Parrolan sees it first from his spy-spiders.

He's sitting at his (shrouded) desk trying to upgrade his spiders to get more evidence of what was going on with Councilor Brodrig.  Unsurprisingly, it hasn't been going well - he'd been supposed to be working in trade and logistics, for stars' sake!  But the invasion - the conquest of his homeworld - had wreaked havoc in all sorts of plans, and left him the only one in a place to maybe fix things.

And then the spiders suddenly give an exotic radiation alert.

No idea what sort of radiation - but Parrolan grabs up the spiders and dives out of the shroud for shelter.

He sees his niece Rinn and Jerach both there (Jerach's back?  Good), and a weird ball of pink light in the middle of the room that reminds him of the first stage of an exploding torpedo.  Rinn is standing there staring at it, and Jerach is doing something with his pocket computer.

"Radiation!" Parrolan cries.

"Safe for the moment," Jerach replied.  "Trying to get a read -"

Parrolan breathes one easy breath.  Jerach is a spacer; he should know that.

And then suddenly they're somewhere else.

Rinn gasps and looks around brightly.

"Is this a costume party?  Or -"

Or has Brodrig decided to just kidnap them.  But she doesn't want to say that out loud; Uncle Parrolan will say it soon enough.  And it's happier to think it's otherwise.

(All three of them are wearing shirts and pants of a strange cut, with embossed curves and spirals over them.  Parrolan has a large silver lapel-pin; Rinn a necklace with some small gems.)

"I'm afraid not." responds the man in the waistcoat. "The White Moon managed to locate our summoning point."

"The White Moon?  Who's - who're they?"

He glances around.  He hasn't seen these black crystals before - do the Tenevri have another previously-unknown substance?  He hasn't seen anyone wearing anything like this, either, so something is clearly up anyway.

(His hand strays toward the pocket where he has his computer, and the secret pocket next to it where he has a blaster.)

"And where is this!?"

"The White Moon are our enemies. The ones we've brought you here to help us against. We've summoned you to our timeline - we're in 21st century Tokyo. I don't know how much Wiseman explained, but it's not a good time to explain more."

(He doesn't have the least idea what backcountry town in Kenchester is "Tokyo.")

So the different factions in Kenchester's planetary government that were jockeying around have now come to an all-out fight?  "Look, I don't have any vested interest in any faction right now.  I just want to get to Arphax."

Rinn doesn't recognize "Tokyo" either, unfortunately.  On the other hand, she noticed the part about "twenty-first century" enough to halfway put it together with the strange costumes.

"Is this some masquerade party or something?"

"Twenty-first centur --"

He's pretty sure he's heard the name "Tokyo" before, too.  And that ball of radiation really did look weird enough to put him in mind of the wildest of wild tales about wormholes.

"Is this somehow Old Earth!?  In the Early Anthropocene, too?"

"We're on Earth, yes."

"Earth!?  But - how!?"

"However we got here - I'm Sky-Admiral Parrolan Milver of Alorica, and I've got vital information for your government about turning back the Tenevri invasion before they conquer any other worlds."

"I answer directly to the prince and can convey your warning to him, but that sounds as though it can wait until after this battle."

"Who are the Tenevri?"

"Aliens.  But if this's really the twenty-first century, they're not important; you wouldn't have heard..."

Well, if he's got his dates right.

"It's only been a century or so since someone first left the planet, right?"

"Earth had space travel during the Golden Kingdom, more than two thousand years ago. The first manned space-flight after their fall was just over half a century ago."

"We're early twenty-first century. Pre-Crystal Tokyo." the man in the waistcoat adds.

"You're saying those wild stories about ancient spaceflight were right!?"

"I would've thought I would've heard of this Golden Kingdom... and what's that 'Pre-Crystal Tokyo'?"

"If we don't stop them within eight years, the White Moon will take over the Earth, establish Tokyo as their capital and rename it Crystal Tokyo. Pre-Crystal Tokyo means before that happens - I've been sent back in time to change the future, and summoned you directly into the past to save the additional cost of transporting you from Nemesis to here."

