The Mother And Child Reunion
(Is Only Emotion Away)
 
	Perhaps it began with the schizoid split between the sub-brains of an 
alien, and the decisions that followed. 
	Perhaps it began when the radiant light enveloped the falling broken 
mutant, and he vanished before ever striking the lava. Or perhaps when his 
lost daughter awakened, screaming, with fire in her brain. All of those 
were beginnings. 
	But perhaps the most significant of beginnings was the child-woman's 
dream...

	Moving through a big, incomprehensible place, with high walls, looking 
for the most important person in the world. Huge people strode by her, but 
none of them were the one...	"Mama," she called. "Mama, where are you?" 
	And then blinding, terrifying light filled the sky, and she cringed 
back against a hard, unyielding surface. "Mama, mama," she whimpered. "Save 
me, mama!" 
	But her savior did not come... 
	The light filled everything, and she was blinded. Then she was 
pitching forward, falling into darkness, into dark water, screaming, as 
overhead a shadow woman reached out her arms and shrieked, "Sammie!" 
	And then, the water strangled her...

	With a scream, Gel Sadra awoke. 
	The moon streaming in through the gauze curtains of her bed lent an 
aura of unreality to everything. She switched on the light. She was in her 
bed. Not drowning. "A dream," she whispered. "It was only a dream." 
	She had had that same dream before, but never so vividly as tonight. 
"What a terrible dream," she murmured. "Why do I keep dreaming the same 
thing, over and over? What does it mean? I'm so small in the dream... I 
must be a child. Thrown from-- is it a boat? And on the deck, over and 
over, the image of a woman, holding her arms out to me... Who *is* she?..." 
She thought about it, wondering. "Was I *ever* a child?" Gel Sadra was not 
stupid; she knew that normal human beings passed through stages of growth, 
from infant to child to adult. But she could not remember her own 
childhood-- her memory began to haze when she tried to remember farther 
than the day she took control of Galactor. "Why can't I remember?" Her 
whole life seemed no more than a year long. Surely she was someone else 
before this? 
	"Someone else...that woman screamed, 'Sammie!' Was that my name when I 
was a child? But then...who was that woman? She must have been my 
mother!..." Gel Sadra did not understand mothers very well, but she knew 
that all human beings had one-- why would she be an exception? "But if that 
woman was my mother...where is she now? Why don't I remember her? Mothers 
aren't supposed to leave their children... Why can't I remember anything 
else from my childhood? Where did it go?" She pulled her own hair in 
frustration. "Why can't I remember? Why can't I?" 
	She got up, pulled her costume out of the closet and began to dress. 
The clock told her it was late at night, but Sosai never slept...if anyone 
would know the truth of her past, it was him. What had happened to her 
childhood? To her mother? Why couldn't she remember?

	Sosai X was not pleased. "GEL SADRA," he rumbled. "WHY HAVE YOU 
SUMMONED ME?"
	"Forgive me, Sosai-sama," she said. "I had a dream--" 
	"ANOTHER OF YOUR STUPID NIGHTMARES? FOOL! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT 
TO BE BORED WITH SUCH TRIVIAL NONSENSE?" 
	"No, this is different, Sosai!" Gel Sadra argued. "I dreamed of my 
mother, Sosai. I dreamed I was a child, and there was a bright light and I 
fell into the water, and my mother was calling my name. Why did I dream 
this, Sosai? Why don't I remember being a child?" 
	"YOU FOOL! NOBODY REMEMBERS BEING A CHILD. CHILDREN ARE NOT REAL 
PEOPLE!" 
	"But Sosai! My men remember being children-- people write books about 
it-- why don't I?" 
	"I SEE WE HAVE A MISUNDERSTANDING HERE," X said. "VERY WELL, GEL 
SADRA. I WILL SHOW YOU YOUR TRUE NATURE." 
	The viewscreen that Sosai used to educate Gel Sadra lit, and she saw a 
tank in the center of a chamber full of eerie purple light. Deja vu and 
emotions Gel Sadra could not name assaulted her-- she *knew* this place! In 
the center of the tank was a child, a little girl. As Gel Sadra watched, 
with mixed fascination and horror, the child's body changed and grew. "YOU 
WERE AN INFANT, NOT EVEN TRULY HUMAN YET, WHEN I TOOK YOU AND MADE YOU INTO 
A MUTANT," X said, as the girl became a teen, reached the full growth of a 
human woman-- and contined to grow, in size and strength more like a man 
than a woman, no longer a normal human. "I TOOK SOMETHING THAT WAS NOTHING 
AND GAVE IT STRENGTH AND POWER, CREATING YOU, GEL SADRA," X said. "YOU OWE 
YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME." 
	"I understand that, Sosai-- but what about my mother? What happened to 
her?" 
	"FOOL! YOU HAVE NO MOTHER! YOU ARE THE IMMORTAL GEL SADRA, MY TOOL AND 
CREATION, AND *NOTHING MORE!* WHAT YOU USED TO BE IS *IRRELEVANT!*" 
	"What happened to her?" Gel Sadra screamed, begging. "Sosai, I must 
know! What became of my mother?" 
	"THEN WATCH, FOOL, AND LEARN THE TRUTH!" 
	Half of a cruise ship sank into the water. "YOUR PARENTS WERE ABOARD 
THE SAME SHIP AS YOU. IT SANK INTO THE WATER, AND ALL ABOARD WERE LOST, 
WHEN I CAME FOR YOU. YOU WOULD HAVE DIED, TOO, IF I HAD NOT SAVED YOU. YOUR 
MOTHER IS *DEAD*, GEL SADRA! FORGET ABOUT HER! I AM THE ONLY PARENT YOU 
HAVE!" 
	"Yes. I understand," Gel Sadra said humbly. She bowed low, and left. 
	But who *was* her mother, in reality? Gel Sadra was not disputing X-
sama, of course-- but was it possible that her mother had survived? Gel 
Sadra felt certain that her mother wasn't dead. She had learned to trust 
her hunches-- they had saved her life often in the past. 
	So how would she go about finding her mother? 
	Though she had no clear conception of time, of the passage of weeks 
and months, everybody else in Galactor relied on them. She checked 
Galactor's records, trying to find out how long she herself had been in 
power-- about a year and three-foruths. All right. Then she looked up all 
the ships that had sunk within a year of that time. None of the names were 
immediately familiar to her, of course, but Gel Sadra had other ways of 
getting information. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and one of the 
names she'd seen began to tug at her mind. When she looked back down at the 
page, the name jumped out at her-- *Elizabeth Moore*, out of Seaside in 
North America. It did not occur to Gel Sadra to think this a strange way of 
getting information-- she had nothing to compare it to, and it worked for 
her. 
	The Seaside Police Department should have records of the survivors. 
That was where she would go.

	Her daughter plunged into the dark water, screaming "*Mama!*" Pandora 
shrieked Sammie's name... 
	Her eyes opened to darkness, and a pounding on her door. "Dr. Pandora! 
Dr. Pandora!" 
	The voice was familiar, part of this reality, not that one. Pandora 
sighed in relief. "Ken, is that you?" 
	"Are you all right?" Ken's voice asked. 
	*I must have screamed Sammie's name out loud...* "I'm fine," she said. 
"Don't worry." 
	He sounded only slightly relieved. "Oh... well, all right. I'm sorry 
to bother you." 
	"Thank you anyway, Ken," Pandora called to him. 
	"Good night, Doctor." 
	But Pandora could not get the nightmare out of her head. It had been 
so vivid-- she had remembered once again her mad dash through the 
*Elizabeth Moore*'s corridors, she and Domingo screaming for Sammie-- had 
seen once more Domingo vaporized as the golden form of Sosai X smashed 
through-- crying desperately, she had reached the surface, in time to see 
her Sammie pitched overboard, and then, before she could jump in after her, 
being thrown back by the pitching of the bulkhead, away from her daughter, 
away-- 
	"Oh, Sammie," she whispered. "I can't make myself believe you're 
really dead, no matter how many times I remember..." She turned to the 
photographs. Her and Domingo's wedding portrait, the three of them posed 
with Sammie, Sammie in the adorable little sailor suit she'd worn the day 
the water had taken her away.. It was that photograph she lifted now. "No 
matter how many times," she murmured. "Could it possibly be my gift, 
telling me the truth?... No, I shouldn't let myself hope. More likely it's 
just a mother's brokenhearted dreams." She put it back down. "I'll visit 
Domingo's grave tomorrow," she decided. "Perhaps he can help me to 
understand..."

	"I'm looking for a survivor of the *Elizabeth Moore* accident two 
years ago," Gel Sadra said. 
	"The *Elizabeth Moore?* I don't think there were any survivors of that 
one," the clerk said. 
	"Idiot! There were. I'm the living proof." Gel Sadra had grown more 
certain with every moment that her mother lived. It was information that 
she did not question, coming from the shadowy realm of truths without facts 
that she relied on. 
	"Really?" The clerk looked at her. "Wait a minute. Now that I think 
about it, there was a lifeboat that made it to safety. Were you on that?" 
	"No. My mother was." Actually she had no idea whether her mother had 
been or not, but it made sense. 
	"Fine. Tell me her name, and I'll look her up in the survivors' list." 
	"You don't understand." Gel Sadra was getting irritated. "I came here 
to find *out* her name." 
	"You don't know your own mother's name?" 
	"I want you to look up all the female survivors." 
	"All right, then. Maybe we can backtrack from your name-- or don't you 
remember that, either?" 
	"My name wouldn't help and it's none of your business. Just look them 
up!" 
	"All right." The man began flipping through the book. "There was only 
one female survivor, I think-- ah, here she is. A mother with a child, 
too." 
	"That's her!" 
	"Did you have a younger sister?" 
	"No. The child's me." 
	"The child *can't* be you-- this must be the wrong woman. Look, this 
child's a little girl--" Gel Sadra was disguised as a man-- "and only three 
years old." 
	An infant... "Yes, that's me!" 
	The clerk burst out laughing. "That's ridiculous! Little children 
don't grow up into adults overnight." He tapped his forehead significantly. 
"Are you sure you're quite all right up there?" 
	Fury welled up, but it would wait. Her *mother--* "I'm positive. Just 
tell me her name!" 
	The clerk studied the book, which Gel Sadra could see had glossy 
passport pictures in it. "Ah, here we go. The name was... Pandora." 
	"Pandora!!" Gel Sadra snatched the book. 3 photographs were ranged on 
the page, a man, woman and child. "'Dr. Domingo Pandora'," she read, her 
voice shaking. "How..." 
	Oblivious to her reaction, the clerk was going on. "Yes, I remember 
them now. Both the woman and the man were famous members of ISO. I think 
they were... was it cyberneticists?" 
	Gel Sadra ignored him. "Dr. Sylvia Pandora!" It was her, it was her... 
And then Gel Sadra's eyes fell on the child at the bottom, and a terrifying 
sense of recognition flooded her mind. There was no doubt left in her mind, 
none at all. "This Sammie Pandora-- that's me, that's me!!" Sobbing, she 
slammed her fists down on the table. "I must have known this, known this 
all the time!" 
	The clerk had gotten out of his chair and was backing away from her, 
but Gel Sadra could spare no attention for him. She ran from the room, her 
mind reeling in shock. *Dr. Pandora-- is my--!* How often had she come so 
close to killing that woman?  *No, it can't be, she can't be, she can't...* 
And yet Gel Sadra knew she was. That strange feeling that had come over 
her, seeing Pandora-- it had been recognition!
	*Oh, what am I going to do? What am I going to do?* 
	The first thing she thought of was going to Sosai for advice. But hard 
on the heels of that came the memory of Sosai's anger at her for wanting to 
know who her mother was at all. Sosai would shout at her and call her a 
fool-- he wouldn't try to help her, wouldn't even try to understand how she 
felt. It had always been that way-- Sosai told her she needed to be hard 
and ruthless, to feel no emotions but anger. Her nightmares, her need for 
comfort in the middle of the night-- these were weaknesses, Sosai said, and 
had no place in the leader of Galactor. Even Berg Katse, pathetic fool 
though he'd been, had been stronger than she. 
	So her emotions were a weakness. And yet Gel Sadra could not help but 
want to be comforted, could not help but want someone to love her... Love. 
It was a strange word, a strange concept, one of the 4 motives Gel Sadra 
recognized. She did not understand it, but she used it. Love was a motive 
that made people sacrifice their own desires for the happiness or well-
being of someone else. By that definition, Gel Sadra loved Sosai X-- she 
was constantly doing things she didn't want to do, for his sake-- and he 
loved her, sacrificing his time and energy to rescue her from Gatchaman and 
things like that. But Sosai's was not a comforting sort of love. Whereas 
the love between a mother and daughter was... 
	This presented an idea to Gel Sadra, and she reasoned it out 
carefully. She understood two motives for doing things-- power and revenge. 
Love was another motive, but not one she understood, and fear was very 
powerful but only came up in cases of coercion. Power was the one she 
understood the best, she thought. Everyone wanted power. All of Galactor 
operated on desire for power. Any sensible person would seek power... 
unless some other motive interfered. 
	As Gel Sadra understood it, ISO fought for revenge. Well, maybe not 
ISO in general-- she really didn't understand people like Nambu at all-- 
but the Gatchaman team surely did. She knew that Galactor had killed Condor 
Joe's parents, it was in the files, and a suspicion recorded by Katse, that 
Red Impulse was the Eagle's father, had been confirmed by one of her own 
operations. She wasn't sure about the others, but it seemed logical to her 
that they were *all* fighting for revenge. Galactor had hurt and humiliated 
them... and killed people they loved. Their parents, because the love 
between a parent and a child was the strongest in the world. 
	Excited now, she carefully continued her line of reasoning. Dr. 
Pandora was her mother. Mothers were very much like their children-- Dr. 
Pandora would of course want power. But the place to get power was 
Galactor, and she *couldn't* join Galactor-- because she thought Galactor 
had killed her child! 
	Of course! Dr. Pandora didn't know that little Sammie had survived, to 
become Gel Sadra; all she'd seen was the water closing over her daughter's 
head. So if Gel Sadra told her the truth-- her desire for revenge on 
Galactor would be gone. She would want power, as her daughter did-- and of 
course Gel Sadra would give it to her. The two of them could rule the world 
together. And because Pandora loved her daughter, she would want to help 
her, and comfort her, and give her advice. 
	And Sosai was afraid of that, because Sosai was jealous! Sosai was 
afraid Gel Sadra would love her mother more than him! 
	Well, Gel Sadra could see an easy way out of *that* one. Once she had 
recruited Dr. Pandora, it would be a fait accompli-- Sosai couldn't do 
anything about it, and anyway, she would be so useful to their plans that 
he wouldn't want to. Then he would praise her, as he did so rarely lately. 
	But how to do it? Sosai would stop her if she tried to have Pandora 
brought to any of their bases, and if Gel Sadra tried to go to Pandora, 
Gatchaman would take her captive. No, she needed somewhere else, somewhere 
where Sosai couldn't see... She had it. Berg Katse's old villa in France, 
that she'd inherited when she took control of Galactor. The place was 
decorated in the worst taste imaginable-- Gel Sadra kept meaning to 
redecorate, but never had the time-- and so she spent very little time 
there. But some of the rooms were nice, and it was out of the way. That was 
the best idea. She'd have Pandora brought to her by semibal and then she 
would tell her the truth.

