Ship of Children: The Crossing 1/?
By Nix Winter
Disclaimers: Gundam Wing, Heero, Duo.. Those I don't own. Dano and Tokala, I own. The first novel with them is available from ebookad.com. It's called Tokala
Notes: It's been forever since I updated this story. I was writing it.. And Tokala kinda stole my attention. Now... Let's see... Where was I? Some bits have changed from the last story... 1x2 is totally locked in, as is 3x4.. no trio. The deep space ship's name is Lai Lei, not The Explorer. Noin's lover is very likely a nice Asian girl now. And wow did I go lurk for a long time.. I have a lot of fics to comment on, ne? The first part of this story is archived at www.gwaddicition.com, under the SDDI link. It won a contest last year, mostly by default, I think.
Ship of Children: The Crossing: 1/?
Heero Yuy pressed his hands to the thick viewport. It had been two months. Out beyond the black Duo was being carried away on a ship of dazzling technology, carried away and Heero couldn't reach him. He
had his ring. He had Deathscythe. He had the video of their pledge ceremony. He had an ache in his heart that he did not know how to repair.
The Earth sphere had her peace now. Heero found himself on the space colony farthest out, the one that had build the ship which was carrying Duo far out of their solar system. A click and hiss of hydraulics said the elevator in the center of the observation deck finally started working again. Heero made a mental note to break it better next time. There was a distinctive lack of screaming following the opening of the doors though and a minute later, Trowa leaned up against the railing.
Heero ignored him, felt badly about ignoring his best friend, but not badly enough to strike up a conversation. What was there to say anyway? 'My husband has been saved from Oz by well meaning people, sent a hundred light years away. I don't know how hurt he is and I can't reach him. I've never hurt so badly in my life. How are you?' Heero just stood there, hands on the window.
The lead scientist of the little rebel colony said they could not send a second ship until they had a confirmation signal from the planet they'd sent the Lai Lei to. Heero thought he'd just stand here
and will the signal to come in. He wasn't sure how many days it had been. He'd been told two days, three. There was a matter of a worm hole and some time distortion and some physics that Heero did now
want to think about. The odds were very good that he and Duo would not be the same age anymore. Would Duo want him if his hair had gone gray, arthritis in his fingers? If age had Duo, would Duo let him
feel the same for him? They were married, pledge bonded. Heero didn't care. He only needed to be with him.
"You need a shower," Trowa said, casual, blunt.
Heero was afraid to turn to look at his friend. He'd been the one that told Trowa to marry Quatre, not to wait. If he'd waited, would it hurt less? "I took one this morning."
"What day is it?"
"Tuesday."
"Thursday. Aren't you even slightly hungry?" Trowa produced one of Duo's favorite flavors of nutra-packs.
"I'm waiting for the signal to come in," Heero said, rather dismayed that he'd been up there for three days. "Trowa, I can't remember having anyone like Duo in my life. He's all the family I've ever had. If I had a body, I could prepare it, give him an honorable funeral. I could fulfill my obligation. We were warriors. His death would have been mine, but it would have been clean. This? Where he's just out there and I have to wait. I don't know how to...."
"Heero," Trowa interrupted. "We have the signal. We have a video clip, but Heero we're not sure how much time has passed. This colony's main computer is set on the edge of a human created wormhole. The message," Trowa paused again, as if considering giving Heero the whole truth or just enough. "The message is from a thousand years in our future. You might not like who the one sent it looks like."
Heero felt like ice went down his throat, a big solid column of it. A thousand years? A descendant? With calm steady fingers he took the still photo that Trowa was offering him. A thousand years, and there
he was. It was Duo's smile, broad and genuine, Duo's violet eyes, but the hair was black, shimmering black as the vast space between Duo and Heero. He wore a loose white shirt, a ruffle laying around his
throat, some padding on his left shoulder. "Name?"
"Dano na Saikuru, High Songbird of the Goddess Lai Lei, Pairbond to Tokala na Carlyes. He sends his greetings to the Goddess Earth. It seems like it was more of a religious rite than any attempt to send a
real message."
