Pacific Rim - The Iceland Breach

by Darkpenn

This collection consolidates the stories that revolve around the Iceland Breach, four years after the end of the movie Pacific Rim. It features Hermann Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler, Dee Delacroix and Elle Castro.

Pacific Rim: The Iceland Breach

This collection consolidates the stories that revolve around the Iceland Breach, four years after the end of the movie Pacific Rim. It features Hermann Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler, Dee Delacroix and Elle Castro.

---

Iceland

Four years after the Breach was destroyed, there is a shadow of a new threat.

"I intend to file a complaint," huffed Dr Hermann Gottlieb. "I was promised a holiday. Instead I am being forced to travel for work. Which I dislike intensely."

"Stop complaining, Hermann," said Dr Newton Geiszler, from the seat beside him. "Haven't you ever wanted to see Iceland? And the volcano Eyjafjallajökull? It's very famous. A real troublemaker, as volcanoes go."

"No, and no," said Hermann. "The only thing worse than being in Iceland would be another awards ceremony. Like that one in … that cold country."

"You mean the Nobel Prize?" said Ranger Elle Castro from the co-pilot seat, in front of the two men.

"Which you won jointly, so stop arguing," said Ranger Dee Delacroix, as she made some adjustments to the controls of the UH110 jetcopter. "And it was either this or another talk show."

"Humph," said Hermann. "Well, I must say that anything is better than that."

"And Iceland looks quite interesting," said Elle, looking out the window at the grasslands below. "Surprisingly warm and sunny. Might be good for some topless sunbathing when we get back." She winked at Dee, who winked back.

"And I hear they have natural hot springs," said Dee. "There is a law that you have to be naked to use them, apparently."

They could not see the two men behind them but they could almost hear them gulp.

Hermann sighed. "I miss my office," he muttered.

"I thought you said you wanted a holiday," said Elle.

"Yes, which I would take in my office," said Hermann.

"Topless sunbathing, you say?" said Newton.

Dee and Elle laughed.

They were approaching the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. It had not erupted since 2010 but it was nevertheless spewing a constant plume of ash into the air.

"We're not going to be able to get much closer," said Dee. "The air filters are starting to overheat."

Elle checked her instrument panel. "Eight to go to anomaly," she said. "We'll have to land here and hike the rest. There's a tent in the supply pack, so we can camp overnight if we have to."

"Eight kilometres?" said Newton. "We're going to walk eight kilometres?"

"No," said Elle. "Eight miles."

"Oh dear," said Hermann.

Dee set the jet-copter down. The two Rangers began to take supplies from the copter's cargo hold and sort them into packs.

Newton was given the scanner and Hermann was given the computer. The two women hefted the packs with the tent, the sleeping bags, and the rations. Dee and Elle also each carried an automatic rifle and a heavy pistol.

"Do you actually try and make us feel inadequate, or is it just an ongoing accident?" said Newton.

"Bit from column A, bit from column B," said Dee.

"You guys are the brains," said Elle. "Or so we are told."

Newton stared at the two women. Dee was slim and blond, Elle was dark and more curvaceous. Dee was a former fighter-pilot and a former JumpHawk driver. Elle was a former Marine who had transferred to the Rangers Recon Unit during the Kaiju Wars. They both exuded competence and confidence. As he was thinking that, Newton managed to drop the scanner.

The two women rolled their eyes.

Newton picked it up and dusted it off.

"Like I said, the brains," said Elle. "Which way, genius?"

Newton looked at the screen of the scanner. "That way," he said, pointing up the slope.

They set off.

"No doubt this is another wild steeplechase," said Hermann.

"Goose," said Newton.

"I am not a goose!" said Hermann indignantly.

"Debateable, but not what I meant," said Newton. "These figures are … interesting." He showed the scanner to Hermann.

Hermann nodded. "Possibly," he said.

"Even though this is the fourth anomaly we've chased down," said Dee, "I don't really understand what they're about. Except that it could mean another Breach."

"The back story," said Newton, "is that the Breach in the Marianas Trench had a specific radiation signature. During the Kaiju Wars, when monsters were popping out, everyone thought that the Breach had appeared all at once. But more detailed research showed that it had taken a long time to develop. It had started small, with a minor leak of Anteverse radiation. Of course, no-one knew what it was at the time. It took a fair while – no-one knows exactly how long – to grow to a size that could allow Trespasser through.

"But now there are satellites that keep a lookout for any new leaks. The past three have been false alarms, turned out to not be Anteverse radiation at all. Wrong spectrum signature. But hard to tell until you get close and take more detailed readings."

"And analyse them according to certain algorithms," said Hermann.

"Yeah, yeah, we know, the Gottlieb formulas," said Newton.

"Formulae," said Hermann.

"So can we look forward to another wave of Kaijus?" said Dee.

"Given the stakes, no-one is ignoring the possibility," said Newton. "And there are the new-gen Jaegers, just in case."

"Maybe when Gipsy Danger exploded in the Anteverse, it wiped them all out," said Elle.

"It's a … big place," said Hermann.

"Kind of wish we could see it," said Elle.

"No, you don't," said Newton. "Trust us in this." He still had nightmares about Drifting into the Anteverse. He was sure that Hermann did too.

And that was four years ago. As the key researchers of the burgeoning Kaiju Science Corporation, Newton and Hermann had contributed huge amounts to the field, including the use of cloned Kaiju material in everything from advanced medicine to Jaegers, and the application of Drift technology to treat mental diseases. The two of them had opposed any further attempts to Drift into the Anteverse, although there were occasional rumours of experiments on the semi-legal fringe of Kaiju research.

Despite the commercial success and personal satisfaction that their research had brought, Newton and Hermann had always placed the highest priority on identifying further Breaches. They knew exactly what the last one – the first one – had cost. Newton knew that Hermann, even though he complained whenever forced to leave his spotless office in Hong Kong and venture into the wider world, would do whatever it took to prevent a further Breach. So whenever there was even the possibility of Anteverse radiation, all other projects went on hold.

The grassy slope had turned into a smooth lava field. Eyjafjallajökull was a long way off but the pall of ash hung in the air like a low cloud. As they walked across a patch of the lava field, it seemed to echo beneath their feet.

"Volcanic chamber underneath," said Hermann. "Lava fields often form over them. It should be safe enough for us. But I don't fancy doing it on the dark."

"There's about another two kilometres to go," said Newton, looking at the scanner.

Night was beginning to fall. "We should camp here, then," said Elle. She and Dee took off the packs and set up the four-person tent. With the sun down the temperature dropped, and the four of them huddled in the tent. They ate a meal.

The two women took off their Ranger jackets and shirts. Elle was wearing a t-shirt which said: I MARRIED A ROCK STAR!

Dee's t-shirt said: I MARRIED HERMANN GOTTLIEB!

The women rolled out the two double sleeping bags. They each got into one. Then they looked at the two men.

"Damn, we have great wives," said Newton.

---

"Do you ever wonder," said Hermann to Newton, "what they see in us?"

The four of them were walking up the slope towards the indication of the anomaly. Even with the supplies and weapons – although they had left the tent and some of the other supplies at the campsite, down the slope – the two women easily outpaced the men. They had been walking for only an hour but Newton and Hermann were beginning to puff. Dee and Elle, walking ahead, were just getting warmed up.

"Well, I wonder what Dee sees in you," said Newton.

"Humph," said Hermann.

Newton sighed. "And, yes, I suppose that sometimes I look at Elle with a certain degree of puzzlement," he said. "I can only assume that she is entranced by my boyish good looks and rugged charisma."

"Unlikely," said Hermann.

Newton sighed again. "Maybe the whole question should go into the category of mysteries not meant to be solved," he said. "In case you break them."

"Agreed," said Hermann.

Newton's scanner beeped. He called to the two women to join them. He recalibrated the scanner for a more precise fix. "Two hundred metres," he said. "That way."

They headed as he indicated. The two Rangers checked their guns.

"If this is a Breach," said Dee, "why would it be on the side of a volcano?"

"The same reason the first one was in the Marianas Trench, at the intersection of two tectonic plates," said Hermann. "So the Precursors could draw upon a huge source of energy. That is the theory, anyway."

"We're there," said Newton, looking at the scanner.

"No, I don't think we are," said Elle, looking around.

"Yes we are," said Newton, staring at the screen. "Should be right at our feet."

Elle surveyed the area again. "Sorry, sweetie," she said. "Zip."

Hermann looked at the screen. "Much as I always hate to admit that Dr Geiszler might ever be correct about anything, in this case he is right," he said.

"Nope," said Dee.

Suddenly, the lava field began to shake. A crack began to appear in the surface. It emanated a strange red glow.

Together, Hermann and Newton felt a slash of pain through their brains. As one, they cried out.

"Back!" shouted Elle. "Get back!" They all retreated several steps.

Hermann recovered sufficiently to activate the camera in the computer. Instruments in the scanner began to record as well.

The crack widened to about a metre. Then it stopped.

"Is this a Breach?" said Dee. "Or just something that volcanoes do?"

"According to these readings," said Newton, "this hole goes … a long way. Really long way. And … my god, it's stabilising. It's … a stable pathway. Dilation of … about eighty centimetres."

"I'm not sure what that means, but I think it is eighty centimetres too much," said Elle. She took her pistol from its holster and handed it to her husband.

"And just what am I supposed to do with this?" he said, taking it and staring at it.

Hermann was studying the screen of the scanner.

"Something … is coming," he said.

"A number of somethings," said Newton.

A creature leaped from the crack. It was the size of a large dog, but it had a heavy, armoured head with massive jaws, and spikes on its back.

Elle and Dee fired together. The bullets slammed into the creature and there were spurts of blue blood. But it did not go down.

The creature began to come towards them. Elle and Dee kept firing. The creature slowed … and then slumped to the ground. It gave a growling hiss as it died.

Two more of then erupted from the crack. And then two more. They began to advance on the four humans.

Elle stopped to re-load as Dee kept firing. One of the creatures went down.

"Get out of here!" Elle shouted to Hermann and Newt. "You need to get to the radio in the chopper! We'll lead them away!"

Elle started to fire again as Dee re-loaded.

"Go!" Dee said to the two men. "If this means another Breach, you guys are too important to lose!"

Elle and Dee began to run, firing as they went. The creatures began to follow them.

And then the ground, weakened by the appearance of the Breach, collapsed under them. The two women and the creatures slid into a chamber, five metres below the surface. Dee and Elle were unhurt but the creatures were still coming at them.

Dee had lost her rifle when she began to fall, and now she drew her pistol. They had no further to run.

Hermann and Newton ran to the edge of the collapsed chamber. They looked at each other.

"We should get to the radio in the helicopter," said Hermann. "The world needs to know there is a new Breach."

"Yeah, we should do that," said Newton. "We really should."

Hermann picked up Dee's rifle. Newton lifted the pistol Elle had given him and flicked what he hoped was the safety catch.

They jumped, sliding down a slab of stone.

Dee and Elle had taken another of the creatures down but were now out of ammunition. The creatures growled and crouched, preparing to spring. Elle took her rifle by the barrel to use it as a club and Dee drew her knife. Didn't seem like much. They exchanged a glance.

"Son … of … a … bitch," said Dee.

"Never got to do that topless sunbathing," said Elle.

And then there was volley of shots as Newton and Hermann appeared behind the creatures, firing wildly. Most of the creature's armour was in the front, so the bullets from behind tore into their flesh. One, and then the other, fell.

"Damn," said Newton. "We did it. We actually did it."

"Yes," said Hermann. "I think I need to sit down now."

Dee and Elle laughed. "Our heroes," said Elle.

They managed to climb out of the hole. They made their way back to the Breach. It was gone, but they could see a glassy mark on the surface.

