The next three days were busy. Wing needed repairs and Deathscythe needed breaking in.
Heero had to admit that he was a bit annoyed that Wing hadn't survived his first run without damage. His crew was equally unhappy. None of the engineers had accounted for Heero's enhanced strength, or agility. They were lucky that only one servo had burnt out. So, Duo had fun and Heero worked.
Heero's biggest problem was that Wing had to be completely re-engineered. Every joint had to be reinforced and all the hydraulics as well. Heero and his crew were actually building a whole new gundam. And they weren't happy about it. The few communications between the crew and the engineers were vitriolic to say the least.
The engineers insisted that they'd allowed for Heero's enhanced strength, the crew scoffed. The engineers asserted that there was more than enough leeway in the parameters, the crew swore at them. Heero just let all this swirl around him as he stoically plodded his way through blueprint after blueprint, making changes in his tiny, neat writing. Duo helped, when he wasn't working on Deathscythe.
"Heero, this is going to go up in smoke in about six seconds. They're still sending the old sensors."
Heero muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Shit for brains." and called Tommy, who was crew head as well as mechanic.
Duo growled softly but Heero patted him on the arm. "Stop that."
"Can't help it. Tommy's an ok guy. Why should he have to put up with this shit. All they have to do is send what we ask for. The shuttles are going to be out of range in ... two days. We need all the parts before then or we won't get them at all. If they don't quit messing around ..."
Heero just got up and stomped over to the main com screen. "Patch me in to Engineering Central. I want to speak to Dr. Evans. Now!"
The Com officer knew when to argue and when not to and this was definitely a not time. He made the connection in record time then cut his feed. He did not want to be in on this one, the rumor mill had been busy so he was fairly sure what was going to happen next. He did turn on a recorder.
Heero faced the vid screen and pinned Dr. Evans with his most ferocious glare. "I'd like to know why I'm not getting the parts I order. Who's changing my invoices?"
The Doctor didn't have the sense to be conciliating so he just stuck his foot right in it. "I am. You have no idea what you're doing. Those specifications are fine for a person of your size and age. Stop trying to ..."
Heero snorted. "To what? Make sure that I don't break my machine the second time I take him out? You change my invoice one more time and you'll be breathing vacuum. Got me?"
The man stuttered for a moment then squeaked, "You can't threaten me, I'm ... I'm.."
Heero interrupted him before he could get started properly. "I don't care who you are. I maintained my gundam, by myself, through two wars, I know what I need. You haven't taken into account my adaptations. I'm twice as strong as a man three times my size and in excellent shape besides. I can bend steel with my bare hands. I can't be worried about breakdowns in the middle of battle. Give me what I need and I'll have Wing combat ready in 48 hours. Hinder me more and I'll be out of commission until we get to Mina Hurr. What'll it be?"
Evans blinked. "Those statistics couldn't be right. That would mean... Oh, my God! That's ..."
Heero just nodded his head once. "Yes. I am 01. Send me my parts. Now."
"Fine, I'll send them. I just hope you really do know what you're doing. You'll kill yourself if you don't. You'll be pulling so many G's that you'll tear your body apart."
"I'll manage. You ought to get out of the lab more often. Good-bye." Heero broke the connection and the disconnect button. "Idiot. Duo!"
"Yeah, Heero?"
"I think I broke it." Heero eyed the button with a small frown.
"So?"
"Um ... shouldn't I fix it?" Heero's doubtful tone of voice made Duo snicker.
"Naw, let someone else do it. They'll have a real souvenir to show off. Come on. We need to get some down time. I've been working out with 'Scythe too much. Fun, but not good for the body."
Heero looked Duo over with some alarm. "Did you hurt yourself? What's wrong?"
"Calm down. I didn't hurt myself but I'm hungry again. Burning up too many calories, I guess. Come on, let's hit the mess."
Heero's stomach took that opportunity to announce that it was feeling neglected. Heero blushed faintly then laughed. "Ok, ok, I guess I'm hungry too. Officers?"
"You know it."
They headed for the mess, each thinking about his gundam.
.
Wufei opened the door to their quarters with a slap to the contact panel that cracked it across.
Milliardo sighed. "That's the third on this week. What now?"
"Those idiots seem to think that I can somehow make the laws of Physics mutable. They want to contact Heero and Duo and demand that they return at once."
