Exile to Jurai part 20:back on the Soja

part 20:back on the Soja


The ship Azuza and Misaki gave them wasn't particularly fancy, being a small transport carrier from a trade station. They started it with difficulty and as it slowly lumbered its way skyward with much noise and resistance, Jerren and Ami wondered if they would even reach space.
"This thing is cramped!” Jerren complained, trying to find some space to accommodate himself and Ami.
"Yes...I know!” Ami winced in pain banging her knee on a console as Jerren bumped her again. Space in the shuttle was at a premium.
It took the ship almost half an hour to bring the Soja into view. As they approached the mammoth war machine, Ami’s nerves started to get the better of her, and a cold pit of fear settled in her stomach.
"Oh my goodness,” Ami exclaimed. “The size of that beast, it’s like a Titan of old mythology.”

In the blink of an eye the little freighter was surrounded by a hailstorm of coruscating energy as the Soja opened fire. Jerren and Ami screamed in fright, pressing all the buttons on the dashboard in the hope of finding something that could help the ship evade the incoming blasts.
"Where’s the dodging button for this thing?” Jerren shouted, daring the button he sought to materialize. “They should put labels on these things when they put the buttons in!"
"Ah here it is…” Ami said as she found a little green button that was labeled: evasive maneuvers. She pushed it and the ship moved clumsily but effectively, through the field of fire. Some of the blasts hit a nearby comet that blossomed into thousands of fragments.
"Wow…that was a close call, indeed!” Ami shivered looking outside the ship, “One hit to our ship and we’ll have to walk home!”
Meanwhile Jerren was looking around for a way to fight back.
"Ooh, okay, let’s see what this big red button does…?” A beam of light burst from the freighters undercarriage, dissipating harmlessly several hundred miles from the great ship.
"What the heck! It didn't even reach the ship!” Jerren was stunned.
"Of course not Jerren…this is a freighter, not a warship. That’s probably just to divert incoming space debris and other junk.”
“Oh you mean like this blaster? I wonder if it can shoot itself...” Jerren hit the console in frustration. Jerren and Ami were forced to hold onto their seats as the ship started spinning uncontrollably, the artificial gravity malfunctioning, going from weightless to five times normal gravity and back again in a span of seconds.
Seconds later a beam of immense power split the space they had just vacated in a torrent of merciless fire.

On the Soja Kagato curled his fist in annoyance.
“An impressive show of piloting skill, but it will avail you to no good end I assure you, little buzzing gnat!” A screen showed the little freighter in crosshairs.

“Well it’s a good thing I wasn’t counting on this ship to fight our battle…” Jerren said un-strapping himself from his seat and indicating Ami to do the same. ”Set this thing on Auto pilot, we’ve got another way in.” Ami typed a few commands and jumped from her seat.

The Soja then shot another beam at the small cargo ship that had suddenly settled into a more stable flight path and it was decimated into dust…but Jerren and Ami were no longer aboard.

"Alright Ami, let’s do this!” Jerren said vigorously. “We’ll save the princess and Jurai from this Kagato freak."
"It’s time to stop this fiend once and for all!” Ami agreed; excitement and adrenalin making the young woman giddy.

Hurtling though space, the duo were surrounded by the vibrant energy of the Light hawk wings. Too small to register on the massive Sojas’ sensors as a threat, they entered the ship, but inside they were surrounded by an impenetrable darkness. The light from the sword dimmed as they entered the breathable atmosphere.
"Aw, what? Don’t cut out now you stupid sword it’s as dark as night in here!” Jerren complained, “I can’t see a thing.”
"Here let me shed some light…” Ami said, removing a gadget from her pocket.
It was a blue visor she placed over her eyes. She turned a little switch built into it on and they both could see as light shone from it like a torch.
"Cool shades,” said Jerren, “Where did you get those from?”
"It was from the show!” replied Ami. “It was designed to sense out an opponent’s energy in the show but in real life it only shines a bright blue light. I thought it was cool so I kept it as a souvenir.”
Looking around they saw that they were in some kind of conduit. Gesturing for Ami to lead, Jerren eyed their surroundings warily. They walked through the passage for a while and saw three branching directions before them.
"So, which way do we go from here?” Ami pointed to the portals.
"I…don’t know! This is a different part of the ship than when I was here last.” Jerren said. “Maybe the sword knows…” Ami joked.
"Please sword, guide us to where Kagato and the princess are…” Jerren said as he pointed it at the doorways.
Ami’s eyes bulged at the sheer absurdity of her friends actions, and she had to stifle a giggle.
“Please choose the right path!” Jerren opened his hand and the hilt floated towards the middle passage.
“That’s the way, let’s go…great idea Ami!” Jerren strode towards the middle passage grabbing the hilt as he passed. Ami stood gaping at her friend until he was almost out of sight.
“Are you coming or not?” Jerren shouted back at her. Gathering her wits Ami stumbled after Jerren.
“I can’t believe that worked.” She whispered, entering the passageway.