"I guess it comes and goes," said Newton. "Hermann, did you get enough data to make some guesses as to when it might open again, and how fast it might grow?"

"I do not make guesses," said Hermann. "If you mean, can I model a prospective timeline, yes, probably. I will need to return to the lab, of course."

"What were those things?" said Dee.

"Some sort of scout, I suppose," said Newton. "Since this Breach isn't under water like the first one, maybe they needed to learn a few things, test the atmosphere, that sort of stuff."

"Since we killed them all, does that mean they won't try it again?" said Elle.

Hermann and Newton looked at each other. They remembered the Drift into the Anteverse. They remembered the Precursors' relentless drive, their insatiable will to conquer.

"Unlikely," said Hermann.

The four of them began to walk down the slope, towards the communications equipment they could use to inform the UN about the new threat.

"I suppose we should be angry that you chose to save us instead of running," said Dee. "But somehow I just can't bring myself to be upset about it."

"We considered it," said Newton.

"Really?" said Elle.

"No, not really," said Newton.

"One way or another," said Dee, as she put her arm through her husband's, "we will have to find some special way to repay you."

"I'm thinking hot springs," said Elle.

Newton and Hermann looked at each other.

"Tempting as that might be," said Hermann, "we really need to get back to Hong Kong to start work on this."

" 'Fraid so," said Newton.

"Huh," said Dee. "Well, I suppose that that's why we love you."

Elle nodded agreement. Then she said: "Then what we should do is have a hot spa set up right in our apartments. We can book it by radio and they'll be ready by the time we get there. Deal?"

The two men stared at their wives. "Deal," they said together.

END

---

Your Secret is Safe with Me

In which Dr Hermann Gottlieb meets Ranger Dee Delacroix.

[Author's Note: This series takes place two years before the story Pacific Rim: Iceland, and functions as a prelude to that story.]

Dr Hermann Gottlieb had no doubt that the two best things about his lab/office in the Kaiju Science Corporation building in Hong Kong were the huge amount of blackboard space and the solitude. Someone from HR kept sending him assistants but they seldom lasted more than a day or two.

So he was somewhat surprised, and more than a little annoyed, when he heard someone enter the lab. He was up the ladder working on a tri-metric quad-algorithmic variation to one of his formulae at the time and did not bother looking down.

After a while, a voice – female – said: "That's a tri-metric quad-algorithmic variation to one of your formulae, isn't it?"

Hermann made a point of not being impressed. Plenty of people knew what a tri-metric quad-algorithmic formula variation was. So he merely grunted and continued to work.

Eventually, he completed the task and climbed down. He had forgotten there was another person there.

"Hi," she said.

He jumped. Perhaps a metre.

"You still here?" he said, by way of seeking to recover the situation, and his composure. "Why? I don't need an assistant."

Although, to tell the truth, this one was … he hated to admit it … quite attractive. If you liked slim, tall, and blond. Strangely, she was wearing a Ranger uniform instead of a lab coat. It fitted her … snugly.

"I'm not your assistant," said the woman. "I'm your bodyguard."

Well, that explained the uniform. And the sidearm. And the casual military style. And the take-no-BS demeanour. And those long legs that reached right down to the ground.

"I need a bodyguard even less," said Hermann.

"Are you aware," said the woman, "that you have received a number of death threats?"

Hermann started. "Really?" he said. "How many?"

"723. Quite a lot, actually. Mostly from the militant faction of the Kaiju Church. A variety of others. We do not count the ones written in crayon."

"723, eh?" said Hermann. "Er, you wouldn't happen to know how many Dr Geiszler has received, would you?"

"High six hundreds, I think."

"Yesss!" said Hermann, punching the air. "In any case, Miss – "

"It's Ranger Delacroix. And if you are thinking of dismissing me, you can't. I have my orders. You are an asset to be protected, apparently."

That name rang a little bell in Hermann's head.

"Very well, Ranger Delacroix," he said. "You can stay if you can answer one question. What is the Noble gas of the fifth – "

"Xenon. I will stay, Dr Gottlieb, if you can answer one from me. Maths question. What is J worth?"

"Pardon me?"

The Ranger sighed. "Well, since I'm here, for the moment, I should remind you to get ready for the ceremony," she said. "It starts in two hours."

"Oh no, not another one," he said.

"According to your diary, you specifically wanted to go to this one. You are to receive an award for your work on the mathematics underpinning the application of certain aspects of Drift tech to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease." She remembered a note in Gottlieb's file that his mother had suffered from Alzheimer's. There was an accompanying note saying that he never talked about it.

"Oh," said Hermann. "That one. Yes, I suppose I should go to it."

"I assume you will want to go home and change."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Well, that suit is … unsuitable. In fact, I doubt it is even a suit."

"It is the best one I have. What is wrong with it?"

"If you have to ask, I can't tell you. Okay, come on, we have time to stop and buy you a decent one."

"But – "

"Not a request, Dr Gottlieb."

Hermann suspected that there was no point in arguing. So he accompanied her.

As they left the building, a man across the street spoke into a mobile phone.

---

Hermann would not have admitted it, but the suit was … nice. Or so he assumed. He knew nothing about it. But a number of people at the award ceremony mentioned it.

There were many important people at the ceremony but Ranger Delacroix noticed that Hermann spent all his time talking to an elderly Hong Kong woman. She remembered a note in the file saying that his mother had suffered from Alzheimer's. There was also a note saying that he never talked about it.

Eventually, the master of ceremonies asked Ranger Delacroix to bring Hermann to the stage. She went over to him.

"Dr Gottlieb," she said. "It is time for the ceremony part."

"In a minute, in a minute," he said. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I was just thanking Dr Gottlieb for his generous financial support of our organisation," said the elderly woman. "True, we're not one of the big ones, and we care for people who cannot be helped by the Drift developments, but – "

Ranger Delacroix raised an eyebrow. "Generous support?" she said.

"Mrs Bo, it's not much," Hermann said.

"Oh, don't be modest, Hermann, it's – " started the woman.

He tried to gesture for her to stop. But she didn't. She gave the facts and figures. Yes, it was indeed a generous level of support.

"Nevertheless, Dr Gottlieb is needed on the stage," said Ranger Delacroix. She began to pull him away.

"Please don't tell anyone about that," said Hermann to her.

"If you like, but why not?"

"Well, I … have a reputation to keep. A reputation … as a … recalcitrant … fellow … "

Ranger Delacroix stared at him. "That organisation is not the only one, is it?" she said.

Hermann looked at his new shoes and shook his head. "I've made a fair bit of money from patents and things over the past two years," he said softly. "But … there is nothing I want to buy with it. So … I do things like that."

Ranger Delacroix smiled. "Your secret is safe with me," she said.

The awards ceremony proceeded, and Dr Gottlieb was given a nice plaque. He stammered through an acceptance speech that lasted about fifteen seconds.

As soon as the speaking part was over, he sought out Mrs Bo and resumed the conversation, even though there was a queue of noteworthy people waiting to speak to him. When he eventually saw the line, he looked dismayed.

"Dr Gottlieb," said Ranger Delacroix in a loud voice. "UN security protocols require us to depart immediately."

"What?" he said. "Oh, security protocols, yes, depart immediately, of course."

Mrs Bo winked at them.

So Ranger Delacroix and Hermann left the function and were soon back on the street. They became to walk towards the Kaiju Science Corporation building.

"What happened to your award?" said Ranger Delacroix.

"I gave it to Mrs Bo," said Hermann. "I believe she deserves it more than I. Uh, if anyone asks, don't tell them that. Tell them … that I lost it."

Ranger Delacroix stopped. She looked around. Even at night, the street was crowded, as streets in Hong Kong usually were.

"Ranger Delacroix, how did you know that it was a tri-metric quad-algorithmic formula variation?" asked Hermann.

"I sometimes fly a jet fighter," said Ranger Delacroix, still surveying the area. "And sometimes a JumpHawk. Some maths is involved. This way, Doctor."

They turned and walked back – at a rather faster pace than Hermann was used to.

Ranger Delacroix stopped again. She gestured to a side-street. "That way," she said.

"But – "

"Not a discussion, Doctor."

Hermann saw that there seemed to be a lot of people heading in their direction. He felt a little twinge in his spine.

They started along the smaller street. Ranger Delacroix took out her phone. She tried to make a call but the signal was being blocked.

A group of people was coming towards them. Hermann looked back; there was an even larger group.

"Here," said Ranger Delacroix, turning into an alley. It took them to a construction site, a multi-level building, empty but lit with floodlights. Ranger Delacroix forced the gate open and they went in. She pointed to a metal staircase heading upwards.

The two groups had merged and there were now about fifty people, coming on fast. Some of them carried pistols, and others had knives or clubs.

Hermann and Ranger Delacroix went up the steps, running.

"You … you have a gun," Hermann panted.

"Yes, and I have 22 bullets," she said. "Not enough. Our best bet is to stay ahead of them. We might be able to get beyond the range of their blocking device."

"Who are they?"

"Church of Kaiju militants, I would think. You have a reputation amongst them, Doctor. You even have a price on your head."

"Really? Is it more than – "

"More than Dr Geiszler's? Sorry, no."

"Damn."

They reached the top floor of the site, perhaps the tenth storey. It was just an open floor and a forest of columns and girders.

Ranger Delacroix looked down the staircase. The militants were coming up.

They ran to the edge of the building. There was no way to climb down. There was another building, a glass-fronted skyscraper, facing them, but it was across a major street. It was obviously closed for the night.

"Not good," said Ranger Delacroix.

"There is an alternative," said Hermann. "It's me they want, not you. If you run – towards that crane over there, for example – they will not follow you."

"But they will tear you apart."

"Well, yes, I will concede that that is a flaw in an otherwise operative plan."

She smiled. "I have another idea," she said. She pointed to the nearby skyscraper. Then she pointed to a heavy chain, connected to the arm of the crane and hooked over a girder near them. "You are the mathematician, Dr Gottlieb," she said. "If we swing on that, can we make it over there?"

Hermann started. Then he looked at the chain and the distance. "Well, considering the parabolic arc, our estimated combined weight, the likely speed – "

"Not a whole lot of time," said Ranger Delacroix. She pointed; the first militants were at the top of the staircase.

"I … I … yes, in theory. It is possible. But of course we would simply splat against the plastic windows of the building over there like bugs. They are far too strong to break."

Ranger Delacroix drew her pistol. "Which window?" she said.

Hermann considered, and then pointed. "That one," he said.

"Are you sure?"

He stared at her.

She smiled again and unhooked the chain. She stood on the edge.

"I need one hand to hold on to the chain and the other to shoot," she said. "So you should get a good grip on me."

Hermann gulped. He looked around. The militants were racing towards them now. Twenty metres, if that. One of them fired, and a bullet whistled past Hermann's ear.

"Er, how?" he said. "Where?"

"Anywhere you like."

Hermann half-closed his eyes. Then, from behind, he put his arms around Ranger Delacroix. He could feel her strength. Her warmth. She was wearing a very nice perfume.

And then they were swinging through the air.

"J IS WORTH EIGHT POINTS!" screamed Hermann.

Zooming towards the window, Ranger Delacroix fired, a whole clip. They crashed through, the weakened plastic giving way. They landed on the floor in a tangle of limbs.

"Ouch," said Hermann.

"Went well, I thought," said Ranger Delacroix. She took out her phone; the signal connected. She called for a Ranger team. Whoever was on the other end said that they would meet Ranger Delacroix and Hermann on the street outside.

Ranger Delacroix looked back at the construction site. The militants, realising that their prey had eluded them, were dispersing.

Ranger Delacroix and Hermann found a staircase and started down.

"I hope that I did not … grip you … in any inappropriate way, Ranger Delacroix," said Hermann.