Heero studied the face. It wasn't Duo, not even close really, though there was the same heart shaped face, "He made it then, made it to this new world, built a life for himself."
That is what he would want. It was logical that he should want Duo to be happy, have children. He didn't understand why he could feel his heart breaking in half, feel the boiling black oil pouring over it.
"Not quite," Trowa said, handing Heero another report, the graphing of the message sender's DNA.
Heero took it, immediately noted the familiar patterns to the DNA. "It might be coincidence."
"The odds are better for you being able to walk to Mayonaka's World. We also got a scan of the Lai Lei. I think that's why she contacted us, finally. She's going to blow up with a year. It is a distress signal, mostly. Something bad happened when she got there. If we don't get there and help, Duo's descendants are going to go up like so much genetic ash in the wind. It's a paradox, but you know who's DNA that is, showing up in Dano na Saikuru a 1000 years from now?"
"I recognize it." It was Heero's. This man was a descendant of both of them. "When do we leave?"
"Right after you take a shower."
On another world, years in the future, a man with DNA from both Heero and Duo is having the best day of his life...
Dano didn't like being below the temple, in the inner sanctum. He came whenever Lai Lei called him, even if it was his wedding day. "Okay, was that good, Lai Lei?"
"Yes," said the goddess, her little girl form standing next to him. "But the hero may not come soon enough."
The inner sanctum of the temple was one strange place to Dano. Lai Lei had tried to explain to him, that when the people had crossed the stars, the myth said she stepped off the bridge and could walk no
farther, but really, the moon had knocked her off course and she'd skidded from Equilobos up to Carlyes, and the engines and secondary computer systems had broken off at first impact, had been 'ejected'
because their was something wrong with the 'core'. The first High Songbird had gotten 'contained' with the 'core'.
Dano picked up his wedding jacket, a thigh length white brocade with silver buttons that matched the silver beads braided into his hair. Tokala was waiting at the palace. They hadn't seen each other in a week, which was just part of the ceremony, for an Empriatsen. "See ya, Lai Lei!" Dano said, racing up the stairs, his braid snapping as he went. It was the best day of his life! Tokala would take him in his arms and nothing would interrupt. Dano would lose his virginity in exchange for that of one blond knight's. The city of Equilobos was wrapped in white ribbon white ribbon and celebration. It was the wedding day of the first Emprial High Songbird, the absolute end of civil war, the triumphant return of the goddess of love, of Lai Lei.
And under the city, right in the center, a thousand year old time bomb ticked. Dano had no way to see what was behind the 12 foot tall granite statue of Heero with spread angel wings and an Earth held in cupped hands. The main engine core, caught mid throb as it pulsed out radiation, rose towards an explosion a thousand times that of a hydrogen bomb, more than enough to make a crater of Equilobos and bring nuclear winter. Between the ruined engine and the shielding statue, also caught in the time fold knelt a man in black, a long brown braid, and a bandaged wedding finger. A small blond little girl clung to his shirt, hiding her face against his side. He typed on a notebook computer, lower lip held between his teeth, a burn down the side of his face. A thousand years had passed and his fingers hadn't reached the keys, sleeping beauty holding back a raging technological dragon that would take out a world. Of three hundred and sixty five
thousand messages had been sent to Earth, asking for help. They only needed one to get through, but they needed it fast. Lai Lei could feel the earth quake rising under the ocean off the coast of the city. If that hit before Earth sent help, she would lose power to the containment that Duo had set up. There would be nothing left for Earth to find, nothing but radioactive debris.
Somewhere in the palace, Dano began to sing, to play his violin and this drew her away from thinking of the pending problem. The High Songbird's music drew her entire attention, sweet, romantic, beautiful, just as it was supposed to be. Duo, frozen in time, forgotten in the foundation of the temple, no one was there to notice that one of his fingers had moved a measurable fraction of a millimeter. Aside from the earthquake, Lai Lei's preoccupation with her own life was causing the containment to fail.
