Trax and Nadia are plotting how to best introduce them self's to NERV.
"We should just go to their office in the city and introduce ourselves" Nadia said. "That's a perfectly reasonable way to get in contact."
"No, I'm pretty sure they would not believe us" Trax replied. "The best case is that we will have to wait through hours of interrogation with some low level operatives, while the worst case is they will assume we are some nut jobs and call the cops"
"Well your idea to break into NERV and just knock on the door of the commander will be an even worst first impression" Nadia said.
"Ok, that one may have been a little bit over the top" Trax said "How about that: we take a Taelon shuttle and just drop out of the interdimension inside the Geo Front"
"That will ensure we have the attention from the higher ups, while not being too intrusive" Trax added.
"So we just land there near the lake for example and go site seeing, waiting for the cavalry to surround us or what?" Nadia asked.
"Well pretty much yes" Trax said smiling.
Nadia agreed with the proposal "hmm… Ok I guess that's a good compromise" she said.
They went onto the Taelon mothership and took a shuttle to the geo front.
"Ok we are in" Trax said when the shuttle dropped out of the interdimensional hyperspace. "Where would you like me to land" he asked.
Nadia looked around and pointed towards a large sandbank on the shore of the lake inside the Geo Front.
"How about there" she replied "that looks like a nice spot, that is we can survey a large area, so they should be forced to approach us directly instead of trying to sneak on."
Trax landed the shuttle on the designated spot and they got out, layed down a picnic blanket and set down.
"Now we just have to wait" Nadia said.
Trax smiled
"Hehehe… would like to see the expression on their faces when they see the first surveillance close-up, that should be a very amusing WTF moment"
An alarm serene rang in NERV's command center.
"Security breach in sector 85 an unidentified flying object appeared on the sensors." a female operator screamed. Her name was Maya Ibuki.
"Notify the captain" another operator said "Where is it now?" the name of the other operator being Makoto Hyuga.
"It appears to have landed near to the quarry lake" Maya answered.
The third operator Shigeru Aoba asked "Can we get a close up?"
"Yes!" Maya answered bringing one of the surveillance cameras inside the Geo front imposition.
"What is that thing?" Aoba asked.
At this very moment Dr. Ritsuko Akagi entered the room.
"Aren't you learning anything in school this days, that is apparently a Taelon shuttle" she said angry.
"Where is Captain Katsuragi" she added.
"A Taelon shuttle?" Maya asked.
"Yea, this aliens that landed half a century before the second impact" Makoto said, I learned about them in history class I think.
Finally Misato entered the command central.
"Status Report!" she said.
"At 0900 an unidentified flying object appeared inside the geo front" Maya reported "it hovered for a few minutes over the lake before landing there" She pointed on the screen.
Misato looked on the main screen showing the shuttle and two apparently human looking intruders sitting on a blanket, in that very moment of them winked towards the camera.
"WTF?!" Misato screamed "is that some kind of a joke or what"
"No captain" Makoto said "Whomever this two are they apparently have access to Taelon technology"
"Non of the defense parameters have been breached they just appeared out of no ware" he said. "If I recall correctly the Taelons head drives that allowed them to travel outside the normal space time."
"And that is how they got in here?" Misato asked.
"Apparently yes, at least that's the only possible explanation, however implausible it may sound" he added.
"I think they are waiting for us." Ritsuko added.
"Couldn't they have just knocked on the front door like any decent human being" Misato asked annoyed.
"Now they at least have our undivided attention" Ritsuko replied.
Misato accompanied with a small troupe of NERV soldiers entered a chopper and took of heading in the direction of Trax and Nadia.
Soon after they landed next to the tree line between the woods and the Taelon shuttle.
Trax and Nadia stood up and looked into the direction of the aircraft.
Misato jumped out and charged towards the intruders screaming.
"Who the hell are you and who allowed you to breach our air space?" She screamed.
When she came close enough to be able to hear an answer.
Nadia said "We are the guardians of the Taelons legacy. My name is Nadia and this is my companion Trax."
"We observed your rather clumsy fight with that creature a few days ago" She added.
"And you decided just like that to break in into a restricted area?!" Misato said still screaming. She apparently was not a big fan of intruders that can bypass time and space.
Trax smiled and said "Well Initially I suggested we just break in into your office and say hello, but may dear Nadia pointed out that this may be considered rood"
Misato made a really amusing WTF facial expression and did not really know what to say next, that reply was more than unexpected.
"Well anyhow, now we have your attention and you haven't started shooting so that's a good start right" Nadia said to break the ice a bit.