Milliardo shrugged. "I'll go talk to them after lunch."
"Thank you. My grasp of Physics is good enough to pilot but not to explain it to a bunch of bureaucrats that don't want to understand." He tossed his briefcase into a corner and plopped inelegantly into a chair. "What's for lunch, I'm starved?"
"I brought an assortment of cheeses and some fruit home from the open market. I also found a decent bottle of wine."
"Good. I'm in the mood for some wine."
Milliardo smiled a bit grimly, put the fruit in a basket and the cheese on a cutting board. He brought both of them to the table, then returned to the kitchen for the wine, glasses and cork-screw.
Wufei smiled at Milliardo. "Did you get any crackers or bread?"
Milliardo shook his head. "No, I completely forgot that you like those whole meal crackers from the bakery down station." He smirked a bit and produced the crackers from behind his back. "Here. Share an apple with me?"
Wufei just picked up one and produced a knife from somewhere. Milliardo started cutting cheese with the cheese knife on the board.
When they were through with their preparations there was a neat arrangement of slivers of cheese, thin slices of apple and crackers on the cutting board. Milliardo poured the wine and they began to eat.
Wufei nibbled reflectively on a slice of apple then remarked, "I swear I'm going to smack Maxwell right in the chops when I see him. Can you believe their luck? And we're stuck here until the trials are over. All of them."
Milliardo heaved a heart felt sigh of disgust. "Yes. And they're really lucky that Mina Hurr is independent. Even ESUN can't make them come back if they don't want to."
"I'd like to sneak out and go there too. This is ridiculous and they all know it. Those people are guilty but they're going to drag this out for months just out of spite."
"I know. There has to be something we can do about this. It's outrageous."
Wufei rubbed his face in frustration. "You'd think. I feel like I'm being held prisoner. I don't want to be here. I don't want to testify in every trial. I've already given my statement and it's through. There isn't a question that they can think of that I haven't. If I could find a way out of the station, I'd go ... contempt of court be damned."
Milliardo managed to keep his jaw from dropping by a combination of royal genetics and training. Wufei thinking of defying a court order was mind boggling.
" 'Fei, mind your temper. And you've got court in three days. I just hope to hell the judge doesn't decide to be difficult about that, all the elders are already on the way here. I've managed to find an appropriate premises. The Kai Lin Dojo as agreed to host us."
Wufei sighed for what seemed the hundredth time. "That's very kind of them. I like their dojo, it's very traditional which will please the elders."
Milliardo made a face. "And that's the only thing that will please them. Have you written a speech."
"No, I'm just going to state my feelings, refuse to do their bidding, tell them to pick someone more appropriate and leave."
"No speech? Well, it's a bit unorthodox but I think it'll really get your point across."
Wufei's face took on an expression of sullen stubbornness more appropriate to Duo than The Chang of Chang. "I'm so stressed over this that I feel like ... like ... blowing something up. Really."
Milliardo bit his lip for a second. "Would you like to ... um ... we could..." He paused, trying to decide how to say what he wanted to.
Wufei understood his lover perfectly. "No, I thank you. I know you offer what you think I need, but I could never. I'm too angry. I'd hurt you more than you like. Perhaps, or perhaps not. I will not take that chance."
Milliardo smiled at Wufei. "Ok, then we should go to the dojo and work out. You haven't had a good workout in weeks. First Duo, then this idiocy. Come on, I've already packed our gym bags."
Wufei ate another slice of apple then stood. "Excellent. We can finish our meal, clean up after, and be fit to workout by the time we walk to the dojo."
They cleaned up the remains of their meal and started their walk.
.
"Trowa, I swear if one more of my sisters insists that I'm the only one capable of running WEI, I'll ... I'll."
Trowa flopped into a chair wearily wondering if he could just dump his PDA and run for it. "I know. You've got to settle on three deputies and that's that. If you don't, they'll spend the rest of their lives vying for your notice. Iria, Illana and Yasmine are my choices. They're smart, they compliment each other and they aren't interested in anything but the welfare of WEI and the family. "
"You've been thinking about this a lot, haven't you?"
Trowa nodded. "We need to pick your deputies and get to Mina Hurr soon. You'll never get them all to agree to anything. If you've got a majority vote, that's the best you're going to manage."