"Nothing I'm going to complain about," said Ranger Delacroix. "And please call me Dee."

"Hmm," said Hermann. "Would you be the Dee Delacroix who put a fuel-air missile down the throat of the Kaiju codenamed Angler last year?"

"Yes, although there were many people involved in that particular battle."

They reached the street-level door. They looked at each other.

"I suppose the events of the evening suggest that I do, indeed, need a bodyguard," said Hermann. "And to tell the truth I find that I … enjoy your company, Ranger – er, I mean, Dee."

"Best date I've had in ages," said Dee.

"Date?" said Hermann.

She laughed. "You are a dork, Dr Gottlieb," she said. "But I like you."

"You do?" said Hermann. "Well, well … gosh. And … it's Hermann. To you."

Dee laughed again. Then she opened the door, and they walked through it together.

END

---

Make Me an Offer

In a Hong Kong bar, Dr Newton Geiszler encounters an old foe … and a new ally.

[Author's Note: This series takes place two years before the story Pacific Rim: Iceland, and functions as a prelude to that story. It is a counterpart to the story Your Secret is Safe with Me.]

Dr Newton Geiszler sighed as he watched the ongoing work to reconstruct Hong Kong. It was two years since large chunks of the city had been demolished in the fight between Gipsy Danger and two Kaijus, and ever since then building had been under way, with the people of the island showing their usual dynamism and ingenuity.

From his lab/office on an upper floor of the Kaiju Science Corporation, he had a good view. He could even see the Bone Slums, with the new Sisters of the Kaiju Church rising from the skeleton. In the past two years, the Church had grown large and more militant, spurred on by its shadowy leader, Hyram Forsythe, originally from San Francisco but now apparently based in Hong Kong.

Newton had heard that Hannibal Chau's business, still based in the Slums, was more successful than ever. Chau had, in fact, consolidated much of the global black market for original Kaiju material under his leadership. Newton looked at a shelf in the corner; amongst the clutter was a shoe covered with gold plates. He gave a little chuckle.

But all things considered Newton did not feel especially happy with life. Yes, he had become a rock star, sort of. He was doing important, satisfying work. He was wealthy, well-known, respected by people whose respect he valued. The problem was that it didn't seem to mean much. This, he said to himself, is what happens when you get what you wish for.

The workday was ending, although his position in the company was such that he could come and go as he pleased. He left the office and headed for his favourite bar, Uncle Sally's. It occurred to him that maybe he was drinking too much these days.

He went into Uncle Sally's and took up his usual spot. He noticed a dark-haired woman enter immediately after him; she sat down at the other end of the bar. She glanced at him and then looked away. Newton sighed again. He ordered a drink. He wondered if he should order one for the dark-haired woman and send it to her, like men in spy movies did, but he decided against it. He simply wasn't cool enough to get away with something like that.

"Hello, Dr Geiszler," said a female voice behind him. He looked around … and jumped.

"I … I know you," he said to the woman. She had close-cropped hair, a form-hugging silk dress, and a smile that was half-ironic, half-scary. Very Hong Kong. "You're … you're … last time I saw you, you were pointing a gun at me … you used to work for Hannibal Chau."

"Still do," said the woman. "In a more senior role now. On the procurement side. My name is Natasha, by the way."

"Huh," said Newton. "And what do you procure?"

"At the moment, people like you," said Natasha.

Newton certainly did not like the sound of that. But he had no idea what to do about it. Natasha did not appear to have a gun – and the outfit was way too tight to conceal a holster – but he doubted that she was the sort of person who took no for an answer, or who travelled alone. He gulped. He looked around. The bartender and the other staff seemed to have vanished. Several of the customers – who were obviously not real customers – had moved markedly closer.

But then the dark-haired woman came up to them. She looked at Natasha. She said to Newton: "This bimbo bothering you?"

"N … n … no," he said. "I mean, yes. I mean … who are you, anyway?"

"Your new best friend," said the dark-haired woman.

"I smell Ranger," said Natasha, looking at the woman.

"And I smell fear," said the woman.

"Uh, that would be me," said Newton. "Oh, I probably shouldn't have said that. Sort of stepped on your line, I guess."

The two women looked at him. They both seemed to shake their heads slightly. Then they went back to their face-off.

"You his girlfriend?" said Natasha. "Unlikely as that might seem."

"Bodyguard," said the dark-haired woman. "I assume you are planning to put a bag over Dr Geiszler's head, take him away in an unmarked van, beat him up, and threaten to torture him until he agrees to work for you. Right?"

"Yes, except for the bag. Should have thought of it, in case he turns out to be a screamer. Specifically, Hannibal Chau wants him to build a device that provides access to the Anteverse."

"Why on earth would he want that?" said Newton in amazement.

"The supply of Kaiju material is running out," said Natasha. "There's only, what, five left from after the Breach closed, swimming around the Pacific somewhere. You Rangers are tagging them, and doing your best to exterminate them. We wouldn't mind that so much if you did it in an accessible place, but you don't. And the cloned stuff simply doesn't move off the shelves as well. Chau wants to access the original source."

"In a very literal sense, don't go there," said Newton.

"We have already tried some experiments," said Natasha. "Not particularly successful. For those trying to do the Drift to see the way, especially. But we believe that you can do it, Dr Geiszler, and we want you to show us how. Open a pathway. We are prepared to make you an offer. Essentially, you get to go on living. So, Ms Ranger, stand aside, if you please."

"Hmm," said the dark-haired woman. "No, I don't think so."

Suddenly, two large men appeared on either side on them, with very large handguns. More 'customers' pulled out guns.

But the dark-haired woman was ready. She moved almost faster than Newton could follow. In a second, she had grabbed one of the goons by his neck and smashed him, face-first, onto the bar. Without looking, she chopped out with her free hand and knocked the gun from the other goon. It went spiralling upwards … and when it came down she caught it. And then the barrel was only a few inches from Natasha's face. The guy who had hit the bar gradually fell to the floor, where he proceeded to bleed onto the carpet.

There were a dozen other guns pointed at Newton and the Ranger.

"Here is how it might play out," she said to Natasha. "I kill you, they kill me. Or I kill you, they run away. Or I kill you, they all cheer and buy me drinks. Do you see the common thread here?"

"So we have a stand-off," said Natasha, looking down the barrel.

"No, no, you don't," said Newton. "Because I'm not going anywhere with you. I'm not going to help you or anyone else create a path to the Anteverse. Because there would be a very tiny possibility that the things that live there would be the first to use it. Very tiny possibility, but there is no way I am taking the chance. I would die first."

"You would?" said the dark-haired woman.

"You would?" said Natasha.

"Without a second thought," said Newton. "So if you want to start blasting away, do so, because I'd prefer to go out in a body-bag rather than even think about doing what you want. Before I would even think about thinking about it."

"Man's got some church bells, underneath the nerd stuff," said the dark-haired woman.

"Huh," said Natasha.

"Which makes it your move, I think," said the dark-haired woman.

Natasha considered. She held up her hand and pointed at the door. All her men holstered their guns and proceeded out, dragging their unconscious colleague.

"Tell Hannibal I still have his shoe!" called Newton after them.

Suddenly, Newton and the dark-haired woman were alone. She offered the goon-gun to him. He merely looked at it. She shrugged and put it onto the counter. Then she reached over the bar and took a bottle of whisky and two glasses. She poured them each a drink. Newton downed his in a moment.

When he had stopped coughing, he said to her: "And just who are you, again?"

"Ranger Elle Castro," she said, offering her hand. "I have been assigned as your bodyguard. Actually, I wanted to check you out before agreeing to it. I think that you might be worth protecting."

Newton shook her hand. He was so stunned that he simply kept shaking it, staring at her.

"Er, that's enough now," she said eventually.

"What? Oh, right," he said. He took his hand away, and poured himself another drink, which he again downed. He coughed and spluttered again.

Ranger Castro took a bottle of soda from the bar and poured him a glass. She raised her own whisky, and he raised his soda. "Here's to church bells," she said. "And here's to … what else?"

"Friendship?" said Newton.

She smiled. "Friendship it is," she said.

END

---

Operations

Four years after the destruction of the Breach, the danger is far from over.

[Author's Note: This story takes place concurrently with the story Pacific Rim: Iceland.]

One wall of the Operations Room of the Hong Kong Shatterdome was taken up entirely by an illuminated map of the Pacific. At the moment, it provided the only light for the room, a dim and ghostly translucence. On the map, there were three red dots moving, apparently at random around the huge expanse of ocean. The information of their movements was constantly fed into a bank of computers – and someone else was watching, as well.

Most of the Task Force employees had gone home for the night, but as the Officer-in-Charge Tendo Choi continued to work in his office, which overlooked the Operations Room. The computer on his desk beeped; the most recent automated report on the Kaijus' movements was ready. He looked at it; it said, basically, that there was no immediate threat from the Kaiju, and none was likely.

He glanced at the map. Three left, he thought. When the Breach was closed, four years ago, there had been seven. They were Kaijus which had already come through the Breach and attacked cities, and had then moved back to sea, in some cases to heal their wounds. The pattern had long been known; even when the Breach still existed, Kaijus often swam around for extended periods before an attack, or between attacks. The assumption was that they were waiting for orders. The Kaiju known as Luthor, before it had been destroyed by Eun Park – once the lover of Tendo – had apparently acted as a co-ordinator, aside from whatever orders they received directly through the Breach. Post-Breach, the 'stranded' Kaijus seemed to just wander randomly across the Pacific. Seemed.

They sometimes came ashore, and would sit on an island or a patch of beach for anything from a few hours to several days. Several of them had, with no apparent pattern, attacked one or another of the remaining coastal cities, as well as any ships that came within their range. The Pacific was still a dangerous place.

The first two, both Category Twos, had been taken down with K-Stunner weapons and fuel-air missiles – difficult but necessary, with no Jaegers operating. In the battle against Angler, one pilot, Dee Delacroix, had got so close that she had been able to fire a missile down its throat – literally. Remarkable, Tendo thought.

The second two had been destroyed by the brand-new Jaegers, Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis, acting together. The Mark VIs utilised many of the parts of the now-obsolete Jaegers Iron Duke and Unity Dragon, as well as incorporating cloned Kaiju material.

None of the Kaijus had gone down without a ferocious fight.

They had all been 'tagged'. This was an idea put forward by a Ranger by the name of Elle Castro, in the Recon Unit. It had involved a team of three Rangers who had approached – very carefully – a Kaiju when it was 'at rest' on land. They had climbed it, using mountaineering tools, and attached a signal beacon to its armour. Castro had done that twice. Tendo had thought about the venture many times, and every time he had been impressed by it. He had never met the woman but he thought she must be quite a piece of work.

So now they could track the last three. Predicting what they might do was, of course, another matter.

In the near-darkness of the Operations Room, Tendo saw the flare of a cigarette lighter. Smoking was technically prohibited in the OR but no-one was inclined to complain about this individual. As head of the Task Force, Tendo was technically the man's superior. Which counted for absolutely nothing.

Tendo left his office and walked across the OR. He took a seat beside the smoking man. A thin plume of blue rose into the air.

"Which one are you looking at?" said Tendo, in Chinese.

Jin Wei pointed. "That one," he said. "Namazu. It is going to come out of the water soon. Two days. Onto that island, Cheju Do."

Tendo did not ask him how he knew. Even if Wei chose to answer, Tendo doubted he would be able to understand it. But Wei had never been wrong. That was all that mattered.

Tendo nodded. The two of them remained silent for a while. Eventually, Wei gave Tendo a cigarette, and they sat together, smoking.

"What do they think about, do you think?" said Tendo.

Wei considered. Then he said: "The silence. They lived their whole lives with the presence of others. Now they do not have it."