"Wait, if we change the past, what happens to all of us?  And all our friends in the future?"

"Take over all the Earth?  I didn't think the Global Bureaucracy got started this early, and I know nobody else took over the whole planet before them -"

He pulls out his pocket computer.

"Computer, when did Old Earth's Global Bureaucracy come into effect worldwide?  Also, wiki 'White Moon' with reference to the Bureaucracy."

A man's voice, with an unnatural accent, reads out from what looks something like a purple cellphone.

"The World Government of Earth, popularly called the Global Bureaucracy, unified on 1 January 2184, though antecedents can be traced back to the mid-twentieth century.  Stop.  No references to 'White Moon' found in offered context."

"Well?" he snaps.

Are they not being honest here after all?

"We've already pulled you into an alternate timeline, so I wouldn't expect your actions here to modify things in your own timeline more. If you wanted a better understanding of the timeline mechanics you should have asked Wiseman about them."

"Wow!  This'll be a story!  So what's this alternate Earth like?"

"Will we be able to get back home?"

And will they be able to duplicate his secret sample of mithril on an early-Anthropocene tech base.  But he's not going to talk about that just yet.

"I tire of your questions. We are in the middle of a battle. Destroy the Sailor Senshi now and we can discuss these matters later."

"Destroy -"

She looks, disturbed, at the girls who seem to be facing him down.  Why, she wonders futilely, is there so much fighting in the galaxy?

"Right, countermand that, the prince wants them captured alive. Especially Sailor Moon."

Parrolan had really rather not take sides in an Old Earth quarrel so soon.

Jerach hadn't been in any fighting besides barroom brawls, until he got caught at Alorica when the Tenevri were attacking.  And even then - even with the followup attack that got the three of them separated from their ship and stranded on Kenchester - he hadn't done any of the fighting himself.

He'd rather not change that now.

"Well?" he says to the girls with a friendly shrug.  "That you?  What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"What do we have to say for ourselves? You're the ones who tried to kill a six-year-old! You're the ones who have been taking over shop and tricking people into buying cursed make-up and ice-cream! You try to kill everyone who gets in the way of your evil plans, even just by speaking up against your lying adds, and you've never explained yourselves to anyone! You're the ones who owe explanations here! All we have to say is that we found out what we were doing and we tracked you here to stop you! We are the pretty, sailor-suited soldiers of love and justice, the Sailor Senshi, and in the name of the Moon, we will punish you!"

"What!?"

What is even going on here?  Why would they be taking over shops?  Maybe to subtly poison people - but wouldn't Earth's government - well, governments - have stopped them long before now?

Or is this girl just telling wild lies?

And he suddenly notices for the first time these girls are young - noticeably younger even than Rinn.  What are they doing here?

He jumps back out of what would be the line of fire.

Jerach steps back too, holding up his hands.  "Don't know either of you; don't know what that name of the Moon's like."

"If we're taking sides here, I'm with -"

Rinn steps over to the edge of the Sailors' line.

"- the girls who aren't talking about destroying people and aren't cursing shops."

(And they look like they'll be more fun and more friendly, too.)

"Really, Sky-Admiral? Wiseman made out as though you would be our salvation, but you have brought a total of three soldiers, out of which one has betrayed us and another deserted us, both at the first opportunity? The prince will year about this, and so will Wiseman. And if I have my way whoever you answer to in your own timeline will hear about it too."

Rinn laughs hollowly.  Everyone keeps expecting her to work for them.  First her family as a whole, then Uncle Parrolan, then Brodrig, now this fellow...

He'd love for his superiors to hear about this.  Mostly because that would mean they were still alive and able to be talked with!

"Betrayed you?  I can't betray you - I've never owed allegiance to you in the first place!  Or to anyone else on Old Earth!  I'm not even really sure who you are!"

He really doesn't want to owe allegiance to anyone on Old Earth, either.  Though it's not impossible that there'd be more congenial powers in the era before the Global Bureaucracy.

