Aki found herself groaning quietly in irritation as she half-listened to the argument from the military bench. Yet again she had come here in the deluded hope that they would see some sense, and yet again the conversation had turned to exactly the same thing – Zeus.

The Zeus cannon was the brainchild of some long forgotten general and had been in construction longer than Aki had known Sid. They – and the rest of the science division – were always hoping that it would never be completed; indeed most of the reports that came in about it were always complaining about the lack of resources, or the fact that the hardware never matched up. It had been a constant building site for nearly ten years now and Aki found it amazing that it could support human life at all. It was over-funded, and run in the worst possible fashion ever. Yet, the military still insisted it was the only source of hope in the fight against the invaders. Aki tended to disagree, and constantly hoped that the station would remain in construction for evermore. However, last month, news had filtered through that the cannon had finally been completed and that it was ready for firing. Aki had learnt a lot about Zeus in the last month, in preparation for this meeting. It was situated in a low orbit around the planet, with the ability to move over any part of the earth's surface within hours. The cannon itself was a fusion of bioetheric and nuclear technology and was strong enough to blast through the solid mantle of the planet and reach the magma below. The military intended to use it on the Leonid meteor, the undisputed source of all phantom activity. It would be like destroying the main headquarters of an enemy, or so they hoped. But the council were wary, and fully conscious to the fact that the cannon was incredibly dangerous. A test firing that had taken place six weeks ago had resulted in a huge crater that scarred the desolate landscape around it. It had almost ended up creating a new volcano of sorts, but the techs had realised that to fire again was foolish. The council had taken this information on board and were denying permission for firing on the Leonid meteor; something that riled the military to no end. They called these meetings every month to review the position on Zeus, and Aki was here with Sid now to make sure that the cannon was not fired.

Of course, an argument like this was always difficult when you had an opponent like General Hein.

Hein was the current head of the military and as such had jurisdiction of Zeus. From what Aki understood, he had a bit of an obsession about it, choosing to devote more of his time to the cannon than to his troops. He had been a supporter of it for a long time, ever since it had been approved, and the more power he got hold of, the harder it was to dissuade the council against Zeus' use. Hein was young – much too young in Aki's opinion – for a general, but he had more than enough brains to make up for his lack of experience. Sid had always said that he would have made an excellent scientist, if he had only learned how to open his mind to other possibilities. There was little hope of that happening though; the general was well rooted in his support for Zeus, and in his mistrust of the science division. Aki had never been sure where this lack of faith stemmed from, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She would never approach him about it; he was much too cold and seemingly uncaring about everything. The only time she had ever spoken to him was inside this chamber when arguing a point. She was quite happy to keep the level of contact with him as low as possible.

'Members of the council,' Hein started, gesturing for his second to sit and let him deal with this. Aki decided to let Sid do all the talking today; she hated arguing with Hein. 'Can someone tell me why Zeus was completed a month ago, and still has not been used?' His request was fine enough, but his tone was somewhere between armed terrorist and petulant child. One of the council members – Councillor Drake – shook his head.

'General Hein, calm down,' They were always reprimanding him for losing his grip on his temper. Aki would have thought that a short fuse wasn't a great quality for a leader of the army to have, which made Hein's ascent to general all the more perplexing. 'As you know, this council voted a month ago to postpone the firing of Zeus until a later date. We are here now to review that decision,' Hein opened his mouth; to try and get the first word in. That was another habit of his, and only recently had the council started to notice. Aki had to hand it to him; he was great at talking the general people around to his point of view, no matter how twisted it was. On a matter this important though, the council didn't want him getting out of hand, which was why Drake continued speaking before Hein could start. The general knew better than to interrupt a councillor who had the floor.

'First,' Drake started, stressing the word. 'I'd like to ask Dr Sid, head of the bioetheric division, to speak,' The councillor shot a warning glance at Hein, prompting the soldier to scowl slightly, but sit down grudgingly. Sid stood up, clearing his throat.