	Neither of their bodies had been recovered. Pandora had bought Domingo 
a headstone anyway-- she needed someplace to go, to commemorate his life-- 
but it had seemed too final, to buy one for Sammie. She could not make 
herself believe Sammie was dead. 
	She sat by Domingo's for half an hour, talking to him, telling him 
about her job, how much she missed him... and then she said, "You know, in 
some ways it was easier for me to accept that you'd gone, Domingo. I loved 
you-- I'll always love you-- but I can accept that you're forever gone to 
me. But I cannot believe our daughter is dead..." She began to cry, leaning 
her head on the stone. "Never... Sammie... my little Sammie..." 
	"Excuse me," a quiet, elderly voice said. 
	Quickly Pandora wiped her eyes. She turned. "Yes?" 
	"That name you were crying out-- 'Sammie'-- that is your child?" 
*What does he want?* "Yes... yes, it is." 
	"So I see... And you are Dr. Sylvia Pandora?" 
*If he were Galactor, he wouldn't bother to ask about Sammie.* 
"Yes..." 
	"Then I have some wonderful news for you. I was on the same ship as 
you and the man you grieve for, there. By the grace of God, I was permitted 
to survive... and I also saved your daughter. She is not dead!" 
*Not dead??* "Where-- where is she? Where's Sammie? My daughter--" She 
was practically on top of him in desperation. The man held up his hands. 
	"Be calm, please. I've been taking care of her, and coming here every 
day since I learned who her parents were. I've come to take you to her, if 
you want to go." 
	"Yes-- yes! Please, let's hurry!" 
	"There's no rush. Calm down, child." The elderly man put his arm 
around her. "Don't worry. We'll go to your daughter."


	Gel Sadra received the report with growing nervousness. She had sought 
out Domingo Pandora's grave, in hopes that Pandora would turn up there, and 
sure enough, Pandora had. Now all she had left to do was wait, with anxiety 
churning her up from the inside. *What if she doesn't love me?* 
	*Stupid! Of course she will. I ought to be more worried about what 
Sosai will say.* she berated herself. She ran through a mental checklist 
once more. *Pretty dress-- on? Check. Makeup-- on? Check. Do I have the 
facemask for dramatic effect? Maybe I ought to put it on now.* She looked 
at herself in the mirror. Normally she wore her costume, to appear 
frightening, but today she wanted to look beautiful instead. So she had 
chosen to wear a lovely, feminine gown in blue and purple that she'd found 
in Berg Katse's closet. What it had been doing there, she'd never know-- it 
wasn't quite her size, but it would do. Because Pandora had never seen her 
without her mask, she planned to wear a simple facemask, to show that she 
was indeed Gel Sadra, and then take it off. For the first time in her life, 
she wished she had a higher, more feminine voice. She tried imitating one, 
and got a cracking falsetto. Well, it didn't matter-- her mother would love 
her, no matter what she sounded like. 
	Wouldn't she?

	By the time the elderly man's car had driven into a semiballistic jet, 
and they'd taken off, Pandora knew that she was *not* going to meet her 
daughter.  
	How stupid could she be? If Galactor had done any research on her at 
all, they'd have discovered her loss. What kind of idiot went off with a 
total stranger in order to see a child that she *knew* was dead? It was 
amazing, the lengths to which people would go to fool themselves-- but this 
time, perhaps, it would be the end of her. She had little doubt that she 
was being taken to captivity in some Galactor base, and the prospect 
terrified her. 
	The jet shot up, terrifyingly fast, and came down with the same sort 
of speed, as semiballistics did. They landed somewhere, but before Pandora 
could get her bearings, they herded her into a helicopter. By the time the 
helicopter set down, it hadn't been more than 2 hours since she'd been 
taken captive-- far too soon for Dr. Nambu to start worrying about her. 
*They don't waste any time*, she thought bitterly, and looked around 
herself in surprise. They were at the base of a large hill. Galactors bases 
were usually set into valleys, and for a moment Pandora almost hoped she 
had been mistaken. 
	But then an "escort" of two men in Galactor greens arrived, and all 
doubt fled, along with all hope. 
	There was a stone wall around the base of the hill, covered with 
intricately carved gargoyles. It looked climbable, but of course there was 
no way to tell what lay on the other side. The Galactors led Pandora 
through an ironwork gate, up a winding path, through a beautiful and 
immense garden. Pandora recognized a good half of the plants as being 
poisonous. *Rappacini's garden*, she thought bitterly. *Whose daughter will 
I find in the garden? Certainly not mine...* 
	At the top of the hill stood a house-- it was designed like a villa, 
with open porches and crenellated balconies, but it was huge. There was a 
heavy hint of the dark opulence that had characterized many of the older 
Galactor bases, and the very fact that it looked like a house at all seemed 
to speak of the old days of Galactor. *It's a leftover, then.* They came up 
the steps, and the doors swung inward, admitting them to a vast and dimly 
lit hall. 
	As the doors slid shut behind them, Pandora's eyes adjusted. "It's 
just like you Galactors to use a mother's hopes against her," she said 
bitterly. "Why did you feel the need to deceive me? I was alone-- you could 
simply have pulled guns and done away with this subterfuge..." 
	The elderly man chuckled. "I was given specific instructions on what 
to say. Now my part in this is finished. If you have any more questions, 
you must ask the one who comes..." 
	As he spoke, the far doors opened, and Pandora was swamped with "that 
feeling" again. It was not a sensation she could describe-- perhaps deja 
vu, a feeling of almost-recognition. The light streaming from the far doors 
was brilliant, and at first hid the dim form walking through it, but 
Pandora knew who it had to be-- and then, as she approached closer, it was 
confirmed. 
	Gel Sadra. 
	The woman was wearing a purple and blue gown instead of her usual 
costume, and the mask she wore covered only the top of her face, revealing 
long, pale gold hair that spilled down onto her shoulders and mostly bared 
arms. For several seconds the two of them faced each other, staring, while 
a dozen possible scenarios ran through Pandora's head. Then Gel Sadra 
pulled off her mask, revealing a beautiful but somewhat childish face. 
	"Mother," she said into the silence. "You are my mother!" 
	"What??" Oh, it was too bitter. "What kind of game is this? You'll 
have to do better than *that*, Gel Sadra." 
	"This isn't a game! Mother, I am Sammie!" 
	"*Sammie??*" How dare Gel Sadra try to twist that name to her own 
perverted whims? "How do you know my daughter's name?" she demanded. "And 
how dare you come up with a ridiculous story like this? Do you think I 
wouldn't know my own daughter? My child was a *baby*, Gel Sadra. How 
gullible do you think I *am?*" 
	"Don't you believe me, mother? Don't you feel it, too? That 
recognition-- I know you've felt it, mother..." 
	"Don't call me mother!" 
	"But you *are* my mother! I'm Sammie!" 
	Did the poor deluded mutant actually *believe* it? "You *can't* be 
Sammie. Sammie was--" 
	"--a child, yes, I know. Sosai X had a glorious destiny planned for 
me, and there was no time for me to grow normally to adulthood. He took a 
child named Sammie Pandora and caused her to grow up, until Gel Sadra was 
born. That's me! I've only now learned that you are my mother..." 
	Could it be true? Could it possibly-- no, no! "You're lying, Gel 
Sadra! My Sammie was a sweet, gentle child, nothing like you!" 
	"Nothing?" There were tears in the Galactor leader's eyes. "Mother, I 
used to have nightmares, didn't I? And you would come in, and comfort me, 
and rock me to sleep... Sosai wants me to be hard and ruthless, and that's 
necessary, I suppose, to rule the world, but I need someone to comfort me.. 
I have such terrible nightmares, and Sosai doesn't help me.." 
	Horribly, Pandora was almost beginning to believe her. "I don't care 
about your nightmares! You're not my daughter!" she shouted desperately, 
trying to make it true. 
	"Look over here!" Gel Sadra said, getting angry. "I'll show you 
proof!" She walked to a wall and flicked a switch. Panels slid aside, 
revealing a viewscreen. Gel Sadra slipped in a tape, and the image of a 
child, a little girl floating naked and unconscious in a glass tank, 
appeared. Pandora gasped in horror-- the child was Sammie! 
	"Watch, mother," Gel Sadra said, and Pandora watched, unable to tear 
her eyes away. The child began to grow, her hair getting longer, her tiny 
body changing and elongating until Sammie as a young woman stood in the 
tank. Then her body continued to grow, reached Gel Sadra's size-- and the 
face, the face was unmistakably Gel Sadra's. 
	A hand fell on her shoulder. "Mother. Now do you believe?" 
	Pandora recoiled, struck Gel Sadra, who staggered back. "Why did you 
do that, mother!" Gel Sadra cried. 
	"You're not my daughter! Sammie is dead! I'd *rather* she be dead than 
be you, Gel Sadra!" 
	"What? No! Mother, we could rule the world together, the two of us..." 
	"Didn't you hear me? You're *not mine!* I have nothing to do with 
you!"
	Gel Sadra's face transformed into a mask of unreasoning rage. "Very 
well, if you won't admit you're my mother, then I'll treat you like a 
prisoner instead! Guards!" 
	They stepped forward. "Haa, Gel Sadra-sama?" 
	"Take her down to the dungeons and lock her in. You can do anything 
you like to her!" 
	Suddenly Pandora remembered...

	They were testing Sammie for psi, she and Mandy, and Sammie was being 
uncooperative. Sitting in the chair, with the electrodes taped to her, she 
squirmed. "You *promised*, mommy," she said. "You said, I get ice cream. 
Where?" 
	"Just *think* about it, Sammie. Just think about the ice cream, and 
see if you can tell what box it's in." 
	"No! Don't *wanna.* Want ice cream!" 
	"But if you just think about it--" 
	"Don't *wanna* think! Want ice cream! You promised! I hate you, I hate 
you!" 
	"Sammie!" 
	The readings spiked suddenly as Sammie tore free from the electrodes, 
going for the correct box, as Pandora dove at her. Sammie flipped the box 
open and grabbed the sundae cup. "Ha! I beat you," she said spitefully. 
"*My* ice cream!" And ran, Pandora pelting after her.

