Gundam SEED: Red Eternity

Prologue

'Well then, subject Sebehk, Kashiib. ID number 0032, Bavadius labs: correct?'

Kashiib continued to look straight ahead, not daring to look his administrator in the eyes. The old man continued:

'My friend, Master Freeman here, has informed me that you are one of the few who chose to stay and prevent the recent "schism" from getting any worse than it did.'

The administrator opened a small paper file on his desk in front of him, his eyes slowly scanning the information before him. The administrator was a business man somewhere in his late forties, wearing a tailored and well fitting suit and with short hair that, although greying, was clearly once very dark brown.

'According to this report I have received you were the one that helped to maintain our control over the security station, which allowed us to effectively suppress the "schism" and prevent anything from leaving the facility,-' The administrator looked up at the young boy in front of his desk.

The boy had been unnecessarily hand-cuffed and placed under an armed escort of ten soldiers. Ridiculous. The boy couldn't have hurt him or them if he was unbound and unescorted because he was far too loyal.

The boy's hair was short and dark brown. His eyes were something that the administrator had never seen though, not even with Co-ordinators. The irises shone a brilliant jet-black, and were admittedly quite fascinating and certainly unique. At the moment though, his eyes showed clear traces of fear. The poor child was only eight years old.

The administrator continued;

'Is that true?'

The small boy before the desk swallowed and nervously said 'yes sir' before falling silent once more. After a few short seconds of regarding the boy in front of him he closed the file and handed it to another boy standing to his immediate right. Then he slowly leaned back in his chair and put his hands over his eyes.

'Then return to your cell and await further instructions' he said, and immediately the soldiers turned around and escorted young Kashiib from his office.

Addressing the boy to his right he asked the question at the front of his mind, in a tone fitting of a conversation between gentlemen. 'I do trust your advice Jonathan, please don't misunderstand, but are you sure this is the answer to our predicament?'

Jonathan was himself only nine and his appearance was almost the same as Kashiib's, although the hair was a slightly lighter shade of brown, and had natural chestnut high-lights. His eyes were different too. Currently they were a dull, colourless black, a matt black if you will. The cold colour of his eyes was reflected in the cold, blunt and unemotional tone in his voice and the seriousness upon his face.

'There are many answers to the "predicament", sir. What I have suggested is merely the best of them.'

'If any subjects from this experiment survive it may effectively end my role as one of the Logos. So how does preserving any subjects possible help me?'

Jonathan's expression and tone remained unchanged as he opened Kashiib's file and began reading through it. 'If you kill all of us then that will also waste all of the funding spent on this little endeavour. However, if we can recover and effectively use some of the survivors then we can justify some of the funding allocated to the project. The more successful subjects we have, the more funds would be effectively "salvaged". That is why it is in our best interests to "salvage" as many of us as is practical, sir.'

The administrator sat up straight and took a thin, long cigar box from the desk, producing from it a long cigar which he then placed in his mouth. 'But the other benefactors don't have the ability to reason as I do, Master Freeman.'

'I know that already, sir. The simple answer is thus; when the other benefactors threatened to cut the project's income, you were forced to abandon refining the research. Because of this I believe only gene-synth unit two was properly upgraded, which, if my memory serves me well, was the unit that created five of the seven survivors including me, and those two not from the same unit have since been disposed of for aggression towards staff.-'

Jonathan closed the file and, for the first time that day, looked the administrator directly in the eye. '-It was their reluctance to pay for the process to be properly researched and refined that has caused this situation.' He then opened another file with "Project: Extended" written on it and began to read through that as he continued: 'And as if that didn't save you, this has come along with perfect timing. We can simply transfer the survivors to this new project as a method of giving it a "helping hand", and may even save more resources… Sir; we have found your salvation.'

The administrator nodded slowly while removing the cigar from his mouth. 'And what about the project that has already failed? There will be records, you know.'

Although Jonathan Freeman's statement sounded like an innocent question, the message was clear:

'What records?'