By Nix Winter
Disclaimers: Gundam Wing, Heero, Duo.. Those I don't own. Dano and Tokala, I own. The first novel with them is available from ebookad.com. It's called Tokala
Notes: It's been forever since I updated this story. I was writing it.. And Tokala kinda stole my attention. Now... Let's see... Where was I? Some bits have changed from the last story... 1x2 is totally locked in, as is 3x4.. no trio. The deep space ship's name is Lai Lei, not The Explorer. Noin's lover is very likely a nice Asian girl now. And wow did I go lurk for a long time.. I have a lot of fics to comment on, ne? The first part of this story is archived at www.gwaddicition.com, under the SDDI link. It won a contest last year, mostly by default, I think.
Ship of Children: The Crossing: 1/?
Heero Yuy pressed his hands to the thick viewport. It had been two months. Out beyond the black Duo was being carried away on a ship of dazzling technology, carried away and Heero couldn't reach him. He
had his ring. He had Deathscythe. He had the video of their pledge ceremony. He had an ache in his heart that he did not know how to repair.
The Earth sphere had her peace now. Heero found himself on the space colony farthest out, the one that had build the ship which was carrying Duo far out of their solar system. A click and hiss of hydraulics said the elevator in the center of the observation deck finally started working again. Heero made a mental note to break it better next time. There was a distinctive lack of screaming following the opening of the doors though and a minute later, Trowa leaned up against the railing.
Heero ignored him, felt badly about ignoring his best friend, but not badly enough to strike up a conversation. What was there to say anyway? 'My husband has been saved from Oz by well meaning people, sent a hundred light years away. I don't know how hurt he is and I can't reach him. I've never hurt so badly in my life. How are you?' Heero just stood there, hands on the window.
The lead scientist of the little rebel colony said they could not send a second ship until they had a confirmation signal from the planet they'd sent the Lai Lei to. Heero thought he'd just stand here
and will the signal to come in. He wasn't sure how many days it had been. He'd been told two days, three. There was a matter of a worm hole and some time distortion and some physics that Heero did now
want to think about. The odds were very good that he and Duo would not be the same age anymore. Would Duo want him if his hair had gone gray, arthritis in his fingers? If age had Duo, would Duo let him
feel the same for him? They were married, pledge bonded. Heero didn't care. He only needed to be with him.
"You need a shower," Trowa said, casual, blunt.
Heero was afraid to turn to look at his friend. He'd been the one that told Trowa to marry Quatre, not to wait. If he'd waited, would it hurt less? "I took one this morning."
"What day is it?"
"Tuesday."
"Thursday. Aren't you even slightly hungry?" Trowa produced one of Duo's favorite flavors of nutra-packs.
"I'm waiting for the signal to come in," Heero said, rather dismayed that he'd been up there for three days. "Trowa, I can't remember having anyone like Duo in my life. He's all the family I've ever had. If I had a body, I could prepare it, give him an honorable funeral. I could fulfill my obligation. We were warriors. His death would have been mine, but it would have been clean. This? Where he's just out there and I have to wait. I don't know how to...."
"Heero," Trowa interrupted. "We have the signal. We have a video clip, but Heero we're not sure how much time has passed. This colony's main computer is set on the edge of a human created wormhole. The message," Trowa paused again, as if considering giving Heero the whole truth or just enough. "The message is from a thousand years in our future. You might not like who the one sent it looks like."
Heero felt like ice went down his throat, a big solid column of it. A thousand years? A descendant? With calm steady fingers he took the still photo that Trowa was offering him. A thousand years, and there
he was. It was Duo's smile, broad and genuine, Duo's violet eyes, but the hair was black, shimmering black as the vast space between Duo and Heero. He wore a loose white shirt, a ruffle laying around his
throat, some padding on his left shoulder. "Name?"
"Dano na Saikuru, High Songbird of the Goddess Lai Lei, Pairbond to Tokala na Carlyes. He sends his greetings to the Goddess Earth. It seems like it was more of a religious rite than any attempt to send a
real message."