You can understand that, thought Tendo. You might be the only person on the planet who really can. You might not be able to explain it, but you can understand it.

He remembered the night when Otachi and Leatherback had destroyed Crimson Typhoon, only a few miles from here. He remembered how the Jaeger's Conn-Pod had been torn away and thrown across Victoria Harbour. He remembered how Jin had been plucked from the water by a rescue helicopter, and how he had looked when he realised that his two brothers were dead. He had had the expression of a man who was, for the first time, utterly alone.

"I will start getting Jaegers and warbirds moving towards Cheju Do," he said. "Do you want to come?"

"No," said Wei. "I have no desire to see any more Kaijus die. I do not hate them. They … are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less."

Tendo nodded. Then he returned to his office, leaving a silent man staring at an ocean.

END

---

Crisis/Opportunity

The new Breach represents both danger and possibility … or does it?

[Author's Note: This story follows Pacific Rim: Iceland. It is four years after the destruction of the first Breach.]

It was three days after their return from Iceland. Newton, Hermann, Dee and Elle entered the research laboratory in the UN building in Singapore to the sound of a chainsaw. They joined Marshall Hercules Hansen at the autopsy table. Dr Makoto Sekido, a Japanese forensic specialist, was hacking away at the corpse of one of the 'dogs' that had come out of the Iceland Breach, as it was now designated. She looked as if she was having a good time, chopping into the creature's armour as bits and pieces flew everywhere. Several bullets sailed through the air and clattered onto the floor.

"Uh, you know it's already dead, right?" said Dee. It was no secret that the Japanese had a particular hatred for any sort of Kaiju. Which was entirely understandable.

Dr Sekido stopped the chainsaw and pushed her visor up. "This is a wonderful opportunity," she said. "As far as we can tell, this creature is very much like the big ones, aside from the size, of course. Made from the same stuff, just less of it. We've never really had the chance to dissect one before. Pity they're such tough critters. Can't use ordinary surgical tools. I had to borrow this from a building site down the street."

She began to re-start the chainsaw but Hansen stopped her. "What else can you tell us from what you have … done … so far?" he said.

Dr Sekido put down the saw and removed her visor and gloves. "Well, these things were not designed primarily as marine creatures, like the first-gen Kaiju," she said. "They are essentially land animals, although capable of operating in the water. They breathe atmosphere, have much the same tolerances to heat and cold and pressure as we do. I've also done the estimates of strength and speed that you requested, Marshall. The bottom line is that there may be a liveable environment on the other side of the Breach. Not pleasant, but comparable. Probably why the Precursors want to conquer us."

She led the others to a bench with an array of equipment. "Something interesting came up on the DNA analysis," she continued, calling up a series of images on a screen. "These creatures do not have the same DNA structure as the others. Some important markers have been removed. There is still a lot we don't know about this but my guess is that the Precursors realised how they were tricked by Gipsy Danger, opening the portal by hanging onto Slattern. They have removed the possibility of that happening again. It is now a one-way gate only."

Newton nodded. "Yes, that fits with the readings we took," he said. "But if they couldn't get back, how would the Precursors get any information these things collected?"

Dr Sekido called up another series of images. They were dissections of the creatures' brains. She pointed to an odd-looking, over-developed area. "We suspect that this is the source of the hive mind component of their consciousness," she said. "The Precursors must have some sort of telepathic connection with them, a sort of built-in radio. We might even be able to find the frequency, or its equivalent. So the Precursors would know that these creatures are dead, and know they were killed as soon as they came out of the Breach. They might even have an idea of who killed them."

"Oh, they already know us," said Newton. "We're old friends."

Dr Sekido sighed. "Of course, to learn more we really need a live subject," she said.

"A live … Kaiju?" saidHermann. "But even the ones this size are … murderous."

Hansen scratched his stubble. "Dr Sekido," he said, "I'll see what I can do."

Don't like the sound of that, thought Newton.

---

The site of the Iceland Breach had once been a bare plain of stone and sand but now it was a hive of activity, with a cluster of temporary military buildings and hangars. Above the Breach itself was an odd-looking scaffold tower. A host of weapons were trained on the Breach. The whole complex was surrounded by wire fences.

A lot had happened in a fortnight.

Newton and Hermann got out of the chopper and looked around. Dee and Elle had been here for several days, but the two men did not know what they had been doing.

Herc Hansen came over to them as the chopper pulled away. Dr Sekido was with him. "You're just in time," Hansen said. "If your figures are correct, Dr Gottlieb, the next opening of the Breach should happen within the hour. With a dilation of slightly under 1.3 metres."

" 'If'? " said Hermann.

"Quite a project you have going on here," said Newton, looking around.

"And the hardest part has been keeping it secret," said Hansen. "The news is going to leak eventually, and then we expect to be up to our ears in Church of Kaiju people. Or black marketeers. Both, probably."

"Darling!" shouted a female voice. Dee Delacroix came running up to them, and flung herself into Hermann's arms, almost knocking him over. She kissed him passionately.

"Deeee!" hissed Hermann. "Not in front of the Marshall! Please! And people are staring."

And, indeed, all the soldiers and techs were looking at them, some with large grins and some with expressions of bemused puzzlement.

Hansen laughed. "Come on," he said to Hermann and Newton. "Let me show you the girls' new toys."

He led them into one of the hangars.

There were two robots there. Six metres tall. Built for combat.

"Fuck!" said Newton.

"Indeed," said Hermann.

There was an older man in overalls working on them. He came over to them.

"Hi," he said, shaking hands with Newton and Hermann. "We've met before, but it was a fair while ago. I'm Trent."

"Yes, I remember," said Newton. "The Southern Line. You drove the Fury Hell's Bells."

"And then you went to South America to work on the Jaeger program there," said Hermann. "I saw some of the code you wrote for Condor Shield. It was … acceptable."

Coming from Hermann, this was high praise.

"With his background of Furies and Jaegers, Trent was the logical person to bring in for this aspect of the project," said Hansen. "We call them Mustangs."

One of the Mustangs moved. It walked over to them. Newton was surprised how steady and fluid its movements were, even though it had a massive rifle attached to one arm and a sling-blade attached to the other. He thought that it probably had some Kaiju-clone silicon in its circuitry and joints. It was almost graceful, underpinned by strength and confidence. The way it moved reminded him of –

"Hi, sweetie," it said to him, in a voice both robotic and familiar.

"Elle!" he said. "That's you in there!?"

A panel at the front swung open. It was his wife, strapped in to a collection of servos and sockets. She blew him a kiss, the arm of the Mustang following her movements.

"The Mustangs are more like Furies than Jaegers, at least as far as operating systems go," said Trent. "No neural interface, they work on a movement-echo basis, single pilot. This one is Apache. The one that Ranger Delacroix will drive is called Blackhawk. Their capacities are limited but they should do the job."

"And what job is that?" said Hermann.

From outside, a klaxon sounded.

"Game time," said Hansen.

Dee climbed into Blackhawk.

Hansen led Newton and Hermann and the others to a raised platform overlooking the Breach as the Mustangs took up positions on either side of the Breach. There was, Newton noticed, a lot of activity on the tower.

There was a tech sitting at a console, reading information from scanners arrayed around the Breach.

"Pathway stabilising … now," she read. "Dilation at 1.274 metres and holding. Movement. Three, by the look of it. And we are picking up the hive signal as well."

The first creature burst out of the Breach. It was the size of a grizzly bear, and moved like one, but it had the armoured exoskeleton of all Kaiju. Two more appeared in a moment.

"Fire the pod," said Hansen.

From the tower, an object the size of a suitcase went catapulting down into the Breach.

Newton realised what it was: a sensor package. In a few seconds, a flow of data and images appeared on the tech's screen.

"Breach closing, losing contact with pod." said the tech. "Closed, and gone. Time between final exit and full closure, six seconds. But we got a good slab of data."

"Initiate blocking signal," said Hansen. The tech flicked some switches and one of the machines near the mouth of the Breach sparked into life.

The creatures gave a sudden howl … and then stopped.

"Go," said Hansen.

The guns around the Breach began to fire, targeting two of the creatures. They went down, but were obviously only wounded. They were already starting to get to their feet.

From the tower, something dropped. It was a massive cage. It went over the third creature. At the foot of the cage, pegs were automatically driven into the ground.

"You know, that's probably not going to work," said Newton.

"Quiet," said Hansen. He activated the radio. "Ranger Castro, Ranger Delacroix, you're up," he said.

The Mustangs came running forward, firing at the two creatures. The bullets whacked into the Kaijus, but they were far from finished. One of them leaped at Apache. But Elle was ready. She swivelled, and the blade slashed into the creature, cleaving it to the core. It crashed to the ground, dead.

"Remember, I want at least one alive," said Dr Sediko.

"I know what you want, Doctor," said Hansen. "But my priorities are my Rangers, and ensuring that these things don't reach open country."

The other creature was trying to get past Blackhawk. It put its head down and, on all fours, began to run. It was fast.

But Dee was faster. She slammed one of the Mustang's feet onto the creature's neck, pinning it to the ground. But it started to push back, almost toppling the machine. Dee put the rifle to its head and fired a long burst. The creature went still.

The one in the cage was heaving at the bars, smashing into them again and again. The pegs securing it to the ground began to dislodge.

Suddenly, the cage went over and the creature was out. It charged at the nearest target: the tower. It crashed into it, and the structure, with a dozen people on it, began to go over.

"I've got it!" came Dee's voice over the radio. Blackhawk ran forward and grasped the frame, stabilising it. The creature charged at her – and then was lifted bodily into the air by Apache. It struggled but the Mustang was keeping it off its feet, holding it by the neck with both hands.

"I can't hold it for long!" said Elle. "Damn thing just won't quit! Dee, do the injection thing, and hurry!"

Blackhawk had pushed the tower back into place. Now the Mustang advanced towards the creature, drawing its knife. No, Newton thought. It wasn't a knife, it was more like a huge syringe. For the first time, he saw that there was a tank of green fluid on Blackhawk's back.

Blackhawk punched into the struggling creature, ripping a chunk of armour away. Dee rammed the syringe into the exposed flesh, and the fluid pumped in.

Gradually, the creature's struggle weakened. It sagged into unconsciousness. Elle lowered it to the ground and the two Mustangs put the cage over it. Soldiers ran forward and fastened the cage to the ground again.

"There you go, Dr Sediko," said Hansen. "A live one."

Newton, amazed, could only stare. Then Hermann leaned close to him and whispered: "This will not end well, I fear."

"Heard that, buddy," Newton whispered back.

END

---

A Nexus of Unforeseen Events

The Rangers believe they are getting good at understanding and defeating the Kaijus. They are … not correct. And there are enemies within as well.

[Author's Note: This story follows the stories Iceland: Crisis/Opportunity and Operations.]

"Drop!" said Tendo Choi.

Together, the JumpHawk helicopters released the cables holding Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis, and the two Mark VI Jaegers splashed into the shallow water off the island of Chengu Do.

"Ready to rock," said Kemi Naka, in Liberty Phoenix, around an odd crunching sound.

"Kemi, are you chewing gum again?" said Tendo.

There was a long pause. "Nnnnoooo," she said, her Californian accent coming through.

"Of course she is," said her older sister Riisa.

"Well, get rid of it," said Tendo. "It messes up the voice commands and the communications net."

There was another pause. Then a hissing whisper from Riisa: "Don't put it there! We might need that lever!"

There was a sigh – actually, two sighs at once – from Louise Dawson and Elizabeth Wentworth in Nova Artemis. "We're ready too, if anyone's interested," said Louise. Elizabeth, her partner, gave a little chuckle. They were both of English background but had lived in Singapore for much of their lives, moving to Canada a few years ago so they could be married.

