09. The Activation Factor
"So this is the Martian princess…" Professor Bridges muttered.
Princess Lemrina sat immobile in the chair, her eyebrows knitted into a frown.
"We won't hurt you," the professor said gently. "So don't be afraid."
"I know you won't hurt me," said Princess Lemrina, although the whiteness of her face suggested that she was very much afraid. "I'm a valuable hostage. It would defeat your own purposes to kill me here and now."
"We sacrificed countless of our own to get you," Ensign Mishima snarled as he nursed his bandaged hand. "You think your life is worth hundreds, little girl? Thousands? Millions?" He scowled at her.
Princess Lemrina flinched.
"You're scaring her, Mishima," Yuki said sternly.
But all the same, Mishima was right. All the Japanese soldiers who had followed them from Okinawa were dead now. The Martians had killed them all. The only people Yuki and Mishima found in the cove at Yakushima Island were Professor Bridges and a young female pilot named Miyazawa Tsubaki. Their victory had come at an inconceivable cost, but as far as war went, it was the same old story.
At the moment, Miyazawa was busy tightening the ropes around Slaine Troyard, leaving Yuki, Mishima and Professor Bridges to talk with the Martian princess. Everything had turned out so terribly wrong, but there was hardly any time to think about those who were already dead.
It had come as a surprise to Yuki that Princess Asseylum had a sister. She had never mentioned siblings at all. This peculiarity began to make sense as Princess Lemrina talked. The Martians had kept the princess a secret even among themselves, which explained why cracking their military codes and pirating their broadcasts had not provided any indication of her existence. She was an illegitimate child, though she still possessed the Aldnoah activation factor, she hastened to add.
Like Asseylum, Princess Lemrina held an air of dignity about her, even when her life was in mortal peril. She answered questions clearly, needing little prompting to explain herself. But Yuki could also see that she was shaking and that she gripped the sides of her chair so tightly that her knuckles were white. And, for all the princess's bravery, her eyes held no possibility of hope or angry defiance, as if she had resigned herself to her fate. I'm nothing but a tool, she had said.
Even so, capturing the princess left a bad taste in Yuki's mouth. Professor Bridges was humane throughout the whole grisly affair, but it didn't change the fact that Princess Lemrina was an innocent girl who had nothing to do with Yuki's revenge. If only she had not possessed the power of Aldnoah…
"Would you like a glass of water?" Professor Bridges asked kindly. Princess Lemrina shook her head stiffly.
"Don't let this drag on too long," Mishima said darkly. "No doubt the enemy is tracking the grey Kataphrakt." He inclined his head outside the cove, where Slaine's Kataphrakt was lying dormant on the sands.
Yuki agreed with him. They could not afford to linger, especially when the nuclear missile was being launched at the Japanese mainland only a matter of hours from now.
"We might need the Aldnoah drive," Professor Bridges insisted. "At least dismantle it first."
"We don't have time," Yuki responded agitatedly. She glanced sideways at Slaine, who was watching them impassively, as if forcing to keep his face still. She was almost certain that his Kataphrakt was being tracked.
"Here's an idea," said Mishima suddenly. "We get the girl to pass on her Aldnoah privilege to us, then we hijack the Kataphrakt. So what does she do - wave her hands and say abracadabra?"
"Of course not," said Princess Lemrina scornfully, but said nothing more.
She seemed to have decided not to tell them about how to pass on the Aldnoah activation factor. That was a sensible idea from her point of view. If Yuki and the others could activate the Aldnoah themselves, there would be no further reason to keep the princess alive.
Unfortunately for Princess Lemrina, Professor Bridges had already studied the subject. A dark shadow came over the homely woman's face suddenly.
"Her blood passes on the activation factor. If her blood drops on our skin, we'll obtain the privilege."
It said something about desperate they all were that Yuki immediately thought of cutting a small wound into the princess, even if she did not act on that thought. Mishima, however, promptly drew out a knife from his belt.
"You heard her, little girl."
The princess stiffened, her eyes drawn to the jungle knife. Its blade was longer than her face.
"You bastards!" Slaine snarled, struggling vainly against the ropes. "You wouldn't dare!"
"There must be another way," Professor Bridges said quickly. "Other bodily fluids must work too. Does saliva do the trick?"
Princess Lemrina nodded frantically, her eyes still fixed on Mishima's glinting blade.