"You agreed to Wiseman's offer of alliance. To go back on that now, after the price we paid to bring you here, is a grave betrayal against the Black Moon - and not one that will go unpunished."

"I what?  How?"

"And -" she looks at the Sailors, and points at the other people "- who are they?"

"Are you sure these are the same people Wiseman contacted? Tuxedo Mask knocked one of your crystals out of place. Could that have disrupted the device's targeting?"

The girl who made the angry speech earlier doesn't take her eyes off the man in the vest, but she addresses Rinn. "We don't know who they are. They just showed up a few weeks ago, and I've already mentioned most of what we know about them."

"Well, he sure didn't contact us.  Maybe some of those plotters in the Kenchester government who were darkly hinting at us earlier?  They seem like the sort of people who'd welcome a chance to take over Old Earth."

"Don't give them ideas!"

"Do you really think you can weasel your way out of your commitments with lies invented by the White Moon?"

"Do you think you can get away with dragooning bystanders just because you mistook them for your allies and don't want to admit your mistake? Moon princess halation!"

As she says this, she waves a white-and-pink rod and sends a spiral of white sparkles towards the man in the vest, who teleports out of the way in a burst of flickering purple flame, leaving the sparkles to destroy the black crystal behind him, and precedes to retaliate by shooting fire from his hands. The other people present join the battle as well, shouting, making strange hand gestures, and shooting water, fire, lightning, spinning golden hearts, candies and roses.

Parrolan staggers back, almost falling over.  They've got their own secret weapons too!?  Not just mithril plating like the Tenevri, but -- these aren't just lasers, they're full projectile beams and more, without any visible tanks; it's almost pure Clarktech!

Rinn looks around to see if she can grab one of those sticks for herself.

But not finding one, she ducks out of the way - and then pulls out the concealed blaster Uncle Parrolan had insisted she carry, and shoots a laser beam at the guy who was talking about weaseling out of commitments.

"Oh, it really is just like the tales," Jerach breathes, stepping back to watch the show.

He's quietly wondering if the other tales of Old Earth - the pre-Anthropocene ones about sparkling fairies - true after all?

"-- Careful, Rinn!  We don't know what they've got!"

Eventually the man in the vest will flicker away in a burst of purple flame in what is probably a retreat.

"Hi! Sorry you got caught up in our battle. I'm glad you weren't actually working for the Black Moon. I'm Sailor Moon, and these are Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Luna, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Mask. Thank you for not allying with the Black Moon against us, and thanks to the one of you who helped us against them for that, as well. I'm sorry you've been pulled here. If there's anything we can do to help you to get back to your own time, or to help you deal with being stuck here if you can't get back, please let us know."

"Glad to help!  Why're you naming yourselves after moons and such?"

(Explored space is big; even with Earth's fame, she hasn't heard of any of those other planets.)

Well, it looks like Rinn's gamble paid off!  He nods with approval, to her and then to the Sailors.

"Thank you.  We do need to get back at some point, but in the meantime... I don't know how advanced Earth's manufacturing and reverse-engineering capabilities are in this era?"

"The names were given to us along with our powers and duties. I'm don't know why those names in particular. You can call me Moon for short, if you want. What are your names?"

"I think I do have an idea of why we have those names, but we should probably head towards somewhere that isn't a Black Moon hideout before we talk more."

She's actually going to get to see Old Earth!  And talk with new friends!

"Sure!  I'm Rinn Milver; I've got so many questions for you!"

"Sky-Admiral Parrolan Milver of Alorica."  He's not going to mention the "Acting President" he added to Brodrig the day before yesterday.

"Jerach of Lebbagon."

"Pleased to meet you, Rinn, Parrolan and Jerach! Welcome to the 21st century. Could you stand together so we can bring us with you when we teleport out?"

"Teleport!?"

She runs over next to her uncle.

... who steps over between her and Jerach.

"Where to?  And - how!?"

"I think to start with we should head to a public park. Not somewhere the Black Moon are likely to have prepared to attack us, not a secure place we need to worry about bringing you if you're some sort of ploy by them, noone will mind our being there or talking. Ready?"

