Generation New
Heaven's Gate Cannot Open for Everyone part one:
Planes touched down and took off at Narita airport continuously while crewmen worked hastily and proficiently as they could. A trolley guided a bowing 747 that had landed from South America into a dock. Within minutes, the passengers were allowed to depart it.
Amongst the group was an Indian woman with black hair, wearing a black dress suit with a pink shirt underneath it, and black high heels carrying a small grey laptop. She entered customs to stand in line for a half an hour to speak with a custom agent before being allowed through. She descended into luggage where she waited twenty minutes for her suitcase and headed for the exit.
As the Indian woman drew closer, she noticed a Caucasian man in a black suit holding a sign with the name, "Abha Chande," and walked up to him. He was medium in height, had short brown hair, and ice blue eyes.
"I am Abha," she said.
"Hello, I'm Mike Davis," he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. "I'm to drive you to your apartment in Tokyo after your long flight."
"I am in no mood for a good night's sleep." She ignored his hand and walked on. "I have work to do. Take me to New Pandora."
Mike looked down at his out stretched hand stupidly, and then with drew it to follow her.
"But, miss, my orders are to…!"
"I do not care about your orders. Ever since BK201's star reappeared, time understanding Heaven's Gate is being lost. I cannot rest until Heaven's Gate reappears."
"But, miss, what good is it to you when you haven't gotten any rest!"
She turned to face him, and said, "Do not question me. Just do what I say!"
"Yes, miss." He took her bags, and whispered, "The bosses aren't going to like this."
He guided her out to an egg-shaped blue Ford Focus, opened the hatchback to put her bags in the back, closed it, and offered for her to take the front passenger side. Mike sat behind the wheel before programming in their destination. The car pulled away from the airport to head for Tokyo.
While the car drove on the road and hopped onto the Toll way, Abha turned on her laptop to have a hologram appear and began rampaging through it.
Mike turned his attention to see what she was working on.
"Can I help you with something?" said Abha, displeased.
"Just curious," he said.
"Be curious with someone else. I do not appreciate people staring at me."
"Eh, sorry, miss."
"And stop calling me miss. It makes me feel old."
"Sorry."
Mike gazed out the window and prayed the drive wouldn't take very long. He wished he had his iPad Series VIII to keep him busy, but it was against work policy to have anything like that on work time. He wasn't allowed to use his cell phone unless it was an emergency. To him, it was an emergency. He had a rude and cruel passenger that he wanted to toss out of his car.
Twenty minutes later, the huge Ferris wheel came into view, as well as Tokyo's checkpoint. They drove up to a booth where an officer waited for them.
"Where are you heading?" the officer asked.
Mike opened his mouth to speak.
"That is none of your concern!" barked Abha, still working on her laptop.
Mike looked at her startled for saying such a thing while the officer's eyes slanted.
"I beg your pardon?" the officer asked.
"I am on a tight schedule and I do not need you to butt into my affairs," she said. "Stand aside and let us pass already."
The officer placed his hands on his holster, and said, "Both of you please step out of the car."
Mike was about to, but Abha grabbed his shirt to keep him seated.
"I want to speak with your manager."
"Very well." The officer clicked on his CB on his shoulder. "Sir, I have a lady over here that would like to speak with you."
"I'll be over there in a minute," said a voice from the CB.
The officer looked at Mike, and said, "If you could turn on your vehicle and have it pull over…"
"We will do no such thing. We will wait here!"
"Miss, you're holding up traffic!"
"They can wait, like I am!"
The officer rolled his eyes and stepped away from the car. Moments later, the manager appeared. He was a scrawny man and wore a blue coat with the name, Gibbons, on it and blue kaki pants with white tennis shoes.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"You people holding me up with stupid questions! We already showed our passes. Is that not good enough?"
"It's standard procedures to ask these questions, miss. If you could just tell us your destination, we will gladly send you on your way."
"You need to change your procedures! It is ridiculous! I am a guest in this country, and I do not appreciate this treatment! I have done no crime, and I do not wish to be treated like a criminal!"
"Miss, you misunderstand. We don't think of you as a criminal. Everybody that comes through this checkpoint is asked these questions. If you would…"
"Do not tell me what to do!"
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the car."
Abha pulled out her phone, dialed a number, and placed it to her ear.
"Yes, Prime Minister Chaplin, I have a man holding me up at the checkpoint." She was quiet for a second. "Gibbons! Yes, I will wait."