They had come down several kilometres from Namazu. Radar showed that the Kaiju, on the other side of the island, had not moved.

"Infra-red scanning is picking up something else," said the tech next to Tendo, in the command chopper. "It's … I think it's a ship. We didn't get it before because it was in a bay, between these rocky points. Looks like … no, it can't be … damn, it looks like a cruise ship. Not one of the big ones … but that's what it seems to be. Engines are still warm, according to this."

Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis began to walk along the coastline, towards the piece of flat land where Namazu was sitting. The JumpHawks retreated to a nearby island but the command chopper stayed with the two Jaegers.

Several flights of warbirds came onto Tendo's radar screen. The plan was for the planes to strike at the Kaiju first, with K-Stunners and fuel-air missiles, and then Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis would move in. It was a strategy that had worked before.

"Target in sight," said Flight Leader Jon Thompson, in the lead AH67. "Lining up for attack … wait a moment … Commander Choi, there is a problem."

Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis came around the last point separating them from Namazu – and came to an abrupt halt.

"Whoa," said Kemi.

"Are those … people?" said Elizabeth.

Tendo raised his binoculars and scanned the area around the Kaiju.

There were hundreds of people around it. They appeared to be –

"Praying," said Thompson. "Damned if they aren't praying to it."

Tendo looked at the ship, apparently aground on the beach not far away. On the side was the insignia of the Church of the Kaiju.

"Does Namazu know they are there?" said Louise. "Can it see them? I guess to a Cat Three Kaiju individual people are pretty small. Like ants would be to a person."

"Or maybe it just doesn't care," said Elizabeth.

One way or another, the Kaiju was not making any aggressive moves towards the crowd of people around it. It was, in fact, looking out to sea. The Jaegers were not far from it, but it made no move towards them.

Unusual, thought Tendo. Every other time, when a Kaiju sees a Jaeger it goes straight for it, claws out. But this one looks like it's … listening.

"Uh, if we open fire on the Kaiju we're going to end up killing a lot of those people," said Thompson. "No way to avoid it. I can't say I much like these crazy Churchers but I don't want to start incinerating them."

"I think we would end up killing all of them," said Riisa. "Jaegers aren't built for fine detail."

"All units hold fire," said Tendo. "Warbirds, circle. Jaegers, hold position. Wait – "

---

Meanwhile, in Singapore …

Dr Sekido and her team were poring over the latest crop of data from the captured Kaiju. They were in a special, highly secret UN facility – the signs outside said that it was a laboratory conducting research into sewage treatment – in a building in Singapore.

Tubes continually pumped sedatives into the Kaiju, now designated as Ursu. On the top of the cage was a transmitter that constantly emitted a signal, blocking the hive-mind frequency of the creature's brain.

"This data would be much more reliable," said one of Sekido assistants, "if we could perform tests without the sedatives."

"If you had been there when this one and its two friends came out of the Breach, you wouldn't be suggesting that," said Sediko. "God knows how the Rangers will handle the next ones. According to the Gottlieb-Geiszler projections, the next ones will be the size of elephants. Then whales. Then … I hate to think. And so far no-one has come up with a way to seal the Breach, or stop it growing."

There was a knock at the steel door of the chamber. Sekido looked at the monitor that showed the anteroom on the other side. There were three men in Ranger uniforms.

"We have a priority message from Marshall Hansen," said one of them into the intercom. "Our orders are to tell you directly. I am about to input our entry code, so please then enter your countersign code."

Hmm, thought Sekido. Odd that the Marshall didn't come himself, if it's that important.

She watched the monitor as the Ranger entered the code on the keypad. It came up as valid.

Sekido entered her countersign code on her terminal. The heavy door opened with a pneumatic hiss.

The three men burst in. They drew their guns. "Everybody down!" shouted the lead one.

"Hey, you can't – " said one of the lab techs.

One of the men – obviously they were not Rangers – hit him across the face with his gun, knocking him down. The leader of the trio fired a burst of shots into the ceiling.

Stunned and terrified, Sekido and the others lay down.

One of the men covered them while the others placed their packs against the wall. Then they ran to the other side of the room, as far away as possible. The packs exploded with a shattering boom, creating a hole six metres wide. Sekido glanced at the intruders, who were checking their watches: they were clearly on a split-second timetable, and knew that Rangers – real ones – would come pouring in in a few minutes. She assumed that the ones guarding this facility had been killed by the imposters.

There was another wall, on the exterior of the building, now visible through the hole. There was an explosion, as that wall was demolished from the outside.

Then a huge vehicle came smashing through the holes – in reverse. It was a semi-trailer truck, with a box the size of a shipping container on the back. Men ran out of it, pulling chains with them. They hooked the chains onto the Kaiju's cage. A winch started to operate – and in a few moments the cage was pulled into the truck.

The blocking transmitter, and the sedative pump, were torn away in the process.

"Wait!" shouted Sediko. "You don't know what – "

The three men who had first broken into the lab ignored her and began to run for the truck. One, the leader, stopped, and turned to Sediko. "Tell Newton Geiszler," he said, "that Hannibal Chau wants his shoe back." Then he ran after the others.

The three of them got into the truck and it began to pull away. But it had only gone a few hundred metres when it stopped.

There was another sound, from above. It was a transport helicopter. It came down, hovering over the container with Ursu. It lowered chains, which the men attached to the container. The helicopter pulled away, taking the container with it. From inside, there was a muffled roar – the sedatives were wearing off.

The truck pulled away, turning into the busy streets of Singapore. In a few moments, it was gone.

The whole operation had taken less than three minutes.

---

And on Cheju Do …

Namazu began to move. But not towards the Jaegers. It was heading for the sea. It trampled over scores of the supplicant members of the Church of the Kaiju. They accepted their deaths without complaint.

Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis ran forward but Namazu was already moving out of range, heading for deep water. In a few seconds, it was gone. Heading south.

What the hell … !? thought Tendo.

"What the hell … !?" said Elizabeth.

The radio-phone on Tendo's console beeped.

It was a call from the Hong Kong Shatterdome. Jin Wei. "Xia Ci and Snakehead have moved out of their usual areas," he said. "Quite suddenly. Heading towards the South Pacific."

What the hell … !? thought Tendo again.

END

---

Ocean Voyagers

The 'stranded' Kaiju are on the move. Which is bad news, however you look at it.

[Author's Note: This story follows A Nexus of Unforeseen Events and Operations.]

Jin Wei had a series of reports spread out on the desk in front of him. He had read through them several times, and was now trying to see how they might fit together.

One dealt with the Iceland Breach, including the Gottlieb-Geiszelt projections for the next time it would open. Not long.

At the end of the report, Newton Geiszelt had added a handwritten note.

Despite my respect for Dr Gottlieb's maths, it said, we should bear in mind that the Precursors may not do what we expect. They have shown a great ability to surprise us. There is much we do not know about them. But we know they are not stupid.

Jin put the paper aside and turned to the next report. It was about the incident in Singapore, when the bear-sized Kaiju, Ursu, had been stolen. The exact identity of the perpetrators was not known although most of the speculation pointed towards Hannibal Chau. But no-one knew why he wanted Ursu: the amount of material that could be harvested from it did not seem to justify the extensive planning and resources involved in the operation.

The final report dealt with the course of the three Kaiju: Namazu, Xia Ci and Snakehead. They had all been in the seas south of Japan, now they were heading towards the Marshall Islands. There was nothing there for them, as all the islands of the South Pacific had been evacuated long ago. So they were on their way somewhere else.

He sat thinking for a while. Eventually, he picked up the phone and called Marshall Hercules Hansen.

"They are on their way to the Iceland Breach," he said.

"But they have never shown any interest in it before," said Hansen. "We assumed they were too far away for any telepathic connection. It's the other side of the world, about as far away as you can get."

"It was Ursu," said Jin. "As soon as the blocking transmitter was removed, it established a link with them. So now the three of them know about the Iceland Breach. They are on their way to protect it."

"How do you know that?"

"It is what I would do."

Hansen considered. "Okay," he said. "If they get there and establish themselves, there's no way we'll be able to stop it from getting to full size. Not that anything we've done so far has worked."

"I suggest that both of the Jaegers and as many other forces as possible be moved to the Iceland Breach at once."

"That's a big commitment of resources. If you're wrong, we'll be open everywhere else."

"Do you believe I am wrong, Marshall?"

Hansen was quiet for a long time. Then he said: "I'll call Tendo and the Jaeger teams."

END

---

Probably Impossible … In Theory

What's a pathway between universes?

[Author's Note: This story follows the stories Iceland: Crisis/Opportunity and A Nexus of Unforeseen Events.]

Elle, Dee, Newton and Hermann were in the Geiszlers' apartment, which looked out over the lights of Hong Kong. They were playing Scrabble.

"You guys have six PhDs between you," said Elle, "and yet you are incredibly bad at this game."

"And … so … slow," added Dee.

"Don't rush me, don't rush me," said Hermann. "I am about to put down a wonderful word."

He put three tiles down. J-A-R, linking up to a T at the end. "There," he said. "And I know that J is worth eight points."

"Are you sure you grasp the concepts here?" said his wife.

"Hermann is … not good with … certain things," said Newton.

"And yet he is beating you," said Elle, looking at the scores. She put down her word. S-Q-U-A-N-D-E-R-S, reaching two triple-word spots and using all her tiles. "That's just to remind you two that you will be doing the washing-up again, because you wasted your chances and agreed to the stakes," she said.

Everyone laughed, and then became quiet, as they considered the game.

"Hermann, Newton," said Dee softly. "Do you know that Marshall Hansen wants you to reverse-engineer a Breach?"

"His view is that the Precursors will keep creating Breaches until they find a way and a place to mount another invasion," said Elle. "He says that we should be in a position to retaliate. Send nukes into the Anteverse. Wipe them out, if we have to."

Newton was quiet for a long time, staring at his letters. Eventually, he said: "Uh-huh."

"Funny, sweetie, I expected more of a reaction," said Elle. She glanced at Hermann.

Hermann gave his equivalent of a sigh. "What my intellectually-challenged colleague means," he said, "is that it can't be done."

"Hey!" said Newton. "What I said is that it probably can't be done. And also that it would run the risk of destroying the universe. Or at least the planet."

"I will agree," said Hermann, "that one variation of the maths … suggests … that as a theoretical possibility. And in any case, he is … it pains me to say this … right. About it being impossible to build a stable Breach from this world to the Anteverse, at least."

Dee looked at her husband, and then at Newton, and then at Hermann again. "You've already done the maths, haven't you?" she said.

"Well, yes, we ran a few equations," said Hermann.

"He worked solidly on it for four days," said Newton. "Without sleep. Testing my physics modelling."

"That is untrue!" said Hermann. "It was only three days. Perhaps three-and-a-half. Perhaps a little more than that. But not four, is my point. So Dr Geiszler is wrong, yet again."

"Tomato, potato," said Newton. "Anyway, after Hannibal Chau's henchwoman hit on me – "

"I would not call it that," said Elle. "I was there, remember."

Newton grimaced. "Well, after that … incident … I thought that the idea might at least be worth checking out, as a theoretical exercise. Everything says that it can't be done," he said. "First, you need a huge amount of power. Then you need a very large slab of stuff from the Anteverse as a conductor. Then you need to find an initial link to the Anteverse, to act as a focal point. Some sort of energy line."

"And even if you could get those things, the resulting pathway would not be stable," said Hermann. "The physics of our universe would not allow it. The Anteverse has stabilising energies that simply do not exist here. The information from the pod that Marshall Hansen sent into the Iceland Breach confirmed that."

"And because of that, any attempt to create a Breach from this side would result in a … well, a black hole," said Newton.

"Dr Geiszler!" snapped Hermann. "We have been through this! It would not be a black hole! Although I accept that the resulting phenomenon could, in theory, have certain properties that are sometimes associated with black holes."