They're acting like they're in some private conspiracy.  Which doesn't necessarily imply the best about his access to resources, or his staying out of other fights, if he sticks with them in the long run.  But it's far too soon to bring that up.

"All right.  Ready."  

The Sailor Senshi will form a circle around the time-displaced people, link hands, close their eyes, say "sailor teleport" and rise into the air, glowing. Gravity briefly vanishes within the circle, and then they appear in a park in what may be recognisable as a late 20th to early 21st century city.

Not recognizable; it's not like any of them have seen a late-twentieth-century city before.

But the teleport and the antigravity -

Jerach staggers with shock.  "How'd you do that!?"

Rinn is looking around at them wide-eyed.  "Was that hyperspace!?"

"We have magic powers because we're the reincarnated guards of the moon princess."

"Long ago, Earth's moon was ruled by Queen Serenity, using the near-limitless power of the Phantasmal Silver Crystal. The Sailor Guards protected her daughter, Princess Serenity. When the kingdom fell, the queen used the crystal to ensure that her daughter would be reborn in the future, and that her guards would be reborn with her to protect her."

"We unfortunately can't answer your question as well as you're probably hoping for. So far as we're aware, noone alive understands the Silver Crystal. It seems to be one of a kind, acts in a way far outside what is typical of matter, and prior to last year hadn't been seen for millennia. We don't know where it originates from, why it acts the way it does or how to replicate the empowerment of the Sailor Guards."

Rinn's education had more gaps than she'd thought.

Unless this really is something new in the alternate universe.

"Oh wow!  Which of you is the princess?  And do you remember what it was like on the moon?"

Has to be something about the alternate universe.  Unless maybe that moon kingdom was a really long time ago?  He doesn't know ancient Earth history much at all.

"Are you serving this Princess - well, Queen - now?"

"We're still serving Serenity, yes. Her identity is secret. She's chosen to live as an ordinary human on Earth, so the most important thing we can do to keep her safe is to ensure that no-one who would target her is able to find her."

"We do remember life on the Moon, or parts of it. Our memories returned last year, when Serenity reawoke the power of the Silver Crystal, but there are gaps where we still don't remember things."

"And why has she chosen to live in secret?  Are her enemies too strong?  Does she not want to anger other nations?  Or what?"

There's one even bigger question to ask here.

"Do other people reincarnate too, or just you?"

"That's a very controversial question that people have been arguing over for a long time and I don't want to claim to have an authoritative answer on it. Although some of the other people who died in the same battle as us definitely also reincarnated, including some of our enemies."

"When the princess was reborn, she got a new family on Earth. She grew up with them for fourteen years before regaining her memories. She regained her memories of the Moon last year, but she still has her memories of her life on Earth as well. It's natural that she doesn't want to abandon it."

(Moon is going to look towards Rinn to see if she's enjoying listening this conversation of if she looks like she'd welcome being approached to start a different one.)

So this reincarnated Moon Kingdom isn't much of a kingdom after all just yet.  Just like Alorica isn't much anymore.

(And reincarnation?  He guesses he'll see when things come to it.  He's got far too many responsibilities in this life to be thinking that far ahead.)

Rinn is visibly excited about the princess and Moon Kingdom.

"Do you have your own palace -"

She abruptly stops.  Something's up with her language.  She's thinking of something like the great sprawling houses of upper-class families in Alorica (where she was living herself till the invasion), but the word she naturally chose - well, to start with, as soon as she thinks about it, it doesn't sound like she's speaking Erlic at all!  But after that, "palace" feels like it has connotations of explicit kings and queens and all sorts of other things that don't feel anything like Alorica where the families are regularly playing against each other in elections.

"- er, house?  And what's this language and how do I suddenly know it?"

Mercury presses one of her earings and an AR visor drops down from her tiara. She examines Rinn, Parrolan and Jerach through it.

"It looks as though there's a lingering effect from the black crystal device that lets you speak any language that the people you're talking to can."

