San Francisco Rail Yard
6/9/00
The
old brick roundhouse was a vast complex with over two dozen garages. Some
of them had locomotives inside. Most were diesel powered, but there were
a few old steam locomotives. Rei took a moment to marvel at some of the
ones she passed. Her ancestors had come to America during the 1800’s and
had worked on the railroads from San Francisco. One of her family was among
the workers posing in the picture of the Last Spike Celebration in Utah.
Right now, Rei was searching for building materials. She was hoping she could take some of the skin panels from the repair facility in the roundhouse to build partitions in her boxcar.
Some rattling to her right startled her. She looked to see only the grey and black form of an old steam locomotive. There was then a clatter and some cursing. A high-torque monkey wrench flipped out of the cab to clank on the concrete floor. A man dressed in oily clothes clambored out of the cab to pick it up. He dusted it off and, after seeing Rei in the corner of his eye, he looked at her.
“Oh, well hey.” he said, “You looking for something?”
“Just some cab panels or something I can use.”
“Hmmmm. I’m not sure. What are you gonna use it for?”
“I’m trying to partition my boxcar.”
“Not sure I can help you.” he said, climbing back into the locomotive’s cab, “Sorry.”
Rei, undaunted, approached the cab. “Maybe when you’re done with your tools I can borrow them and take parts off these trains.”
“That’s gonna be awhile.” he called, “I’m repairing this one here.”
“Why?”
“I’m trying to get to Vancouver. I was in town visiting my brother when it all happened and I gotta go home to find my family.”
“Oh,” Rei nodded, understanding. She was about to move on, but then stopped and turned back to the cab. “Hey,” she said, “I have family in Seattle. If I help you, will you take me there?”
The man thought for a long time then nodded, “Okay. But you gotta help me on the travel. And it’s gonna take a while to get this old thing repaired.”
“I’m up for it.” the Japanese girl shrugged.”
The man extended his hand, “Thomas O’Malley.”
“Reiko Hino,” Rei bowed, “but call me Rei.”
“Good to have a helper.” Tom smiled, “Okay, grab that wrench over there and help me seal the boiler.”
Amy shook her head and took a long pull from the gallon jug of orange juice. Neither Lita nor Serena cared too much for OJ, but Amy loved it, so the whole jug was hers. One had to survive the best one could with few glasses to drink from.
“Amy drinking from a jug?” Luna stared, “now this was something I never thought I’d see.” Amy’s eyes shot wide and she bowed forward in surprise, sloshing the gallon bottle. After slamming the juice down on the table, she fell backward and landed on the floor with a clatter.
“Oh, Luna,” Amy sat up, rubbing her head, “you startled me.”
“I see.” Luna smirked.
“Do you need something?” Amy picked her chair back up and set it right.
“Well, Artemis and I were piddling around the engineering area and we found some wiring had the insulation chaffed. I wouldn’t have mentioned it but the wiring was very close to the fuel lines”
“Rats?”
“Don’t you know it.” Luna nodded, “Yet they’ve stayed out of the food somehow.”
“Yes, the one-piece metal bins do prove hard to knaw through.” Amy agreed, “I suppose we’re going to have to go get some electrical tape.”
“There isn’t any aboard?”
Amy shook her head, “There was only half a roll left, and I used it all when I fixed the cooling system.”
“I don’t like the idea of you girls going out again.”
“Neither do I.” Amy agreed. The last time they left the shelter of the Starlight Asylum, they had been caught in a firefight between two gangs. They escaped with no injuries except to their whits. “But exposed electrical wires so close to the fuel tanks makes me worry a little. This ship runs on three turbine engines fed by JP8 aircraft fuel. JP8’s pretty stable most of the time, but I still don’t want to get a spark going near it, not after what happened to TWA flight 800 back in ‘96.”
“That would be ugly.” Luna winced. TWA flight 800 had been a 747 loaded with passengers and headed for Europe when she exploded in a climb from John F. Kennedy International. The problem was attributted to chaffed wiring running along the fuel lines. Static electicity had built up between the wires and the fuel lines. A spark had ignited the fumes in the fuel lines and the aircraft had exploded.
