"Bye Bye My Crisis"

Dedicated to all the fans of the old series, and to the future...

March 2040 - MegaTokyo

It was unanimous. The Knight Sabers as the world knew them today, were retiring.

Sylia leaned against the cool glass of one of her apartment windows, sipping a fresh cup of tea while gazing out at the city she had lived in all her life. And soon she would be leaving. For good. They had all agreed, it was for the best.

There had been no doubts, no arguments, no squabbles. Every member of the group had voted, without debate, in favor of Sylia's plan to disband the Knight Sabers.

The years had been fair to all of them, but it was clearly time to move on. To chase the dreams that each of them had put aside to help her keep her father's dreams alive and in the proper light. In their time together, she had occasionally overheard grumbling about missed gigs, missed job opportunities, missed romantic opportunities, and life threatening situations. No-one had ever expressed their personal discontent directly to her, but their feelings were not entirely alien to her either.

Sylia thought back to all the times when she would have welcomed a man's company, or a change in the direction her life was taking her but didn't have the time for because she was the leader. The guide, the one they looked to for direction when the way seemed thick with shadows of doubt.

Sylia smiled to herself. What a fool she had been. All those years, alone. All those angry years, lost forever because of her desire to right a wrong in the world. And now she wondered if she had really made a difference. Was the world any safer? Were her father's dreams for the peaceful and productive coexistence of humans and boomers any more a part of society than they were when she began her crusade?

Maybe. It was hard to tell anymore. Rampaging boomers still broke free of their master's grips, although not nearly as often, and Genom was still playing their dark game behind a public banner of helping the world to move into the future. Had the Knight Sabers actually changed the way people view the relationship between human and boomer, or had they only temporarily slowed the snowball that Genom had started rolling when one Brian J. Mason had stolen her father's Boomer research?

Maybe. But it was too late to debate that now. They had all thought about it carefully and made their plans. Priss had already left for New Los Angeles to audition for a new band. Linna had gone with her on the over-seas flight, though her final destination was further on to New York, and hopefully a spot in a dance troupe. Nene had put in for a transfer to the AD Police International division's Computer Crime Center in Toronto. Before leaving, she had mentioned something about wanting to meet someone she had met on the Public Internetwork. Someone of Dutch background? Sylia couldn't remember. And Mackie... he had applied for work at Genom. She didn't like to argue with her little brother, but he wasn't really her little brother anymore. He had grown into a man that reminded her alot of her father, full of ideas on how to change the future, and the way people saw machines. And now he was going to change Genom, from the inside.

She was going to miss them all very much. Her friends. The only true friends she had ever known.

Now she had to learn to trust all over again.

Sylia sipped her tea again and stared out at the city sprawled out before her as the sun began to sink below the horizon. A pinpoint of light in the distance against the deep blue dome gave away a jet climbing into the darkening sky. She looked at her watch. She still had another hour before she had to get to the airport. She continued to watch the jet climb higher and higher until it faded away. Suddenly she noticed the stars as they awoke from their daytime slumber, to shine brightly once again, and guide lost travelers when their compass no longer points true north...

A beep from her Vid-com made her lose the train of thought. The video surveillance camera system revealed four women waiting at the elevator doors in the lower parking garage.

The "new" Knight Sabers.