"The language is Japanese, which is what most people speak around here. I don't think people are likely to read anything into your speaking it. I suppose since you look foreign people will take it as a sign you've put in the effort to learn the local language."

"Oh, that's handy!  Does it look like it'll last a while?

"I, er, I think I remember hearing of Japan somewhere back in school?  I remember Old Earth doesn't have as many languages as it used to - are there still a lot of languages now?"

"Thousands, but a lot of them are dying out. The translation effect looks as though it's designed to last indefinitely, absent disruption."

"Well, that's convenient," says Jerach.  "I do speak several languages, but not sure if any of them would be spoken here already... hey, got an idea!"

He pauses a moment, thinking about the languages he knows, and picks Espanyic.

"Rinn, kay yaresay haver in est Terra?"

* Roughly, "What do you want to do on this planet?"  The Espanyic language, though no one present here realizes it, is descended from Spanish; no guarantees are made for the phonetic accuracy of this transcription.

"Yaro vahr a est -"  She pauses, realizing she's speaking yet another language, and blinks.  "Wow, nice spell!"

"We do, as you were asking, have a palace on the moon, which brings us to the important practical question of where you're going to stay. The Moon Palace does seem like it might be the best option, although there are other possibilities if you object to staying on the moon - I expect there's plenty of people who'd be willing to host you as a favour to us."

"Ooh, you do have a palace?  But - it'd be so fun to see Earth -"

"I would like to talk to someone who knows about current manufacturing techniques... of course, perhaps your 'magic' would be relevant there..."

The quotation marks are clearly audible.  Parrolan is a man who didn't give credence to any of the legends of wormholes until he found himself falling through one, and is still certain everything he's seen is explainable by physics.

"So a manufacturing engineer? K.O. University isn't too far from here, we can take you to the engineering department."

"Is that the place to learn more about the magic you've been using?" Rinn says, connivingly.

"... does your 'magic' do anything about materials analysis?"

"It does."

"I've got a sample of this mysterious metal the Tenevri are using on their spaceships.  We think they're somehow using it to be able to find ships in hyperspace and pluck them out of it - which we thought was impossible at any reasonable scale.  So, we need to find out what this is."

"It's called mithril.  You know anything about mithril?"

"I haven't heard of mithril except in a fictional context, but I have a Silver Millennium computer with inbuilt sensors and analytic software much more advanced than anything we have in the modern day that I could scan it with to see if it can figure anything out."

"That's the best news I've heard since we got the mithril in the first place!  Let's go do that!"

"Er, what about that time we got to the escape pod before falling out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere?"

"But yes, let's go see that computer!"

She will produce a blue handheld computer, apparently from nowhere.

Parrolan takes out from his coat pocket a box about twice the size of an (Earth-vintage) smartphone, and runs his thumb over a sensor to unlock it.  The package inside is wrapped up in a black cloth, which he carefully folds back one corner of to reveal a jagged corner of something that glistens in the sunlight.

"What sensors do you have on that?"

Mercury can give him a detailed run-down of the sensors in the laptop. It's a wide array - the designers seem to have been aiming for 'everything', and working with technology far in advance of what 21st century earth has to offer, extensive magic, skilled engineers, and an enormous budget.

"Shall I scan the mithril?"

Parrolan recognizes...

... less than half of what she mentions, actually.  Even with the language spell translating the terminology, he studied politics and logistics, and the only sort of engineering certification he came anywhere close to was civil.  (Which, in half of human space, isn't considered a proper engineering certification at all.)

But he does recognize enough to be reasonably confident that if the Alorican materials engineers were hearing this, they'd think this scanner was well worth using.

"Let's do it."

She will scan the mithril with the computer.

... It's an alloy of several metals with a really weird crystal structure.

In fact, the crystal structure appears to be at least four-dimensional.  What the scanner here can see looks like a cross-section of something broader in another dimension.  Maybe if there's another scanner meant for tracking things in hyperspace... if the Sailors have such a thing?

"... huh.  How in the world did the Tenevri even make this?"