Quatre sighed. "You're right. I'll call for a vote of confidence in two days. Then I'll start training. Iria isn't going to be a problem, she took care of most of the business while I was fighting. Illana is a natural, Yasmine could be a problem." Trowa raised his visible eyebrow. "She isn't as self-confident as I'd like. That could push her into making inappropriate decisions."
Trowa thought for a moment. "Is that what's keeping us here? Could you make another choice?"
"I trust only about six of my sisters to handle the company competently and only because I'm still keeping my hand on the reins. Most of the married ones would allow their husbands to actually make the decisions, effectively taking WEI out of the hands of Winners. Father would ... roll in his grave is the expression."
Trowa gazed at Quatre for a moment. "It's going to leave Winner hands sooner or later, isn't it?"
Quatre gave Trowa a serene smile and shook his head. "Our children will carry on after us."
Trowa blinked once, then headed for the bar. Quatre stifled a giggle.
.
Duo gave the cook one of his brilliant smiles. It was steak day and they were just picking up their steaks. The cook smiled back indulgently.
"Glad to see that you know how to eat. Can't understand why anyone would ruin a good cut of meat by vulcanizing it." He turned his eyes to Heero. "How do you want yours?"
"Rare, just like Duo."
The cook gave Heero a funny look which Heero returned with one of puzzlement. Duo paused for a second, then started cackling like a demented hen. Heero just pushed him on down the serving line. He knew he'd done it again, double entendres totally defeated him, but he also knew that Duo would explain it when they got seated.
After the explanation, the conversation turned to parts and acquiring them.
Duo nibbled on a bit of salad, turning his fork from side to side. Heero watched, wondering what that reminded him of. He stared at Duo until he blinked and asked him what was up.
"I'm not ... watching you reminded me of something, but I can't get it to focus. Something ... parts ... fork ... salad?" He shook his head in frustration. "Damnit, it won't come."
Duo eyed his fork for a moment. "Well, parts, hydraulics, forks, salad, servos. They all relate to what you're trying to dig out ... but how? Hmmm."
Heero stabbed a green bean with his fork and started to lift it to his mouth. He wound up staring at the fork instead. "Fork lift! That's it!"
Duo looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Fork lift? What's that got to do with the price of eggs on L-2?"
Heero took a deep breath. "A Caterpillar series F-12 heavy duty fork lift has exactly the parts I need."
Duo raised an eyebrow. "Even if they have them on this ship, I don't think they'd have enough pieces to do the trick."
"Probably not. But all we have to do is order them to be delivered to Mina Hurr A-sap. The last chaser shuttle can get them to us in two days. I can have them installed in 12 hours if both teams work on it."
Duo nodded. "Great. ... um ... Heero? Let's not encourage rivalry between our crews, ok?"
Heero looked down his nose at Duo. "Of course not. I don't want them getting into fights and stuff. Don't need the distraction. Neither of us do."
"That's what I thought. Finish your food and we'll sit down and figure out exactly what we need to order. I'll talk to the captain and see if they happen to have any servos and hoses on hand. We might just luck out. You never can tell."
"Great. Thanks. You know I have no skill at diplomacy."
"Me neither, but I'm a great shitter."
Heero just smirked at Duo. "I don't care how you get my parts, just get them, love."
" 'K. Hate it that you have to wait to play. Sucks."
"I'll survive. I'm just glad to have Wing back."
Duo grinned and stretched. Heero noticed that he moved smoothly and comfortably
"How's your back feel. Is your scar stretching?"
"Feels fantastic. The scar is fine. Come on, I want to talk to the captain."
"Ok."
They went up to the bridge and requested permission to enter.
The captain approved their request and invited them into his wardroom for their conversation.
He started out with. "Ok, guys, what rank are you two anyway?"
Heero blinked. "Excuse me?"
Captain Henderson poured coffee for them all. "I got a sawbuck riding on this. What's your rank?"
Duo just grinned at the man. "Depends on which service you're talking about. If you're talking about our rank in ESUN at retirement; it's colonel. If you're taking about the Mina Hurr security defense force; Field Marshal. We usually go by what ever rank does the job. I, personally, like Colonel, it's intimidating enough without being over the top. But I bet Q gets nasty about it sooner or later."
The captain made a face. "Well, that just cost me. Shit." He sipped at his coffee for a moment. "So, what can I do for you?"
Heero handed the captain a page he'd just printed out from his computer, using the printer in the wardroom. "I need this. I can't get the boffins to get off their collective asses and that means I can't fix my machine. Can you help me, Captain?"