"Well we can still start" Misato replied, but not with a threatening ton of voice.
"So you just wanted to say hello or what?" She asked.
"Well it did not skip our attention that a near extinction event took place about 15 years ago, and that it apparently was caused by a creature similar to the one that attacked recently" Trax said.
"Given the possible conclusion that it may also be able to cause another event like the one in 2100 we thought that it would be in our mutual best interest if we offer you our assistance." Nadia added.
"How would that be in your interest" Misato asked. "Besides you don't look even remotely old enough to be remembering what happened in 2100" She added.
"Well, mankind is supposed to hold the key to the Taelons survival according to Ma'el's 'prophecy', so letting you go extinct does not seem like a good idea." Nadia said.
"And for our appearance, we are older than you think, much older than you in fact." Trax said.
"What?" Misato asked with a unbelieving tone of voice.
"Well if you would have to wait possibly centuries in stasis for your salvation, would you leave someone in charge that is going to grow old and possibly dye?" Trax asked. "That sounds awfully risky if you ask me."
"So how old are you?" Misato asked.
To which Nadia replied "You don't ask a lady that" and smiled.
„May I suggest you bring us to the commands" Trax said.
„For what I know you just somehow got your hands on a Taelon shuttle" Misato said „Can you prove in any way that you are really Taelon representatives" she asked
Nadia handed Misato 2 old diplomatic passports.
„Here you go" Nadia said.
Misato went back to the chopper to report in and ask commander Ikari for permission to bring the two „guests" to NERV's HQ.
„Do you believe their story?" the commander asked through the radio.
„I have no idea, …" Misato said „They have some papers but they are really really old, besides they don't make an impression as if they ware some old Taelon diplomats or something"
„Well they got access to a Taelon shuttle at least…" the commander said „bring them in!"
„If they can access and operate Taelon technology that makes them already very useful assets, no matter how they got it." he added.
Trax and Nadia boarded the aircraft with Misato and are on the way to the NETV HQ.
Meanwhile in Gendos office.
„Do you think it is wise to let someone that unpredictable inside the HQ" sub commander Fuyutsuki asked.
„From what I know about the Taelons, what they were capable of, they could get in at any time anyways." Gendo replied.
„So instead you let them in through the front door?" Fuyutsuki asked.
This way they have to behave and we can keep an eye on them." the commander replied.
In the meantime on the aircraft. Misato is wondering about the whole situation and the actions of the two visitors,
willingly going with an armed escort into some secret governmental site, does not appear to be a very safe move.
Do they relay so much on their apparent diplomatic immunity noted in their old documents or have they something up their sleeves she does not know of.
„Say Nadia" she asked „isn't it a bit, to trusting just going with us to the HQ like that?"
„No not at all" Nadia replied „there is nothing you could do to harm or confine us, so its fine" she smiled.
„Well detonating a N2 mine in the close proximity, may be a minor annoyance though" Trax added.
„Are you f***ing kidding me!", she screamed.
Later in NERQ, Ritsuko entered the commander's office, and handed the old passports back to Trax and Nadia.
„As far as I can tell the documents are genuine." she said. „They have been issued in 2042. The RDIF chip's are intact and contain biometric data confirming the identity of our two visitors."
„Seriously?! How can you be sure it's not just a good forgery" Misato asked.
„The data are digitally signed with a UN certificate used exclusively for issuing diplomatic paperwork that was in use between 2038 and 2043" Ritsuko answered „The respective private key was generated and kept on a signing hardware token which was destroyed once the declared validity of the certificate ran out."
„So you are saying it's absolutely impossible for it to be a forgery?" the commander asked.
„The devices were manufactured such that it was basically impossible to create a copy of the key. They are designed to mitigate any known vectors for side channel attacks, and they were temper proved such that an attempt to physical access the memory cells on the device would lead to the key being destroyed." Ritsuko explained „The only way that is not absolutely impossible would be to recover the key from the public key, but a 3071 bit key using the Supersingular Elliptic Curve Isogeny Cryptography system is still considered unbreakable by today's standards.„
The Supersingular Elliptic Curve Isogeny Cryptography System is as of 2015 a contender for Post Quantum Computing cryptography, as all currently employed schemes for asymmetric encryption can be easily broken with a quantum computer that has enough qbits. As of 2015 the largest QC has 7 qbits iirc. That is nothing. But the Taelons obviously would have the means to implement quantum computers of usable dimensions a.k.a. billions of qbits. Hence it is to be assumed that in the time after their landing mankind would switch to cryptographic schemes that cannot be broken easily using a quantum computer.