Gibbon's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, hit the speakerphone, and placed it to his ear.
"Yes, this is him," he said. "Yes… Yes… Sir, if… I understand, sir." He hung up the phone. "Let them go, officer!"
"But, sir!" shouted the officer.
"No butts! I've got the Prime Minister breathing down my neck at the moment!"
"Yes, sir." He looked at Mike, avoiding Abha's glare. "You may go."
"Eh, thank you," said Mike.
He hit the on button to have the car drive into the city. Abha continued messing around on her laptop, making it seem as though nothing had happened.
Another half an hour, they drove into New Pandora, and pulled into a parking lot. Mike and Abha exited the car, Mike grabbing her bags, and entered New Pandora's building.
In the hallway stood an old dark-skinned man with gray hair. He had a hunch in his stance, wore white robes, and stood three-quarters as tall as the hallway. He walked up to Abha and held out his hand to shake hers.
"Welcome, Miss Chande," he said. "I'm Doctor Marcus Woodblock."
"I would like to be shown to the lab at once," she said, ignoring his hand.
Marcus withdrew his hand, nodded, and turned around to guide Mike and her down the hall.
"We're pleased to have your service here at New Pandora," continued Marcus. "We hope to learn the things you have learned in South America."
"Save with the dispense. I am here for one thing only. I require access to all of your technology without any complaints, and to be left alone. I do not want to be disturbed for anything what so ever. Whenever I want something, you and your team are to give it to me."
"Yes, whatever you need."
"Good! I require the meteor shard you had retrieved again from Hell's Gate ten years ago."
"The meteor shard?" he asked, while turning on his heels to glare at her. "I'm sorry, but that's…"
"I am in no mood to play games, Marcus," she bellowed.
Mike gulped, knowing what was coming next.
"Doctor Marcus, if you would please," corrected Marcus.
"No, I will not. Do not push me to what you want. You will do what I say, or I will have your job taken from you. I am well acquainted with the Prime Minister. One call from him, and your medical license will go up in flames."
"Yes, Miss Chande."
"Do not call me miss! I hate that word!"
"Yes, ma'am."
Marcus thought she would be mad at him for using ma'am, but she instead continued walking down the hall. Marcus hurried along with Mike following.
"What a beach," whispered Mike.
They arrived at the lab. It had enough space to fit five double-decker buses and had different sets of tables lined up with instruments and computer gadgets on top. Marcus guided her over to a table in the far left corner.
"This is your area," he said. "You…"
"I do not like it!" she shouted, getting the other scientists attention. "I do not want to be around everybody. I wish for an office of my own."
"But, ma'am…"
"No buts. My own office or it is your license."
Marcus looked at her dumbfounded, nodded, and guided her into an office nearby. The room was spacious to house one-dozen workers, and had the same equipments as the other scientist had had at his and her disposal on a wooden desk.
"Not good enough."
"But this is the only remaining free office I have left."
"Then I will take yours."
"M—my… office?"
"Is that a problem?"
"NO!" yelped Marcus. "I mean, no. It's the office on the other side. I'll just move my stuff in here."
"Good. Have somebody show your servant to my room to drop off my bags. I want to get to work right away. Have somebody bring me the shard."
"Yes, ma'am. Mike, take her stuff to her room. Section C, room 101."
"Yes, sir," he nodded.
Mike walked off, whispering, "What a beach!"
Abha walked over to the office with the scientists giving her a perplexed look. If they kept it up, she might have them fired. She entered the office, which was twice the size as the other, had more equipment at hand, and an elegant oak desk. She sat down and placed her laptop on it to continue working.
Twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Abha frowned at it, praying for the person who was disturbing her had good reason, and stood to walk over to open the door. A tan-skinned woman stood before her holding a small case.
"Here is the shard you asked, ma'am," she said.
"About time! Took you people long enough," said Abha, and took the shard. "You can leave me now."
"Yes, ma'am."
The tanned woman closed the door, as Abha walked over to her desk to remove the shard from the case. She set it by her laptop and began scanning it. Diagnostics overwhelmed her computer, as Abha swarmed through it.
Back in South America, she spent hours researching Heaven's Gate and tried to go on the search for the meteor shard that was left somewhere in the jungle. However, due to the continuous war, she and many other scientists were authorized to stay on the bases around the vicinity.
The shard was never found.
