I do not own the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any of the characters, equipment, or locations written in this fanfiction. The purpose of this fanfiction is merely for the non-profit enjoyment of other readers. If requested by Gainax, Hideki Anno, or other parties which represent aforementioned objects in this story, I will remove it promptly.
Chapter I:
"I will never understand this weather!" Hyuuga grumbled, studying the radar date on his terminal display. "Overcast one day, sunny the next, but always hot and humid! It's been fifteen years. You'd think the Earth would start to wobble on it's axis to give us some seasons again!"
"What would you prefer?" Aoba grumbled. "Should the government squander more money on the space program just to try and correct the problem so you don't complain anymore?" Makoto went silent, looking down at his keyboard in shame. "Simple economics, my friend. The marginal cost outweighs the marginal utility."
Ibuki had been ignoring their chatter until the mention of the problem. "You know, it wouldn't be that hard," she began, before the criticizing eyes of her comrades made her think twice, "... to use an ion engine..." Maya went silent, checking her terminal again. More mindless routine, but she preferred that over combat drills. At least when things were boring it meant everything was stable; not necessarily good, but stable. But even when everything was mundane and routine, she still had problems.
Like how could she speak to these two presumed friends of hers? She only knew them from what they shared at work, and they only seemed to spend time with her because it was convenient. It was the same with Doctor Akagi, the mystery woman she encountered at her lunch break the day before. If it weren't for her graduate study of artificial intelligence allowed during her required service in the military to pay off college, the blonde would have ignored her entirely at the cafeteria.
She still had yet to determine if her feelings towards Captain Katsuragi were genuine, or a simple infatuation. Just because the woman had recruited her only a week ago was no sign her immediate superior had any feelings towards her. She was certain Misato was the one then, but only after the conversations with the woman about her past did the burden of her psychological problems start to make the option less attractive.
Now there were rumors spreading amongst the junior command staff about nightly visits by Akagi to the commander's office, of certain human fluids left behind for the janitors to clean up with some disgusted remarks, and the odd circumstances of the former Akagi's suicide. Maya was wondering if she would ever get laid. There were plenty of people in this new city, this Tokyo-3, but most were either superiors or her juniors. NERV would not look kindly on such a relationship.
She had been too shy and nerdy back in high school to find anyone willing to spend so much as twenty seconds around her, the length of time it would take for her to help her newfound "friend" solve the homework problem which stumped them the night before. College hadn't panned out, either, as every man or woman she ran into was already taken, planning their marriage since their high school graduation. Apparently it was a crime to still be single as a freshman in college. Only two groups fit into that category: the losers, and the sluts.
She didn't even know why she considered loving a woman. Perhaps, the lieutenant wondered, she was just trying to up the odds of getting someone before she turned fifty. The bisexual clique was a popular one, after all, though it didn't help in the least. It was a choice for most of the girls who joined, all for an attempt to make up for some excuse of a "bad childhood" or the feelings of acceptance they didn't think they received. So much for Maya, as no matter how dejected or self-pitying a group she joined did she ever end up part of the crowd. She was forever an outcast.
Her terminal beeped once to the custom alert sound she had unlawfully installed, not that anyone would punish her for such an act. If it were someone else, the major or even the commander would start to grumble, but Maya was the good officer. The terminal beeped again, and dragged the lieutenant away from her angsty pity-fest.
"Wait... this isn't right," she breathed. A few more keystrokes, and Ibuki confirmed what could only be considered a fault in the sensors. She turned to Hyuuga. "Get Major Katsuragi." Although he was the communications officer, Makoto didn't respond. "Makoto!"
"What?" he snapped, wheeling about in his chair.
"This is important!" Maya breathed. But again, the two men ignored her. She finally ignored Hyuuga, walked up to his station, and punched in the commands to the loudspeaker system. "Captain Katsuragi, please report to the Comm."
"Hey, what are you doing?" Makoto grumbled. "This is my station!"
"Then do your job, Lieutenant!" Ibuki shouted, pointing to the primary screen meters away at the far end of the complex. She made her way back to her terminal, and started keying in the codes. Hyuuga was about to return to his manga when the contours of the topographical map flickered, a single red speck blinking steadily at the far edge of Tokyo-2.