“Alright, well,” Amy took the juice bottle and put it into one of the cooling bins, “I had best go get the others and tell them I’m going out.” Amy then stopped and looked over her shoulder at Luna, “or should I?”
“What do you mean?”
“According to my watch, it’s June ninth.” the blue-eyed Scout said, glancing at the digital Timex she had taken from one of the cabins. “Serena’s birthday is the 30th.”
“I see your point.” Luna nodded. “You want to try to sneak her a birthday present while you’re gone?”
“Right, something useful if I can find anything.” Amy thought aloud, “Maybe I’ll get her a knife or something that she can use to defend herself.”
“But her locket...”
“We won’t always have time to transform, Luna.”
“What ever happened to the Moon Crescent Wand, by the way?”
“Oh,” Amy remembered, “it was in my room when the floods hit. I’m afraid it didn’t work anyway.”
“Curses.” Luna growled, “Well, you get the girls and we’ll hold down the fort.”
The only beacon of hope in all this madness was an undamaged hospital in the center of town. From what they had heard, a few doctors had decided that it would be more lucrative for them if they kept the place running. They charged supplies for services and so forth, and they insisted that all sections of the city should have access to the hospital without having to fight along the way. Every now and then the Scouts crossed a road bordered on either side with graffitti red crosses.
“Yes, Serena.” Amy said, “I had Luna take another look and apparently the wiring is for the bilge pump which we use to keep water out of the boat.”
“Yeah, and since we use it all the time, there’s a current running through those wires.” Lita added.
Amy continued to explain, “And with the current running, static electricity builds up between the adjacent fuel lines and the wires. The fuel has been stagnating in those lines and fumes have been building up. If there’s a spark, the fumes will ignite, and in turn, set off the fuel.”
“But I though you said the fuel was stable.” Serena cocked her head, confused, “What kind was it?”
“JP8.” Amy told her, “It’s a kind of jet fuel that powers gas turbine engines like you’d find on an F-15 or an Abrams tank. It’s refined not to be explosive, but even car gasoline is stable in liquid form. It’s the fumes and evaporated particles you have to worry about. That’s how a car runs. Particleized gasoline is sprayed into a cylendar and ignited, explosively driving the piston outward. You have something connected to that and you can make it move or whatever. They use the same technology to make prop planes work.”
“Is there anything you don’t know?” Serena chided after the lecture.
“Lots,” Amy shrugged, “But I don’t know what I haven’t learned yet. So, philosophically speaking, there is nothing I don’t know that I know about.”
“Okay!” Serena held her hand up. “No more. I can’t stand it when you go on like that!”
“Look!” Amy pointed to an Ace Hardware, “They’ll have to have some electrical tape.” The Scouts all exchanged glances and then went inside. Some of the shelves were turned over and a lot of stuff was scattered about, but someone had made an attempt to make the place fairly orderly.
“Hope you don’t plan on just lifting something.” A voice behind them said. The three teenagers turned around to stare down the business end of what Amy knew to be a twelve gauge shotgun. Lita and Serena were instantly nervous, but Amy stood her ground.
“Well,” the blue-haired girl said, “no, actually. We came to see if we couldn’t trade some cans of food for electrical tape and maybe a few other things.”
“I’ll take one can for one large roll.” he said. Amy held up a very large can of beef stew from her backpack and was ready to offer it to him. Looking at the can, he changed his mind, “I’ll make it two for that one. Anything else?”
“I want about ten feet of insulated copper wiring.”
“How big?”
“Oh, millimetric.” Amy said, and landed another large can of food on the cluttered counter.
“You gonna starve to death.” the man shook his head and tossed her a pair of black tape rolls. “Come with me. I’ll get your wire for you.”
“Yeah.” Lita agreed, “Four cans of stew for two rolls of electrical tape, ten feet of wire, and a current tester.”