"Like a big sucking action," said Newton. "Enough to swallow … everything."

"It is just a theory," said Hermann. "Actually, even when a breach is closed, as the Iceland Breach is at the moment, there is a very small leak of radiation. It scans like radio static."

"I thought that the Anteverse was a bit like our universe," said Elle. "Dr Sediko said that the environment was comparable."

"Yes, it might even be possible to survive there for a while," said Newton. "Theoretically. The pod sent down the Iceland Breach found evidence of atmosphere, gravity, stuff like that. Although the entrance on their side is more like a hallway that you would walk along. A hallway that's steadily getting bigger. But it's a hole in the ground on this side. Peculiar."

"I did explain that to you," said Hermann. "It is because of the different functionality of space and time in the Anteverse. Distances and durations appeared to be compressed, causing a partial inversion at the intersections of – "

"Does anyone else know about this?" interrupted Dee.

"I doubt it," said Newton.

---

In another part of the city, another four people were sitting at a table. They were not playing Scrabble.

"So," said Hannibal Chau, "we are agreed, then, are we, Hyram?"

"You will address the leader of our faith," said the woman on the other side of the table, Sister Onibaba, "as First Minister."

Hyram Forsythe, head of the Church of the Kaiju, waved her into silence, smiling as he did so. He even gave a little laugh. He was, thought Hannibal, a strangely plump, short fellow for a man who was considered to be an apocalyptic prophet by his followers. Mind you, a lot of his followers were probably permanently whacked on Headchangers, the hallucinogenic drug derived from the fluids of a Kaiju's tertiary pyramidial cortex. Even the cloned stuff was pretty powerful.

"We are agreed, Mr Chau," he said. "We will pool our existing knowledge, your engineers and mine. Further, the Church will provide the project site and your organisation will provide the link and the material. Together, we will open the way to the Anteverse."

Hannibal and Hyram shook hands. They left, by different doors.

"Do you think they can be trusted?" said Natasha to Hannibal.

"Of course not," he said. "They're rock-n-roll crazies from the Twilight Zone. They'll fuck us the first chance they get, as soon as the portal is open."

"Unless … " said Natasha.

"Unless we fuck them first," said Hannibal.

"Hmm," said Natasha.

END

---

Strange Allies

Newton, Hermann, Dee and Elle find themselves caught in a savage whirlpool of events.

[Author's Note: This story follows the story Probably Impossible … In Theory.]

Newton Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb were deep in discussion-cum-argument, bent over a desk covered in papers. They were in Newton's lab/office in the Kaiju Science Corporation building. Dee and Elle were seated on a couch in the corner, reading through the latest reports from Iceland.

There was the sound of a jetcopter going past the window, heading towards the pad on the top of the building. Nothing unusual about that; it happened all the time.

A few minutes passed. Then Dee stopped reading. She looked around.

Elle had also stopped reading.

Both women stood up. They drew their pistols.

There was an explosion that blew the door to fragments. Newton, Hermann, Dee and Elle were all thrown to the floor. The two women were on their feet in a moment, guns up and ready.

A troop of men crashed into the room, machine guns levelled.

Then a woman in a tight silk dress entered, stepping over the remains of the smashed door. She brushed a fragment of plaster from her cropped hair.

"You again," said Elle. "Dee, meet Natasha, Hannibal Chau's bimbo and gofer."

"I am pleased to meet you, Ranger Delacroix," said Natasha. "I suppose I could tell you both to put down your guns or my men will kill all of you, but that's not really why I'm here."

She gestured to two of her men, and they helped Newton and Hermann to their feet.

"If you're here to try to get us to make a Breach for Chau, we can tell you that it can't be done," said Newton.

"We've done the maths," added Hermann.

"I wouldn't know about the science part," said Natasha. "But I know that Hannibal is determined to try. And Hyram Forsythe is helping him."

"Oh," said Newton. "That's … not good. The Kaiju Church actually has some smart people. Not great, but not bad."

"You mean, not in your class," said Natasha.

"I … wouldn't necessarily say that … " said Newton.

"I would," said Hermann.

"Well, if pushed, I guess I would too," said Newton.

"That's what I thought," said Natasha. "But it's going to happen. In a few hours, in fact. I … I … would like you to be there. In case … something goes wrong."

"Huh," said Dee.

"We're guessing that your visit here isn't exactly official Chau business," said Elle.

Natasha said nothing. She looked at the two women for a long moment.

"But you don't want to see Hannibal vapourised or whatever," said Dee.

"Because he's your boss?" said Newton.

"Uh … no … that's … not the reason … " said Natasha. She studied the floor.

Then she looked up at Newton and Hermann.

"Please," she said softly. "There's not much time."

Dee holstered her gun. "Let's go," she said.

"Uh, you two plan to come as well?" said Natasha to Elle and Dee. "Why?"

"We're married to them," said Elle.

Natasha started a little.

"Yes, it kind of surprises us too," said Newton.

"The heart wants what the heart wants," said Dee.

"Yes," said Natasha. "That it does." She sighed. "Come on, then, we have a jetcopter on the roof."

"Where are we going?" said Hermann.

"Japan," said Natasha.

---

"Japan is sacred ground to us," said Hyram Forsythe. "It was here that the Kaiju first displayed their true power and demonstrated their mission."

"Whatever," said Chau. "Are your guys ready to start it up?"

"In a few minutes," said Sister Onibaba. "It is not a simple operation. The reactor has not operated for many years, not since Japan was abandoned. Our people have been working to re-start it for over six months."

"Did you know that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant was the largest in Japan?" said Forsythe. "Fortunately, there was a good deal of fuel stored here. Soon, the plant will provide as much power as we need."

Chau nodded. He looked around. They were in a huge room, apparently responsible for the management of the reactor. At the moment, a lot of his men were standing around, trying to look as if they were doing something, not just waiting to pull out guns and start shooting. There would be plenty of targets, when the time came. The Kaiju Church adherents were easy to spot in their monk-like clothes, many of them attending to various screens and consoles.

He looked at the Kaiju, secured to the floor, held immobile, by chains and ropes. Ugly s.o.b., even by Kaiju standards. It snarled when it saw him. Chau was glad that the creature was held by cilia ropes, fibres found in Kaiju lung tissue. The ropes, incredibly strong but flexible, were held together by cytophlegm, a form of Kaiju mucal secretions which, when properly treated, could be used as a powerful adhesive.

Against one wall of the room was a massive piece of Kaiju armour. It had come from Scimitar, one of the first Category Twos. Those Southern Line guys, in Furies, had taken it down near Perth, in the early stages of the Kaiju Wars. Chau had been told by his scientists that the slab of armour, several metres thick, would be perfect as a conductor.

On the either side of the room was a machine that the tech guys called a Multi-phase Projector, hooked to a control console. Chau had no idea what that actually meant, sounded like it was out of some damn television show. But they, and the Church scientists as well, had assured him that it would do the job. It had better, he thought, or the techs were likely to find themselves holding onto a greasy rope over a very deep pit.

Then there was the TDV, the Trans-Dimensional Vehicle – another title from a movie or something, Chau thought. Half-hovercraft, half-jetcopter, this was the ticket to the mother lode. Driven by two pilots who were being paid a truly staggering amount of money – they were making some last-minute adjustments to the TDV now – it would go through the portal, grab everything that wasn't nailed down, and zip back out. Easy peasy Japanesey. The best plans, thought Chau, were ones that were simple and gave him a great deal of money. He had poured a lot of cash into this enterprise, many millions of dollars. The return would be chunks of stuff directly from the Anteverse. Customers would go nuts for it. He could name his price.

At the moment, the wings of the TDV were recessed into the sides, and the overhead rotors were collapsed into a special compartment on the top. As a result, the incredibly expensive piece of tech looked a bit like a rather lumpy Winebago.

From within the bowels of the reactor, there was a deep rumble. The power lines leading to the reactor began to pulse with energy.

"Coming online … now," said Sister Onibaba. She was standing at the computer console which controlled the reactor functions. Forsythe was next to her.

There was a flash of light from the projector.

There was another Churcher tech at a computer console near the Kaiju. "Hive mind frequency established," he said. "Linkage to Anteverse established, focus point stable."

"Do it!" shouted Forsythe. "Praise the Kaiju!"

A beam of light flashed out of the projector and into Ursu. The creature howled in pain. Then the light leaped out of the Kaiju and onto the slab of armour.

The surface of the armour seemed to shimmer. Dissolve. There was a sound from beneath the reactor, like the wheels of the world grinding together.

Good thing I brought the shades, thought Chau, adjusting his sunglasses as he stared into the light forming on the armour. The surface appeared to be flexing somehow, pushing towards the Anteverse.

The door of the control room opened. Natasha, with Hermann, Newton, Elle and Dee burst in.

"Natasha!" said Hannibal, when he saw her. "I was wondering where you got to! Thought you were going to miss the show." He looked at the others. "Huh," he said. "You guys."

"Boss, you have to stop this," said Natasha. "These two know more about this stuff than anyone, and they say that – "

"It can't be stopped!" shouted Forsythe. "It's going to happen!"

Newton and Elle ran to the computer console, Elle pushing aside Forsythe and Sister Onibaba. Newton looked at the figures and schematics moving across the screen.

"Oh no," he said. "No stabilising mechanism, no buffers, nothing. This is meant to go wrong."

The air of the room seemed to be charged with static electricity. Objects were beginning to vibrate. From the slab of armour, there was a series of booms, growing in intensity with the light.

Chau gestured to his men, pointing at the Churchers. The goons drew their guns. Chau drew his own.

"I wish I could say that I'm sorry this partnership is ending," he said to Forsythe, pointing his pistol at him. "But I'm not."

Sister Onibaba stepped in front of Forsythe. She opened her jacket.

She was wearing an explosives belt. There was a red light flashing. Then the flashing stopped.

Elle grabbed Newton and threw him behind a computer console, leaping after him.

Natasha launched herself at Chau, knocking him aside.

The bomb went off, blowing the control console to pieces. At the same time, several other Churchers detonated their bombs. In a moment, the room was full of smoke and flying debris. There was the sound of screams, audible even over the crackling energy of the projector and the other-worldly sounds coming from the armour slab.

The TDV pilots were dead, and the vehicle had come loose from its moorings.

Chau picked himself up. Natasha managed to get to her feet. There was a sharp piece of metal protruding from her stomach. She gave a groan and collapsed against Chau.

"Huh," said Chau.

There was a sudden crack from the armour. And then the portal was open. It was like a tunnel, a twisted path of jagged edges. Leading to the Anteverse.

And the room was filled by a hurricane wind, sweeping into the portal. Everything was being pulled in. The TDV began to slide across the floor, and in a moment had vanished through the hole.

Hermann and Dee had been blown off their feet. Now the mighty suction began to pull them in. Dee was closer to it. Hermann grabbed hold of her, and held onto the edge of a pillar with his other hand. He shouted with the strain.

Newton and Elle came out from behind the console, which had protected them from the blasts.

Newton saw Hermann lose his grip on the pillar. He leaped forward, stretching out his own arm.

"Gotcha!"

"Maybe," said Hermann. "But who has you?"

Elle grasped her husband's arm, reaching back to grasp a metal bar protruding from a wrecked console.

The four of them were in a chain, slowly being pulled towards the roaring, crackling Breach.

Newton looked around the shattered room.

He saw Chau, carrying the injured Natasha, making his way into an adjoining room, pushing his way against the tide. There was no sign on Hyram Forsythe. Ursu was dead, electrocuted. All of Chau's men, and all of the Churchers, were dead.

He looked at his wife. Her eyes were closed as she concentrated on holding on, fighting against the pressure.