Aoba's jaw hung open, and Hyuuga stammered, forgetting procedures. But that didn't matter, as Maya was on top of everything. She quickly punched in the override codes she memorized the day before, the ones that allowed each member of the junior command staff take over a comrade's station if they died from an assault on the base. A few seconds later, she punched in the commands for the loudspeakers, and repeated her call. "Captain Katsuragi to the Comm."
"Damnnit!" Hyuuga grumbled as the fluorescent lamps began to flicker. He was flipping through a black binder filled with technical specifications and pages of procedures, a penlight in his mouth. "Aoba, what's the code for the general alarm?" Shigeru didn't answer, as he was having enough problems. The security system had suddenly decided to short out, leaving him in a flood of sparks to try and bypass the affected circuits of the radar. "AOBA!"
"Ibuki, why were you monitoring my station?" Shigeru grumbled, another volley of sparks flying as he fought his instinct not to touch the panel again for fear of a fatal electric shock. "I can handle it!"
"It's code P-thirty two dash one-seven!" Ibuki snapped. She never turned from her terminal as her fingers flew over the keyboard, each sequence in the initial unlocks to the catapults and the cages coming easily to her. Her introverted behavior was a gift in situations like these. When most people want to turn and look at the person they are speaking to, Maya simply looked ahead, processing the incoming data while bellowing out commands. "Aoba, put out those sparks. Then I'll let you have your station back!"
Hyuuga typed in the commands finally, the general alarm blaring, the tacky, poorly designed rotating blue lights that could have been stripped off a police car making the dark confines of the Comm impossible to work in. By that time, the flickering target, as well as the map, disappeared off the monitor, Aoba's station disintegrating under the continuous short circuits. Still, Captain Katsuragi was nowhere to be found. In an act of desperation, Maya keyed the microphone again for the loudspeaker. "Senior command staff to the Comm."
"Where is she?" Hyuuga yelled over the blaring klaxon alarm. He kept flipping through the binder for the command structure sequence, as well as the commands for his station to temporarily disable the alarm. The alarm, however, cut out on it's own as the emergency batteries were drained. The lights and terminal displays each flickered and died. "What happened?"
"Main power cut out long ago," Maya shouted at first, but then lowered her voice as the shouting was no longer necessary, and she heard footsteps behind her. All three of them froze for a moment as Commanders Ikari and Fuyutsuki strode to their tier of the bridge. "We've been running on emergency batteries since no one bothered to switch to auxiliary generators!"
"Correct, Lieutenant," Ikari growled. "Get auxiliary power online immediately!" Ibuki immediately rose from her chair, and started to walk towards the elevator to her right. "What are you doing, Lieuteant?" the commander snapped again. "Man your station!"
Maya shuddered. She had never met Gendo before, but any supervisor criticizing one's actions was enough to bring a cold sweat to a person's brow. Still, she managed to hold her place, clicked her heels to attention, and addressed her superior with a shaky but clear voice. "Sir, power cannot be re-established here!" Maya squeaked. "We can re-route through Cage Seven, but-"
"NO ONE GOES TO CAGE SEVEN!" Gendo roared. "Is that CLEAR? It is off-limits to all non-essential personnel!"
"Aye, Sir!" Quickly, Maya took her station, and using the small brass key on her duty keychain attached to the metal beaded necklace, unlocked the metal drawer built into her desk. Reaching into it, she retrieved a GMRS radio, most likely a Motorola product, though she couldn't see the label in the dark. Also in the drawer was a flashlight, up until this point charging off of the base station it was resting in. A quick click of the flashlight's switch, and keying up the proper frequency on her radio, she reported in to Cage Seven. "Comm to Cage Seven, report status."
Ikari strode away, leaning against the column which formed the frame for the upper tiers of the bridge, while Fuyutsuki studied the brunette lieutenant closely. "Cage Seven to Comm," a young male technician's voice broke over the hiss of static. "We have a situation."
"Go ahead," Ibuki started, retrieving her coffee-stained black binder. She had been pouring over it both literally and figuratively during her late night study sessions during her week's shift, trying to learn as much as possible. But at least she kept the pages clean, especially the logbook in back which offered plenty of scratch paper for a situation like this. Pulling out the pen from her left jacket pocket, she began to scribble down the status of the lower deck.
"Project E is undamaged, but we have a bakelite tank rupture! Three decks have flooded, and over thirty personnel missing, presumably dead."