The captain took the page, mumbling, "Call me Arthur." He read it over, shrugged and admitted that he had no idea if they had those parts or not. "Go see Gunny Smith. Mind like a steel trap, knows every part on the ship and whether or not we can get them here from there or not."
Duo thanked the captain, shook his hand and turned to go. He didn't miss Heero's soft, "Thank you, Arthur." He smiled to himself, Heero was getting much more social.
They got directions down to the Gunny's office and headed that way.
"Heero, what do you suppose the Gunny is like?"
Heero shrugged. "No idea. I just hope he can help."
"I'm sure he'll try." Duo checked his computer for directions again. He turned a corner with Heero on his heels.
Duo knocked on the door and opened it when he heard a rather hoarse, "Come the fuck in." he stuck his head in the door.
The woman behind the counter blew her nose and snarled, "What?"
Duo turned his head and told Heero to go down, or over, to the mess and get a mug of sweet tea. Heero just nodded once and headed off.
"Don't feel so good? Heero's off to get you some tea." Duo held up a hand to forestall any comment. "It's good for you. Are you Gunny Smith, or can you point him out?"
The woman sighed, pushed a lock of auburn hair out of reddened, puffy green eyes and nodded. "That's me. Whatcha need?"
Duo handed over the sheet of paper and grimaced sympathetically. "You really don't look well. Isn't there someone to take over for you?"
"Pffft! There isn't another idiot on this ship that can do the job. I'm off in about fifteen, unless this mess keeps me longer. Lemme see what's what."
Heero came back just then with the tea. "I put honey in it. I hope that's ok. Honey is better for colds than sugar. Here, drink some."
The Gunny took the tea mug and sipped as she read the parts list. "Ummmm. I've got about half the circuit boards you need. I can get all the rest shipboard in ... 36 hours, plus or minus one. Not that it's any of my business but what the hell are you going to do with this conglomeration of shit?"
Heero shrugged. "Fix my gundam."
"Oh, um, well, hell. I'll send out the order right now. And I'll put a rush on it. How's that?"
Duo grinned, swatted Heero between the shoulder blades and gave the Gunny a thumbs up.
"That'd be great. After you do that, you ought to go to bed. You look like hell warmed over. No offense."
Gunny Smith grinned. "None taken. I'd be in the infirmary except I don't have a second. He's in the brig. Asshole. I've got twenty more minutes in my shift then I'm closing up. That's just enough time to get your order in. Now scat."
They scatted and left the Gunny to her own devices.
Duo wandered along, tugging Heero's arm to slow him down. "We ought to do something for the Gunny. Seems a bit ... sad that she's got no help. Maybe we could talk to the captain?"
Heero thought about that for a moment. "Don't think so. The captain seems like a nice enough man, he'd intervene if he thought it was needed. The Gunny didn't seem too upset about her situation and she did say that she was going to quarters when her shift is over. Maybe we ought to stay out of it."
Duo nodded his agreement. "Ok, for now, at any rate. That was really nice of you to get her some tea."
Heero sighed. "I don't get sick, or not very badly. It must be really miserable. Not being able to breath, and her eyes were all red. Was she crying? She didn't seem like the type."
"Not crying. Sometimes when you're ill your eyes itch and burn, they get all red. I don't get sick much either, you know, but when I do it's usually a doozy."
Heero just grunted, he wanted to go back to the Gundam Bay but he knew that I(it) wouldn't do him any good. There were no parts and he couldn't do anything but sit and fume. Duo gave him a commiserating look and climbed into 'Scythe.
Heero sulked unashamedly, he wanted to try out Wing. He wanted to be in open space again. He wasn't going to get it, so what else was new.
"Boss! Hey, Yuy. We got some parts. The Gunny came through for us. She requisitioned a shipment of stuff that was going to L-2 17768. Isn't that great."
Heero couldn't help the whoop of joy he gave.
Duo stuck his head out of the hatch of 'Scythe and called down to find out what was going on. When Heero hollered up that he had parts, Duo slid down the zipline and hurried over.
"Wow, that's fantastic. I'll get my crew and we'll have them installed in no time."
Heero just nodded then said, "I'll have to take inventory when we're finished to see what else I still need. But I'm not going to change my requisition. One of us will need every one of those parts sooner or later."