The computer has a scanner for tracking things in alternate dimensions. It doesn't have a pre-installed setting for hyperspace specifically but if the mithril has metallic bonds going into it it should be able to locate it by following those and calibrate itself to see how exactly the structure extends into it.

And so you get a pretty standard-looking crystal lattice structure.  Or it would be a pretty standard, except that it's in four dimensions, so the structure looks different just like a three-dimensional lattice isn't just a two-dimensional lattice rotated!  It's pretty clearly made for durability, even aside from the strange dimensional structure.

And there're also a few breaks in the lattice - maybe damage?

Mercury will show and explain these results to Parrolan.

"... That doesn't explain everything.  Even if we could duplicate it -"

"- It's the start to everything!  It's -- it's the sort of thing I'd expect to hear.  If you told me 'there's a way to build things stably extending into hyperspace; what happens a while down the road' I'd expect something on the order of keeping watch for ships in hyperspace and knocking them out of it and things like the Tenevri have been doing."

"Yeah, but... we need that long research project.  I was hoping this would tell us how to duplicate everything right away.  Will the Tenevri give us the time for that project?"

"We're in a whole other universe now, aren't we?  And we'll be able to get back at any time after we left, right?"

"I hope so, but this is the first I've heard of these alternate timelines, so I don't know how to expect them to behave."

"Then we've got all the time in the galaxy!"

All the time to have fun!

"Where do we go to see more of your friends?"

"... We might."

"We mostly do social stuff under our mundane identities and only use the Sailor Senshi identities for fighting, and we brought the whole team to attack the Black Moon base, so there isn't really anyone else we can introduce you to without compromising our identities."

"That's not true - there's people we've interacted with enough in the course of saving them to know they seemed nice and got along well with us. We could take these people to meet some of those. Or what about the Four Heavenly Kings - they were friends with Tuxedo Mask before the fall of the Moon Kingdom, right? We could see if Kunzite and Nephrite were resurrected when we were. And there's Venus' cat, he's pretty much part of the team. Ail and An know our identities and have their own secret identities to meet under, and so might Bunbo depending on how Metalia's death affected the Youma. And there's the image of the queen in Eternity Main."

"Image of the queen?  Like... a computer model of her?"

(Computer models have developed since the days of asking a primitive AI to pretend to be a specific person, but they're still noticeably different from the actual person.)

"That's an interesting way of separating your official and personal identities... I don't think I'd like it myself, but I know some people who might.  What led you to do it this way?"

"A computer model, yes. And we keep our identities secret for about the same reason the princess does - we have enemies we don't want to be able to come after us in our everyday lives. First that was the Dark Kingdom, who destroyed the Moon Kingdom and returned at the same time we did, but after that there was Ail and An, and now there's the Black Moon."

"Huh - that works?  They really haven't found out about your personal identities?  Is that more magic?"

"It is. To use most of our powers, we first need to activate them, and when our powers are active people can't recognise us as the same people as when they're inactive by appearance or voice unless they already know we're the same people."

Oh no.  What could spies or criminals do with that?

"I sure hope no one else has that magic."

That'd actually let her - and people like her - have her own life without people like Mother objecting it's beneath a Milver or Uncle Parrolan objecting it's unsafe!

"Can you give out that magic!?"

"We can't. We could if we could figure out how - Queen Serenity did, and we have the Silver Crystal - but we don't."

"We don't know of anyone else with the same magic. It's not impossible, but magic is rare enough that most people didn't think it existed until last year, and even in the Silver Millennium, when magic was common, hardly anyone had powers like ours. That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if the Black Moon had people who could do something similar, considering the amount of magic they seem to have at their disposal. Plus balaclavas are cheap, and they can do the same thing with no magic needed."

"Balaclavas?  Like... the sweets?"

"Can we talk with that computer model of your queen?  Or - who else would know about hyperspace?"

"No, like, a knitted hat that covers your face? Criminals use them to conceal their identities sometimes. Even just a mask like Tuxedo Mask wears can make it hard to tell who someone is."