"Saliva, huh…" Mishima sheathed the knife. Princess Lemrina breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Works for me," Mishima went on grimly.
Then suddenly he was in front of the princess, crushing his lips against hers.
Yuki felt sick. The princess made a hoarse noise in her throat. Mishima was thrusting his tongue into her mouth as far as it would go. Frightened tears welled in the princess's wide eyes.
"Stop it, Mishima!" Yuki shouted, waving her arms frantically.
Mishima drew his head back and wiped his mouth against his hand. A deep scowl of disgust was etched across his features. He was not enjoying himself in the slightest.
"I bet she does it with all the Orbital Knights," he said with a shrug, as if that excused his actions. Before Yuki could reprimand him, he rushed outside towards Slaine's Kataphrakt, not looking once behind him.
The princess's eyes were dull and glassy. Yuki watched as a tear rolled down her blank face.
"Bastards," Slaine repeated himself, his voice shaking with venom.
To that, Yuki could not bring herself to reply.
She wondered about Mishima, about what sort of person he had been before the war started. She had never asked him, and she would never know the answer even if she did ask. That person may as well never have existed.
"You're all swine," Princess Lemrina said.
It was the first time she had spoken since Mishima had forcefully kissed her. When Yuki turned around and looked at her, Princess Lemrina was wearing a bitter scowl that Princess Asseylum would never have been able to muster.
"You Terrans really are as vulgar as they say. The Orbital Knights of Vers follow a code of chivalry. They would never resort to such a-" But then she stopped, as if suddenly remembering something. She turned pale and covered her face with her hands.
Yuki watched her sympathetically.
I knew your sister, she wanted to say, but Princess Lemrina would probably not believe her. Yuki wondered if the princess in front of her knew or suspected the truth behind Asseylum's death.
"How old are you?" Yuki asked her.
Princess Lemrina removed her hands from her face. "Fourteen," she responded tonelessly. "No, I turned fifteen today."
The same age as Inaho, then.
No, he would have turned sixteen by now.
"I see…" Yuki smiled at the girl, who continued to glare at her resentfully. "When I was fifteen, I cared a lot about my first kiss."
"Who said anything about a first kiss?"
"That was your first kiss, wasn't it?"
Princess Lemrina said nothing, but a faint blush rose to her cheeks and she turned away quickly.
At that moment, Mishima came back into the cove. He was cursing loudly. It was clear that he had not gotten the Aldnoah drive to work.
"I know what this so-called 'princess' is planning," he declared furiously. "She's lying through her teeth just to buy herself time for the enemy reinforcements to arrive."
Anticipating that things were about to become ugly once again, Yuki quickly stepped between him and the princess. "That could very well be true, Ensign Mishima, but she's still an innocent girl."
She glanced at the princess as she spoke. Princess Lemrina had scrunched her eyes shut, refusing to look at Mishima. She even clamped a hand over her mouth, perhaps to prevent any further penetration. Her rather ineffectual act of defiance would almost have seemed demure, in a way, if the princess had not been so obviously upset.
"Tch!" Mishima scowled, but Yuki seemed to have convinced him to stand down. "We're wasting time."
"We need the Aldnoah rights," Professor Bridges insisted grimly.
"We don't have the rights! The girl is lying!"
Slaine chuckled suddenly at Mishima's words. He did not sound very mirthful.
"What's so funny?" Yuki demanded.
"You will never achieve your ambition. You don't understand how Aldnoah activation works."
Yuki's mind ran furiously. "Are you telling me that only you can use that Kataphrakt?"
Slaine's lips curled up with scorn, but he did not respond.
Ugh. This was all so frustrating. Not for the first time, Yuki wanted to shoot him. That had been her original plan, after all.
Professor Bridges spoke up then. "I take that to mean that you were given the sole right to that Kataphrakt. So only you or someone of royal blood can activate it."
The professor was the only person in the cove who was still calm. Where the others shook with rage, the professor kept a straight face. Her mind was focused only on one thing.
The professor turned to Mishima and held up the Aldnoah drive that had been taken from the Deucalion. "Put your hand over this, Ensign Mishima."
Mishima did as he was told, and as his fingers trailed over the drive, the dark blue orb lit up with an eerie, ethereal glow.
Yuki blinked in surprise. She recognised that light. It was exactly the same as the light that had shone in the Deucalion's bridge when the flying warship had been in action.