	...After Sammie's death, she had not thought of the bad things. Sammie 
had been a *good* little girl, a beautiful sweet child-- there was no point 
in remembering her occasional tantrums. But when Pandora saw Gel Sadra's 
expression, she remembered-- and knew. 
	Gel Sadra was telling the truth. 
	"Sammie," she whispered under her breath, as the guards carried her 
off. But Gel Sadra did not hear her.

	Back in one of the bedrooms, Gel Sadra put on her costume, except for 
the mask, and lay down, debating seriously whether to get drunk or not. The 
pain in her abdomen had gotten worse, though, like an animal gnawing at 
her-- it always did when she suffered a disappointment, and this one was 
worse than most. She quickly gulped down her pills-- and that let out 
getting drunk. She had been told that if she drank liquor after taking her 
pills, she would fall asleep and never wake up, and it was not an idea she 
appreciated. 
	As the pain abated, the feeling of well-being the pills brought 
flooded over her. Pandora could not keep rejecting her. She had to realize, 
sooner or later, that she and Gel Sadra were mother and daughter. She was 
just in shock now, or something. Gel Sadra could go back and try to 
convince her again... Yes, that was what she'd do.

	Pandora's mind was racing, planning, as her guards "escorted" her 
roughly downstairs. If Gel Sadra was Sammie... The plan she was devising 
was dangerous, and ran a high risk of getting her killed-- but it was no 
worse than being a helpless prisoner of Galactor was, and she was the only 
one who could try this. And if she succeeded... Gel Sadra was Sammie. It 
tore at her mother's soul to admit it, but she believed it now. Gel Sadra 
was also desperate for Pandora to accept her, and that gave Pandora a 
weapon. If Sosai X had taken a small child and made her an adult, that 
adult would still have the emotions of a child. Gel Sadra must think of X 
as her father, protector, mentor, personal god, all rolled into one. That 
alone was why she served him. What could Sammie know of power? Nothing, but 
when X told her it was what she wanted it would sound good to her. Shock 
and grief had caused Pandora to mishandle the situation before. She was so 
used to thinking of Gel Sadra as an incarnation of evil, when the truth was 
that Gel Sadra was innocent, too innocent to understand the difference 
between good and evil. But apparently she valued Pandora's opinion. 
Apparently their relationship meant something to her. If Pandora could only 
*show* Gel Sadra that X was evil, that what she was doing was wrong... 
	Her mind was brought roughly back to her present circumstances by the 
guards marching her into a cell and pushing her against a wall. She twisted 
her head away as one of the guards leaned into her face and leered, licking 
his lips. "Gel Sadra- sama said we could do whatever we want with you," he 
said, his breath fetid in her face. "So that's what just what we're gonna 
do, and there's nothing you can do about it, bitch. Get it?" 
	Pandora tried to pull away, uselessly, as the other man closed in on 
her as well. Had she just been thinking Gel Sadra was *innocent?* She 
abandoned thought of her plan, sick at heart. If Gel Sadra was capable of 
ordering something like this... killing was one thing, but *this...* how 
could there be anything left of Sammie's innocence in her at all? 
	Both men were bigger and stronger than she was-- simply putting up a 
struggle would not save her, all it would do was whet their disgusting 
appetites. Fighting nausea and horror, Pandora forced herself to remain 
still, not squirming or resisting as they ran meaty hands across her body. 
*I have to let them get distracted-- I'll only have one chance and I don't 
dare waste it.* She only wished there was some way to distract them rather 
than putting up with this foulness. Hands fumbled under her dress, and it 
was all she could do not to try to yank free right then. She twisted her 
head out of the way of a slobbering kiss, and it landed on her neck. Where 
was her chance? She couldn't bear much more of this. One of the men pressed 
right next to her, pinning her arms with his weight, as he pulled his pants 
down-- and there was her chance. *Now!* 
	Her knee came up and struck savagely into the exposed region. He 
screamed and staggered away from her, clutching his genitals, as she 
grabbed the other man's swinging arm and used his momentum to throw him. He 
got to his feet, and she chopped at his neck, dropping him. The first man, 
the one she'd kneed, had recovered somewhat and was coming toward her with 
a murderous expression, hands outstretched. Her foot caught him in the same 
place her knee had. He shrieked in agony as blood spurted and stained her 
shoe, and Pandora felt abruptly sick. She ran from the cell, through the 
open door, collapsed on the floor and was violently ill. 
	When she could think straight again, she got to her feet, weak from 
vomiting. The man in there she'd kicked had stopped screaming, but his 
moans of agony were just as bad. Her shoe was stained with his blood, now, 
and she wanted to kick it off, to be rid of it-- but she'd need it to 
escape. She headed up the stairs, her spirit bruised and desolate. Sammie 
was beyond her reach forever. All she could do was to try to escape and 
report to Dr. Nambu.

	Gel Sadra was startled to see the door of the cell wide open. What 
were those idiots thinking of? She stepped inside, and saw the two men 
lying on the floor. *What--* One man was lying in a pool of blood, his 
pants down around his knees. Gingerly, with one boot tip, Gel Sadra flipped 
him over. He was still moaning, and when she looked at his exposed crotch, 
she could see why. But what had his pants been doing down-- 
	--oh. Of course. She was being naive again. When she gave orders that 
they could do whatever they liked, she meant for them to roughhouse Pandora 
a little, not to do *this!* With savage fury, she kicked the dying man-- 
how *dare* he try to do *that* to her mother! Animal! She pulled her gun 
and blasted him and his silent companion. Then she turned and pelted up the 
stairs. If those bastards had let Pandora escape on her--! 
	As she cleared the stairs, she headed toward the door-- and that was 
when she heard the scream.

	Pandora found her way out of the base-- which was designed as if it 
actually was a person's home-- with relative ease. Outside, she took a deep 
breath and began running around the side of the house. She knew better than 
to cut through the deadly garden-- some of the plants there could kill with 
a single scratch. She didn't want to head directly down the path to the 
gate, though-- she could see a pair of guards there-- so she circled the 
mansion, finding that the deadliness of the garden decreased the farther 
she got from the main path. When the garden had begun to look tame, she 
found another path meandering down to the wall, and began running down it. 
	Abruptly the ground in front of her lifted. She tripped and sprawled, 
as a vaguely familiar, high-pitched male voice laughed. *What--?* Pandora 
spun, and saw what she had not seen before-- two posts, hidden in the 
foliage but with an infrared beam clearly exposed between them. The 
laughter was coming from speakers set into the posts, creating a stereo 
effect and making it actually sound as if someone was there. 
	"Welcome to my humble abode," the voice continued. It was too fast, 
the voice of a hypermanic person, and she abruptly recognized it from 
briefing tapes-- the voice of the late Berg Katse. "I don't really 
appreciate unexpected guests, but since it would be inhospitable for me to 
simply leave you to your own devices, I'll send my pet to entertain you 
until I get back! Hahahaha!" 
	At that point, a thing with numerous tentacles heaved itself out of 
the garden and shot its tendrils directly at Pandora. That was when she 
screamed.  
	
	Gel Sadra followed the noises around the side of the villa, to see 
with horror Pandora stumbling through the garden, desperately trying to 
outrun a small mecha. The tentacles were gaining on her-- they were going 
to kill her! *No!* 
	Pulling her gun, Gel Sadra raced forward with a cry and fired, the gun 
on its highest setting. One of the tentacles blistered and thrashed wildly. 
Gel Sadra fired, again and again, convincing the thing to turn and go for 
her. She stood her ground and shot at it, destroying tentacles and bruising 
the tougher armored body-- until her energy cell ran out. For a second, Gel 
Sadra stared at the useless gun. She pointed it again, pulled the trigger-- 
and nothing came out. And the thing was still active, and coming directly 
at her.
Gel Sadra shrieked, threw the gun and ran, crashing through the flower 
beds and vine-entwined bushes of the garden. Fast as she was, though, even 
damaged the mecha was a lot faster. "Tasukete!" Gel Sadra screamed, 
forgetting that none of her men were close enough to hear and save her. 
"Help me!" 
	Pandora had stood frozen for several seconds as the thing began 
lumbering after Gel Sadra. *She's risking her life for me... Sammie...* 
Then Gel Sadra screamed for help, and all control broke. Pandora scooped up 
rocks, sticks, anything, and charged forward. 
	"Yaaa!" She hurled stuff at the thing, trying desperately to get its 
attention. What was this? Gel Sadra's discarded gun! She picked it up, 
flipped open the power cell-- which was too drained to operate the gun, but 
never too drained to explode-- and quickly pulled two wires loose, 
reattaching them crossed. Then she hurled it. "Duck, Gel Sadra!" 
	The gun exploded in midair, though, before it had quite reached the 
mecha, and so it didn't do as much damage as she'd hoped. Now it was after 
*her* again. She ran, and saw Gel Sadra frantically motioning at her. "This 
way, bring it this way! I've got a plan!" 
	Gel Sadra's plan had to be better than none at all, so Pandora 
circled, but she was tiring, growing more and more exhausted with every 
stride. Gel Sadra moved in to meet her, until the two of them were running 
parallel, the tentacles hot on their heels.  "We're... heading... into the 
poison plants!" Pandora gasped. "Got to.. turn!" 
	"No!" Gel Sadra turned on a diagonal toward Pandora, intercepting and 
scooping her up while still leading the monster in the same direction. 
Pandora gasped as Gel Sadra lifted and carried her, still running, as if 
*she* were the child. "If... I throw you... toward that tree... could you 
catch it?" Gel Sadra panted, now struggling for breath with her added 
burden. 
	"Yes!" 
	"Then, *now!*" 
	With strength that was not quite human, Gel Sadra heaved Pandora up 
toward a tree. She grabbed a branch, pulled herself onto it, and watched as 
Gel Sadra knelt and pounded her fists on what looked like a tree stump. Gel 
Sadra shouted, "Jump down and get cover!" 
	Pandora leapt behind a large rock, and seconds later Gel Sadra fell 
over the top of the rock, almost on top of Pandora. Then there was an 
explosion, Both of them pressed themselves to the ground as shrapnel and a 
shockwave wind blew over their heads, the lee of the rock sheltering them. 
When the light and wind died, Pandora lifted her head. There was a huge 
hole in the garden, and smoking wreckage, but no mecha. 
	"Idiot Berg Katse," Gel Sadra said. "If Sosai hadn't made me study the 
defenses of this place, we could have both been killed." She turned to 
Pandora. "Mother, I saved your life. I killed the men who tried to do... 
*that* to you. Won't you believe me now?"  
	Even with the grotesque voice, Pandora could hear the plaintive words 
as if they were Sammie's. She looked at her daughter, and tears filled her 
eyes. Gel Sadra, the heartless leader of Galactor, had risked her life to 
save Pandora's. Didn't that make her truly Sammie after all? It broke her 
heart, to have to hurt her child this way-- but Gel Sadra had taken the 
mantle of an adult, and Pandora had to do what she had to do in order to 
save the world. 
	"Yes, I believe you," she said in a flat, monotonal voice. Gel Sadra 
didn't catch the hint. 
	"Then you'll join me!" she cried, overjoyed. 
	"No." Pandora got to her feet. 
	"No? What do you mean, 'no', mother?" Gel Sadra also stood. "You admit 
that I'm Sammie. There's no more reason for you to hate Galactor! You can 
join us now!" 
	"What makes you think I want to join Galactor? For that matter, what 
makes you think I don't still hate it-- Gel Sadra?" 
	"But... why should you? The only reason you hated us was because you 
thought Galactor had killed me..." 
	"What makes you think that's why I hate Galactor?" 
	Gel Sadra stood, lost in confusion. Pandora went on, "When I believed 
Galactor had murdered my daughter, I had a very personal reason to hate it, 
yes. But there are reasons less personal, not the least of which is that 
Galactor is *evil!* You murder wantonly, you care nothing for the lives 
lost in pursuit of your sick dream-- how many people have you personally 
killed, Gel Sadra? *You* are evil!" 
	"No! What do you mean, 'evil'-- that word means nothing! Anyone can 
make it mean what they want. What do people's lives matter?" 
	 "*All* that matters is people's lives!" Pandora shouted. "You're too 
young to have experienced it, Gel Sadra-- but there are people who love 
each other in this world. There are good people, who help others. There are 
gifted, talented people who help the human race. But you don't care! You 
just go on, killing indiscriminately-- how many lives have you destroyed, 
Gel Sadra? How many children have you taken from their parents, as I 
thought you'd been taken from me? How many times have you repeated the 
misery I have suffered, to lose a child, to lose a husband? What about your 
father, Gel Sadra? Do you know what happened to him?" 
	"No, but I--" 
	"He was *vaporized!* He was destroyed, by your precious Sosai X! Your 
daddy, who loved you, who used to take you to the park on weekends, who 
showed everybody pictures of his little girl-- he was so proud of you--" 
Pandora's voice broke. "Gel Sadra, you're only a child. You were taken in 
by Sosai X's words-- one can hardly blame you for what you've done. But 
now-- Gel Sadra, if you wish to be treated like an adult you must act like 
one, take the consequences like one." 
	"I *am* an adult!" 
	"All right, then. Sosai X is evil! If you want my love, you must 
reject him. If you want me to care for you like a mother again, you must 
fight him, because I'm sworn to destroy him, and how can even a mother love 
what is evil? I *want* to love you-- you're my baby Sammie-- but as long as 
you are Galactor leader Gel Sadra then I cannot! As long as you serve Sosai 
X we must fight! Do you understand?" 
	Gel Sadra stared at her. "I don't know what to do," she whispered. 
	"You can--" 
	"Shut up! You've said enough!" At the expression on Pandora's face, 
Gel Sadra's face crumpled. "I'm sorry... but I *want* to rule the world! 
Sosai promised me... Perhaps I do have to be hard and ruthless, completely, 
as he said." Her voice turned hard, and Pandora's heart sank. *It didn't 
work... I've lost her.* "I'm too confused. You say one thing, Sosai says 
another-- perhaps I will bring you to Sosai and let you debate with *him.* 
Then I can decide..." 
	Terror ran like an electric shock through Pandora's body. "Gel Sadra, 
no! If you bring me to Sosai X, it's my death warrant, he'll kill me!" 
	"No, he won't. You're my mother! He wouldn't kill you. You don't 
understand him, Mother." Gel Sadra took Pandora's arm in a firm grip. 
"That's what I'll do. I'll bring you to him." 
	It was useless to argue. Pandora felt a wave of unassailable despair. 
Her daughter was gone forever, in a manner far more horrible than simply 
drowning, and she herself would be destroyed by Sosai X.