Duo just nodded absently from where he was carefully unwrapping a circuit board. Heero grinned at his back and went to work himself.
It only took both crews and Heero and Duo six hours to do the work.
.
"Trowa? I have to go to the asteroid mine that is orbiting just off L-2 7771. They're getting ready to put it on line and I'm supposed to cut a ribbon, or press a button, or something. You coming with me?"
Trowa just smiled softly. "Of course I am. Why do you even ask?"
Quatre smiled back. "Because it's polite."
Trowa snorted. "Polite to ask your assistant if he wants to go to an important event? Quatre, what is it you're not telling me?"
"Not much. Only that there seems to be some trouble there. The scientists and the engineering staff don't agree with the miners about the safety of turning on the gravity grid without further testing. I'm going to open the mines, check on things and make sure that the science is valid. Satisfied?"
"Yes, and no. Satisfied with your explanation, but not with anything else."
Quatre sighed. "This is one reason that I want to just go build Mina Hurr. I'm tired of being thought of as 'the rich boss'. How many people at my level in administration actually know how to run a mining machine of any kind, much less a hand held laser miner?"
Trowa smiled, remembering Quatre learning how to run the heavy machine.
"Not any that I know of, except you. And that's the reason I want to get to Mina Hurr as soon as we can. You're going to kill yourself if you don't slow down."
Quatre rubbed his face. "I know. I want to, but I'm still spending too much time just holding things together."
"How will letting them fall apart effect building Mina Hurr?"
"It won't. Mina Hurr is coming out of my pocket."
Trowa looked a bit shocked. "Oh, I didn't realize."
"No one does. I don't want anyone to realize that I'm actually sole owner until it's too late. I don't need the uproar."
"I see." Trowa did see. He could see that Quatre was building a sanctuary for the six of them. A place where they could accomplish good things without interference from people who didn't understand, or care.
"Well, let's get going. Soonest started; soonest ended. Is the shuttle on standby, or do we have to wait?"
Trowa tapped something into his PDA/computer and glanced at the screen. "It'll be ready for take off by the time we get packed and to the launch bay. That do?"
"Perfectly." Quatre tugged on Trowa until he bent down for a quick kiss. He didn't resist much at all.
.
Milliardo eyed Wufei for a moment, noting the tension in his shoulders and the set of his hips. He looked like all he wanted was to kick the shit out of something. Milliardo sighed, squared his shoulders and went out to meet his doom. If he was lucky some idiot would make some remark about Wufei being too small to fight him and he'd be off the hook until Wufei had worked some of his ire off on someone else.
It turned out that he was really lucky.
He decided to just stand back and let the three big men get what they thought they wanted, a fight with the much vaunted and too small to deserve the reputation Chang Wufei. He winced in sympathy, then thought better of it. If these idiots wanted to fight with Wufei, they were going to get exactly what they deserved.
Wufei bowed to the men then asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
The tallest man, a red-headed, heavy set type, nodded. "Yeah, we all decided that, if we got the chance, we'd challenge you to a match. No hard feelings on either side, no matter who wins. Ok?"
Wufei smiled in that serene and totally annoying way of his. "Certainly. I'm in a bad mood and need to blow off a little tension. I'm not trying to hurt any of you but you'll probably get at least a bruise or two, possibly even strain something. Ok with you?"
"Fine by us, as long as you realize that you might be on the receiving end."
Wufei just bowed and waited.
There were three of them, as Milliardo had noted before. Three men in the prime of their lives, large, well trained men, who were totally out of their depth.
Wufei waited for someone to do something and they all did the same. But Wufei was more patient than they were. The red-head broke first. He let fly with a low kick that should have taking (taken) Wufei off at the knees, but Wufei jumped over it and countered with a short jab that connected with his ribs, making him grunt in pain. He stepped back a bit then had to duck a round house swing from one of his companions. This man was short, stocky and had a military buzz cut that left him nearly bald. The last opponent was still hanging back to see what he could learn from the other two men's attacks. Wufei discounted him completely, for now.
Wufei backpedaled just enough to get room for his attack. He kicked the red-head in the chest and sent him stumbling. He followed through with a punch to the abdomen for his other opponent. The whoof of air rushing out of his lungs told it's story. He collapsed on the mats, gasping to get air back into his lungs. Wufei stepped back to draw the rest of the fight away from him so he wouldn't be stepped on. This put him in range of the third man who took advantage of it to try a low, round house kick about ankle high. It didn't help him any as Wufei just absorbed the blow like it was nothing, letting the man's kick ride up his leg, and punched him in the head. Milliardo winced, Wufei was going to have bruised knuckles over that one.