"Well, that just confirms it," Professor Bridges said with a brisk smile. "The princess was not lying. You really do have Aldnoah privileges, Ensign."
And just like that, the tension in the cove defused. Mishima's taut shoulders eased with evident relief. He almost cracked a smile.
"But still," Professor Bridges went on, casting a meaningful glance at Slaine. "It seems that only young Slaine here can use the Vers Kataphrakt. Unless…"
"Unless we kill him," Yuki finished for her.
Once again, the tension shot through her spine. They were all dangling on a knife's edge. Yuki swung around, meeting Slaine's white hot glare with one of her own.
"Calm down. That's not what I meant," said the professor, holding out an arm in front of Yuki.
Then she walked over to where Slaine was tied and knelt on one knee in front of him.
"It's been a while, Slaine. You've grown into a fine young man. I'm sorry we had to meet again in such ugly circumstances."
The professor spoke to Slaine the same way she had spoken to Lemrina - calmly and gently, as if he, too, was a human being, as alive as she surely was.
"Who are you?" he asked warily.
"You don't remember? Ah, you were such a small child back then, so it's only natural. We met in France twelve years ago. Your father was a colleague of mine."
"I see."
Slaine did not look as if he cared. Why should he? It was all a lifetime ago.
"I knew your mother as well," Julie Bridges went on. "Such a pity she died in childbirth. She always did have problems with her health. You have her eyes, you know."
Slaine's green eyes blinked wide. His long and delicate eyelashes fluttered in surprise.
For a moment, even Yuki, who despised him and everything he stood for, could see very clearly the innocent child he had once been.
"I… see…" Slaine repeated himself, this time a little shakily despite his efforts to remain sullen.
The professor smiled at him, almost maternal in her gentleness. Something very much like wistfulness came over her eyes. "Tell me, Slaine… how is your father doing these days? Is he well? I remember he was always so caught up with his research that he forgot to eat. Do you suppose that I could-?"
"He's dead."
"Oh."
The professor's face fell.
At that moment, Yuki remembered that Professor Bridges had never married. She had always assumed it was because the professor cared more about her research than anything else. But perhaps that wasn't her only passion…
"Why don't you join our side?" Professor Bridges asked Slaine intently.
Yuki gasped and frowned, but the professor paid no heed to her outrage.
"There's no reason for you to side with Vers, is there?" she went on, gazing at Slaine Troyard with hope in her eyes.
For a brief moment, Slaine hesitated unmistakably. But then his gaze fell on the blank-faced Princess Lemrina and something in his eyes hardened.
He looked straight at Yuki.
"Your brother exploited Princess Asseylum. And now you're exploiting Princess Lemrina. I'll never forgive you."
"Nao-kun never exploited Princess Asseylum!"
"Liar," Slaine said calmly.
Yuki seethed. "Look, you…!"
Professor Bridges interrupted them. "Please, calm down, you two." She turned back to their prisoner. "Slaine, we're only doing this to stop the missile."
"You think a nuclear missile would stop the Orbital Knights?" asked Slaine cuttingly. "Of course they have means of shielding against it. Only the Terrans and the Martian foot soldiers will die because of that missile."
"All the more reason to stop it, then," Professor Bridges said grimly.
Slaine did not respond. He merely closed his eyes.
"Well?" Yuki said sharply.
Slowly, Slaine opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
"I understand," he said quietly. He looked at Professor Bridges, and then at Yuki. "I will help you on this matter… however." He stopped and took a deep breath, eyes flashing with venom once again. "I won't let you have the princess. I'll kill you if you lay another finger on her."
Perhaps it was an empty threat coming from a young man in ropes, but something about his tone took Yuki aback.
She wondered if he was in love with the princess… No, it wasn't that…
It took Yuki a moment to realise. He sounded like a man who had nothing left to lose. Yuki remembered, too, how the princess had sacrificed herself for him, had begged them all not to kill him, and all of a sudden Yuki felt sick with everything.
As she gazed at Slaine, a new wave of anger passed through her. But the tint of the anger itself had warped and bended into something both intimately familiar and wholly unrecognisable.
"I promise," Yuki said solemnly. "After today, you can have her back."
"What are you saying, Kaizuka?" Mishima demanded.
Yuki shot a glance at him and shook her head. Mishima sighed in irritation but said nothing more.