The day Heaven's Gate disappeared was the day she had happened to have the day off. Her colleagues weren't so lucky. She wanted to find a way to bring back Heaven's Gate and she believed the meteor shard and BK201's star were the keys. Abha had a theory, if she could somehow block BK201's signal, Heaven's Gate would reappear.
Her theory had a flaw. Twenty-nine years ago, when his star had disappeared, Heaven's Gate didn't return. She couldn't figure out why at first, but she believed since the host was still alive, it still meddled with the shard and the Gate. However, that theory was now tossed aside. It still gave her hope though.
Abha had done countless tests on Schrader's device that had stripped BK201 of his power, but she found no hard evidence of what kept the shard active.
After looking through the diagnostics on the shard, Abha gave up. She then started looking through BK201's file that the Astronomy lab had recorded since the star had appeared. She noticed the star shined the brightest after Heaven's Gate disappeared. She was also displeased at the little information gathered on the star.
Abha pick up the phone, dialed the Astronomy lab, and had an image of a short Japanese woman appear.
"This is the Astronomy lab, I'm Emiko."
"You people there are so lazy!" stated Abha.
"Excuse me? Who do you think you are?"
"Who I am is none of your concern. Tell me why there is so little evidence on BK201's case!"
"Because he's a mysterious person! What has been filed is all there is to know about him."
"And why has there not been more research done on him? The most notorious Contractor there is, and there is hardly information on him."
"Talk to Kanami Ishizaki about that! She was the one in charge of the lab before it was closed down after Harvest was killed by BK201."
"I will do that. In the mean time, you better get what you can gather on BK201 from this point on, or your assistant will be taking your job!"
"Exc…?"
Abha hung up the phone. She dialed another number to have a secretary answer it.
"Can I…"
"Get me Kanami Ishizaki in here like yesterday!" demanded Abha.
"Yes, ma'am!"
The secretary hung up. Abha went back to her work, trying to figure out what she could with little information she had on hand.
A few minutes later, her phone rang. She hit the button to have the secretary reappear.
"Sorry, ma'am, but Kanami-san can't make it in until tomorrow," she said. "She's all the way in…"
"I do not want excuses! I want results! I do not have time to wait on other people. If you do not do what I ask next time, you will be taking fast-food delivery calls! Understood!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Good! When Kanami Ishizaki arrives tomorrow, send her to my office!"
The secretary nodded and cut off communications. Abha went back to her work. She frantically typed out results she could gather, but it felt like she had not scratched the surface of the iceberg that had sunk the Titanic.
She looked at her clock and noticed it was two in the morning, deciding it was time to call it a night. She paged someone to guide her to her room.
Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at her door. Abha frowned, stood from her desk while taking the shard, and headed over to it. She opened the door to reveal a Japanese worker in blue work clothes with messy black hair smiling at her.
"Hello, my name is Kamui Hizumi," he said. "I'll be showing you to your room."
"What took you so long to get here?"
"Eh, sorry about that. I was on the other side of New Pandora when I got the page. I ran over here as fast as I could."
"Run faster!"
"Yes, ma'am. This way, please."
Hizumi guided her out of the lab and left down the hallway. They turned right at a section called A, then left, left, right, left, right and left. Before Abha knew it, Hizumi stopped, looking dumbfounded, and said, "I'm lost!"
"Lost? Do you not know where you are going?" she asked.
"Sorry, but I just started working here last week." He smiled at her, stupidly.
Abha pulled out her phone and dialed a number to have Marcus's face appear.
"Madam Chande, what can I help you with at this late hour?"
"You need to send someone to Section A around 201," she said. "And you need to fire Kamui Hizumi."
"Eh?" questioned Hizumi
"Yes, ma'am. Consider it done."
Abha turned off her phone and glared back at Hizumi, saying, "New Pandora does not need your service anymore."
"Wait! Please don't! I need this job! My payment for my apartment is ridiculously expensive! And plus, I want to get my new girlfriend a lovely gift!"
"That is not my problem. Goodbye."
Hizumi stared at her lost for words, slumped his shoulder, and turned to leave. Moments later, Mike Davis appeared, his eyes widening, and said, "Oh hell no! I quit!" and off in the direction he had come from.
Abha had to wait another twenty minutes before a woman with red hair came to guide her to her room. As they traveled through Section B at room 201, they passed a man in blue work clothes wearing a red baseball cap mopping the floor. He eyed Abha for a second, causing her to glance at him from a weird vibe, and having him look away.
