Disclaimer: I do not possess any rights to the show Gundam Wing or its characters.
Breathless: Chapter 2 By Crystal DelphinaThursday March 30, A.C. 200 10:08 ~
The stars were bright, yet so small compared to the earth and its own sun. Space had always been a place that she loved and felt comfortable in its infinite depth, but she knew that she her deeper connection was to the earth. It took her breath away, mentally at least, every time she left her secure planet to go amongst the vast emptiness that housed the colonies.
They had just left a little over a half an hour ago, just as small snow flurries had begun to dust the runway, and she was expecting another two hours of the shuttle ride at the very least. She glanced out her small window once more before returning to the book that lay open in her lap. She always found that plane and shuttle rides were the best times to read, and god knew how many rides she had to take and how little other free time she had to enjoy a book.
"Two of the diplomats have landed on L4 C-48779. The rest will arrive more or less around the same time as us."
Startled, Relena looked up to see Heero standing over her seat, presenting the update. After providing a curt nod of acknowledgement, she returned to her book and listened to him unlatching the storage compartment above her to remove a bag. The small and worn brown leather duffle in hand, he closed the hatch and took his seat across the small aisle from her.
At first the silence was pleasant. However as time wore on, she became painfully aware of how eerily quiet their section of the cabin had become, seeing as they were the only occupants and her bodyguard had not made a sound for the last ten minutes. Closing her book, she looked over at the young man curiously, only to find his eyes closed. She couldn't help but smile.
"I thought you slept last night." she whispered, not wanting to awaken the resting Preventer. A quick glance at her watch helped her to determine it would probably be best if she rested as well.
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12:32 ~
She threw her personal belongings, which only included a small blue bag, onto her bed in the hotel room. She had an hour to settle in and do whatever she wanted before an extensive tour of the colony started.
"Tour and dinner today," she murmured as she opened her suitcase that had been delivered to the room for her. "Meetings and disputes all tomorrow until about three...hopefully reaching a decision by then." She removed her laptop from one of the various compartments in her bag. "Leaving tomorrow evening and finishing work over the weekend on the Gerabald proposal." She sat down at the small desk in the room and powered up the computer. "Hmm... I know I'm forgetting something..." She stared at the computer screen as it loaded, wracking her brain for whatever small detail she had neglected.
She looked at her e-mail and decided to blatantly ignore the two-dozen correspondences solely dedicated to her work. Instead, she was pleased to see an e-mail from her brother and quickly clicked the link to his message.
Dear Relena,
I am writing to inform you that Noin and I will be arriving on Tuesday morning and leaving Friday afternoon for a mandatory update meeting with Une and other terraformation officials and investors. We realize that you're busy, but it will still be nice to see you, even for a bit.
Noin won't stop harassing me about what you want for your birthday. Please inform me as soon as possible so she will leave me alone.
Love,
Millardo
Smiling, Relena quickly began typing a message back.
Millardo,
I am also excited to hear you are both coming and I will gladly put aside time. Please let Noin know that I don't require a present because your presence is enough. I'm sure you think that's corny, which it is, but it's true. I love you both and cannot wait to see you.
Love,
Relena
After replying to her brother, she sent off an e-mail to Patrick to inform him that her schedule needed re-working to accommodate her brother. Deciding nothing else was important enough to warrant an immediate response, she disregarded the rest of her e-mails and closed the computer. Internally, she debated whether or not work was pressing enough that she needed to grab her briefcase for the thirty minutes she had before the tour. Sadly, she caved and made her way to her briefcase. However, instead of grabbing one of the dozen or so files she snatched up her murder mystery and kept reading.
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14:49 ~
"I can already count about a hundred things they could improve," Relena whispered into Heero's ear as the group's tour-guide began explaining the renovation plans to help improve colony needs. While the goals had good intentions, Relena doubted their building plans to improve upon the dilapidated portion of the colony would actually address community needs and concerns.
Heero gave a small smirk and looked out of the corner of his eye to see her trying to cover a smile with her hand. She sobered up immediately when another delegate in the party looked over at the very unbecoming behavior of the vice foreign minister. Heero suppressed a chuckle when the young woman looked respectfully flustered as a result.
The rest of tour proceeded without further disruption.
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22:50 ~
Dinner had gone off without a hitch, much to the delight of various government officials from the colony and delegates from neighboring colonies. Many were hoping that it indicated that talks would proceed smoothly the next day. The embassy compound that was serving to house all of the delegates for the colony proceedings had fallen quiet as all of the officials retired to their rooms for the evening.
"Delegate Demescus is secured in his room," came in clear over a small intercom in one of the colony offices. It had been one of many similar updates that had been reported in the last hour since the dinner and reception had finished.
"Miss Marcus from L2 is confirmed asleep," came across the terminal two minutes later.