"The Moon Palace is only within range of our teleportation for some of the Moon's orbit, so we'd need to check where it is in its orbit to make sure we can get there without landing ourselves in space."

"Jadeite was able to travel into an alternate dimension similar to hyperspace, so if it's true that the Four Heavenly Kings have been resurrected he might be able to help with that. Aside from that, I don't expect anyone knows about it - if anyone did I'd expect it to be a physicist, but I wouldn't expect physicists to keep a discovery like that secret and if they didn't keep it secret I'd expect to have heard about it. The Black Moon people might know about it - the fact that they're pulling people out of alternate timelines shows they clearly know a lot about physics that the public doesn't."

Rinn glances back and forth, torn between her desire to see the Moon Palace and her desire to look around Old Earth.

After a moment, the Moon Palace wins.  "Can you check on the Moon Palace's orbit!?"

"Yes... and... I'm concerned why the Black Moon faction would be suddenly revealing their advanced technology now.  Are they trying to do something unusually important for them?  And might they have any other secret tech?"

At this point, a woman comes into the park and is immediately surprised by the sight of the Sailor Warriors.

"Sailor Warriors? Is something going on?"

"Nothing you need to be afraid of, ma'am."

"Oh, good - in that case, could I have your autographs, Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus? My children are big fans of yours."

"Gladly. But in exchange, there's something you can do for us. Our enemies pulled these people into the present time from the distant future and we need somewhere for them to stay until we can find a way for them to get back. Our enemies will likely be looking for them, so you'll need to keep secret who they are and why they're staying with you. Can you do that?"

"I suppose so. I don't have a guest bedroom, though, unless two of my kids are willing to share a room you'll need to sleep in our living room."

"Oh, of course; thank you!"

That'll definitely be bigger than a spaceship cabin, at least, let alone an escape pod.

"Thank you -"

Her tongue trips over the various polite terms of address she's trying for, and then she copies the Sailors' "Ma'am."

"I wouldn't want to cause problems for your kids."

The one thing she knows about Old Earth houses is "crowded."  But then it's probably not quite so crowded in this era?  Or was it more so?  She doesn't remember, and doesn't feel like pulling out her computer to ask in front of this woman.

"I expect if they knew you were friends of the Sailor Warriors they'd be delighted about it. And as is, they'll get the autographs out of it."

"If you don't want to stay with her we can try to find you somewhere else. The Black Moon probably had a place set up for you to stay if you'd sided with them, so we owe it to you to find somewhere good."

"I have friends who might have spare rooms who I could ask."

Jerach shrugs.  "I don't know anyone else on this planet 'sides you all" - he sweeps his arm around the group "- so I'm happy to take up your offer for now.  I expect it won't be hard to be a lot better than whatever the Black Moon was planning."

"Autographs?"  Rinn repeats the unfamiliar word.  It's feeling something like exchanging computer keys, but she thought Old Earth didn't have computer keys yet in this era?  "Of course."

"And if it isn't a bother, then yes!"

(Parrolan nods without saying anything.)

"Then it's decided. Who should we make the autographs out to?"

The woman produces a small piece of paper with something printed on one side from her bag.

"If you could do one to Tsukino Usagi and Sailor Moon could do one each to Tsukino Usagi and Tsukino Shingo?"

Moon produces a bright pink pen set with a gem, writes something on the paper, and hands the pen and the receipt to Venus, who writes on the paper and gives the pen back to Moon and the paper to the woman.

"We should also figure out a way to get back in touch. If the Black Moon manage to find them they'll need to contact us quickly"

"Artemis and I worked with the image of the old Queen Serenity to connect the Teletia Ss to the modern phone network. We can give them the numbers for them and they'll be able to phone us."

"That sounds good. And if we need to contact you, me and Venus have disguise magic we can use to contact you without giving away our real identities or risking people seeing the Sailor Warriors going to the place you're staying at."

"That's an autograph?  But couldn't it be -- surely you've got printers?  Duplicators?"

If not, then hopefully one of their computers contains specs to half of modern technology?