'Thank you,' he began. Aki took this moment to lean back in her seat and watch Hein for a moment. It was always interesting to watch him come up with various expressions of disgust as anyone else dared voice their opinion. Plus, she was intrigued by the man; she always had been. He wasn't much older than her, and yet he had such a position of power and the look of someone who had seen far too much in their lifetime. Somewhere deep down, she wanted to know. Why? And how? He was almost like a puzzle, waiting to be solved, though most puzzles didn't scowl ardently back at you. Watching him for a few minutes did nothing to help her impression of him, especially when he turned and glared fiercely at her. Aki just glared back, vaguely hearing Sid going onto explain just why a bombardment with Zeus would be futile; they had done their homework on this one. They had to in order to talk the council out of using it. Hein didn't scare her, or not as much as he probably hoped to. Intriguing he might be, but really he was just another soldier, unwilling to compromise like all the others. She shook her head, turning away to fix her attention more fully on Sid's presentation. And even as she did, she got the slightly disturbing impression that Hein was watching her.

' – And in some cases, this leads to death,' Sid finished. He had just been explaining the potential problems associated with using bioetheric lasers on patients, and was comparing it with the risk posed by Zeus. Aki felt her brow furrow ever so slightly. That was straying into dangerous territory; the council didn't like thinking of the planet as a living thing.

'So what are you saying, doctor?' Councilwoman Hee asked, her eyes narrowing. Aki knew that Hee was on their side – she was far too intelligent to put her trust in the cannon and Hein – but she always liked to know everything about a situation before making some kind of important decision.

'If we use Zeus on the Leonid meteor, then the phantoms on the outside will indeed be destroyed. However – ' he added hastily before Hein could get a word in edgeways. 'Attempting to destroy the phantoms in this way could have disastrous consequences. If the power of the cannon were increased to reach the phantoms below ground, then it could lead to an injury in the earth itself,' Aki felt her blood run cold. He wasn't. . . If she had been watching Hein, she would have noticed a flicker of revulsion cross his face. In fact, it almost passed her own. What was Sid doing?

'You mean the spirit of the earth, don't you?' Hee asked, the suspicion evident in her voice. 'The Gaia,' Sid took in a deep breath that only Aki could detect before letting himself nod.

'Yes. The Gaia,'

Immediately, conversation rippled around the auditorium, bringing some disorder that took minutes to subside. Aki glanced up at Sid, her expression tense. He was doing exactly what they had agreed not to do. The Gaia theory was unproven and mocked by most people outside the scientific community, but it was crucial to the Spirit project. If the council started exploring down this path, then would they stumble across the project? Sid saw her expression and nodded reassuringly.

'It's fine. Just listen and don't say a word,' She nodded swiftly, sitting back in her seat and frowning slightly. Amidst the confusion, Hein had decided that now was the time to make his voice heard. He detested the Gaia theory with all his heart, ridiculing it whenever he could. The main problem was that he understood it, or most of it anyway, and used this knowledge to expose what he thought were flaws in the theory. Last time Gaia had come up in a meeting, Aki had felt the distinct urge to strangle Hein, such was his way of infuriating her. Somehow, she had a feeling that today would be the same.

'Please,' Hein started, his tone overly mocking. 'I'm sure the council has no time for myths like this so-called theory,' He paused, as if thinking. 'What was it again? "Every living thing, including the earth, has a spirit. Whenever the spirit is hurt, the living thing suffers." Is that about right, doctor?' Sid nodded silently; he had no other answer to Hein's question.

'Ah. So, if I point a gun at the ground and fire, I'm not just making a hole in the ground. I'm hurting the planet,' His expression hardened into a derisive scowl. 'No offence, doctor – ' Both Aki and Sid knew that was a blatant lie. ' – But we don't have time for your little fairy tales,' Sid shook his head firmly and stood his ground.

'It's not a fairy tale. It is true,' Hein sneered.

'Perhaps in your labs. But out here in the real world, we have to use real solutions, not flights of fancy,'

'I have another solution,' Sid stated simply. 'One that will not harm the Gaia, but will still rid us of the phantoms,' Aki shot a smirk at Hein, who was now glaring at the older scientist. Sid had regained the floor without resorting to insults or sneers, and he had the councillors captivated as well.

'Another solution?' Hee asked; partly suspicious, partly curious. 'By all means, tell us,' Sid nodded half-gratefully. He was glad to have Hein shut up for a second so he could get a word in edgeways.