He heard Dee speaking to Hermann. "I … can't hold … on," she was saying. "You'll be pulled in too. You have to let me go."

"Never," said Hermann, although his face was red with strain and his fingers were white.

But then Dee lost her grip on his hand. In a moment, she was gone.

Hermann looked at Newton, aghast.

And then he let go of Newton's hand. He vanished through the portal.

"No!" shouted Newton.

With only Newton's weight to hold, Elle managed to haul both him and herself to safety. They crawled across the room until they were away from the worst of the suction. They struggled to their feet, and they ran after Chau. Newton glanced back: the portal was growing larger and larger. It now encompassed the whole wall, and showed no signs of diminishing, fed by the stream of power from the projector.

There was a sudden shout of pain: Natasha. Chau had pulled the spike of metal from her. There was a gush of blood.

"You idiot!" said Newton to Chau. He punched him.

"You deserve that," groaned Natasha. Chau had put her on a desk.

Chau rubbed his jaw. "Maybe," he said.

"Could have been worse," said Elle. "If it had been me that hit you, you'd probably be dead." She tore a sleeve from her Ranger jacket and used it to bandage Natasha, putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.

"Anyway, bright boy," said Chau to Newton. "What happens now?"

"Now, the portal will just keep growing until the planet collapses into it," said Newton. "We all die. Everything dies."

"Oh," said Chau.

"But if you shut down the reactor, that will shut off the projector thing, and then the portal should seal itself, since it is so unstable," said Newton. "So I suggest you do that as quickly as possible."

"How should I know how to do that?" said Chau. "I have people for that. Had."

"Newt, can you do it?" said Elle.

Newton ran his fingers through his hair. "I haven't been in one of these things for twenty years or more," he said. "I'm just as likely to blow us all up."

"Don't see many alternatives," said Natasha.

Newton stared at the other three. "Okay," he said. "The control room is shot but there should be a set of secondary by-pass controls somewhere, hooked directly to the reactor. We need to find that."

"How about this?" said Elle, pointing to a complex map on the wall. It seemed to show the layout of the facility.

"That's great," said Newton. "But it's in Japanese. I don't read Japanese."

"I do," said Natasha.

They helped her off the desk and to the map. She looked at it.

"Here," she said, pointing. "Not far. Down this corridor, take the second left, third door along, the by-pass controls are right over the reactor."

"Come on," said Newton to Chau.

"Hey, I don't do that sort of thing," said Chau.

"You got us into this, you can help get us out," said Elle. She drew her gun. "Or I can just shoot you here. Which, now I think about it, would be my preference."

"Okay, okay, don't get twitchy," said Chau.

The three of them ran for the control room. Natasha was clearly in no shape for running.

"Let's hope Natasha read the directions right," said Newton.

"She's a very competent gal," said Chau.

"She loves you," said Elle. "Although I can't think why."

They reached the control room. The floor was throbbing with the energy from the reactor below them.

"Okay, this is the same layout as the one I worked in in Germany when I did my research internship," said Newton. "There should be two levers and a central control." He pointed; there were levers, on either side of the room. The system was designed to require several people, acting together. Elle and Chau each ran to one as Newton sat down at the computer console and began to punch buttons. He managed to call up a set of instructions in English.

"Just a … give me a … let me see … " he said, scrolling through screens.

"World likely to end pretty soon," said Elle. "No pressure though, sweetie."

"Got it!" said Newton. He typed in a series of commands. "Ready … now!" he said.

Elle and Chau pulled their levers.

A few seconds ticked by. Nothing.

Then the throb from the reactor began to slow, and diminish in intensity.

Newton sagged back in the chair. "That's it," he said. "It will shut itself down now."

"Wait a minute," said Chau. "Natasha whats me!?"

"Ask her yourself," said Elle, as they began to walk back to the room where they had left her.

They found her, and Elle did her best to re-bandage the wound. It was bad but not fatal, after Elle's emergency treatment.

"Huh," said Chau to Natasha. "We have to have some words, you and I."

"Yes, Hannibal, we do," she said.

They made their way into the wrecked control room. With the projector robbed of power, the Breach had fallen away. The slab of Kaiju armour, while still glowing with heat, had again become solid. The surface was glassy, like the Iceland Breach when it was closed.

"Lost the vehicle and everything," muttered Chau. "Damn, that's a lot of money." He began to collect the cilia ropes that had bound Ursu. They were, after all, extremely valuable.

Newton was looking at a console. It was not an original part of the plant, but something that had been set up by Chau's techs. It was fairly undamaged.

"What's this?" he said.

"As I understand it, that was meant to communicate with the TDV when it was on the other side," said Chau. "Of course, the portal had to be open."

Newton was looking at one of the lights. It was flashing.

"Newt," said Elle. "Didn't Hermann say that even when a Breach was closed there was a small trickle of radiation? Something like that."

"Yeah, it sounds like random static," said Newton. He looked at the flashing light. "But this … doesn't look random."

The flashing stopped. Then it started again. Newton began to count. Three. One. Four. One. Five.

"Goddamn," said Newton softly. Then he shouted: "Goddamn that bastard! They're still alive! And in the vehicle!"

Elle stared at him.

"It's pi!" said Newton. "3.1415! He sent that because all he can get through is basic numbers!" He searched on the console for the transmission procedure, and found it. He began to push a button on the keyboard, again and again, in a series of pulses.

Nine. Two. Six. Five. Continuing the pi series.

Then there was a burst of static, stopping any further communication.

"Well," said Newton, "at least now they know that we heard them."

"But they're stuck there," said Natasha. "Even if the TDV is intact, it's not like they can just fly home."

Newton nodded. "Elle," he said. "If you were in Dee's place, what would you do?"

Elle considered. "I'd go for the Iceland Breach," she said.

"Yeah," said Newton. "It's the only possibility." He turned to Chau. "You have a jetcopter," he said. "And we have to get to Iceland."

END

---

Anteverse

There and back again, with a fight to the death along the way.

[Author's Note: This story follows the stories Strange Allies and Ocean Voyagers, and concludes the Anteverse story cycle.]

It was an experience not unlike being drunk. From the perspective of the drink.

They went tumbling down a wide, sloped corridor, coming to rest on a large, flat ledge. It had the appearance of rock but was strangely sponge-like in consistency.

"Fuck!" said Dee.

"Indeed," said Hermann.

They struggled to their feet, rubbing their bruises. They looked around. The portal was closing.

"Oh … my," said Hermann.

"So this is the Anteverse," said Dee. "It's … different."

"Indeed," said Hermann again.

The Anteverse seemed to be a huge cavern, stretching away for as far as they could see. The ceiling, and parts of the ground, seemed to pulsate with energy, and there were odd pools of shimmering, translucent liquid.

For a long moment, they simply stared. It threatened to overwhelm them.

Dee took Hermann's hand. "Herm," she said. "I … I'm … scared."

He had never thought he would hear those words from her. But he could not tell her that they were inappropriate. He decided that it would not help matters if he mentioned that he was, himself, absolutely fucking terrified.

He forced himself to look around. There was no-one – if that was the right term – in the vicinity. This appeared to be an out-of-the-way piece of the Anteverse.

And then he saw the TDV. He remembered seeing it being swept into the Breach. It was a hundred metres away, not far from the lip of the ledge, and it looked intact.

"Over there," he said, pointing. They started for it.

They managed to open the door. They climbed in. The TDV had power.

"I think," said Hermann, "that this console is for communications. Back to our world."

"But the portal is closed," said Dee.

"Maybe … maybe I can do something," said Hermann. "Maybe some simple pulses will get through." He began to tap a key on the unit. He waited for a reply. Nothing.

He glanced at his watch. It was an old-fashioned, wind-up one, with hands that went around a dial of numbers. But now the hands were not ticking around in their usual regular way. They would go quickly for a few moments, speeding around the face, and then slow to normal, and then speed up again. He saw Dee looking at it.

"Time here seems to work differently," he said. "Time and distance, different displacements to our world. That fits with the research that Newton and I did. It is entirely possible that more time has passed in our world."

He tapped the key again.

And something came back, a series of answering pulses. Nine, two, six, five.

"Newton got the message," he said. "They know we're still alive. That's something."

"Herm," said Dee. "Time … distance … I don't understand – "

"I don't understand it either," said Hermann.

His wife stared at him. Then she burst out: "Don't say that! Don't say you don't know! You always know! You always have a theory or an idea or something!"

She began to cry. He took her in his arms.

They stayed like that for a long time.

Then she said, softly: "You didn't have to come with me. When I lost my grip on you. You didn't have to."

"Yes," he said. "Yes, I did."

She stared at him.

"Because I love you," he said. He had never said that before. She had known it, in a way, but he had never said the words.

She kissed him. "I guess we might die here," she said. "Any passing Kaiju would squash us like a bug. So since it might be our last few hours … maybe we should … "

---

One thing about Hannibal Chau, thought Newton, is that he's got contacts everywhere. Helpful when you have to move fast.

Now the jetcopter was zooming across Canada. They had stopped for refuelling several times, and on each occasion there had been people ready on the tarmac. Even a doctor to properly treat Natasha. She and Hannibal alternated the pilot duties.

Newton was on the radio with Marshall Hansen, telling him about the attempt to create a pathway to the Anteverse and how it had ended with Hermann and Dee on the other side.

"We have other problems," said Hansen. "Namazu, Xia Ci, and Snakehead are on their way here. Apparently there were alerted to the existence of the Iceland Breach by Ursu."

"Who says?" said Newton.

"Jin Wei."

"Oh. Well, it's most likely right then."

"Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis are on their way here, as well as any military forces I've been able to scramble. Not sure it will be enough. Not against three of them. And that's not counting anything more that comes through the Breach. In fact, we've picked up some strange readings from it lately."

"Tell me," said Newton.

Hansen read out a long series of numbers.

"Uh, that's not good," said Newton, when Hansen had finished.

"You mean, it's suddenly going to get large enough for a full-size Kaiju?" said Hansen.

Newton considered. "Not larger," he said. "Not more than we thought, anyway. But maybe it could stay open for longer."

Hansen was silent. "No," he said eventually. "That's not good."

---

They were lying on the floor of the TDV, entangled. Dee was dozing. Hermann was gazing at her. So beautiful, he thought. I used to think she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Now I know she is the most beautiful woman in two worlds.

She came awake. She smiled at him, and kissed him. Then she began to pull her clothes on.

"I feel much better now," she said.

"Given that we are adrift in an alien universe that is at war with us, I feel pretty good too," said Hermann, as he began to dress.

They went into the TDV cockpit. Dee took a pair of binoculars from a rack and surveyed the wider area. She handed them to Hermann and pointed.

There was an area that was thoroughly wrecked. The images made a scratch on Hermann's memory. He had seen it before, in a way. In the Drift with the brain of the baby Kaiju. It was the area where the monster-size Kaijus had been manufactured and sent through the Marianas Breach.

Now, the massive vats were destroyed, the huge machines that had knitted together the tissues of the creatures were overturned and broken, the ceiling of the cavern was collapsed.

"I'm guess that was where Gipsy Danger went up," said Dee. "Looks like they haven't made any attempt to re-build it."

Hermann nodded. "When Newton and I Drifted," he said, "we had the strong feeling that the Precursors were trying to invade our world because the Anteverse was running out of resources. So maybe they do not have the materials to rebuild their capacity to manufacture super-large Kaijus. Perhaps it is their equivalent of the funding problem that our anti-Kaiju program faced in the final stages of the war."

Dee nodded. She was looking around the cavernous space with the binoculars.

"Herm," she said. "What's that?" She pointed across the cavern, where there was a glowing source of light.

"Whatever it is," he said, taking the binoculars from her to look at it, "it's taking a lot of energy. Building up, I would say."