The last attack came as a combination from the third man and the red-head, who'd managed to get his feet back under him. Wufei let the red-head's punch sail over his head, allowing it to distract the second fighter, who took the punch in the shoulder. Both men staggered one from the unexpected shift in leverage and the other from the blow. Wufei chopped the red-head on the back of the next hard enough to sting, then kicked the other man in the stomach.
The whole fight was over in less than a ninety seconds.
Milliardo stepped in, just in case someone decided that they were unhappy and did something even more stupid than challenging Wufei. No one offered to do more than sit on the mats and pant.
"That went well. Let me see your hand."
Wufei snorted. "Later. I'm going to kick you ass too. That wasn't challenge enough to make me break a sweat." He turned to his erstwhile opponents. "Sorry, gentlemen, no insult intended, but you're good, very good. Just not good enough. Please feel free to stay and watch."
Milliardo sighed, that had been just enough to take the edge off, but not enough to save him from a hard workout. Wufei wouldn't do him any harm but they both adhered to the saying, 'Better a bruise from a friend than a cut from an enemy.' He put up his guard and prepared to defend himself.
Their fight made the first one look like patty-cake. They kicked, punched, ducked and backpedaled all over the mats. Wufei was a blur of attack, punch, dodge and weave. Milliardo took advantage of his longer legs and arms to try to back Wufei into a corner of the mats, stepping off was an immediate loss. Wufei took advantage of his smaller size to dodge most of the high kicks and punches, he absorbed the body blows as best he could. Milliardo took kicks to the chest and thighs with bland stoicism.
The three men just watched, mouths gapping. The rest of the observers sighed, ooo'ed and ah'ed with amazed expressions. Milliardo finally lost to a sweeping spin kick and a shot chop to the Adam's apple. He sighed and stayed on his back for a moment, until Wufei offered him a hand up.
"Great. Water?" Wufei offered a compliment and a bottle of water.
"Thanks. Not so bad yourself." Milliardo took the water and settled on a bench. Someone came over and offered towels and a, "Great fight, hate to see you two serious."
Wufei thanked the man and handed off one of the towels to Milliardo. They sat for a while, wiping off sweat and drinking their water.
Milliardo finally got up and headed for the showers with Wufei at his side.
.
The chief com officer glanced over the sensor officer's shoulder. They were both bored to pieces, nothing had happened on this leg in forever. But there was something on the sensor display.
"Hey! What's that?"
The sensor officer glanced at his display, "What's what?"
"That! ... um ... it's gone. Don't know what it was. Looked like some sort of disturbance."
"Like a giant barge complex, maybe?"
Barge complex's were huge things, made of dozens or even hundreds of containers attached to each other in bunches called a barge. They were usually organized by point of delivery or origin depending on the captain's mind set. They showed up on sensors as ghosts or giant blobs. They were supposed to have a beacon on them, but some captains never managed to get the idea so they weren't all marked properly
"Maybe. I don't know. Keep an eye out, I got a funny feeling about it."
The sensor officer shrugged. "Ok, girlie-man, I'll keep an eye out for your monster."
The com officer turned his back again, offended that his so-called friend chose to make fun of his concern.
.
Heero wiped the last of the graphite grease off his hands and sighed. "Well, that's as much as we can do until the rest of the parts get here." He turned to look for Duo, who was somewhere in the left leg of Wing, putting in the heavier servo for the knee. "Duo! You done yet!"
He heard an indistinct mumble from somewhere in the calf area. He wandered over, carrying some water and a couple of sandwiches in one hand. He knocked on the calf plate with the other hand and called, "Duo, food. Come out."
Duo stuck his head out of the access plate and groaned. "Food, food. I'm famished. This is just as hard as I remember it being." He eeled out of the hole and accepted Heero's hand and shoulder as help to get his feet on the deck. "Man, thanks. That's still a bit too tight for comfort. Gimmie." He held out a hand for a sandwich and wound up with a handful of cleaner impregnated paper towel instead.
Duo wiped his hands and then took his sandwich. Heero peeled the covering off his own food and sat down beside Duo to eat.