	They hadn't been looking for Dr. Pandora. 
	The Gatchaman team had been dispatched to the Andean base because 
strange energy fluxes had been picked up there, energy that might indicate 
X's presence. They knew X was considerably more mobile now than he'd been 
during the war with Berg Katse-- they had already clashed with him 
personally, or as personally as one could get with a golden spaceship, 
once-- and so it was perfectly possible that this base was where he was 
located. 
	None of them expected to see Gel Sadra's round craft arrive-- 
unfortunately, they weren't in the New God Phoenix at the time, or they 
could have tried to shoot it down. However, it gave them an idea. While 
Jun, Jimpei and Ryu continued to look for another entrance, Ken and Joe 
headed up the cliffside and found the bay that the craft was entering. It 
was too late to get inside-- the doors had slammed shut before even they 
could leap. But Ken shook his head. "It's still too good an opportunity to 
waste," he said. "Gatchaman to G-3. Come in." 
	"Haven't found anything yet, Ken," she replied. 
	"We have. Come on up." 
	By the time the others got there, Ken and Joe had begun the laborious 
work of cutting their way through the bay doors. Jun, Jinpei and Ryu set 
their laser frequencies to heterodyne with the other two, and the work went 
much faster-- in minutes, they had melted a hole big enough for Jinpei to 
stick his head into and peer in. "There's nobody there," he reported. "Just 
Gel Sadra's escape ship." 
	"Okay," Ken said. "Get out of the way." 
	In another few minutes, the hole was big enough to permit even Ryu's 
entry. The five of them leapt down, and Jun motioned with her head at the 
craft. "Ken, what do you want me to do with that?" 
	Ken thought a second. "Rig the controls. I want her alive, so I want 
her to be able to get out, but after she's clear of the base the thing 
should land itself, so we can get at her. And check if there's anything 
valuable in there-- we'll be too occupied with Gel Sadra to check later." 
	"Roger." Jun vanished into Gel Sadra's ship, and the rest of them 
headed out.

	"GEL SADRA, YOU HAVE DISOBEYED ME!" X thundered. "I ORDERED YOU TO 
*FORGET* ABOUT YOUR MOTHER!" 
	"But, Sosai..." 
	"ENOUGH!" 
	Pandora could see a drastic change in Gel Sadra's mannerisms as she 
addressed X. Here was where her little girl had gone, usually obedient, 
sometimes rebellious. It was precisely Sammie's obedient nature that X had 
perverted, making Gel Sadra obedient to *him.* Gel Sadra's voice rose in 
pitch and her whole manner changed, becoming more humble, self-abasing. 
	"I WILL FORGIVE YOU, BECAUSE PANDORA IS A USEFUL PRISONER. YOU WILL 
PUT HER IN A CELL, GEL SADRA, AND FORGET SHE EXISTS. I WILL CONDUCT THE 
INTERROGATION OF HER PERSONALLY. YOU ARE TO HAVE *NO* CONTACT WITH HER, 
FROM THIS MOMENT FORTH!" 
	"Hai. I understand, Sosai," Gel Sadra whispered, her voice breaking. 
Pandora stared at her emptily-- she was going to do it. She was going to 
let Sosai X torture and kill Pandora, and never question.
	"Sammie," she whispered, already tortured. 
	Gel Sadra heard, and anger took shape within her grief. *He *is* 
jealous, isn't he? Why? I was loyal...* But she remembered Pandora's words, 
and wondered. Perhaps Sosai had been wiser than she'd thought, to forbid 
her contact with her mother? 
	And perhaps Pandora had been wiser than she'd thought, to warn her 
against Sosai X? 
	Gel Sadra turned, a plan already forming. She needed time to think, to 
consider her mother's words, and if Sosai locked Dr. Pandora up, Gel Sadra 
would never get a chance to see her again... and what if her mother was 
*right?* Gel Sadra would have betrayed her. But if Pandora were to escape-- 
well, Sosai would yell, he always did, but she'd live through that. And she 
would have time to consider her mother's words. But it had to *look* as if 
Pandora had escaped all by herself, and so Gel Sadra was forced to play it 
out. "You and you, take Dr. Pandora to her cell." Those two men were little 
better than hydroencephalic morons-- surely the person who had defeated 
those men back at Katse's villa should have no problem taking them out. She 
thought desperately at her mother, *This is the best I can do! Kill them 
and escape!* 
	Pandora turned astonished eyes toward Gel Sadra-- 
	--and then the two men guarding her dropped dead. 
	"N-nanto?" Gel Sadra gasped, as the familiar laughter rang out. 
Several men moved to cover Pandora with their guns. 
	A shadow fell across the wall from a balcony. "Jittai o misezu ni 
shinobiyoru shiroi kage," a man's voice called out. The white shadow that 
slips in unseen... "Kagaku Ninja Tai *Gatchaman!*" 
	After that it was chaos. X was booming orders to his men, something 
about not letting Pandora get away, and Gel Sadra could see a tight knot of 
men herding her mother away. The ninja team had come in full force after 
their leader's dramatic appearance, and more men were shooting at them-- 
and getting killed for it. Gel Sadra leapt down, dodging the crossfire, 
heading for her mother-- and X's voice boomed, "SCIENCE NINJA TEAM, STOP!"
	They stopped. A man was holding a gun to Pandora's head. "One move out 
of you ninjas and she gets it!" he snarled. 
	Abruptly Gel Sadra was swamped with an overwhelming sense of horror. 
Her heartbeat seemed to fill the room, and time slowed. As if watching a 
film, she saw the Gatchamen drop their weapons, transform out of bird style 
as they threw their wristbands to the floor, faces locked in expressions of 
grim anger and fear-- then a gunshot, spraying blood from her mother's 
head, and Pandora was falling, falling-- 
	The real world came back before Gel Sadra had a chance to scream. It 
hadn't happened yet-- but it was going to, going to! She grabbed her gun 
and shrieked her denial as she fired, blowing away the Galactor's hand, 
then head. The dead man's gun clattered to the floor, and Pandora picked it 
up, as the Science Ninja Team went back into action and the chaos began 
again. 
	"KILL GEL SADRA AND PANDORA!" X was roaring, but Gatchaman was between 
them and the main body of the men. The ones that were in range to try fell 
to Gel Sadra's and Pandora's guns. Pandora began running toward her 
daughter-- 
	--and a glass jar slammed down on her, stunning her. A hole in the 
floor opened like an iris, and the jar sank through-- 
	--"*No!*" Gel Sadra cried, diving into the hole-- too late. The iris 
closed on her leg, suspending her over a darkened shaft, and her own 
shrieks echoed unbearably loudly in her ears.

	*Why would Gel Sadra save Pandora?* 
	The question rang through Ken's mind as he ran toward the waving leg. 
Behind him, the others dispatched the last Galactors. Ken reached the hole 
in the flor with the black-booted leg caught in it-- he could hear hollow, 
echoing screams coming from within, and felt slightly sick. Not even Gel 
Sadra deserved such a fate. "Joe! Can you get this open?" 
	Joe was there in a second. "Let's-- see--" With a massive effort of 
strength, Joe simply tore out the metal plates that formed the iris, and 
Ken and Ryu hauled Gel Sadra out. The wound was terrible-- the contracting 
metal plates had cut deeply into Gel Sadra's flesh, and white glimmers of 
bone were visible through the blood. 
	"Mother..." Gel Sadra whimpered. 
	"Mother?" Ken asked, puzzled. He decided to ignore it. "Gel Sadra, you 
are helpless. You can either agree to let us carry you off peacefully, or 
we will knock you unconscious--" 
	"There's no time for this!" Gel Sdra shouted, seeming to regain 
strength. "We have to save my mother!" 
	"Your mother?" 
	"Dr. Pandora is my mother!" 
	"*What?*" 
	"Now wait a minute--" 
	"Dr. Pandora is--?" 
	"Shut up, shut up!" Gel Sadra shouted as they all began to speak at 
once. "I saw where Sosai took her, she's going to the magnetic acceleration 
chamber! We have to save her!" 
	Ken shoved doubt aside for the moment. If it was a trap, or a trick... 
well, with Dr. Pandora's life at stake, they'd take the chance. "All right, 
where's the chamber?" 
	"I can take you there-- AAAIeee!" She tried to lever herself up, and 
crashed with a scream as weight came on her bad leg. 
	"No, you can't! We don't have time, Gel Sadra-- give us directions!" 
	She was panicking. "We don't have time for me to give directions, 
either!" 
	"Ken!" Joe said. "I'll carry Gel Sadra. We're wasting time!" With 
enhanced cybernetic strength, he lifted the huge woman, who pointed. 
	"Fastest way-- there!" 
	They ran, Joe pushing himself to keep the pace with Gel Sadra in his 
arms. She weighed more than he did, even with his cybernetic components, 
and so it was difficult not to overbalance or trip-- but they made it into 
the room. A pair of Galactors were manipulating controls as a small craft 
with Pandora in it made its way onto a magnetic acceleration track. "No! 
Mother! You two, stop!" Gel Sadra shouted. They ignored her, one man 
pulling a gun to deal with the Science Ninja Team as another pressed the 
button that sent Pandora up the track. 
	"Kuso!" Joe dropped Gel Sadra and ran, as fast as he could, up the 
track himself. He caught onto Pandora's vehicle just as it blasted off. 
	"It's going to blow up!" Gel Sadra shrieked. "Mother!" 
	Ken didn't waste time questioning her. By now, the two Galactors were 
dead, and Ken had spotted another vehicle. "Gel Sadra! This one has pilot's 
controls in it! Will it blow up?" 
	"No, it shouldn't--" 
	"All right! How do you get it onto the track?" 
	Supported by Ryu, Gel Sadra manned the controls. "Like this!" She 
pressed some buttons, and the little craft came up onto the track. 
	"Ken! You'll pick them up?" Jun asked. 
	"Right! Gel Sadra, how do you fly this--" 
	"Let me do it! I can fly it, and it's faster than explaining--" 
	"We both go! Ryu, help me--" They got Gel Sadra into the ship, and 
then Ken squeezed in, practically on her lap. She whimpered as he 
accidentally bumped into her leg, but managed not to cry out. "Hit the 
green button!" she shouted to Ryu, and they began speeding up the track, 
several g's pressing them down. Then they were airborne.