„But that would mean that you to are at least 75 years old!?" Misato asked with an unbelieving tone of voice, she till this moment thought this was some kind of elaborate hoax by someone who got his hands on some left over Taelon technology.
„At least" Trax said smiling.
„Well not necessarily you may have spent most of this time in some kind of stasis." Ritsuko said, searching for a more likely explanation.
„Anyhow it appears your genuine Taelon representatives, so why have you come back to earth after so many decades." Gendo asked.
"We have been monitoring mankind's progress remotely." Trax said "Until 15 years ago everything looked promising."
"But then everything went south, an event like the so called second impact does not go unnoticed." he continued. "Since them we have been observing earth very closely from space and used old satellite relays to access earth's internet."
"But the available information's have been basically nonexistent. And the little information's which have been made public, directly contradicted our own observations."
Than Nadia continued with the next part of the reply.
"It did not escape our attention that mankind replicated the creature that caused this terrible catastrophe multiple times, for what purpose than we did not know." She said. "We first assumed as mankind so often do it was just another weapon of war, well given the destruction in infrastructure and the resulting scarcity a global war for resources was in the end a plausible scenario."
"Then however in 2105 a hacker from the anonymous collective leaked documents detailing Project-E. It became apparent that all parties manufacturing this Evangelions ware working together and that the enemy to be fought would be not at all human in nature."
She paused to take a short breath.
"And well we have been observing you closely ever since, we have seen the creature attacking Neo Tokio-3 and, excuse my harsh words, your incompetent attempt at fighting it." She said.
"Never the less we successfully defeated the angel" the commander said.
"That you did indeed, but let's be honest it was more dumb luck than skill" Trax said with an rather arrogant smile. "With our help I'm sure we can make the outcome of future confrontations more certain."
"You are awfully sure of yourself." Gendo said.
"Well our current job is saving a species from extinction; we are what you call experts!" Trax said laughing.
"Really?! From all I can tell the Taelon situation haven't improved yet, if it did I guess they would be back or they would not care what happens on earth." the commander responded "You coming here alone proves to me that this aliens are still patiently awaiting their salvation."
Gendo wasn't wrong. Before the second impact Trax and Nadia spent decades searching for the world Nadia's people came from before they ended up on earth tens of thousands years ago. It was a highly advanced civilization which they assumed would have the means to help the Taelons. Almost nothing remained left of this civilization on earth and no scientific progress has been made for many millennia. On Nadia's "home world" however they would have been vastly more advanced or so they thought. This search however while it lasted did not yield any results not even solid leads where to go. Simply too much knowledge has been lost to time and all inhabitable planets they visited would provide no hints as to the location of the atlantean home world. The terrible catastrophe called the second impact on earth was in that regard sort of a blessing. The long lost satellite city "Red Noah", one of two generation-ships the atlanteans used to come to earth, reactivated and our two protagonists could localize it. In contrary to the other ship "Blue Noah" this one wasn't a ruin; its autonomous systems maintained it quite well actually. That is for something that no living sole have visited in ten thousand years, hence retrieving workable star maps or even course data would still be a task for years or decades. But now at least they head a new chance to find Marduk, the planet Nadia ancestors came from so long ago.
"Be it as it may." Nadia interrupted " You can't dispute our potential usefulness to the project."
"We have unique scientific insight and access to highly advanced technology." She added.
"That appears to be true, but your allegiance is with the aliens, you are their keepers." Comander Ikari said "Your plans for mankind may not be in our best interest."
"Well we at least need you not to dye and to continue on the path of scientific progress." Trax said. "I would argue this is a very reasonable basis for cooperation."
"Assuming that is indeed true and we would agree to work with you." the commander said "what are you offering exactly?"
"Or should I say, what do you want from us?" he added.
"For starters how about getting rid of this unpractical power cord's your war machines require?" Trax offered. "A compact fusion reactor as it is used for example to power our shuttles should provide more than enough power for an EVA."
"About what we want, just full unrestricted access to all your research on this creatures you call angels." Trax said.
"Just?!" sub commander Fuyutsuki repeated somewhat shocked by the direct demand for all they kept secret for the last decades.
"Well they seem to have some unique capabilities." Nadia said "And if we are going to work on devising strategy's to defeat them this information's are of up most importance."
"If we shell decide to cooperate we will share our intel only on a need to know basis, in the end you ae agents of a forign power." The sub commander said.
"Can you be more specific about what kind of cooperation you have in mind? Access to the mothership, military support even or rather just your knowledge." The commander asked.
