why that means we should hide who and what we are."
"Well, Ms. Vanette," Noah replied after taking a bite of his sandwich, "in this universe, the people who've left Earth tend to be the type who enjoy the types of stories you're in. A lot of people are going to recognize your real names. Even I recognized half of you."
"Then we won't have to explain who we are," Rei replied. "How is that bad?"
Noah sighed. "You tell me which is worse -- the people who decided to live just like they think you do down to taking your names as their own, or the people who worship you as demigods."
Most of the women's reactions ranged from distaste to disgust. "I'm not a demigod," muttered Skuld.
"I still fail to see the problem," commented Rei.
"There's something worse. Remember the 'handwavium' that I described to you earlier?" After Rei nodded, Noah continued, "One of the things that it can do is physically change people -- we call that process 'biomodification'. But it can only grant trivial metahuman abilities, like Leda's 'electric eel hands' that can't be turned off. Now, if word was to get out that there's somebody who looks, acts, and has the powers of any one of you, then people are going to start experimenting with biomodification in order to get superpowers. And since biomods can't be undone, some of those ... people ... would likely experiment on other people -- most probably on unwilling people."
Everyone went silent as they realized the implications of Noah's statement.
Except for Sana and Rin-Rin, who didn't speak English. Sana took another gulp from her second can of Jolt cola and asked, "[/i]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012