The Gundam screamed out of the hanger bay with a rush so great that several unprepared people were knocked off of their feet. As he cleared the launch rail, Tem Ray tightened his stomach and bore down to fight the urge to vomit. He was considered one of the most promising new pilots of his tactical wing, but still hadn't gotten past the extreme acceleration felt at launch. Every fiber of his being wanted to throw up and black out. Even the suit, which was designed to minimize the G-forces, did little to quell his discomfort. He must have inherited his queasiness from his mother. Damn it.

The acceleration lessened, and Tem was able to relax. As usual, his tensing up caused him to sweat profusely, and he was soaked to the skin. Ignoring that, he began examining the many controls of his new suit. Much of it was touch screens, holographic displays, and voice activated systems. But he still had old style cockpit monitors, and a pair of trigger laden joysticks. He always liked the joysticks. They gave him a feeling of being what his father once called "a fighter pilot." The sticks allowed for precise but deliberate control.

The holo-monitor to the left of Tem gave a series of rapid beeps, indicating that the "dummy" suit was approaching. The dummy suit was not in fact an autonomous robot, but a much disarmed Mobile Suit, designed to help the Gundam pilot test their robot's abilities in realistic combat. Though the dummy suit was not armed with artillery or live ammunition, it still carried a Class V Medium laser sword, full length shield, and several defensive armaments such as smoke bombs and flack.

Tem angled the decent of the Gundam to intercept the dummy suit, which by his readout was identified as "Simulation Mobile Suit, Type Zero Eight", or SMS-08. He flipped the switch to communicate with the pilot.

"SMS-08, this is Ensign Tem Ray in the RX-101 Gundam Sabre. Do you read me?"

The static hissed for a moment, and then a husky but velvet female voice came through. It had a twinge of both Russian and Japanese accent, and was reputed to melt men's hearts like the sirens of ancient myth.

"Roger, Gundam. This is SMS-08 standing by for training combat maneuvers. How's it going kid?" Tem's face cracked a wide smile and he nearly laughed with surprise.

"Commander Irina Amada?" Tem called, "You're back!" The Commander chuckled at her comrade's enthusiasm, then brushed a lock of hair out of her face.

"That's right." she said, "You been holding down the fort since I left?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Good. Now let's get this Gundam tested so we can get back."

"Acknowledged, Commander!" Tem answered joyfully. He immediately engaged Gundam's thrusters, sending it up like a bottle rocket in order to gain altitude. The majority of the testing would be in evasive maneuvers, and given that both suits would be accelerating to battle velocity, they required a great deal of airspace. Bringing the Gundam around to line it up with Irina's SMS, Tem brought up the first set of objectives on his right monitor, then began accelerating towards his superior officer.

--

Dr. Rachel Mackenzie walked over to one of the launch consoles in the cavernous hanger bay and linked her personal data pad to it, then began downloading the recorded launch data. Later she would compare this data against the required norms which were specified by the designers, tactical experts, and medical staff assigned to the Sabre Project.

"Doctor Mackenzie!"

She blinked twice and turned towards the voice which had called her. It was Lt. Cmdr. Kiyoshi Uraki. He was walking rapidly up to her, and he looked pissed. She steadied herself for a verbal screaming. Instead, Uraki grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the other technicians, supposedly so they could talk in private.

When they were sufficiently far from the other people, he let her go.

"Don't you ever, ever tell me to blow anything "out my ass" in front of another officer ever again!" he hissed between his teeth. "The next time you do that, I'll have you reported to your superiors for sowing disrespect among ranks!"

"Kiyoshi" she said smugly "You couldn't report the weather if it rained on your face. The fact is that I may wear a Federation uniform, but I'm a civilian. See?" She pointed to the bars on her collar which designated her as a civilian. "And being a rather important person on this project, I have more privilege and authority than you do." Uraki wasn't fazed.

"I don't care if you owned this project!" he snarled, "You make a comment again like the one you made in front of Ensign Ray, I'll see that you're off this project for good!" Now Rachel wasn't smiling. It took a lot to tip Rachel's mood from good to bad, but threats could pretty much do it. She leaned into Kiyoshi's face.

"Kiyoshi?" she said, her voice lilting musically. Uraki's eyes narrowed.

"What." Rachel began thrusting the first two fingers of her right hand into Kiyoshi's chest.

"Blow…it…out…your…ass."

Kiyoshi was about to scream something completely obscene when his com-phone chirped wildly. He reached down to his belt and grabbed the phone, then opened it and put it to his ear.

"Yes?" he acknowledged. Then a long, ominous silence. "When? ...You sure? ...What was their last known telemetry? ... I'll be right up." He closed the phone, his face having gone pale white. Rachel's breathing stopped for a split second, and her heart began to race.

"What?" she asked, hoping that it wasn't what she thought. "What's wrong?"

Kiyoshi paused for a moment, breathing deeply, trying to find the right words.

"Tem and Irina," he said, his voice quivering on the second name, "Tracking lost their signals five minutes ago. From the last transmission heard from Tem, it looks like they accidentally collided mid-air, then fell to the earth." Rachel gasped, her eyes watering up.

"How?" she said, her voice cracking, "Are they alright?" Kiyoshi shook his head.

"We don't know. Tracking doesn't even know where they went down. All they know is that they lost signal, then the comm-channels went dead. They're starting a search of the area."

Rachel tried her best to keep control of her emotions, but she was shaking uncontrollably. Instead of comforting her, Kiyoshi turned away and began walking to one of the turbo elevators which lead up to the Tracking and Surveillance room. Rachel followed.

--

Tem regained consciousness to the feeling of warmth running down the side of his head. His right eye didn't open immediately; apparently something sticky was keeping his eyelids closed. After gingerly disengaging the release on his helmet, he pushed it off, letting it topple over onto the floor of the cockpit. He then reached up with his gloved hand and wiped at his face. When he drew his hand back, it was smeared with red. He groaned miserably, and then coughed once. Wiggling his toes and fingers told him that he still had feeling and movement, which was good. But the warmth on his head worried him. Even the smallest head wounds could bleed profusely, but he didn't know if it was just a scratch, or a gaping gash.

Focusing on the controls ahead of him, he gained his orientation. He was mostly in the right direction, but tilting slightly to the right and forward. From his inner balance, he could tell that the robot had also rolled a bit. The straps were holding him in his seat. He looked at the consoles in front of him, and found that they were still mostly glowing. That was also good. He reached his left hand to the lighted comm square on the console and touched the blinking light. Then he cleared his throat, gurgling and coughing up some blood in the process.

"Commander Amada. Come in!" No response. "Commander Irina Amada, please come in!" Still nothing.

There are times when silence is golden. When it should be treasured, revered, and enjoyed. But hanging in his seat, knowing that Irina wasn't responding, Tem could clearly see that this was not one of those times. Feeling light headed, he began seeing little white star dots dance in his vision. He blinked hard, but to no avail. As the colors in front of him melted and reversed into negatives of themselves, Tem gave in and closed his eyes. He then promptly passed out.