"I know what it is," she said. "We've seen it before. Not from here, though. From the other side."

He stared at her, an eyebrow raised.

She began to check the instruments of the TDV. "Let's see if we can get this thing off the ground," she said.

---

In the Mustang hangar at the Iceland Breach complex, Jin Wei stood, looking up at Blackhawk.

Marshall Hansen, standing next to him, called some of the techs over.

"Get it set up," he said to them. "On the back."

---

The atmosphere of the Anteverse was dank and heavy but the TDV was managing to fly through it. The glow of the Iceland Breach was markedly closer. The entrance appeared as a large opening in the wall of the cavern, leading off a flat area of ground.

"Where did you learn to fly something like this?" said Hermann.

"Oh, I can fly pretty well anything," said Dee.

Hermann gave a little grunt. "Just what," he said, "does a woman as competent, clever, and attractive as you see in someone as inept, foolish, and unappealing as me?"

Dee considered it. "It's the really great sex, I think," she said.

Hermann gave a little laugh. "Do me a favour," he said. "When we get back, tell Newton that."

"Right, will do," she said, with a little laugh. "Uh, you said when. Not if."

Hermann nodded. "I know," he said.

He was studying his watch. The mental arithmetic was tricky but he thought he had developed, using his own pulse and the chaotically-moving watch, a formula to translate Anteverse time into human-world time.

Going to be close, he thought.

---

The jetcopter had crossed the Iceland coast and was coming up to the complex around the Breach. It passed over the two Jaegers, standing a few kilometres from the shoreline, backed up by phalanxes of missile launchers on the ground. Two aircraft carriers were not far away.

"Looks like it's shaping up as a hell of a rumble," said Hannibal.

"They can't let the Kaijus get to the Breach," said Newton. "If they do, they'll form a defensive line and we'll have no chance of stopping it from getting bigger."

"And then we do the Kaiju Wars thing all over again," said Elle.

---

"What's all that?" said Hermann.

They were flying over a huge crowd of Kaijus: the dog-type, the bear-type, and ones the size of houses. They were moving slowly towards the entrance to the Breach.

"Looks like an invasion force," said Dee.

"I assume that means that the Precursors have found a way to keep it open for longer," said Hermann. "Newton was right when he said that they were hard to predict, always coming up with new tactics. Uh, please don't tell him that I said he was right." He checked his watch again. "I believe it will open in a few minutes, although I cannot be more precise. Will we make it?"

Dee checked the instruments. "Maybe," she said. "Not much fuel left."

Suddenly, there was a flash of movement in front of them. And then another, this one on the side. Then something whacked into them.

"What the fuck!?" said Dee, struggling to keep control.

"There!" said Hermann, pointing.

It was a flying Kaiju, like a miniature version of the winged iteration of Otachi. There was a half-dozen of them. They had a wingspan of about three metres. Another one hit the TDV.

"So you want to play, eh?" said Dee. She hit a control, and a burst of machine-gun fire erupted from the front of the TDV. One of the mini-Otachis went down. Dee swung the TDV around and shot another one to pieces.

Then another one smashed into them, and then another.

They could see the entrance to the Breach now. The TDV was beginning to vibrate, and there was the smell of smoke from somewhere.

"Probably would be a good idea if you put your seatbelt on, honey," said Dee.

"What? Oh, yes, seatbelt, yes, of course."

"And, uh, try and hold onto something. It's going to be a rough landing. In fact, landing might not be the right word."

"What might be the right word?"

"Crash."

The TDV hit the ground and bounced. The engines screamed.

"Did I mention that you should try and hold onto something?" said Dee.

The three Kaijus came out of the water together, roaring.

---

"Let's rock," said Kemi.

Bolts of plasma energy and volleys of missiles streaked towards the Kaiju. Flights of warbirds came sweeping in.

---

Newton and Elle, with Hannibal helping Natasha along behind them, ran up to Marshall Hansen. They were not far from the edge of the Breach. It was already beginning to crackle with energy.

"Marshall," said Newton, "I believe that Hermann and Dee will try and get back through the Breach. You have to give them a bit more time before you start shooting."

Hansen stared at them. "There's a lot at stake here," he said. "The Breach has already started to open, and the latest readings show a lot of activity on the other side."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, the needs of the many, all that, I know," said Newton. "But … we all owe Hermann. We owe him a lot. Without him, we might not have got this far. And Dee … well, she's one of your Rangers."

There was the sound of heavy mechanical feet. Blackhawk walked up to them. Newton saw what was on its back. The panel in the front of the Mustang swung open. Jin Wei stared down at them.

"The plan," said Hansen, "is to go in as soon as the Breach stabilises. He might not be able to get all the way through but maybe he can fight his way in far enough to detonate the nuke and collapse it, take out whatever is there."

"But Hermann and Dee – "

" – will have to take their chances," said Hansen.

"I have an idea," said Newton. "Let me go in first. Before it's fully stabilised. On a rope or something. I'll grab them and then you can pull me out. Or … something."

Hansen looked at the energy crackling from the Breach. "There isn't a rope in the world that could take that," he said.

"Hey," said Hannibal. "We have something else." He ran off, towards the jetcopter.

---

"It's not enough," said Elizabeth. "They're hurt, but they're not stopping."

"Then … hand-to-hand," said Riisa. "Two on three."

The Jaegers strode forward. The Kaijus gave a howl.

Together, the Jaegers roared back: HUH-ROOM!

---

The TDV skidded and shuddered to a halt, sixty metres from the doorway. Dee popped the hatch and they jumped to the ground – and immediately a hurricane wind slammed into them. It was as if it was trying to push them away from the Breach.

They looked back into the Anteverse cavern.

An army of creatures was running towards them.

Faces against the storm, Dee and Hermann headed for the Breach.

---

"Try this," said Hannibal. He was holding the cilia rope – maybe fifty metres of it. It was the rope that had bound Ursu, which he had retrieved.

"Rope, not of this world," said Natasha. She and Hannibal started to tie it around Newton's waist.

"From the readings we have, the Breach is a long chamber, about a hundred metres," said Hansen.

"Yeah, I know, I did the modelling," said Newton.

"Did your modelling show that there's a cyclone going on in there?" said Hansen.

"Uh, no, missed that," said Newton. He prepared to jump into the Breach.

"Hey, sweetie," said Elle. She took her pistol out and handed it to him.

He looked at it. "Just why do you keep handing me guns!?" he said. "Not like I have ever hit anything with one."

She smiled and took it back. The she pulled him to her and kissed him passionately.

When she let him go, he staggered a little. Then he smiled. "Hold that thought," he said to her. Then he leaped into the Breach.

Natasha looked at Elle.

"Church bells," she said.

---

It was a gale of hot wind that tore at them. They were half-way along, they could almost see the end. But it was very hard going.

"I … can't make it," said Hermann. "I'm not strong enough. You go on alone."

"Never," said Dee. She grabbed his hand and pushed on. But she could feel her own strength start to fail.

She looked along the turmoil of the Breach.

There was … something … there … someone … coming towards them …

---

A nightmare of punching and stabbing, trying to stop any of the three from getting past. The Mark VI Jaegers were fast, and strong, and tough, but the Kaijus were fighting with a determination that the Jaeger pilots had never seen before. The Kaijus had pushed the Jaegers back. The Breach was in sight.

"Charge the plasma cannons, both arms!" said Riisa.

"We'll fire together!" said Louise. "Target Snakehead, in the middle!"

The two Jaegers retreated a few steps as the cannons charged. The Kaijus readied themselves for another assault.

FULL CHARGE.

"FIRE!"

---

"Fuck," said Dee. "It's … Newton."

"Who?" said Hermann, behind her, struggling to hold on.

"Hi," said Newton.

"Oh, you," said Hermann.

They fell into his arms.

"And now," said Newton to himself, "all we need is for someone really strong to pull the rope."

Apache was beside Blackhawk.

"There will be no coming back for you, you know," said Elle to Jin.

"I think of it," said Jin, "as a chance to see Cheung and Hu again."

The two Mustangs knocked their metal knuckles.

"It's stable!" shouted Hansen, looking at the scanner.

Blackhawk went in.

Apache took hold of the cilia rope.

---

The four plasma bolts smashed into Snakehead. The Kaiju gave a roar of pain, and then fell back, dead.

The other two charged. Both Jaegers extended the blades on their arms again.

"Bring it," said Elizabeth.

"For sure," said Kemi.

---

"Oh no," said Newton.

There was a horde of Kaiju creatures boiling along the chamber.

And then Blackhawk was striding past him, firing its weapons. It waded into the throng, shooting, slashing, punching.

Newton felt the rope tighten, pulling him back. He tightened his grip on his friends.

Even as he was pulled backwards, he could see Blackhawk fighting with a smooth and deadly grace, surrounded but resolutely moving towards the doorway on the Anteverse side.

And suddenly he, Hermann and Dee were in the open air. Apache was still hauling on the rope, dragging them across the ground and away from the hole. It stopped pulling. Newton, struggling to remain conscious, saw Elle clamber out of the machine and run towards them.

And he heard the calm voice of Jin Wei, over the radio in Hansen's hand: "I am there."

"Give your brothers my regards, Ranger," said Hansen.

---

Liberty Phoenix rammed the blade into the neck of Xia Ci and pulled it across the monster's throat. There was a cascade of blue blood. The Kaiju staggered backwards.

Namazu was trying to wrestle Nova Artemis to the ground. But the Jaeger punched into the Kaiju's jaw, and then swung it around. It grasped the Kaiju from behind, wrapping its arms around the creature's head. It twisted. There was a huge cracking sound.

Both Kaijus, near death, turned towards the Breach. They gave a final howl.

And then they both fell.

---

The ground around the Breach began to collapse, in an expanding circle.

"Come on!" shouted Elle. "Run!"

But Newton, Dee and Hermann were near exhaustion.

Elle helped Newton to his feet and put his arm around her shoulders.

Hansen ran forward. But he could not help both Dee and Hermann.

"You take the Ranger, I'll take the nerd," said a voice from behind him. Hannibal Chau.

Hansen hefted Dee to her feet and Hannibal lifted Hermann into his arms. Together, and with Natasha limping behind, they ran for solid ground. It was a desperate, lung-bursting run. But they made it, throwing themselves down.

They turned back, just in time to see Apache tumble into the hole.

"Huh," said Elle. "Oh well. At least I've still got you, Newt."

"Or, to put it another way, you're stuck with me," said Newton.

She laughed, and kissed him.

"Mr Chau, thank you," said Hermann.

"Yeah, well, don't think that I'm going to start doing good deeds or anything," he said. He glanced at Natasha. "And don't you start expecting things, either," he muttered to her.

"I would not dream of it," she said.

"There are about a thousand charges I should bring against you," said Hansen to him. "And I will. But … given everything that has happened … I guess I can give you a head start."

"And that," said Hannibal, "is really all I have ever had." He got to his feet. He looked at Natasha. "Well?" he said.

"Well what?" she said.

"Well, aren't you coming? Or do I have to carry you again?"

She looked up at him. "I guess … carrying would be alright," she said. "Since I was, you know, injured. While I was saving you, in fact."

He snorted. Then he offered her his hand. She took it, and he helped her up. He gave another snort. Then he swept her into his arms. She put an arm around his neck. He began to walk towards the jetcopter.

"How much of a head start?" said Newton to Hansen, as they watched the two of them depart.

The Marshall shrugged. "As much as I think they need," he said.

"So what was the Anteverse like, Dee?" said Elle.

"It was okay," said Dee. "Had some really good sex there. Aside from that … "

"Aside from that, meh," said Hermann.

Hansen stared at the four of them. He sighed. "I will never understand you people," he said.

"Don't worry about it," said Newton.

END AND AMEN