"Christ," Hyuuga breathed, but was quickly silenced by Fuyutsuki as Ibuki continued taking down the message.
"Bilge pumps non-functioning," the technician went on. "Auxiliary generators are flooded, now hardening in bakelite." There was a short pause, as the technician drew a deep sigh. "Sir, we have approximately fifty injured, and the bakelite will seal all open escape routes in approximately two minutes. Sir...request permission to leave our posts."
Ibuki cringed, then took a deep breath. "Sir," she breathed, turning to Fuyutsuki, handing him the message and the flashlight. "Message received, awaiting confirmation and orders." Kouzou seemed to take forever to study the message, then handed it back to Ikari. Gendo didn't need to read the message, and simply glared at his former professor. "Sir?"
"Do we have confirmation of the target?" Ikari grunted from his position, hiding in the darkness. Hyuuga just sat there, stunned, but Maya was already making her way to Makoto. "I said stay your station!" Maya froze, then dejectedly shrank back to her chair. She knew if they survived, she would be running laps about the headquarters perimeter for sure. She had just recently been promoted to a full lieutenant rank, and here she was, playing the hot shot, about ready to be busted back to private.
Hyuuga fumbled with his controls, trying to use the hand crank generator to power the auxiliary tactical radio set, but the crank was stiff from lack of maintenance. In actuality, it had never been broken in yet, so it was felt there was no need to ensure it worked. It was a simple enough device compared to the rest of the instrumentation. It should have worked. "Sir, I am having difficulty-"
"We must therefore assume, Lieutenant," Ikari growled, "that the threat is real." He looked over to Fuyutsuki, who sadly nodded. Ikari could have given the order himself, but he knew better. This wasn't just a command decision. By giving himself a taste of power, Fuyutsuki realized, Gendo was really tightening his leash. The professor was forced now not just to obey orders, but make the necessary decision himself, and those future decisions were ground into the regulations of military duty, leaving Ikari blameless. The crew would hate both commanders equally, but also not seek leniency in the aging man. Finally, Fuyutsuki would be predictable, the burden of command giving Gendo a precision he could only dare dream of in his scenario. Wasn't it, after all, the Neuremberg trials which showed how easily men could follow orders?
"Negative," Fuyutsuki breathed. "Maintain your posts, and attempt to manually discharge bakelite with emergency aqueducts one through fourteen." Everyone on that tier knew the probability that plan wouldn't succeed, as the bakelite was already hardening. But there were no other alternatives. At least, Ibuki knew there were no other alternatives. "Relay the message, Lieutenant."
"Aye, Sir," she sighed, keying the microphone.
Immediately, the loudspeakers kicked in, overriding all other dialogue on the bridge. "This has been a defensive readiness drill," the monotonous voice of a female recited. Ibuki recognized the voice immediately, although she had only known it for a week. It was Misato. Gendo nodded, giving a slight smirk. Maya thought she spotted the captain, now disguised as an ensign on the lowest tier of the command decks. In a few moments, power was restored. "All station heads begin personnel evaluations and report at six-hundred hours for briefing."
Maya Ibuki sighed in the darkness, and keyed the microphone to the radio again. "Cage Seven, please confirm readiness drill." She didn't hate the technicians, as she knew they were selected at random to play their parts of the wounded, crying out for help, telling the command staff everything was in vain. What she hated the most of these drills was the inhuman nature of it all, and the fact she was desensitizing herself for the time when those casualties were real. One day, she would have to make a call like that. That was what it meant to wear her lieutenant stripes.
"Readiness drill confirmed, no casualties, all systems nominal," the technician reported back, his voice calm. "If it means anything, sorry, Sir."
"Roger confirmation," Ibuki croaked out numbly, a single tear sliding down her left cheek. She tried to hold the emotions back, but it seemed no use. But compared to Hyuuga and Shigeru, both men getting a stern lecture from Fuyutsuki, she felt a little pride. "One more day of not screwing up," she reassured herself. "Just three more years to go."
End of Chapter I
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I swore I'd never do it, but somehow I just decided to give it a try. As you can see, this isn't following the standard "Maya flashes Shinji in a dark alley, where he proceeds to cry his eyes out" routine. No, this will take a different direction.
Now, to the people who requested the Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick/Eva crossfic: Yes, you won the vote by the majority. I will proceed with that soon enough, but I wanted to get this project under way first.
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