	On top of Pandora's craft, Joe-- having heard Gel Sadra's cry before 
the ship went out of range-- knew he had only minutes, perhaps seconds, to 
get Pandora out before it blew. He moved to the side Pandora wasn't leaning 
against, and pounded on it, cracking the transparent plastic of the window. 
A few more good pounds had it shattered. He pulled an unconscious Pandora 
out-- and looked down. 
	He *had* had a notion of simply jumping down. Now that they were 
several hundred feet from the ground, though, that was rather 
contraindicated. Not even he could jump that distance with an unconscious 
person in his arms and land safely. 
	The bracelet crackled. "Joe, jump! We're coming to get you!" 
	"Roger!" He leapt, holding Pandora's wrists in his, outstretched, as 
tightly as he dared without damaging her. Another small craft, with its top 
coming down, was rocketing swiftly toward him, and he angled to land on it. 
	That was when they discovered a minor problem.
	 The craft's trajectory abruptly changed, dipping violently. "Damn 
those idiots, they didn't put enough fuel in this thing!" Gel Sadra cried, 
panicked. "It's too heavy, I can't get control!" 
	"Too heavy?" 
	"We were shot out with force calculated for two people. Now there's 
four, and we haven't got the fuel to compensate. We're going down!" 
	Ken glanced at Joe, who nodded and leapt off the craft. They were 
still heading into a deep nosedive. "We've got to lighten more! Gatchaman, 
can you jump out?" 
	"Can I trust you to land safely?" 
	"I'm not a novice, Gatchaman! I won't let any harm come to my mother-- 
go!" 
	Ken went, hoping fervently that he was doing the right thing. Maybe 
when Pandora woke up, she could explain to him what was going on.

	Jun was already running to the area where the ship would come down. 
She saw, horrified, that there were hardly any braking thrusters-- Gel 
Sadra was using ailerons to pull up, but it wasn't going to be enough. They 
were going to crash. She ran faster, as Joe landed next to her. Then the 
two of them stopped short as the little craft slammed into the ground, 
bounced, plowed a deep furrow, and came to a stop, billowing smoke. There 
was the "crump" of a small explosion, and flames became visible behind the 
smoke. 
	"Dr. Pandora!" They ran, Ken landing nearby and catching up with them. 
	A bizarre shape was forming in the smoke. As they and it approached 
each other, it came clearer-- Gel Sadra, hopping on one leg, supporting Dr. 
Pandora's dazed form. It was not a stable arrangement; as soon as they were 
out of the worst of the smoke, Gel Sadra toppled, and Ken and Joe pulled 
the two of them farther to safety. Pandora was sitting up and looking 
around confusedly. 
	"Mother," Gel Sadra said. "I... saved you.. again... love me... now?" 
	And then she seemed to sink in on herself, the energy going out of 
her. 
	Pandora shook her head to clear it, and stared at Gel Sadra. "Get that 
boot off her leg!" she instructed, pulling off Gel Sadra's mask. A feminine 
face, sweet in repose, was revealed amid a pile of golden hair. Pandora 
felt for her daughter's pulse. "She's in shock. Where's the *New God 
Phoenix?*" 
	"Piemur! Home in on my signal and get over here!" Ken told his 
bracelet. 
	"Ro-ger-" 
	Jun had finished cutting the boot free from Gel Sadra's injury. 
Pandora looked at Ken. "How did this happen to her leg?" 
	"She jumped in a hole and it closed on her. Going after you. Dr. 
Pandora, can it be true that you are Gel Sadra's mother?" 
	"Yes," Pandora said quietly. "She did turn against X for me, didn't 
she... Sammie..." She looked back at Ken. "I'll explain everything on the 
way home. Gel Sadra isn't the enemy anymore."

	Gel Sadra awakened in an antiseptic-smelling place, the familiar 
gnawing agony like acid in her bones, passing in waves through her. She 
whimpered softly-- *where am I?*  
	And then, as she opened her eyes, she saw Pandora, and remembered. 
	"Mother! You're all right!" 
	"So are you," Pandora returned, smiling. "We've fixed your leg with a 
cast and a metal prosthesis until it heals on its own. How do you feel?" 
	"I-- I'm glad you're safe but-- oh, where are my pills, it hurts, it 
hurts..." 
	"Your pills?" Pandora frowned. "What pills?" 
	"Where's my costume-- they should be in there..." 
	"You mean these." Pandora brought over a small bottle of candy-coated 
blue pills. 
	"Yes-- yes! Please let me have them, Mother, it hurts..." 
	"I'll give them to you. How many?" Pandora spilled pills out into her 
hand, and gave Gel Sadra 3 as instructed, apprehensively. "But what is it 
that hurts? What are these pills?" 
	"I don't know," Gel Sadra said, relaxing as they took effect. 
"Sometimes, when I wake up or when something bad happens to me, my whole 
body hurts, inside. It used to be just in my stomach, but lately it's been 
in my arms and legs as well... like something tearing at me, burning me. 
The pills get rid of it, though." 
	"Did-- did X ever have a doctor check you?" 
	"My doctor's the one who gave me the pills," Gel Sadra replied. She 
sat up. "I don't really want to talk about pills and things right now. I'm 
in an ISO base, aren't I? Tell me what's to become of me, Mother-- what 
will Nambu do to me?" 
	"That depends." Pandora sat down by the bed. "How much do you know 
about X's Solar Shift Plan?" 
	"He was going to use it to make me empress of the world..." There was 
a sound of wistful loss in Gel Sadra's voice. 
	"No, he wasn't. Look at this-- we retrieved these tapes from inside 
your escape ship. Watch." Pandora lowered a viewscreen, put the tape in, 
and turned it on. Gel Sadra watched, first with curiosity, then with 
dawning horror, as the equations for the Solar Shift Plan scrolled past, 
with diagrams of planned trajectories... "The Main Beam Cannons-- set on 
Earth, Mars and Venus-- to knock the sun into a rogue star trajectory-- 
swallowing or leaving the planets of the Solar System behind..." Gel Sadra 
whispered, horrified. The rest of the plan soon became terrifyingly clear-- 
the energies harnessed by the Solar Shift Plan would cause gravitational 
tides that would rip Earth and Mars apart, simultaneously shooting the sun 
into a hyperspatial gateway, where it would emerge near another solar 
system, boiling or ripping apart possibly inhabited planets.
	"And I-- helped *plan* this. I built his bases for him. I would have.. 
destroyed... the Earth..." Horror gave way to hysteria, and Gel Sadra began 
to laugh. "Oroka, oroka! Watashi no oroka!" Fool, fool, what a fool I've 
been! 
	"You see?" Pandora said quietly, as Gel Sadra's laughter turned to 
sobs. "Don't cry, Gel Sadra, it's all right. We'll stop him..." But it was 
too late. The floodgates had opened, and Gel Sadra was unable to shut them. 
Pandora sat on the bed and cradled the child-woman's head in her lap, as 
Gel Sadra wept, repeating over and over than she'd been a fool... 
	Finally her sobs died. For a while Gel Sadra lay unmoving, as her 
mother stroked her hair. Then she levered herself up and looked into 
Pandora's eyes. "I never cried before," she whispered. "I always wanted to, 
but I never really could... Do you think that means I'm finally free of 
Sosai?" 
	"I don't know," Pandora said, but she smiled. Her baby had come back 
to her. 
	"It's so strange. Just-- what was it, yesterday?-- I loved Sosai, I'd 
do anything to please him-- and then you showed me. Then I found you, and I 
saw the truth... As soon as Sosai said I could never see you again, I knew 
I couldn't trust him for advice. I gave you two of the stupidest guards, so 
you could get away--" 
	"I thought I heard your voice, telling me to kill them and escape. How 
strange!" 
	"Somehow we have a connection, Mother," Gel Sadra said. "After all, 
somehow we recognized each other, even before... What will the Science 
Ninja Team do about Sosai?" 
	"They plan to destroy him, but they don't know where he is." 
	"I can show them!" Gel Sadra stood, her leg brace clattering on the 
floor like a tap shoe. "I'm well enough. I can go with the Gatchamen and 
show them where Sosai X is!" 
	That was more than Pandora had expected-- she'd hoped merely to get 
information. "Why don't you just tell them? Why do you want to go 
yourself?" 
	"Because I want Sosai X to *know* who brought him down," Gel Sadra 
said with sudden savagery. "I was loyal to him, and he *used* me-- he told 
me I would be ruler of the world, when he planned to destroy it all 
along... I want to be there, to be a part of it. I want to help them *kill* 
him--" 
	"But you're injured, Gel Sadra. And you're not trained for that sort 
of work-- you could be killed! You--" 
	"Did you hear what you just said?" Gel Sadra said quietly. "You called 
me Gel Sadra. All you *have* called me is Gel Sadra. I want to be 
Sammie..." 
	"You want me to call you Sammie?" 
	"No, I want to *be* Sammie. And I can't, ever again. I'm so tired, of 
having to make decisions, of getting hurt-- I always wanted someone to love 
me, to comfort me, the way a mother does a child-- but you never will 
again, because I'm *not* a child." She clenched her fists. "It's so 
unfair... I lost my whole childhood, I nearly lost you... and it's *his* 
fault. Sosai made me what I am, stole my childhood from me. He tried to 
kill you, Mother! Playing on my loyalty to him, he tried to kill you, 
destroy the Earth... I *have* to destroy him, Mama, I have to."