The L4 C-48779 colony representative sat behind the large desk in the office as his officers continued providing periodic reports of their surveillance. All twelve delegates who had come to the colony that day had been closely monitored since the moment of their arrival – although they didn't know that.
A knock sounded at the door and the representative tore his eyes away from the communications terminal to regard the door with annoyance. "Come in," he shouted gruffly and was not surprised when one of his operatives came through the doorway. The young woman, the same one who had led the tour earlier in the day, saluted the representative and stood at attention awaiting orders.
"Is everything prepared for tomorrow?" he asked, looking back to the terminal when another report was heard.
"Yes sir."
The colony's representative gave a wicked smirk. "Good. Tomorrow we will be recorded in the history books as one of the greatest colonies ever. Tell Mikish to report to me as soon as he's finished with his task. That's all." The operative saluted and excused herself from the room just as another report echoed in the room.
"Darlian and her Preventer dog are secured in their rooms. Will report back when they are confirmed asleep."
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Heero leaned against the door after they both entered Relena's suite. He watched her idly as she kicked off her blue heels to the far reaches of the room. "When are we leaving tomorrow exactly?"
Relena continued going about her business as she answered him, pulling bobby pins out of her hair, allowing her sandy blonde tresses to go free. "Oh I don't know. As soon as we're done with the talks, like I said. Most likely around 1400 or 1500. Why?"
"I don't like the looks of this place. I especially don't trust Representative Tallien. He just seemed so... fake," Heero muttered as he fiddled with one of the hammered brass cuff links of his Preventer jacket designed for more formal occasions. His eyes darted upwards when he heard Relena give a small chuckle as she took off the pale yellow jacket she had been wearing that complimented the deep navy of her dress.
"Fake? That's the best adjective you could come up with? All politicians are fake Heero," she paused for a second and gave a smile. "except for me of course." Walking over to her bed and sitting on the edge of it, she began to brush out her hair. Heero glared in half-hearted contempt at her dismissal of his concerns.
"When we get back, I'm informing Une that it would be best if she begins utilizing observation tactics here. They're hiding something," Heero moved away from the wall and stood over Relena. "I'm just saying that the sooner we leave tomorrow, the better."
Relena put down the brush and looked up at him, mindful of the fact his dark eyes were full of conviction and concern. Her heart stilled for a moment before she broke the gaze with a sigh.
"I'll see what I can do."
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Friday March 31, A.C. 200 14:12 ~
Colony Representative Tallien kept the smile on his face while he shook hands with the other politicians. "Thank you very much. Your keen insights will help improve our colony's situation immensely." As he came to Relena, his smile seemed to deepen. "And thank you for what you suggested. You will see many great changes take place in this colony."
"You're welcome. I hope that we were of help," the young vice foreign minister replied with a sincere smile and firm handshake. Her job completed, she turned towards the shuttle hangers along with the rest of delegation party. Heero watched the exchange with suspicion and regarded Tallien with a steely gaze before following his charge at a respectable distance. During his career, Heero had come to determine what evil men looked like; and tall, broad shouldered men with slicked back dark hair and sinister green eyes fit his description as far as he was concerned.
As the terminal doors closed, what looked like an ordinary citizen ran up to Tallien just as the representative was removing his glasses.
"We are ready sir."
"Good. As soon as they are out of our borders... go after them." Tallien continued to stare out of a small window that looked out onto the others boarding their shuttles and preparing to leave. The civilian ran towards a control station, leaving Tallien alone.
"Yes," he began to wave as the first shuttle took off, "great changes."
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"I'm glad that's over." Relena breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back in her chair after securing her belongings and seatbelt. She could feel the engines of the shuttle powering up preparing to launch out of the gravitational field of the colony and into space. The propulsion systems made her seat slightly vibrate as a computerized voice informed the passengers of the shuttle of safety procedures in the unlikely event of an emergency. Then with a roar, the shuttle accelerated and the lights in the hanger flew past in white streaks. And within the blink of an eye, the gray walls of the colony on either side disappeared, and blackness replaced them. She was happy to be heading back to the earth and her home.
The shuttle ride proceeded smoothly at first, as was expected. However, Relena was the first to see the flash of light off the port side of the shuttle, and her stomach immediately clenched in fear. She knew that it wasn't normal. Within moments, one of the low-level Preventer pilots of the shuttle came floating down the aisle. Heero was already up out of his chair.
"What happened?" he snapped at the pilot.
"Another shuttle just crashed into Director Selanes' shuttle sir."
Relena gasped in horror and quickly unlatched herself to rise from her seat. "What do you mean?"
"A shuttle crashed into theirs. Both exploded on impact."
"Shit." Heero pushed himself forward past the rookie and sat down in his empty pilot seat upon entering the cockpit. Immediately Heero changed communication frequencies to set up contact with the other ten ships that remained intact.