"But I haven't forgotten my revenge against you, you know," Yuki added, turning back to Slaine.
"Neither have I," said Slaine.
They gazed at each other silently.
Once again, Professor Bridges was the one to cut in between them.
"If we replace the Aldnoah drive in your Kataphrakt with ours, would you still be able to fly it?" she asked Slaine.
"Huh…? What are you…?"
"According to my watch, we only have three hours left. Your Kataphrakt is the only vehicle quick enough to intercept the missile before it lands. The anti-gravity powers of this Aldnoah drive should be able to halt the impact. I've thought every possibility through, and at this point, it's the only feasible course of action left."
The words that came out of her mouth sounded reasonable and logical, but…
"I'll pilot it!" Mishima hissed. "We can't trust that filthy turncoat!"
"No good," said the professor firmly. "You aren't familiar with the controls. The highest probability of success will occur if Slaine is the pilot."
Yuki could understand. Her mind could grasp the point. And yet…
"So let me get this straight…" she said slowly. "You want to entrust our lives to the guy who murdered my brother?"
"That's right," said Julie Bridges, her expression in deadly earnest.
No way.
This time, Yuki did not have to ask why. Even if she did not know the woman well, she could see the answer in the professor's eyes.
Still, the professor explained anyway.
"Because it is the most correct and logical decision," she said, "in order to save everyone."
They spent the next fifteen minutes or so replacing the Aldnoah drive in Slaine's Kataphrakt. Miyazawa, who had been keeping watch outside, told them that the enemy was nowhere in sight yet, but still, Yuki and Mishima worked with renewed urgency. Time was running out, after all.
When they were done replacing the drive, Princess Lemrina held her hand over the blue orb and cried, "Aldnoah, awaken!" Once again, the drive came alight, and the Kataphrakt stirred to life. In that moment, she seemed just as much of a royal princess of Vers as Asseylum once had.
Before he climbed into the Kataphrakt, Slaine knelt in front of the princess and bowed his head.
"I apologise for failing to protect you," he said quietly.
"I'll forgive you if you live," she murmured in response.
Their clothes and faces were flecked with grime and blood, but the picture itself was from a courtly romance of long ago that probably never really happened. Gently, Slaine kissed the princess's hand and straightened himself up. His lips formed the pale ghost of a smile.
"Take care, Your Highness." His green eyes shone with a mixture of tenderness and dogged determination. "I swear to you that I will return to your side."
And with that short and dutiful exchange complete, he turned his back to her and climbed into the Kataphrakt. Princess Lemrina brought her pale white fingers to her slightly parted lips and stared after him forlornly. When Slaine's Kataphrakt was gone, she remained on the sands and gazed up at the deep blue sky, waiting.
"I'll take you back to the cove," Yuki said gently.
Princess Lemrina neither acquiesced nor denied her, so after a moment of silence, Yuki picked her up and carried her inside. She was light and flimsy but awkward to carry, almost like a paper crane. Yuki did not know the right way to hold her, though somehow she managed.
Lemrina said nothing when they were inside, only sighed and closed her eyes with a frown.
"You're in love with him, aren't you?" Yuki said.
Lemrina's eyes fluttered open.
"What does it matter to you?" she asked sharply.
"N-nothing, I suppose," Yuki spluttered, looking away shamefacedly.
The poor girl, she thought. The last few hours must have been nothing but a nightmare in slow motion for her.
But if only she hadn't existed, then it would have been so easy to pull the trigger…
At that moment, Princess Lemrina spoke up, watching Yuki's face carefully. "Tell me, do you really plan to give me back to Slaine?"
"Well, of course, I…"
"Because, you know, the better revenge would be to prevent us from ever seeing each other again."
Yuki wondered how the princess could say something like that. How could she speak of her own suffering so coldly and clinically?
"Of course, it wouldn't really make him suffer," Lemrina went on. "He doesn't care for me, only principles. So if you kill me, the war will continue. But eventually, the Empire of Vers will die. Why perpetuate the cycle of hatred by letting me live?"
She was really nothing like her sister, even if she held herself together with the same determination, even if she was young and pretty, even if the same blood coursed through her veins.
"I-I can't do that. You're innocent, Princess Lemrina…"
"Innocent, you say? Oh, yes, very innocent. I don't shoot people, so that makes me innocent."
The twisted, ironic smile on Lemrina's lips spoke more than her acrimonious words ever could.