	Ken was leery of working with Gel Sadra, but Joe, who had often enough 
worked with people who had been Galactors, and reformed, believed that her 
desire to help was genuine, and convinced the others. There were things Gel 
Sadra had done in the past that none of them could entirely forget-- but if 
they managed to bear in mind that she *was*, after all, a child, albeit an 
extremely sophisticated one, and could not be truly held to account for her 
own actions, they could at the least ignore what she had done, and Jun at 
least was able to completely forgive her. It was hard to see her the same 
way they had anyway-- she was wearing a purple velour sweatsuit with body 
armor and a miniature arsenal concealed under the soft fabric, not her 
usual costume at all, and her exposed face had a luminescently beautiful 
aspect, feminine and innocent-seeming, even childlike-- which made it that 
much easier to see her as the child she was. 
	The six of them slipped through a secret entrance to the base-- which 
was high in the Alps-- that Gel Sadra pointed out, and made their way to a 
pair of ornately carved doors. Two "special guards", in blue and gold 
instead of green, stood at the door. Gel Sadra stepped forward, laughing. 
"Thank you for working so hard at your posts." 
	"Gel Sadra-- we thought-- you were--" 
	Thump. Thump. 
	Since Ken and Joe were in front, it was a feather shuriken and a 
flying disc that killed them. Gel Sadra moved to a handprint panel, and 
pressed her palm to it. The doors opened, and the five of them shot in like 
shadow streaks, Gel Sadra following. 
	The room beyond was dark, lit by flickering multicolored sparkles. 
Strange things moved in the darkness. The five of them formed a circle 
around Gel Sadra, their backs to each other, facing outward in all 
directions. 
	"Sosai X! Where are you!" Ken shouted. 
	Deep laughter filled the room. "SO YOU'VE COME, SCIENCE NINJA TEAM!" 
	"We're here to destroy you!" Joe said. 
	"Your evil ends here, Sosai X," Ken said tightly. "Today is your end." 
	"FOOLS. I AM NOT FROM THIS WORLD! WITH HUMANS' PATHETIC SCIENCE, HOW 
CAN YOU HOPE TO DEFEAT ME?" More laughter. 
	"We aren't limited to human science!" Jun cried. "Humans also have 
intelligence and courage. And with the power of the human heart, we *will* 
win!" 
	"IT IS YOUR HUMAN HEARTS, YOUR HUMAN WEAKNESSES, THAT WILL ALWAYS 
DESTROY YOU IN THE END," X replied. "FOR WHEN I DESTROY ONE OF YOU, THE 
REST FALL INSTANTLY. WATCH!" 
	With no more warning than that, a brilliant ray of light lanced out of 
the darkness and struck Ken in the chest. He screamed, and fell backward, 
as his teammates cried out in outrage and X laughed. "YOU SEE? IF I DESTROY 
GATCHAMAN, THE REST OF YOU ARE NO MORE THAN HELPLESS ANIMALS!" 
	"How is he?" Joe asked, without taking his eyes away from the darkness 
where X presumably was. 
	Jun, bent by Ken's side, and sheltered from further attack by her 
three teammates, reported, "He's alive but he's unconscious. Joe! Without 
Ken to lead us-- without even seeing what we're to fight--" 
	Joe growled. "If we're so helpless, Sosai X, then show yourself! Or 
are you too afraid of us?" 
	"AFRAID? OF *YOU?*" X laughed, and a deep grinding noise emanated from 
beneath their feet. "VERY WELL, CONDOR JOE. YOU WISH TO SEE MY TRUE FACE? 
SO BE IT!" 
	Blinding, destroying light radiated from a crack in the darkness. 
Everyone gasped and covered their eyes, but Gel Sadra said quietly, "He's 
opening up his inner chamber. That'll make it easier for us to kill him." 
	As the light faded, they saw a transparent capsule, full of glowing 
circuitry, mounted on a pedestal. Joe asked, " Are you Sosai X?" 
	"THAT'S RIGHT." The capsule pulsed as the voice spoke. 
	"Then, *die!!*" 
	"Joe, *no!!*" Jun cried, as Joe launched himself directly at X. Gel 
Sadra was screaming, "That's the wrong way, he'll kill you!" and Jinpei and 
Ryu were shouting his name. But Joe didn't care. He had been made by Dr. 
Rafael for the destruction of Sosai X, and that was what he was going to 
do. 
	"Everyone get back!" he shouted, running at X-- 
	--and the same light that had struck down Ken knocked him backwards, 
flying toward the far wall. 
	"*Joe!*" 
	"Joe aniki!" 
	Jinpei started to run at the machine, but Jun pulled him back. "No, 
we'll need teamwork to defeat X, or we're all doomed!" Jun cried, as Gel 
Sadra headed for a hidden switch on the wall. 
	"YOU'RE ALL DOOMED ANYWAY!" 
	"Gel Sadra, what're you doing?" Ryu asked. 
	Gel Sadra reached the switch and pulled it. The floor began rolling 
backwards, and the ninjas backpedaled, startled, while a huge column was 
exposed at X's base.  
	"What are you doing, Gel Sadra?" Jun asked. 
	"That glowing square is Sosai's weakest point," Gel Sadra said. "It's 
his power core, and it's highly reactive." 
	"GEL SADRA, I WILL NOT FORGIVE THIS TREASON!" 
	"I don't care!" Gel Sadra shouted. "I came here to destroy you for 
taking my childhood away! --If you damage that area, Sosai X will be des-- 
AIIIEE!" One of the rays of light caught Gel Sadra, and she pitched 
forward. She would have fallen into the abyss, but Ryu hurled his gripper 
at her waist, and yanked her back. She was as unconscious as the others. 
	"Attack as a team!" Jun cried, and launched herself at the ceiling, 
wrapping her ribbon around a piece of equipment there and launching herself 
at X. Another of the light beams fired, but by now she was in a good 
position to dodge-- she pulled hard on the ribbon, and changed her course 
radically. Ryu-- who had no hope of leaping to the thing-- decided to slide 
down into the pit and try to climb, while Jimpei launched himself in a 
straight arc. 
	"Ahh!" A laser struck him on the side, knocking him off course. 
	"*Jinpei!*" 
	"Dammit!" Ryu shouted, and pulled his gun, trying to fire at X. The 
gun was pulled from his hand magnetically, and went sailing upwards, as a 
shaft of laser light seared toward him and he had to dodge. The same thing 
was happening to Jun-- her gun was pulled from her hand, but she quickly 
withdrew a handful of bombs. The magnetic pull took them, they exploded, 
and one of the laser turrets was taken out. 
	Now the sides of the pit were coming loose, turning into tentacled 
laser-firers. Jinpei climbed one, letting the crossfire of the others 
damage it to provide him footholds, and from it he aimed the rebound ball 
at X's weak point. It shattered the glass, went in-- but there was no other 
damage. For a second Jinpei stared at it stupidly-- what had gone wrong? 
Then he narrowly avoided being fried by a laser, and fell back to the 
bottom of the pit. 
	Slowly but surely, Ryu was climbing. To draw X's fire away from him, 
Jun was swinging and leaping all about X, daring his lasers, while her 
bombs found more and more targets. She didn't have that many bombs to start 
with, though, and though she had some feather shuriken, they would do next 
to no good against X. So she swung in close, to try to recover her gun and 
get a distance weapon. That was a mistake. 
	"Aaahhh!" The laser caught her across the wrists, and she released the 
aurora ribbon and fell. 
	"Onechan!" 
	"Jun!" 
	Now Ken was awake, and heard his teammates' cries. *I've got to get up 
and help them!* Despite his feeling of weakness and dizziness, he got to 
his feet and ran toward the site of the battle. His eyes took in the 
unconscious forms of Gel Sadra and Joe, the pit with Jun lying at the 
bottom and Ryu climbing the central pillar, while Jinpei distracted the 
turrets. 
	"Ken aniki!" Jinpei shouted. "Aim at the glowing box!" 
	Ken leapt, with every intention of doing just that. But the laser 
caught his cloak, sent him down to the bottom of the pit. He tried pulling 
his gun, but it met the same fate as the others he hadn't seen. 
	The lasers were tracking on Jinpei now-- who had used up most of his 
bombs too. Ken had to do something. He leapt from the pit, catching one of 
the tentacle things and clambering up it. Now X was devoting its attention 
to him, and away from Jinpei-- and Ryu, who was on the other side of the 
pit from Ken, still steadily climbing. Ken leapt, flung his bird disk-- 
	--Lasers bracketed him, and he screamed, the bird disk flying wildly 
into X. Jinpei shouted in fury and dove at X's weak spot, having dodged 
high enough to do so. All of X's power went into taking the rapidly moving 
boy down. Of the six or seven bolts that fired, only one hit-- but one was 
enough. 
	X hadn't paid much attention to Ryu, counting him the weakest and 
least dangerous of them all. That was a mistake. Ryu was directly under the 
weak spot now-- and while X was occupied with Jinpei, Ryu smashed the glass 
and fell in. The two of them screamed simultaneously, X and Ryu. It was as 
if a thousand shards of electric glass had been driven into Ryu's flesh. He 
fell backwards out of the hole, before he had done much more than crush a 
good bit of it with his weight. He got to his feet shakily, as X tracked on 
him-- and then Joe leapt for the hole. 
	Joe had awakened earlier, but his circuitry had been temporarily 
overloaded by the bolt-- which, at the strength he'd taken it at, would 
have killed any human man-- and so it had been a while before he could get 
moving. So he knew about the weak point, and he took full advantage of it, 
throwing the weight of his body inward at such an angle that he fell all 
the way through the layers to X's core. 
	He expected to die then, that he and X would explode simultaneously, 
but it didn't happen. Instead, his brain and body filled with an unbearable 
vibration, as X groaned in mortal agony. Pulsing brightness stabbed Joe's 
eyes, and X's scream tore through him on every level of his being. 
	It was X's scream that awoke everyone else, and the others quickly 
leapt from the pit, startled. Before they could go very far, though, X's 
energies filled the room, swamping their thoughts like an overload of light 
and sound. 
	 Then X's voice spoke, slurred and slowed by the damage. 
	"I AM X, AN AGENT FROM SPACE. FROM SPACE. THE WORLD SELECTRO. THE 
CHOSEN ONES. I CAME FOR MY HOMEWORLD'S GLORY. TO RULE THIS WORLD. WE ARE AN 
EMPIRE. BUT THEY DESTROYED US. KEIRAI. THE ANCIENT ENEMY. THEY DESTROYED 
SELECTRO. MY PEOPLE ARE ALL DEAD. OR SCATTERED. THE ONLY PEOPLE. SCATTERED. 
LOST. GONE. I MUST AVENGE SELECTRO. KEIRAI DESTROYED SELECTRO. I MUST 
DESTROY KEIRAI. WITH THE SUN. THIS WORLD IS MY ENEMY. LIKE KEIRAI. HAS 
DEFEATED ME ONCE. I WILL USE ITS SUN TO DESTROY KEIRAI. TO AVENGE SELECTRO. 
MY PEOPLE. ARE ALL DEAD. I AM X, AN AGENT FROM SPACE. FROM SPACE. FROM 
SELECTRO. SELECTRO WAS DESTROYED. I AM X..." 
	There might have been more, but the voice slurred beyond all 
possibility of understanding-- and then the noise and light ceased, like a 
light switch being turned off, and the capsule turned opaque, then 
shattered. 
	Then there was an explosion. 
	"*Joe!!*" Jun cried. 
	X began to self-destruct, exploding. Joe, limp, was flung out, and Ryu 
gathered him up as they ran for the exit, all of them hurt but making it 
out in time. Piemur and the *New God Phoenix* picked them up, and the six 
of them headed for home, the Galactor organization shattering to pieces 
behind them...

	All the Science Ninja Team required medical help more than Gel Sadra, 
despite having managed to keep their feet better. So it was a while before 
Nambu and a medical assistant he'd brought in, Dr. Kestin, got around to 
examining the mutant woman. 
	They were not happy with what they found.

	With tears on her face, Pandora put down the report, looked up at 
Nambu and Kestin. "Only a year?" Her voice broke. "She's really only four 
years old... she's had hardly any time at all..." 
	"I'm sorry," Kestin said feelingly. "If someone had caught it in 
time... but those Galactor butchers only gave her pills for the pain." 
	"That's all too typical," Pandora said bitterly. "X didn't care if his 
creation lived another year or not. He just needed her until the Solar 
Shift Plan was completed, and it didn't matter what happened after that... 
damn him!" 
	"Will you tell her?" Nambu asked quietly. 
	"How can I? How does anyone tell such a thing... how can I tell her 
that she's dying, that she has only a year to live?" 
	"Remember that a year is all she remembers of her life so far," Nambu 
said gently. "It will seem far longer to her than to you. And remember that 
she's been lied to so often in the past.." 
	"I know, Doctor. I know. I have to tell her... I just don't know how."

	Gel Sadra awakened fully, a warm feeling spreading all through her. 
She remembered her mother being there by her bedside, earlier-- perhaps now 
that Sosai X was dead, her mother might love her the way she had when she 
was Sammie. Maybe Gel Sadra could become a scientist, like her mother. X 
had told her once that she was a genius. 
	And then Dr. Pandora entered the room, but instead of feeling 
happiness, Gel Sadra was overcome with a sudden wash of dread. 
	"Gel Sadra," her mother said softly. "It seems X lied to you about 
many things..." 
	"What is it?" Gel Sadra asked, and saw tears welling up in her 
mother's eyes. "What is it, what is it?" 
	Pandora sat down on the edge of the bed. "We've discovered where your 
pains are coming from, Gel Sadra," she said, her voice controlled but her 
eyes bright with tears. "You have cancer." 
	"Cancer-- *what?*" 
	"If it had been caught in time..." Pandora's voice broke, and she took 
Gel Sadra's hands in her own. "Oh, Gel Sadra, I don't know how to say this 
to you! My baby, my little girl... Left untreated, the disease will kill 
you in two or three months. With treatment, we can give you as much as a 
year... but no more..." 
	"A... year?" Gel Sadra whispered. "I will only live for another year? 
I'm going to die?" 
	Pandora nodded, closing her eyes tightly against a bitter rush of 
tears. 
	"A year..." Gel Sadra repeated. "You know, Mother, I don't see time 
the way ordinary people do. A year is all I've known... It's so strange to 
me, that a day can come back again. That we have, say, June 15th, and then 
if you wait there'll be another June 15th. My life hasn't seemed so short 
to me, but I've only seen time go around once. And now-- and now I won't 
see it go around again-- I thought I had forever, Mama, I thought I would 
live forever..." She laughed painfully. "I am the immortal Gel Sadra! 
Remember that... but somebody, somebody seems to have forgotten--" Her 
breath caught in a sob. "Isn't there any way? Some treatment? You ISO 
people have cures for all kinds of diseases-- can't you cure me?" 
	"We've looked," Pandora whispered. "We've looked so hard... But the 
cancer's metastasized-- you know what that means, don't you?" 
	"I'm not ignorant-- of course I know what it means! It's spread-- but 
couldn't you cut out the organs and replace them? Make me into a cyborg or 
something?" 
	"Your Galactor killed the only person who knew how to do that!" 
Pandora said sharply, then melted again. "I'm sorry-- I didn't mean--" 
	"You did mean." Gel Sadra stared at nothing, her voice quavering. 
"Don't lie to me, mother, I've heard too many lies in my life. You love me-
- you're crying, because I'm going to die-- but you still think of me as 
the heartless leader of Galactor, don't you? For all my life, all the time 
that's left to me, that'll always come between us-- and do you know what?" 
Her voice snapped, broke. "I *am* heartless! I don't care about the things 
you care about... killing people *still* means nothing to me... I'm sorry I 
did what I did because it made you hate me, it took you away from me, but 
if you told me to do it again I would and do you know how that makes me 
feel?" She was crying brokenly. "I'm not human, Mama! Look at me, listen to 
my voice! I'm not a human, I'll never be a human... I'm going to die, and 
I'll never be a human like you..." 
	There was nothing Pandora could say. Small children *were*, in fact, 
heartless-- no one's welfare mattered to them but their own and that of the 
people they loved-- but that was no comfort for Gel Sadra, because she 
would never grow up. She never would become fully human, neither physically 
nor emotionally... poor little girl... 
	"I'm sorry," Pandora whispered, and held her daughter's head to her 
chest, tightly.

