Starlight Asylum
3/26/00
Artemis
lay on the floor in the food bay, staring at the same corner. Of all of
them, he was taking this grief the hardest. Mina had been his friend since
he could remember. And even before that, when he couldn’t, they had known
each other for over a thousand years, yet some how, they had only just
met and that was what was eating at him.
“Come on, Artemis,” Luna urged, “you have to eat something.” Artemis didn’t say a word. He had eaten sporadically the last two weeks and spoke even less. He just simply sighed heavily at Luna’s comments.
“Where did I go wrong, Luna?” he asked after a long moment of silence, “I was supposed to protect Mina. How did I fail my job.”
“Artemis,” Luna shook her head, “We’re cats. What can we do?”
“I managed somehow.”
“Artemis, it was the scouts who ended up saving our tails most of the time.” The white cat did not respond this time. He simply sighed and kept silent.
“Why?” Amy thought for a long hard moment. When her mind went to Rei, her eyes narrowed and her mouth twisted just a little, “Because she insulted me.”
“It was just and angry insult flung at a moment when she had lost friend.” Darien said, “Don’t you think this is a little childish.”
“Hey, Mina was my friend, too!” Amy reminded him, “I was just doing the only thing I could to deal with it. I can’t get bogged down on the road to survival. None of us can or we’ll all end up just like Sailor Venus did.”
“But still...”
“But nothing, Darien.” Amy hushed him with a wave of her hand, “Being logical about crises is the only thing that will keep us alive.” With that, she stalked off down the corridor, her bare feet managing to make clanking noises on the metal deck.
Darien later had a run in with Rei, and also confronted her.
“I was only stating a fact,” the Japanese girl said, “It’s like she has no soul. She’s all facts and figures. What that girl needs is a heart.”
“She’s never let you down, has she?” Darien asked. Rei thought a moment before shaking her head in embarrassment.
“I guess not,” the raven-haired temple maiden said at last, “But it just disturbed me how she didn’t seem to be hurt at all, like she moved on so quickly.”
“She was only trying to keep her head on straight.” the man said, “Just trying not to panic.”
“Yeah well,” Rei cocked her head, “she hit me. And I mean hit me hard. That girl has a nasty hook.” She rubbed the spot where there had been a swollen purple bruise only a few days before. “I’m surprised my jaw isn’t broken.”
They were completely unrepentant and unforgiving. Darien could only hope that time was a good doctor.
None of the human population on the Asylum were taking Mina’s death as bad as Serena. She was carrying Venus’s glove with her where ever she went, sometimes taking it out of her pocket to look at it before bursting into tears. She had let everyone know that Mina refused to help herself; that she had died on purpose. Rei, of course, didn’t believe it, or didn’t want to.
Right now, Serena was once again aiding Amy in repairing the refrigerating machine for the small cold storage bays. The thing wasn’t so willing to spurt oil everywhere now, so the girls’ clothes were not getting so dirty.
“One more adjustment...” Amy talked herself through the process. She pulled hard on the wrench handle, tightening the bolt until it wouldn’t turn any longer. They had practically taken the thing apart and put it together again in the last few weeks. “Okay. Serena, try it now.”
There was no answer.
“Serena!” Amy had to raise her voice to call the meatball-head from her reverie.
“Oh, what?” she looked up.
“Try the switch.”
“Oh,” Serena looked at the on switch that her hand was poised over. She flicked it down, and there was a chug from the refrigeration machine. A cloud of dust blew out of the hole Amy had crawled out of, surrounding the blue-haired girl. She flinched as it blew past and the machine kept working.
Realizing that she had finally succeeded in fixing the annoying contrivance, she gave Serena a thumbs-up.
Serena smiled briefly, then said “I hope it goes better than that old Ford you helped fix.” That had been one of Amy’s mechanical disasters. She and a friend had spent hours fixing the engine of his car. When they were finally finished, they decided to take it for a test drive only to have the motor blow just as they pulled out of the driveway.
Amy only raised an eyebrow, unamused by the comment.
“Well,” Serena turned away, “now that it’s working...” She never finished her thought, only walked away, leaving Amy unwilling to compliment herself on a job well done. The vibrating machine now seemed to laugh at her and, upset, she turned it off.
She stalked away from it, going down to what they had all labeled “entry deck” and found Lita sitting alone in the gang door. She had her feet dangling over the side into the water and was holding a fishing pole.
“Hey,” Amy asked, “where did you find that.”
“They guy who used to have my room musta been a fisherman.” Lita tried to sound excited about the find, “He had all sorts of lures and other fishing stuff in his footlocker.”
“Catch anything?”
“Not yet,” Lita shook her head, “And if I did I’d throw it back. We’ve got nowhere to keep him.”
“Actually, I fixed the refrigeration machine.” Amy said, “We have a space to put fresh meat now.”
“That’s good.” Lita tightened the grip on the pole, “I might just have something to put there in a second.” And she began reeling. The fish she was battling with jumped. He was a pretty good size for this close to shore. “Hey, Ams, get the net.”
Amy reached down for the small net Lita had laying next to her. The taller girl pulled the fish in and Amy pulled the net under it. The first catch was a little something to be excited about.
“How long has it been since we’ve had something other than canned meat?” Lita asked.
Amy though about being over precise but she decided to go with a simple, “over a month I think.”
“Let’s see if I can’t catch another,” Lita checked the lure and then cast again, “I bet two might feed all of us.”
Amy, meanwhile, ran up to the cold storage and flipped the machine on again. She threw the writhing fish into a bin and slammed the door shut, hearing the fish slap against the rapidly cooling metal inside. Before she ran back down to assist Lita, she looked back at the bin. Her shoulders limped as she realized it was too bad Mina wasn’t here to help them celebrate.
Jekter pulled back and smiled. He was Prince Darien’s equal by now and couldn’t wait to face him. He would have to wait for two more weeks, but it would be worth it. By then, he would be the prince’s superior. He sheathed the weapon and nodded to the asp, dismissing it. It passed Meredith on the way out.
“I may have some good news for you, my dear.” Meredith smiled. Her yellow eyes glowed brightly, indicating she was happy.
“Oh?”
“Flute has changed his mind.” she smiled, “He is going to begin the invasion as soon as you defeat Darien. We will be poised, ready to attack the moment Darien falls. The Scouts will be overwhelmed and we will finally be free of this dreadful place.”
“Finally,” Jekter said, “This campaign has taken too long. We were much to cautious in the beginning.”
“Well, our chance has finally arrived.” Meredith drew near to him, “And it will be glorious.”