“Now I should be able to fix any wiring problems that we have.” Amy gushed. “I can’t wait to get back and do the repairs.”
Destiny, however, had other plans. A group of men rushed out of an alley screaming and flailing. On their heels were two serpent-like soldiers and a larger creature. This one was about twenty feet tall and had a long, snake-like neck with a cobra’s head. The body would have easily matched a preditory dinosaur.
As the three Scouts, momentarily dazed, stood watching, the large creature pounced on a slower man and ripped his upper torso away from his waist with its jaws. There was an audible crunch of bone and squish of flesh as the monster swallowed its meal.
“Uh, I think you’ll have to wait to do those repairs.” Serena lifted her locket.
“I totally agree.” Amy said as she and Lita raised their wands.
“Mercury Star Power!”
“Jupiter Star Power!”
“Moon Crystal Power!”
“It’s a 2-8-0 Consolidated-class.” Tom reported, “It was introduced in the 1860s, but this one was built about 1883. Least that’s what the contract date says. And she’s painted black, too.”
“Why’s that important?”
“After 1870, Congress passed a bill that required operating locomotives to be more utalitarian and less decorative. A lot of trains at that time were painted in bright colors, inlaid with precious metals, and decorated with other things like antlers on the forward lantern.”
“What was wrong with that?”
“I have no idea.” Tom laughed, “Well, I think we’ve done enough today. Let’s go back to town before it gets dark. Hell, I’ll even cook something for you.”
“That’d be just wicked.” Rei smiled.
As the three negaminions recovered from the surprise of seeing the Sailor Scouts, Sailor Mercury went into action. Calling for her Aqua Illusion, she allowed a drop of water to fall at her feet. Then, twirling, she drew the water up above her hands and energized it with cold before casting it at her targets. The other snake man was instantly frozen. The one Jupiter had zapped was writhing on the ground with it’s talone’s hand over it’s belly, but the large creature still stood.
“Combined strike?” Mercury glanced over her shoulder at Jupiter.
“Let’s do it?”
“Mercury Ice Bubbles freeze.”
“Jupiter Thunderclap zap.” With these cries, the ball of lighting combined with the freezing bubbles, throwing the dragon-like monster off balance.
“Okay, guys, I’ve got him!” Sailor Moon aimed the Moon Scepter and fired. The creature, already off balance from dodging the last attack, fell clumsily over and the beam went wide.
Sailor Mercury covered her mouth, half in shock, half in untimely laughter at the creature’s clumsy attempt to get up.
“Okay, dino-boy,” Sailor Moon aimed the recharged scepter. “prepare to get moondusted, Moon Scepter...”
“Wait!” Mercury grapped the scepter as it was ready to fire.
“What is it?” the moon princess glared at her.
“We really ought to find a better way to kill him than just vaporization. I wouldn’t mind studying...” as she went on, the creature lifted it’s head and gave a loud and frustrated roar that blew past the scouts, touseling Sailor Mercury’s hair. The aquabelle instantly reciprocated. “Okay. Kill him.”
With the beast prone and such a large target, Sailor Moon had no trouble reducing it to dust. “Now what was this about studying it?” she asked.
“Oh,” Mercury blushed, “nothing.”
“Why are they here?” Jupiter was quite a bit more concerned, “Do you think the Negaverse has found a way back?”
“No,” the shorter Scout shook her head, “I think they were stranded here during our big battle with them.”
“If you can call it big.” Sailor Moon deactivated her costume, returning to her normal self. “So, do you think there are more?”
“Probably so.” Amy nodded, “We’ll have to keep an eye out.” As Lita and Serena began discussing something, Amy walked over to the two dead snake men. Knealing down, she noticed something hanging from the belt of one of them. It was a slim cylendar about a foot long. There was a small thumb button on it. She picked up the object and pressed the button. The small cylendar telescoped into a six-foot-long staff with two spearheads on the end. Interesting.
Before Serena could see it, Amy collapsed the item and tucked it into her backpack. “Okay, let’s go.” the Catholic girl shouldered the pack and collected her friends.