	Two weeks later. 
	The treatments had begun. The illness they made Gel Sadra feel 
reminded her of her impending death, made it real to her, and she wanted to 
get as much done before she died as possible. She had been giving Dr. Nambu 
information on Galactor's operations, enabling the Science Ninjas and other 
operatives to wipe out the rest of Galactor. But it wasn't enough. It 
wasn't what she wanted to be remembered for, any more than her position as 
Galactor leader was. It was still destroying things, and she wanted to 
build. She remembered the sketchbooks, now lost in destroyed bases, she had 
filled with her fancies, castles in the sky and underwater cities. When she 
ruled the world, she had thought, she would build them-- even then, she 
loved to build as much as to destroy. But she would never have an 
opportunity to build anything. She would never see any of her dreams turn 
real. 
	She kicked a rock through the rain as she walked, oblivious to the 
sopping wet nature of her clothes and hair. She had been taking these walks 
a lot lately, thinking about death. Or trying not to think about death-- 
part of her insisted that it wasn't true, wasn't real, that if she ignored 
it it would go away. 
	But it wasn't going away. 
	There was so much to do, so much she didn't know-- she felt like a 
half-full vessel, like a crazy quilt patchwork. Her knowledge of the world 
was spotty, gleaned from books and conversations and things X had thought 
important she know. So much to learn... she could spend the rest of her 
short life learning, and not really know anything when she died... Oh, it 
was bitter. 
	She kicked the rock into a puddle, and splashed in after it. A voice 
behind her said, "How the mighty have fallen, Gel Sadra." 
	"Wha-- what?" She spun-- 
	The woman with the white raincoat was vaguely familiar. Even shadowed 
by her umbrella, it was apparent that her skin was white, as white as Gel 
Sadra's had been, and her hair was thick and dark. "How quickly you have 
forgetten. Do you remember Selina Marriochio, Gel Sadra?" 
	"Selina!" The word was almost a curse. "Yes, I remember you. I have no 
business with you. Go away!" 
	"I think you do. I have heard that you are ill?" 
	"Go away!" 
	"Would you still say that if you knew I offer a cure? And a chance to 
return to childhood, as I've heard you want?" 
	Gel Sadra stared. Finally she said, "Let's get in out of the rain and 
talk."

	The restaurant was not as expensive as the ones Gel Sadra was 
accustomed to, but she had learned painfully that ISO did not give her an 
unlimited expense account. Despite the illness brought on by the 
treatments, Gel Sadra still managed to order an immense quantity of food-- 
Marriochio looked at her with some disgust, and placed her own order, for a 
cup of tea. "That's all you're going to have?" Gel Sadra demanded. 
	"Did we come here to discuss my eating habits?" 
	The waiter left, and Gel Sadra leaned forward. "All right, talk," she 
said. "What do you want?" 
	"Do you by any chance happen to remember Lisa and Damon?" 
	Gel Sadra frowned. "The names aren't familiar." 
	"Perhaps you never bothered to learn their names. Do you remember your 
children?" 
	Gel Sadra sucked in a deep breath-- she did remember, now, though the 
incident was over six months ago, and had turned mostly into a haze in her 
brain, like anything that far back. The whole thing had been terribly 
unpleasant. Damon Boccini had introduced her to sex, trying to seduce his 
way into power. It hadn't worked-- when X had informed Gel Sadra of what he 
was trying to do, she had killed him without a moment of remorse-- but it 
had caused her terrible problems when it was discovered that she was 
pregnant. Gel Sadra had totally forgotten about the pregnancy aspect, and 
had not thought to use any sort of safeguard. When X discovered her 
condition, he forbade her to have an abortion-- Damon Boccini apparently 
had special genes, like Gel Sadra herself, and X wanted to see what the 
children would be like. Gel Sadra had pleaded with him, and finally 
convinced him that a pregnant leader of Galactor would get no respect and 
would be a liability, with lessened mobility. So X had brought in 
Marriochio to help speed the twins in Gel Sadra's womb through gestation, 
so they could be born in a matter of weeks. Marriochio had taken the 
children afterward-- Gel Sadra certainly hadn't wanted them-- and then 
Marriochio had resigned from Galactor and vanished. Gel Sadra hadn't given 
a thought to her or the children since. "Yes." 
	"The forced growth continued. I was only recently able to stabilize 
it, so they are now approximately the age you were before you became Gel 
Sadra, and they are now growing at a normal rate." 
	"I don't care. What about *me?*" 
	"That is in fact the point of this discussion. When I helped X deal 
with your children, he was forced to teach me the truth about you, and by 
studying both sets of records, as well as some experimentation on animals, 
I have come to understand the procedure of speed-growing-- and its 
reversal, which is far more difficult. The reason for your disease is your 
forced growth. It affected latent cancerous cells, which all human beings 
have, and they began to grow even after you had stopped. If I reverse the 
process, those cells will be the first to be destroyed. The child that will 
be will be healthy." 
	"You can *do* that?" Excitement flared in Gel Sadra's mind, to be 
abruptly damped by cold reality. Selina never did something for nothing. 
"Why would you do such a thing? You and I have never been on good terms." 
	"I will tell you my price after I've told you of the possible dangers. 
You should make an informed decision." 
	"What possible dangers?" 
	"In the first place, I have tested the technique only on animals, and 
not often enough to be sure of my results. I don't know what the effect on 
your human brain will be. You may die instantly, or sometime after the 
process' completion, or you may live brain-damaged." 
	"I can accept risks like that. I'm going to die anyway, so..." 
	"Even if it works perfectly, you will lose your memories of being Gel 
Sadra. I don't think the memories will be gone, but they will be 
inaccessible to you, at least until you become an adult again-- and by that 
time they will be faded, no more than vague dreams. Your personality will 
once more be as malleable as a child's." 
	"That's exactly what I want. Anything else?" 
	"I'll require ISO's help-- and that means I must not be prosecuted for 
actions performed as a Galactor." 
	"My mother will handle that. What's in this for you? Why would you do 
such a thing for me?" 
	"Two reasons. The first is simply curiosity-- I want to see if I can 
do it. The benefits from this technique would be tremendous-- by studying 
you, I can understand the nature of aging completely, how to speed it, slow 
it, or counteract it." 
	"And the second?" 
	"Is my price. There are a pair of children, adopted into ISO families, 
that interest me. They are three years old, a girl and a boy. The girl's 
family are the Bellenheimers-- Dr. Bellenheimer works in hypernium 
research. The boy was adopted by a Dr. Westerly, a bachelor who works with 
genetics. I want you to get me those children." 
	"What for?" 
	"Personal reasons. Suffice it to say that I, who was adopted myself, 
know how terrible it is to be adopted into a family below one in 
intelligence. The children will be geniuses, and only an intellect like my 
own can see that they properly flourish. There are other reasons, but that 
one will do." 
	"Do their parents love them?" 
	"What does that have to do with anything?" 
	Gel Sadra spoke angrily. "I was kidnapped from the woman who loved me 
when I was 3 years old so my genius could 'properly flourish', and look 
what's become of me! I won't help you repeat the tragedy of my past-- I 
won't!" 
	"Emotion. You were always emotional, Gel Sadra." Selina looked at the 
table. "Very well, then-- when in Rome, speak Latin... I suppose I will 
have to expose myself to you..." She looked up with an expression of 
intensity. "Gel Sadra, these children are mine. Not of my body, but of 
my... of my heart. They are the most important thing to me right now, that 
I care for them, that I raise them... I.. love them, inasmuch as I can love 
anything. They are the only people in all the world I care about more than 
myself." 
	The words of emotion sounded bizarre, coming from cold Selina, but Gel 
Sadra knew they had to be true. Selina would never fake emotion to 
manipulate someone. Emotion was a weakness, and it would have to be 
overwhelmingly powerful for Selina to admit to it at all. 
	"All right," Gel Sadra said. After all, the children were adopted-- 
who was to say that Selina shouldn't rightfully have them? "I'll do it. And 
then?" 
	"Then we negotiate with ISO."

	Christina Bellenheimer was an adorable little girl, with wide blue 
eyes and a cap of golden hair, curling up at the bottom. Gel Sadra peered 
in the window, at the child peacefully reading a Dr. Seuss book, and felt a 
pang of recognition. *Perhaps I looked like that when I was Sammie?* With 
her laser, she sliced open the window and climbed in. The child turned and 
stared at her, terror in her eyes. 
	"Don't be afraid," Gel Sadra said. "I'm going to take you to your new 
mother." 
	"I don't want a new mother!" The child began shrieking. "Mommy, daddy, 
help! He's taking me away!" 
	Gel Sadra grabbed the child and went out the window as the 
Bellenheimers ran into the room. "Stop!" Dr. Bellenheimer was shouting, 
climbing through the window after her. "Christina!" 
	"Mommy! Daddy!" 
	The cry tore at Gel Sadra's heart. *I-- I am doing what X did to me!* 
She faltered-- but it was her own life at stake, after all. Her happiness 
with her own mother... Resolutely she ran on, tossing the child into her 
car and driving off.  
	"Where are you taking me?" the girl cried. "I want my mommy!" 
	"So do I," Gel Sadra said. "So do I..."

	Nambu was very disturbed by the kidnapping of Christina Bellenheimer. 
	The Cross Karakoram twins had been surrounded by mystery from the time 
they were found-- two babies, apparently 6 months or so, had been 
discovered in the wreckage surrounding Cross Karakoram Base with no 
indication as to how they got there. They were of different sexes, but 
clothed, they appeared identical. The theory had been that they had been 
experimental subjects of Galactor-- but Nambu felt that was not enough. 
That didn't fully describe their strangeness. For the two babies were 
blond, blue-eyed and fair-skinned, and seemed to react in sync with each 
other, to the point that when one was hurt, both would cry... Nambu feared 
very much what the children might represent-- a cloning experiment? Or 
perhaps something darker? What-- or *who--* were they? 
	He told no one of his suspicions. Many babies were blond, blue-eyed 
and fair-skinned-- it proved nothing. But he ordered the children 
separated, adopted by different families. Now Nambu did not think it 
coincidence that so shortly after Galactor's destruction, one of the twins 
was taken. 
	He called Mark Westerly, the boy's adopted father. 
	"Do you think you could fit a vacation of several months into your 
schedule?" 
	"Doubt it-- it's been really busy around here. Anyhow, who could I get 
to take care of Tom? I'm not precisely a free man anymore--" 
	"This is to protect Thomas. I have reason to believe there might be an 
attempt to kidnap him, sometime soon." 
	Silence on the other side for a second. Then, "Related to my 
research?" 
	"Related to who Thomas is." 
	"I was afraid of that." Nambu had not briefed Westerly on his 
suspicions, but he believed that Westerly had managed to draw some 
conclusions on his own. "Is there anywhere in particular you want me to 
go?" 
	"Someplace where you can't be easily traced. I think it's very 
important that Thomas *not* be taken." 
	"I see. I think I know of a place like that. I'll leave as soon as 
possible."

	Almost crying, Gel Sadra went to Selina with the news. 
	"Selina, I can't get you the other child-- the father went on vacation 
somehwere, and I can't find out where! I--" 
	"Idiot. You must have accidentally revealed the plan to Dr. Nambu. If 
he knows that you kidnapped the girl, he'll find out from you where she 
went, and I won't be able to--" 
	"No, I didn't, I didn't! Nambu doesn't know anything about it. If he 
did, he'd ask me, or have me followed, wouldn't he?" 
	"How do you know he hasn't had you followed?" 
	"Because--" Gel Sadra broke off. There was no good logical reason for 
her certainty that Nambu didn't know, she was just sure. "I just know," she 
said. "He has no idea it was me." 
	Selina frowned. "If what you say is true... Nambu's far more 
perceptive than I took him for, if he saw the connection..."  
	"Between me and the kidnappings?" 
	"No. Between the children. If he understood..." 
	"Selina, it's not my fault, I swear!" 
	Selina studied Gel Sadra. "I am still curious," she admitted. "And one 
child is better than neither. I've renamed her Athena-- I think, 
appropriate..." She half-smiled. "Very well, Gel Sadra. You've performed 
your half of our bargain, to the best of your ability. Now we can negotiate 
with ISO, and I will perform mine."