"This is good." Duo took another bite and sighed. He swallowed and then said, "You remember that time that all we had for like a week was rice balls? What did you call them?"
"Onigiri. They usually have sprinkles on them, or even a filling of some kind. All I had was the nori wrappers."
"Well, I've never looked at rice quite the same since." Duo ate in silence for a few moments then asked, "And how's your spider sense doing?"
Heero gave Duo a very blank look. "Um ... what do spiders have to do with anything?"
"Spiderman? Spidey sense?" Heero just gave him a long suffering look and shrugged. "Never mind. You said that your neck was crawling?"
"Oh ... I don't know. I just have a feeling that we need to get Wing on line as quickly as we can."
Duo finished the last of the water, gathered up the papers and other refuse and handed it to Ray. "Thanks, Ray. How's that short circuit?"
"Got it in one. Just a bad solder on the board. Didn't take me but a second to fix it. The board checks out fine now. I'll install it in a couple of minutes and we'll be ready for a dry run of all the systems that have new components in them. Then we can test the communication between the computer and the servos. How many more parts do we really need?"
Heero did a quick mental inventory and said, "We need six servos, about 120 feet of heavy duty hydraulic hose and ... memory. I'm not sure how much. I need to run some tests but I can't do that until you do your checks."
Ray heaved himself up onto a platform that extended out toward Wing's side. "I'm on that as soon as I do this. Two hours, or so." He turned to a control panel and forgot all about his boss.
Heero just grinned at Duo who gave him a thumbs up and crawled back into Wing's leg. Heero went back to replacing servos himself.
.
Wufei sighed and stretched his back from one side to the other. "Mmmmm, feels good to just stretch. I have to do more tai chi, I'm getting lazy."
Milliardo stretched too. "So am I. We could get up about forty-five minutes earlier and get a workout in then. There's just room enough if we shove the furniture to one wall."
"Fine. I'll set the clock."
They left the Dojo and headed back for home, well aware that they both had to be ready for Court in the morning. Wufei had arranged for the dojo to be available all the next day.
This had angered the elders, they'd thought they would have more time to work on Wufei but he'd pushed the arrangements through so that he wouldn't have to put up with them any more than he had to.
.
Milliardo checked his robes for the third time. He was wearing three layered formal robes and he was very uncomfortable. He glanced in the mirror. His under robe was dark royal blue, heavy brocaded silk and very stiff. The next layer was a mid-blue, also silk, but lighter in weight just as it was in color. The top layer was a thin nearly transparent silk and ice blue.
The bottom layer was ankle length, the middle layer was shorter by nine inches but the top layer touched the floor. He had braided his hair and put on the soft slippers before putting on anything else as the sleeves covered his hands, each layer just bit shorter than the one under it. But the top sleeve was draped in such a way that the middle was waist length. He sighed, thanked his dresser, and went in search of Wufei.
Wufei was in his own dressing room, converted from the men's locker room. Milliardo's had been the lady's room.
" 'Fei? Are you about ready?" this question was greeted with a string of curses that made the dresser blush scarlet.
"No, I'm not about ready. I'm wearing 'Scarlet Robes' and I'm about three layers away from being dressed. Aye-ya! There's a total of seven layers and I already feel like I'm being smothered."
Milliardo frankly stared at Wufei. He was standing in the middle of a mess of tissue paper, arms stretched to the sides while the dresser tossed a wad of fabric over his head.
The fabric turned out to be a robe. Wufei had on so many robes that the only way he could don another was by having it tossed over his head and pulled down over the last layer.
The robes were all brocade or some other silk, each layer lighter and shorter than the last. The first or lowest one was dark red and touched Wufei's black velvet slippers. The next was also red, with a piping of black on the hem. The third layer was red as well but had a narrow black band at the hem. The fourth layer was black with dragons embroidered on the hems in red silk threads. The layer that he had just donned was black with gold phoenixes. The sixth robe was a black tissue silk with a huge gold dragon embroidered on the back and the last was gold tissue with the Chang family crest on the breast. All the sleeves were bell shaped so that each robe could be seen when Wufei moved his arms.
Wufei stood patiently until the last robe was on. The dresser topped this all off with a small cap of black velvet with a button of coral, which he set reverently on Wufei's head. Wufei sighed heavily and said, "Shall we go and get this idiocy over with?"