Today, this girl turned fifteen, Yuki remembered with dull sadness as she stumbled back a step. "What are you talking about…?"
"No matter what I do, I cannot break out of my cage. They will kill and kill and kill because they've reduced me to an idea." Lemrina laughed scornfully. "It doesn't matter if Slaine stops that missile. They were already massacring the Terrans in Japan. I know because it was my actions that led to the killing. Because I tried to break free from my cage."
The words poured out of her mouth, the litany of a wakeful nightmare. Yuki almost could not bear to listen. When she spoke, she did not look Lemrina in the eyes. "Do you want to die…?"
"No," said Lemrina. "I want to live. I wish Slaine were here. Maybe I do love him. Oh, why am I telling you this? You're the enemy."
You're the enemy.
Yuki thought of a young girl with a voice as clear as a bell, whose beauty was matched only by the strength of her convictions. The girl her brother had loved.
The enemy.
"Princess…" Yuki swallowed. "Have you ever thought of making peace?"
"Peace!" The princess laughed. "Whose peace?"
"Between Earth and Mars."
Instead of answering the question, Princess Lemrina shot a question back at her. "What about you? Can you do it?"
Yuki thought of Slaine. "I… well…"
Lemrina eyed Yuki, watching the soldier's face crease with hesitation. After a moment, the princess spoke up for herself. "Nobody would listen to me if I asked for peace. Nobody listened to my sister either."
"Your sister…"
Yuki's lip trembled.
Oh, Asseylum. How would she have reacted if she saw what had taken place today?
Now that Slaine was not in her sight, Yuki's head began to lighten, but her chest weighed her down instead. Was forgiving her brother's murderer really what it meant to create peace? Did they have to put down their guns and get along? It only occurred to Yuki now what a truly ludicrous thing Asseylum had been asking for.
Bringing Princess Lemrina to the UFE Headquarters would achieve nothing. Why should the authorities trust a Martian princess again after what happened last time?
But still…
"I'm sure your sister would have wanted you to live," Yuki finished.
Lemrina was not satisfied. "What do you know of what my sister thinks?"
Instead of responding, Yuki shook her head and stood up. She walked over to her bag, which she had asked Professor Bridges to hold onto. Then she pulled out the box containing her brother's mementos, along with a single paper crane. She had thrown away most of the cranes, but she had kept the prettiest one she had made. Looking at it, a strange sort of tranquility fell over Yuki. She was glad she had kept at least one crane.
"What are you doing?" Princess Lemrina demanded.
Yuki did not respond until she had found what she was looking for. Then she walked back to Princess Lemrina and placed the object in her hand.
"What is this…?" The princess looked up at Yuki in confusion.
Yuki smiled as she scrunched her eyes shut in fond recollection.
"A good luck charm. I think it belonged to your sister."
Only three hours left.
The Tharsis soared through the sky, quickly gaining speed. Without prediction powers, Slaine resorted to looking over his shoulder every few moments. He felt naked without the power, fearful of the stillness around him. Apart from a few islands dotting the surroundings, the ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. Perhaps it would go on forever.
Faster. Faster…
The thought of Lemrina, alone with the Terrans, spurred him on. The way they had mistreated her… Had Asseylum been treated that way too? Had Kaizuka Inaho thrust his tongue down her mouth like a wretched beast? Perhaps it was a good thing that Slaine had killed him.
Faster…!
"I'll protect you, Your Highness…" Slaine muttered fervently, even though it was all so very, very late and the damage had already been done.
He would make it in good time. He would stop the missile and return to the princess's side.
He would. He would.
Slaine lifted his eyes… and saw a laser soaring through the skies aimed straight at him.
He only narrowly managed to swerve out of the way in time, his heart thumping frantically from a mixture of panic and adrenaline. "What was that?!"
A familiar voice in his intercom responded to Slaine's guttural cry.
"Well, well, Terran. Like a dog, you've come crawling back to your owners. Even after you've turned traitor… I always thought the right idea was to put you out of your misery permanently."
Another laser flew in Slaine's direction. And not just one - multiple lasers from multiple directions.
Without the Tharsis's prediction powers, Slaine was unable to see where the shots were coming from, but he gripped his controls tightly as he had never gripped them before and thought of the princess as he jerked out of harm's way. A red Kataphrakt loomed in the distance - Slaine had seen it before.
"Count Marylcian…!"