'As we all know - ' he started as a holographic picture appeared in the middle of the room. Aki raised an eyebrow for a moment, eyeing her mentor incredulously. He had planned this. Well, either that or he was incredibly prepared for any eventuality. ' - that the phantoms display a distinct energy pattern. And it is a well-documented fact - ' he added, stressing the word fact with a sideways glance at Hein. ' – that two opposing energy waves, when placed one over the other, will cancel each other out,' Aki could sense that one of the two military representatives were just itching to butt in and give some sneering remark about all of this, but they didn't have a chance as Sid continued quickly.

'We are building such an opposing wave at the moment, though it is in the early stages of development. It may take some time before it is finished, but when it is – '

'Then what?' Hein interrupted, shaking his head. 'The phantoms will just disappear?' Sid shrugged.

'We're not sure. But in theory, yes,' Hein couldn't stop the sneer of utter disdain from fixing itself on his face.

'In theory. Please. I'm sure this council realises that gathering plants and animals to fight the phantoms is utter nonsense,' It was as if the fact that there was someone on the planet who didn't put all their faith in Zeus was hard for him to take. 'Zeus is a proven, effective weapon. We know it will kill phantoms. Can we afford to risk wasting time on something that is just a theory at the moment?' He stopped where he was, gesturing up at the hologram of the two waves cancelling each other out, and shook his head once more.

'You all know that Zeus is the answer. Don't tell me that you're willing to postpone its firing for yet another month all because some theory appears out of the blue. There isn't even any evidence that this – ' Aki couldn't let it go on any longer. All her working life she had toiled towards finding an answer to the problem of the phantoms. Now she and Sid had something; something that could actually work and give the earth its freedom back. She was not about to let all that hard work count for nothing purely because some stuck up soldier didn't want to admit he was wrong.

'There is evidence,' she said suddenly, standing up and trying not to glare too hard at Hein. Damn him for making her speak like this when she had promised herself that she would stay quiet. Damn him for being so single-minded. 'Our partially completed wave has stopped phantom particles from spreading through a terminally infected patient,' Drake widened his eyes in surprise. Terminally infected patients usually didn't survive for a week after they'd been contaminated. No-one had ever imagined that there could be something to cure the infestation. The death toll each week would reduce greatly if they could cure terminal infections.

'You mean to say you've cured an infected patient, doctor Ross?' Aki shook her head slightly, sighing.

'Not cured. The wave is only partial and so is the cure. But we've kept the patient alive. It's been two months now and the particles have not spread. The patient is still alive,' As if he could sense the councils attention moving away from him, Hein chose this moment to pound a gloved fist onto the table before him. He hadn't spent all this time championing Zeus to have Sid's favourite lab hand stop him now.

'Where is the proof?' he thundered. Aki looked over at him calmly – too calmly – before glancing down at Sid. She could see the disapproval in his eyes, but he knew – as she did – that this had to be done. She couldn't hide behind him anymore; she had to free the secret that she'd been guarding all this time. It was for the good of the world. Her reputation didn't matter as long as the project didn't suffer.

'Here,' she said simply, returning her gaze to Hein. She wanted to see the look on his face change as she reached for the tight metal chest-plate that kept her secret safe. A flick of a button later and a hologram of the phantom particles within her was projected into the middle of the room, engulfing the previous picture that had been there. Everyone gasped audibly, whether in horror or shock; even the supposedly unflappable general. He stared at the image uneasily for a long moment before giving her a look she couldn't quite read. It was curious, almost, but with an undercurrent of something she didn't like. But what did she care. They all knew now. She had no secrets to hide now; he couldn't do anything to hurt her.

She flicked the hologram off and sat down again, silently daring Hein to challenge her. But he didn't. He whispered something to his companion and sat down himself, not trying to make eye contact with her. He was thinking, and if there was one thing Aki didn't like, it was general Hein with an idea.

'You might have bought us some time,' Sid whispered as the clamour around them continued. This would give the council something to talk about for at least another year. 'But you didn't need to. I have everything under control,' Aki didn't hear that last part. Her gaze had been drifting through the chattering crowd, and suddenly she had seen Gray sat there, watching her in silence.