	Nambu and Pandora were both frankly suspicious. 
	"Why would you go out of your way to help my daughter?" Pandora 
demanded. 
	"It isn't out of my way. Lately my research has been involved with the 
study of aging, and its reversal. Gel Sadra is the only force-grown adult I 
know of. Reversing the speed-growth process in Gel Sadra is the most 
efficient way to study the secrets of aging. My motives are not altruistic, 
I assure you-- I will get far more out of this than I put in." 
	Nambu studied a folder full of papers. "You were Galactor's Executive 
Scientist after the death of Dr. Finger, weren't you?" 
	"Wrong. Dr. Finger wasn't a scientist, though he tried to dignify 
himself with that title. He was a power-hungry fifth- level captain who 
happened to be given control over the Science Department. I was Galactor's 
true Executive Scientist since the death of Dr. Vail Djannis, and after Dr. 
Finger's death, I was given the power in name I had always had in reality." 
	"I see. So you were responsible for the design of mecha and such?" 
	Selina half-smiled. "What a stupid notion. In general, Berg Katse 
designed the mecha, or lower-level scientists. My work was mostly with 
biologic systems-- I ignored mecha as much as I was permitted, having more 
important research to do." 
	"And Katse let you?" 
	"Berg Katse allowed me to do whatever I wished." 
	"I see. But Gel Sadra tells us you and she never got along. Why should 
we trust you?" 
	"Why should you trust Gel Sadra? I have no time to waste on petty 
vendettas, Doctor. My life is my work, and I do not allow my feelings to 
interfere, ever. Why should I care one way or another for any Galactor? 
After the one I gave my loyalty to died, Galactor ceased to mean anything 
in particular to me. I stayed with Gel Sadra and Sosai X as long as I did 
in part because I wanted Galactor funding and in part out of inertia. For 
whose sake, then, should I hurt Gel Sadra? She means nothing to me, and 
there is nothing to be learned from harming her. 
	"Esteemed doctors, I do not guarantee that my process will work. It 
may result in failure, brain-damage, or death, and likely other unpleasant 
outcomes are possible as well. If it does work, however, it will result in 
a healthy child with many more years of life ahead of her, whereas the 
alternative is that Gel Sadra die, in less than a year from now, as a 
mutant with no future and no health. She has already made her decision-- 
she wishes to take the risk. Are you willing to allow her to? Death, or a 
chance at life-- esteemed doctors, you hold Gel Sadra's life in your 
hands." 
	"You will do this simply for science's sake?" Nambu asked. 
	"The pursuit of knowledge is the only motive I acknowledge anymore." 
	Nambu looked at Gel Sadra's mother. "Dr. Pandora?" 
	"I-- I don't see how we can *not* let her try, Doctor. A chance to 
make Sammie a little girl again..." 
	"I see." Nambu turned back to Marriochio. "Very well, Dr. Marriochio. 
What will you need?"

	It took two weeks to assemble everything. 
	They gave Marriochio a large room for her lab. The room had been 
filled with monitors, computers, and various process tanks. Dominating the 
center of the room was a circular tank that looked like a kid's swimming 
pool-- four feet high and eight feet in diameter, it was made of a murky, 
blurring transparent transparent plastic and was connected to dozens of 
tubes, wires and monitor boards. Robotic arms hovered in a cluster above 
the tank. Even to one as familiar as Gel Sadra was with strange machinery, 
it was intimidating-- especially when she considered that its purpose was 
to transform her, personally, into someone else. 
	She stood in the center of the room and shivered, acutely conscious of 
the eyes on her naked body. Desperately she wished for a bathrobe, a towel, 
anything to shield herself from the eyes. It seemed as if half of ISO was 
crowded into this room, staring at her mutant form. Part of her wished 
desperately that Selina would hurry up and finish running through the 
checklist-- and part of her wished that Selina would never finish, that she 
could turn and run from this room. 
	*I might die. And even if all goes as planned, I won't remember any of 
this anymore... if all goes as planned, Gel Sadra will die. I will become 
someone new, but the person that I am will die...* 
	It was exactly what she had wanted-- but now she wasn't so sure. Now 
she understood that this transformation would be a kind of death, and it 
terrified her.  
	She wondered what the scientists were getting out of this. Marriochio 
wasn't explaining anything. Then Marriochio turned, and as if reading her 
thoughts, spoke. 
	"If any of you are here hoping to discover how this process works, or 
how the mechanism of aging itself operates, you are on your own. This 
territory is new to me, and I can waste none of my concentration on 
explaining matters. If you are merely here to see an adult become a child 
again, come back in a month." 
	There were faint murmurs-- Selina had won no points for tact. Selina 
ignored them. "Gel Sadra! Are you ready?" 
	"H-hai." She stepped up onto the platform around the tank, and, on 
Selina's instructions, lowered herself onto a floating body rest. Selina 
touched buttons, and tubes and wires came down from the robotic arms, 
attached themselves to her arms, legs, neck, insinuated themselves into 
every corner of her body. Gel Sadra felt dizzy, helpless, and very small. 
"Mother!" 
	Pandora was there. "I'm here." 
	"Stay with me, mama, I'm scared," Gel Sadra whispered. 
	"I'll be here the whole time." She looked at Marriochio. "May I touch 
her?" 
	"Do what you want. Just don't disturb the tubing." 
	Pandora took Gel Sadra's paralyzed hand and held it. "I'm with you, 
Sammie," she said. "I won't leave you." 
	"Mama, I love you," Gel Sadra murmured, darkness obscuring her vision. 
"I love you..." 
	"I love you too, Sammie..." 
	"All right," Marriochio said. Gel Sadra heard the voice as if it were 
miles away, and hardly important any more. "Move out of the way, Doctor." 
	More tubes descended on her face, inserted themselves into her mouth, 
her nose, pressed cups of darkness over her eyes, but she could hardly feel 
them anymore. She was dimly aware of the float lowering down into the tank, 
of the gentle water closing over her body. And then, darkness took 
everything away.

	Marriochio closed the tank. "That's it for now. There's nothing to 
see." Within the tank, a whirlpool began, obscuring Gel Sadra's clouded 
form even further. All anyone could see was something pink in the center of 
the tank. 
	"Will the procedure hurt her?" Pandora asked. 
	"No. Her sensory apparatus and higher brain functions have been 
entirely shut down. She will remain in a trance state, feeling nothing, 
thinking nothing, until it comes time to remove her from the tank." 
	"All the same, I'll stay with her," Pandora said.

	Pandora was as good as her word, leaving the laboratory only to sleep. 
Marriochio did not even leave for that-- she had a cot and a bathroom with 
a shower installed just off the lab. In the beginning, she had food brought 
up-- after that, if Pandora didn't get the food and make Marriochio eat it, 
she would forget about it. The two of them almost never talked. Marriochio 
became totally absorbed in the work, to the point where she seemed to 
forget Pandora was even there. The pale color of her skin vanished, as she 
was too involved to bother putting on her white cosmetic paste-- but if 
anything, this only made her face look more haggard and gray. Scientists 
often came in to study her monitors-- Selina ignored them, and did not 
answer their questions. Pandora, who was watching as Selina performed the 
work, had figured out the meaning of some things, and explained them 
quietly to those who asked. Selina ignored that, too. She was constantly 
studying the monitors herself, adjusting computer images of Gel Sadra's 
body, altering flows, performing robotic manipulations. 
	And it seemed to be working. Though the interior of the tank had grown 
progressively more murky, it was still possible to see that Gel Sadra was 
shrinking. The computer images showed bizarre states of transformation-- a 
person with the head and torso of a woman but a child's limbs, that sort of 
thing-- but as they reached the end of the third week, the image had 
acquired some stability. The body displayed was a child's-- only the head 
was too big. Selina spent the whole next week just on the head, as the 
shrinkage of the brain was the most difficult and delicate part of all. 
	Then came the day when the operation was ended, and Sammie Pandora 
would be released.

	Again, there were several dozen scientists there. Pandora no longer 
possessed any of Sammie's old clothes, and there was no guarantee that she 
was now quite the same size she had been at three anyway, so Dr. Lara 
Remington, of the genetics department, had thoughtfully brought some of her 
Alatan's hand-me-downs. Alatan herself was there, a 10-year-old girl with a 
cold, knowing expression and an intensity that chilled Selina, evoking 
strange half-memories in her. 
	Marriochio opened the tank, and the float came up, its occupant 
obscured by tubes. As the apparatus retracted, it revealed a small girl of 
about four with a shaved head, who blinked her eyes open. Pandora lifted 
her, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Sammie, Sammie!" she cried, hugging her 
daughter to herself. 
	"Mommy?" Sammie asked, looking around. "Where am I? Who is everybody?" 
	"Sammie, you're all right, oh, I love you, I love you..." 
	Sammie put her arms around her mother. "I love you too, Mommy. Don't 
cry, it's all right. It's all right, Mommy." She put her hand up and patted 
her mother's bowed head. Then she looked down at herself. "Oh, no! Mommy, I 
have no clothes on! I need to get dressed, quick!" 
	Everyone laughed with relief. Pandora sheltered her daughter from the 
eyes she feared as Sammie got dressed in Alatan Remington's hand-me-downs. 
As soon as Sammie was dressed, Pandora turned around and addressed Selina, 
her eyes brimming with tears. "Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my 
daughter." 
	Selina said nothing-- she was that tactful, at least, not to comment 
that she didn't do it for Pandora's sake. Pandora took Sammie's hand and 
led her out of the room, as the scientists crowded around Selina. 
	"How did you reduce the brain to a 4-year-old level of development?" 
	"The vocabulary-- that's amazing! How much of Gel Sadra's vocabulary 
was provided by Sosai X, and how much did she learn on her own?" 
	"What will be the extent of the child's memories?" 
	"I didn't come here to answer questions," Selina said brutally. "I 
came to get a job done. If I decide to publish my findings, I will let you 
know." 
	"Do you mean to say that you've undertaken this study without 
intending to publish?" 
	"I mean to say nothing. Dr. Nambu! You are welcome to have my 
apparatus dismantled or studied or destroyed or whatever you like. I am 
leaving." She put her disks into her briefcase, picked up her satchel, and 
walked out.

	Outside, the girl Alatan caught up with her. "It won't do you any 
good, Selina," she said in a curiously adult voice. 
	Selina turned. "What are you bothering me about?" 
	"The Earth. The twins. The boy is close enough for me to control, and 
the girl will answer my call no matter what you do." 
	"What are you talking about? Who *are* you?" 
	The girl laughed, a sinister adult laugh. "Two people. The body is the 
child of those twins, and the mind is their creator, and yours. I created 
this body to serve my needs, Selina, and it will do me very well. It *was*, 
once, Berg Katse's daughter. Now..." She laughed again. "Now it is home to 
an agent from space. I am X!" 
	"You-- are-- " Selina felt frozen, staring, as Sosai X in the body of 
Berg Katse's daughter laughed again. 
	"I will call my children to me, Selina. You cannot stop me..."

	Elsewhere, Sammie Pandora was chatting vivaciously with a fascinated 
Ken, while Nambu spoke to Pandora. "From Gel Sadra's information, it's all 
too evident that Galactor will form again," he said quietly. "I've been 
offered the position of ISO Director-- which means that I may not be able 
to concentrate as much of my effort as I'd like on this new threat. I need 
an Assistant Director heading the defense and security department. Would 
you accept it?" 
	"Would I--? Dr. Nambu, you should know better than to ask," Pandora 
laughed. More seriously, she said, "Of course I want to help you in any way 
I can-- even if that means being 'saddled with the paperwork of a thousand 
little minds' devise,' as you once put it..." 
	"Excellent," Nambu said, with warmth in his voice. "Thank you, Dr. 
Pandora. Without your help over the past six months, I don't know if we 
could have succeeded." He glanced at Sammie, who was listening raptly to 
Ken's description of flying in an airplane. "You have done for us what no 
one else could have..." 
	"It was only my duty," Pandora said quietly. "And it was the only 
chance of happiness I had... Now, with my daughter returned to me, I feel 
as if I'm the one who has been reborn." 
	"Perhaps you both have," Nambu said, and smiled. 
	Neither of them saw an older child, with ancient eyes, watching them 
with a cold smile...