"Two pilots engaged in neural bridge," the Jaeger A.I. announced.
x X XX xx X
Bond stood in the Headspace, the joint consciousness of the command crew.
- felt and saw and was Q
- was Kian Whitmarsh
- was the youngest quartermaster of the Shatterdome
- was the genius engineer who understood Jaegers like no one else.
- was the lone child whose mother died when he was five, whose father had no idea what to do with him.
- was the fifteen year old MIT student who ended up with two doctorates
- was the boy who had developed better neural bridges, better Pons, ever since he had laid eyes on the designs.
- was the teenager assisting Dr. Caitlin Lightcap in creating better interfaces, perfecting the neural bridge.
- wrote programming codes that rivaled those of Dr. Hermann Gottlieb
- felt the cool, controlled intellect, mixed with the emotions of a young man who had lost too much and had worked through it in his own way
- was the genius mind who found balance in working with the Jaeger A.I.s, the tech, with people who didn't look at his age, simply at his abilities
- who looked at James Bond, dressed only in sweat pants and a dark blue t-shirt, holding a wooden bo-staff, looking into those glacially blue eyes
- felt the connection and couldn't… wouldn't give in, didn't want to submit, nor control.
It was all there, smooth and calming, so much less chaotic than his very first Drift, and James almost laughed in giddy happiness.
And it felt more than perfect. It felt so much stronger than Vesper ever had. It was… above and beyond every expectation.
x X XX xx X
Q didn't fight the Drift, didn't linger on any memory, just relaxed into the neural handshake, the sensation not unpleasant. He knew the theory, had been through enough training runs and tryouts in the Drops, and he went into the neural bridge without anything. There was no expectation, no fear, no old baggage.
There was only him.
And he was James Bond.
- was the boy sent off to boarding school because his parents thought it would give him the best education.
- was the boy who lost his parents in a simple skiing accidents, who was told about the loss by the old groundskeeper, who didn't understand and hid in the old tunnels underneath the lodge for almost two days
- joined the British Navy
- rose to the rank of commander.
- watched the first Kaiju attack on San Francisco, feeling nothing but shock and pain and terror
- was the cool-headed man who became one of the most experienced and renowned Rangers.
- was compatible with Vesper Lynd
- watched her die, drown as she saved his life, as she freed him from the Conn-Pod of the severely damaged Skyfall, as she was pinned down by falling debris, as he was fighting to get her out and then…
- and then he was lost, adrift, screaming his pain at the world
So much painpainpainpainpainPAIN!
Loss
Fear
Desperation
Anger
Fury!
So much anger, fury, boiling rage!
Whywhywhywhywhy?
- was brought back by M, reluctant, dismissive of his own abilities.
- felt old and tired, and the burn inside him was nothing anyone could help with. The dark hole of loss and desperation, the refusal for psychological help.
- saw himself through Bond's eyes, saw the recognition, felt the connection before they ever truly connected, before the Kwoon Combat Room fight.
- sensed the attraction on a level that was more than simply sexual, felt the Drift bring them together like it was the most natural thing in the world.
- felt… them… together.
The pain was suddenly secondary. The darkness ignored.
It was beautiful.
The turmoil of Bond's soul, of James, around him, the chaos of pain and loss, was nothing he couldn't handle. It was like his mind had been made for this.
x X XX xx X
Across a divide, Bond stood and watched him, face unreadable, waiting, watching, expectations low. He had seen Q and he knew the younger man had seen him.
All the damage.
The scars.
The abyss that was his very soul.
He knew he was a dark, broken thing, someone who could bring down another mind, could throw off the neural handshake, serious upset whoever tried to Drift with him.
Moneypenny had been frightened of that darkness, of the violence inside him, the bloody murder in his very soul.
But Q regarded him so calmly, Bond felt the quietness seep into him, smooth over the sharp waves of anger and loss and pain. It wrapped around his torn soul, cool and serene, patient and almost loving. Q was a rock in the stormy sea of the Drift, synching them. He held on to that rock, quieted his own darkness, without smothering it.
Nothing could take the ancient pain away.
Nothing could lessen it.
Until now.
x X XX xx X
"Synchronized," the A.I. announced. "Neural handshake complete. Bridge holding steady."
"Bloody hell!" Tanner could be heard from far off. Very far off. He sounded somehow impressed.
x X XX xx X
"Let's see how she moves," Bond said-thought.
Q smiled. "Let's."
x X XX xx X
In the Local Control Center, Bill Tanner's eyes flew over the screens in front of him, then he smiled widely.
"Strong connection, sir."
M stood behind him, face showing the tension he felt.
"It's the strongest I've seen in a long time," Tanner added. "This is incredible. They're completely in sync!"
In the hangar, Skyfall was moving, going through the motions, systems checking, armor panels sliding into battle positions. The massive exoskeletal structure didn't so much as falter once.