Milliardo frankly wondered if Wufei could walk in all that enveloping fabric. Wufei proved that not only could he walk but quite rapidly as well. He moved so smoothly that he seemed to glide rather than walk. Milliardo hurried to keep up.
When they reached the door of the throne room, the attendant announced them in a ringing voice. Milliardo was impressed that, not only did he remember all Milliardo's names, he remembered his titles and military rank as well. There was no doubt that he would get all Chang Wufei's titles correct.
They entered the throne room side by side. Wufei led the way between ranks of kow-towing men. He settled himself on his throne with Milliardo beside him. He waited until all the men were kneeling in seiza, looking at him. He stood up, took off his cap, handed it to the seneschal and announced in a voice that carried to the back of the room, "I abdicate." There were some shocked gasps, which were quickly silenced.
Wufei glared around the room for a moment, then just headed back down the aisle. Milliardo shook of his shock and followed quickly. They were soon back in the dressing room.
"That's it? That's all?"
Wufei gave one jerky nod. "Yup, that's it. Help me."
Milliardo sat down on a small stool to allow the dresser to pull off his top two robes. Then he started stripping Wufei out of his, using his greater height to facilitate the process.
It didn't take him long to strip him down to the bottom robe.
"There. Where's your street clothing?"
Wufei turned from giving orders for the storage of their robes, "Not sure. The dresser will bring them in a moment. Get out of that thing so he can put it away." He pulled his own bottom robe off and handed it over. Milliardo did the same and thankfully pulled the offered t-shirt over his head.
It didn't take them long to get into BDU's and boots. Milliardo wondered if this was some kind of statement but didn't object. He was comfortable, hungry and it was only 9am.
Wufei nodded to the dresser and led the way out the back and into an alley. They slipped down the alleyway and onto the main corridor.
"I'm starved. You?"
Wufei nodded. "Too nervous to eat, I noticed that you didn't even try either."
"I never eat before a confrontation. You're sure you're not going to have problems with the Elders?"
"I'm sure. None of them would argue with a formal abdication. That's why we both wore formal robes."
"Made me feel like I was going to trip any second."
"And you only had three layers."
Milliardo sighed. "You had seven. How the hell do you manage to move so gracefully in yards of stiff silk?"
"Training. Lots and lots of training. Now, feed me breakfast before I faint on you."
They headed for the nearby restaurant for something to eat.
.
"Damn, there's that blip again." The sensor officer glanced at his companion. "Where?"
A finger jabbed at the screen. "There. Open your eyes and stop mooning over that bitch."
"Ok, ok. I see it ... and it's gone again. What the hell could it be?"
"No idea but I don't like it. I'm writing up a report for the captain."
"You do that. I'll second it. I'm not sure what it is, but I really don't like it."
.
Heero knocked on the door of the requisition office. "Gunny Smith? You here?"
"Yeah, I'm here. Feeling a lot better too. That tea really hit the spot."
"My parts here yet?" Heero didn't bother to suppress the anxious look that passed across his face.
"Sure are. Just in on the last shuttle before we're out of range of L-2. We won't be in range of L-5 for ... um ... can't do the conversions in my head."
Heero grinned. "Duo could but it really doesn't make any difference. It's going to be several weeks, right?"
"Yeah. I ordered a bunch of stuff. That companion of yours is mental about extras."
Heero leaned on the counter, sure that the Gunny wanted to gossip. Duo had told him that he should just give up and do it, it was a sure way to gain favor with someone like this woman. "Duo remembers when we had so few new parts that I scavenged his machine to fix mine. Really pissed him off."
"So, you're really a gundam pilot?" She leaned on the other side of the counter ready to enjoy a good jaw with this kid. "You were all of ... what? Ten?"
"Fifteen. I'm only nineteen now. I think."
They spent the next hour trading war stories. It turned out that she'd been supply officer for one of Howard's Sweeper ships until the end of the war, then she'd gotten this job.
Duo came looking for him to go to dinner so he excused himself and shook hands with her before leaving.
"She's something else. I like her. She got us a shit load of parts."
Duo grinned. "I know, I've been checking them in for the last hour."
Heero grumbled, "You should have come to get me. I'd have helped."
"Why? It's good to see that you're finally learning to slack off. It's good for you. Come on, I'll spot you ... dinner?"
"Dinner," Heero agreed.