Heero studied the face. It wasn't Duo, not even close really, though there was the same heart shaped face, "He made it then, made it to this new world, built a life for himself."
That is what he would want. It was logical that he should want Duo to be happy, have children. He didn't understand why he could feel his heart breaking in half, feel the boiling black oil pouring over it.
"Not quite," Trowa said, handing Heero another report, the graphing of the message sender's DNA.
Heero took it, immediately noted the familiar patterns to the DNA. "It might be coincidence."
"The odds are better for you being able to walk to Mayonaka's World. We also got a scan of the Lai Lei. I think that's why she contacted us, finally. She's going to blow up with a year. It is a distress signal, mostly. Something bad happened when she got there. If we don't get there and help, Duo's descendants are going to go up like so much genetic ash in the wind. It's a paradox, but you know who's DNA that is, showing up in Dano na Saikuru a 1000 years from now?"
"I recognize it." It was Heero's. This man was a descendant of both of them. "When do we leave?"
"Right after you take a shower."
On another world, years in the future, a man with DNA from both Heero and Duo is having the best day of his life...
Dano didn't like being below the temple, in the inner sanctum. He came whenever Lai Lei called him, even if it was his wedding day. "Okay, was that good, Lai Lei?"
"Yes," said the goddess, her little girl form standing next to him. "But the hero may not come soon enough."
The inner sanctum of the temple was one strange place to Dano. Lai Lei had tried to explain to him, that when the people had crossed the stars, the myth said she stepped off the bridge and could walk no
farther, but really, the moon had knocked her off course and she'd skidded from Equilobos up to Carlyes, and the engines and secondary computer systems had broken off at first impact, had been 'ejected'
because their was something wrong with the 'core'. The first High Songbird had gotten 'contained' with the 'core'.
Dano picked up his wedding jacket, a thigh length white brocade with silver buttons that matched the silver beads braided into his hair. Tokala was waiting at the palace. They hadn't seen each other in a week, which was just part of the ceremony, for an Empriatsen. "See ya, Lai Lei!" Dano said, racing up the stairs, his braid snapping as he went. It was the best day of his life! Tokala would take him in his arms and nothing would interrupt. Dano would lose his virginity in exchange for that of one blond knight's. The city of Equilobos was wrapped in white ribbon white ribbon and celebration. It was the wedding day of the first Emprial High Songbird, the absolute end of civil war, the triumphant return of the goddess of love, of Lai Lei.
And under the city, right in the center, a thousand year old time bomb ticked. Dano had no way to see what was behind the 12 foot tall granite statue of Heero with spread angel wings and an Earth held in cupped hands. The main engine core, caught mid throb as it pulsed out radiation, rose towards an explosion a thousand times that of a hydrogen bomb, more than enough to make a crater of Equilobos and bring nuclear winter. Between the ruined engine and the shielding statue, also caught in the time fold knelt a man in black, a long brown braid, and a bandaged wedding finger. A small blond little girl clung to his shirt, hiding her face against his side. He typed on a notebook computer, lower lip held between his teeth, a burn down the side of his face. A thousand years had passed and his fingers hadn't reached the keys, sleeping beauty holding back a raging technological dragon that would take out a world. Of three hundred and sixty five
thousand messages had been sent to Earth, asking for help. They only needed one to get through, but they needed it fast. Lai Lei could feel the earth quake rising under the ocean off the coast of the city. If that hit before Earth sent help, she would lose power to the containment that Duo had set up. There would be nothing left for Earth to find, nothing but radioactive debris.
Somewhere in the palace, Dano began to sing, to play his violin and this drew her away from thinking of the pending problem. The High Songbird's music drew her entire attention, sweet, romantic, beautiful, just as it was supposed to be. Duo, frozen in time, forgotten in the foundation of the temple, no one was there to notice that one of his fingers had moved a measurable fraction of a millimeter. Aside from the earthquake, Lai Lei's preoccupation with her own life was causing the containment to fail.