"This is Commander Yuy from Preventer shuttle P130Q. This is a direct command to shuttle pilots. Scatter and do not follow original flight plans. Head to the nearest colony and dock. Be prepared to take evasive actions. Repeat, spread out and dock at the nearest colony." Following orders, shuttles began to quickly accelerate and disperse, pulling further away from the colony that they'd all just departed.
"Get this thing going now!" Heero ordered the Preventer next to him who had been waiting to see if the commander had other orders. "Yes sir," the Preventer hastily replied as her fingers flew along the controls and the shuttle quickly accelerated.
Heero got back on the communication system. "HQ, this is Commander Yuy. We have trouble up here and request assistance. Come in."
No response came.
"What's wrong?" Heero asked, punching codes into the computer to change the frequency.
"They just put up a comm. distorter sir. I -"
"Sir, a shuttle has caught up with us. They seem to be rounding us for a starboard attack," the pilot shouted gritting her teeth in agitation.
"Relena, get in the back now!" Heero commanded as he turned and pushed Relena out of the cockpit. The young woman did as instructed and propelled herself partway into the main cabin area. Assured that she was as safe as she could be for the moment, Heero turned back towards the pilot. "Speed up. When I say 'now', decelerate without stopping the shuttle completely. They shouldn't be in a very maneuverable ship." The young woman nodded in acknowledgement and waited anxiously for Heero to give the order.
"Now!" The pilot slowed the shuttle, and to everyone's great relief, the speeding hulk of metal passed directly in front of them.
"Speed up and go," Heero instructed while looking back to his controls to try and relay a message to the Preventer base.
"They're coming around for another attack sir," The Preventer officer informed before realizing that their end was inevitable. Contradictory to what Heero believed, the shuttle was actually quite maneuverable and heading back directly towards them.
"Do again what you did last time," Heero brusquely ordered as he quickly jumped up and headed for the back of the shuttle grabbing Relena on the way and abandoning his hopes of securing a line to base. Flinging open one of the overhead storage compartments, he extracted a suit and forcefully shoved it towards Relena as he reached for another one. "Put this on now."
Relena complied and hastily fumbled to kick off her shoes before pulling the suit up over her clothes and zipping it closed, thankful that she'd decided to wear her black dress pants that day instead of her intended skirt. She fell backwards into the aisle with great force as soon as she finished. Heero, partially suited up, nearly fell on top of her but deftly supported himself against an armrest of one of the aisle seats.
He stumbled slightly as he promptly stood up to analyze the quickly deteriorating situation. The other shuttle had managed to impact their front end, though not enough to inflict major damage. Looking at the dust filled and flickering lights of the cockpit, he frowned when he saw the unmoving bodies of the two Preventer officers, presumably killed by the impact. The control panel was smashed apart, sparks flying across it like fireworks being set off. He imagined that the other shuttle wasn't done yet though - they were determined to finish them off for good.
There wasn't much time. This time, the enemy shuttle was positioning itself to plow directly through the middle. Heero hurriedly finished putting on the rest of his suit while instructing Relena to tie a cable around her waist. "We're going to have to abandon the shuttle. I doubt they will realize we left. Hopefully the other shuttles will send out a distress call." He snapped a helmet onto her head, then grabbed one for himself.
He began opening a hatch, hoping that the shuttle wouldn't come back and hit them for at least a few more precious and crucial moments. He firmly gripped the cable securely tied around Relena just before the vacuum of space pulled her out of the shuttle without any warning. She immediately felt disoriented as she spun slightly, free of the mechanisms of the shuttle that maintained a minimum gravitational pull. Mechanisms that were quickly beginning to fail because of the damage to the shuttle's main controls.
Initially using a bar by the hatch door to secure himself, Heero had managed to crawl out of the shuttle and was now bracing himself against the outside hull. Mustering as much momentum as he could, he pushed himself off the shuttle hull with his legs, dragging Relena behind him. She vaguely registered in her consciousness that Heero made a fine version of a human tugboat, but the fleeting thought was quickly dismissed when a flash lit up the immediate vicinity of space. She turned her head just in time to witness the attacking shuttle careen into her recently evacuated one, both going up in quick ball of fire and flying projectiles made of debris and scrap metal.
"Oh my god..." she whispered in shock, her heart momentarily stilled by the horror she witnessed. She unexpectedly bumped into her companion, distracted by the catastrophe, and as they began to slowly glide apart Heero reached out and halted the natural forces of physics.
"Don't talk too much Relena. You don't want to use up too much air." She gave a solemn nod of her head in understanding, before looking over to regard the wreckage again, pausing ever so slightly in her response. "Well I guess you were… right about the colony... How much air…do we have?"
"A little less than two hours. Preventers should arrive before then though."