As they walked along the tunnel, Ami heard metallic scraping noises and slithering, but no matter where she shined her light nothing out of the ordinary greeted her eyes.
As they passed a section of the tunnel, the walls came alive with squirming masses of undefined serpentine objects.
A lithe metallic tentacle reached for Ami. Faster than thought, Jerren slashed the grasping extremity severing it from its body, shocking the unaware girl.
As though a signal had been sent, the walls burst like an exploding, seething mass of sinister intent. Slashing wildly at the walls, Jerren severed limbs right and left, before giving Ami a push down the tunnel. Taking the hint, she ran down the hall as fast as she could until the walls stopped moving.
“Huff…huff, Jerren?” she looked back the way she had run, but could not see her friend.
“Oh no Jerren…!” Ami took a few steps back the way she had come, but froze when she heard the sounds of battle moving towards her. A swarm of robot orbs rounded the bend with Jerren firmly in the center of their buzzing laser stings.
"Oh dear, what do I do now?” Ami said under her breath as she felt a wave of panic threaten to overwhelm her. “There are too many for us to deal with!”
"Keep your cool Ami,” Jerren shouted at his friend. “I'll take care of this, just watch me!” Jerren deflected the lasers with the light hawk sword sending the beams back at his tormentors. Then he charged at the others and slashed and cut them into pieces in a spinning flurry of movement. Using his super strength to punch some of them into the hallway walls he finished off the remaining few with an energy wave from the blade.
"MY...goodness...!” Ami exclaimed in surprise. “You...destroyed them all in seconds!”
"It’s no big deal!” Jerren said modestly.
Ami lowered her head with tears welling at the corner of her eyes. She clenched her hands into fists.
"You see I told you, you don't need me on this mission!” Ami cried. ”You defeated them all by yourself, and me...I just panicked and froze. What good am I to you? I was so scared something had happened to you…”
Jerren held her shoulders and gave her a firm shake.
"Hey, don't talk like that,” Jerren comforted her, drawing her into a hug, “You’re new to this and you’ve never experienced this sort of thing before. Don't worry, let it sink in, in time it'll come naturally to you like it did for me, so please don’t be sad...”
Just then another swarm of orbs burst around the bend firing at Jerrens back.
"Look OUT! Ami shouted as she spun Jerren out the way, prepared to take the lasers for him. But suddenly she felt the moisture in the walls like a caress around her body and instinctively she called to the water for help. Vapor poured from the walls forming a bubble that surrounded and protected her from the shots. But that wasn’t enough and responding to her thoughts the field reflected the blasts back to their source destroying every orb in the swarm.
"Whoa! Ami you go girl!” Jerren crowed in astonishment. “When did you learn to do that?”
"I...I don't know!” replied Ami as she paused for a second staring at her hands in the light from her visor. “Even on the show as Sailor Mercury I couldn't do this, it just…developed out of nowhere.”
"I told you it would come naturally to you.” Jerren beamed as he gave Ami a pat on the back.
Jerren continued down the path, drawing Ami along. The passage ended, opening into a wide hall.
"You see I told you that you would make a perfect addition to this...hey my feet...why does it feel like they’re sinking in quick sand?”
Ami looked down at their feet, but couldn’t find them.
“The floor…it’s consuming us!” Ami said in panic. Jerren and Ami struggled helplessly before sinking through the floor where they suddenly found themselves in another room. Rising to their feet unharmed they looked around.
"Where are we now? And why do I get the weird feeling we’re upside down?” Jerren held his head.
"You’re asking the wrong person…!” replied Ami pointing to the center of the room.
The room was completely clear with the exception of a crystallized prison in the middle of the floor. Two giant serpents entwined the crystal.
"Who or what is locked up in that crystal?” Jerren said as he saw the prison. Moving closer to it he saw that a person was its sole occupant.
"It looks like a little girl…sleeping?” he said in a puzzled voice. “Ami come over here and check this out!”
Ami had stayed where she was, studying their surroundings as Jerren had walked over to the crystal. She joined him now.
"It looks like this person has been in hibernation for a long while,” she said as she touched the crystallized prison. “Judging by its age I would say about three or four thousand years at least!”
“Oh, come on. I know you’re smart, but how could you possibly know how old this crystal is?”
“Sailor Moon was all about crystals. When we had a few crystal expert geologists on the show as consultants, I listened to what they had to say.”
“Oh!”
They both stared back into the crystal.
The prepubescent girl was a little less than five feet tall. Her hair was a spiky pinkish red, with a Caucasian skin tone.
Her attire was a steam punk reminiscent vest, with trousers, a mixture of green and yellow. Black sandals adorned her feet.

As they studied the girl, dust descended from above to land on Ami’s shoulder. She looked at it in confusion and then looked up. She choked back a scream and tugged Jerrens’ shirt. He looked at Ami and then to where her eyes had gone.
The serpents were coming to life.
Slowly their heads turned to view the intruders.
"Watch out!” Ami shouted as one of the heads darted at Jerren. She raised her hands and once again felt the call of the surrounding moisture responding to her thoughts. Bubbles shot from her hands into the serpents open maw, forcing it back.
"That was shine Aqua mist! I…it’s a move from the show.” Ami exclaimed in wonder.
"You know, I have this weird feeling that you’re becoming Sailor Mercury!” replied Jerren.
"What…what if I am?” Ami asked, wide eyed at the implication.
"Well I say lets finish these giant snakes off first and then we talk, okay?” Jerren offered.
“Okay!” Ami nodded, assuming a ready position.
Moving in concert, Jerren and Ami darted forward as the giant snakes swept towards them. Ami distracted one of the serpents with bubbles in its face as Jerren leapt through its thrashing coils to slice along the length of its body before snapping off a spin slash that sent the stone head writhing and gnashing its jaws to smash on the ground.
The second snake hissed like a jet engine and raised itself high in the air to crush Ami, but Jerren swiftly grabbed its tail and swung the beast in a violent arc that sent it smashing head first into the Crystal shattering its stone body on the impossibly hard surface.
“Oops!” Jerren grinned. Ami rolled her eyes at him.
The snakes’ destruction triggered a crack in the crystallized prison and in seconds a spider web of cracks split throughout the crystalline structure and it shattered. The little girl stumbled free from the shattered remains of her prison and stretched her muscles. Yawning, she opened her eyes flashing an emerald green stare around the room before finally resting on Jerren and Ami.
She grinned impishly at the pair.




to be continued..........