"Looking good," Tanner told the two pilots. "Ready for a test run?"
"Ready," Bond replied, voice professional, controlled, cool.
The hangar doors slid open and the deployment began.
x X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx X
Skyfall Prime wasn't the sleekest of the still active Jaegers. That was Striker Eureka. She was an old model, a Mark-III, and she had seen battle. Her primary colors were a dark gray and black, some silver highlights here or there, and her designation and markings in the same bright silver.
Her logo, proudly emblazoned on the right side of her chest armor, was a gun barrel with six-sided rifling, from the point of view of the shooter. The sight was white, but there was the shadow of a Kaiju, with blue blood running partially over the screen.
She was bipedal, with two arms, and the Conn-Pod was head-shaped, like many of the post-Mark-I Jaegers. Like Gipsy Danger she appeared to be a heavily armored human being, just two hundred and eighty feet tall. Her hands had four fingers including the thumb, the middle finger larger, flat at the tip, with razor sharp edges. The other fingers had wicked spikes. Sharp, re-enforced blades were attached to both forearms, and her back was a mass of serrated spikes that stood up like ruffled back fur.
Skyfall's armor was thick in places, made her heavy. Flaps stemming from her shoulders protected the back of her head and the base of the neck where the body connected with the Conn-Pod. She wasn't a fast mover, more like a battering ram, able to withstand great force.
James Bond loved her. She had been his first Jaeger and he had never looked back. He had never wanted to pilot another Mark-III. He also didn't want a newer model.
He was an old dog; so was Skyfall.
Q's amusement drifted through the Headspace and he turned to his co-pilot, smirking.
"Not modern enough for you, Q?"
"You haven't seen everything she can do now," was the even answer, brows rising behind the visor. "Her specs were updated to align more with the more recent series of Jaegers."
His voice held an 'I told you so already, please listen for once' tone that had Bond bite back an amused smile.
"Well, that's why we are here."
With one thought, they moved.
It was an awe-inspiring sight to behold as the Jaeger stomped through the water, heading for a piece of beach not far from the Shatterdome that would allow them the necessary maneuvering space.
They would test the sea-worthiness next.
Bond felt a thrill race through him, caught Q's chuckle, and he didn't even try to hold back.
It was so very good to be back at the helm!
x X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx X
Tanner looked ecstatic as the final results came in and Bond shot his new co-pilot an insufferable grin.
"Told you so," he murmured, voice low, just for Q.
It got him raised eyebrows. "Menace," Q murmured back.
Blue eyes lit up, bright and happy with emotions Bond hadn't felt in a very long time.
Mallory watched them and he caught the Marshall's slight smile.
"We'll see you in six hours for the next Drift," Tanner said. "Get some rest."
Bond gave him a mock-salute. Q looked almost apologetically at their Chief LOCCENT Officer.
They left, walking back to their quarters.
"Hungry?" Bond asked.
"Shouldn't you know?"
He laughed. It was a free, open laugh. "I should. Burger and crisps?"
"I hardly think they serve that kind of food at the moment. Last I heard it was some kind of casserole."
"Which you would eat, too."
"Which I would eat, too."
They headed for the mess, close together, people shooting them looks as they passed by.
The new command crew of Skyfall Prime. An old, experienced elite ranger, and the quartermaster of the Vancouver Shatterdome. Not a match anyone could ever have thought of.
x X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx X
Ghost-Drifting was to be expected.
The feedback loop stayed sometimes, especially in strong pairs. Especially in connections that formed so smoothly, so perfectly.
Bond hadn't really expected the flashes of memory and thought to be this strong right away, though. He hadn't expected to share dreams, to lose himself in the sensation of Q with him, even though he was in his own quarters, across the hall, two doors between them.
With Vesper it had taken a few Drifts. In the beginning there had been faint, teasing echoes, little eddies of something that had already passed between them, and it had grown.
Q was stronger. His presence was overwhelmingly solid, just there, a fact in his life, stabilizing, balancing and… needed.
James lay awake, marveling at the sensation.
It wasn't overwhelming just yet. It was a soft murmur compared to the real Drift, lapping at the edge of his consciousness.
Teasing.
Like flirting.
An intoxicating caress, the counter-balancing mind around him, peaceful, warm, his co-pilot.
And Bond smiled a little as he closed his eyes, sinking into the warm sensation of another mind, no longer connected to him through the Pons, and still so close that he didn't really want to let it go.
x X XX xx Xx X XX xx Xx X XX xx X
If Q had felt the Ghosts, he didn't mention them, but the way he glanced at Bond, the way he met the wintery eyes, James knew it had been a two-sided experience.
x X XX xx X
They were airlifted to the Hong Kong Shatterdome just twenty-four hours later.
tbc...