"Given the state of the Taelons even partial access to the mothership is currently out of question." Trax said "We would intent mostly to provide or knowledge and techlological knowhow working with you here."
"We would be however ok with bring in single visitors to the mothership if required." Nadia added.
"Why wouldn't you be ok giving us access to the mothership if it can help?" Misato asked.
"What you ask from us is in the end the same, access to our infrastructure." She added.
"The situation is not the same you have guards everywhere, and an army on standby." Trax replied.
"The mothership is basically empty, if we would bring more than a few people on board especially if they would need some kind of system access the risk of you seizing control over the mother ship is too high." Trax said.
"Besides, there is nothing you could do better from the ship that you cannot do here with restricted remote access." Nadia added.
"But you would provide for example remote access to the ships sensors." Sub commander Fuyutsuki asked.
"Yes, but like you we are not going to fully cooperate, instead we will share our assets only if necessary." Trax said.
"Access to these scanners would be very helpful for sure." Ritsuko said.
"Yes it would be there is no doubt in that, but that would give you unique tactical asses not just against the angels but also against other nations, like for industrial espionage." Nadia explained.
"I don't think it is nice to hold back on us when mankind's faith is at stake." Misato interrupted.
"Hehe, the same applies for you but your boss just put similar restrictions in place." Trax responded.
"Well let's not get ahead of ourselves, the issue here is for both of us trust, none of us has yet any basis to trust the other party those a full disclosure would not be reasonable." Ritsuko said. "However when a cooperation shows to be fruitful for both parties we can extent the level of cooperation."
"Before we negotiate the terms of any cooperation we first have to agree on cooperation in the first place." Fuyutsuki said.
"I will consider your proposal, for now I think we are done." Gendo said. "How can we get in touch with you once we reached a decision."
Trax but a business card on the commanders desk.
"Just eMail us we have access to earth's internet." Trax said.
"Captain bring our visitors back to their ship." Gendo said.
"And just for further reference, we will not take another invasion of our airspace so kindly next time." Gendo said.
Trax and Nadia are being flown back to their shuttle with Misato
"Say what are you?" Misato asked.
"What do you mean?" Nadia asked back.
"Well you can't be human, humans don't age that well, but you don't look like Taelons eider." Misato said. "So what are you?"
"That depends whom you asking." Nadia replied.
"Legally we are booth earth citizens." Trax added.
"So was Ritsuko right and you spent most of the time in some kind of stasis?" Misato asked.
"No we did not, we really have lived already very long lives." Trax said.
"Let's simply say it's complicated, but before anything its private." Nadia added.
"I suppose to be an earthling all it takes it so be born here, no matter what species you are." Misato said.
Later, back on the mothership
Well that went quite promising. T
Yes indeed. N
Do you really think its wise to allow visitors on the ship? T
Well I can't see what harm a single person can do without any access to any system. N
And such a visit proves defiantly our claims.
Meanwhile in commander Ikari office.
"Do you think its wise to allow them to work for NERV?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"They could seriously jeopardize our plans." He added.
"I know, but I don't really see that we would have another option." Gendo replied.
"If we deny their request they will just go to a higher authority." He added. "And that may be even worse. The UN will surly welcome their intervention. Them coming directly to us tells me that they are not keen on publicity, they want to reach their goals with as little attention as possible."
"Are you suggesting we keep their participation a secret from the committee?" The sub commander asked.
"I don't know about the committee their have eyes and ears every ware. But we must keep this cooperation a secret form the UN." Gendo said.
"What about their offering to provide a permanent energy source for the Evangelions." Fuyutsuki asked.
"That might be a major issue, but I think that given the tactical significance of the EVAs. We can make a good case against directly using any alien technology." Gendo replied.
"Indeed using technology our scientists does not fully understand and are often even unable to reproduce would mean forfeiting our sovereignty to a foreign power." The sub commander agreed. "That would be inacceptable. Hence researching S2 technology will remain a valid high priority objective.
"Besides it should not be that difficult to discredit this technology when needed, a series accident can be orchestrated very easily." Gendo added.
"I am more worried about what their true objective might be." The commander said.
"What do you mean?" the sub commander asked.
"The human instrumentality project, seeks to change the source of human evolution." Gendo replied "It's a similar objective to what the Taelons came to earth for."
"You think they may intent to use the angels to get their species out of the evolutionary blind alley they got themselves into." Fuyutsuki said.
"Think about it, we never learned why exactly they came to earth, what Ma'el discovered that was supposed to bring them their salvation." Gendo said.
"I see…." The sub commander said.