Five minutes later, Abha entered her room. She wasn't pleased with her room, saying it was too small, and demanded another room.
Xxx
The next day, Kanami Ishizaki was guided into New Pandora. She still held her figure and kept a face that guys wouldn't look away from. A lot of men still wanted to get with her, calling her the queen of the Cougars throughout Yokohama.
She entered Abha's office and sat across from her. Abha glared at her with Kanami holding her composure. She was given a heads up concerning this woman, but she wasn't scared of her since she had nothing to lose. She had been working at a TCS station off a freeway that went through Yokohama, making enough to get her by in life. Kanami wasn't married and had no kids of her own.
"Why did you not gain a lot of information on BK201?" said Abha, bluntly.
"Because there wasn't a whole lot to get," said Kanami.
"Why did you not do a diagnostic test on his star?"
"Diagonstic test? How do we do such a thing like that?"
"Ping it!"
"Ping it? Like submarines do? How?"
"You never thought of doing such a thing before? And you call yourself a scientist?"
"Not anymore! Thanks to your Government!"
"If I recall, the CIA took over after the lab was shut down."
"Are we done here? I'd like to get to Yokohama and get back to work so I don't lose anymore hours!"
"I do not think so. You are stuck here to figure out how to block BK201's signal."
"I… what? I don't think so!"
"You do not have a choice. As of now, you do not work for Traffic Control System anymore. You were fired as soon as you stepped through New Pandora."
Kanami's hand turned into a fist, stood, and socked Abha across the face. Abha looked on startled, stood, and opened her mouth to say something, but she held it back. Kanami was hoping she would fire her, but it seemed she needed her intelligence.
"You will pay for that!" threatened Abha.
"And it'll be worth it."
Xxx
Kanami begged to be sent to the Astronomy lab to do her research on BK201, but Abha refused it. Kanami pleaded that if she could work there, she could get better results than what Emiko could, and faster. Abha believed Kanami wanted to get as far away from her as possible, which was partially true.
Abha demanded Kanami to stay, and if she didn't, she would be out of a home.
"Go ahead!" Kanami had said. "I'll live with my friend until I find another place!"
"If that is the case, then your friend will lose her place as well," Abha had challenged.
"Leave Misaki out of this! This is between you and me!"
"I will do no such thing. Do as I say, or you and your friend lose your homes."
Kanami had caved in, and set up a holochat to discuss how to ping a star.
"Ping? What nonsense are you thinking about now?" Emiko asked.
"Look, I'm in a tight pinch here, and I need you to do what I say, or hell will rise from the ashes," pleaded Kanami.
"You're not my boss, Kanami. I will do no such thing until you explain what's going on!"
Kanami opened her mouth to speak.
"Is there a problem, Ishizaki?" Abha asked.
"No problem."
"Yes there is!" shouted Emiko, causing Kanami to place her hand on her forehead. "I don't appreciate you and Kanami stepping all over me! I want you both to back off and let me run my lab the way I want to!"
"If that is how you see things." Abha pulled out her phone while hitting the speakerphone, dialed a number, and placed the receiver to her ear. "Yes, sir. I would like the person who is in charge of the Astronomy lab to be fired… Thank you, Minister." She hung up and looked at Emiko. "The CIA will no longer need your service."
"WHAT? You just can't fire me!"
"I just did. Ishizaki. You and the new supervisor will continue on."
Emiko looked on confused, and then realized her phone was ringing. She answered it to receive the news she had already been told, and to let Cho know she was in charge.
Kanami and Cho began the work, relaying information back and forth, as Emiko walked out of the lab in the background. Abha returned to her office and continued her research on the meteor shard.
Hours went by with no luck on Cho and Kanami's end, irritating Abha, and ordered them to keep on working that lasted until midnight. She wanted them to continue, but she allowed them to get some rest so that they were refreshed in the morning. She thought about having the nightshift carry on the work, but they weren't as experienced as Kanami.
However, Abha worked on through the night. She was determined to find a way to block BK201's signal. She needed one clue to do it, and she would do whatever it took.
At quarter past two in the morning, the power went out. Abha cursed, not because of the loss of power, but because she hadn't saved any of her work.
She stood to exit her office and see if anybody else was experiencing what she was, but everybody had turned in for the night. Suddenly, the back up power turned on. Abha walked up to a desk and hit an emergency button on a phone.
"Security!" said a voice.
"This is Abha Chande. I am here in the lab alone with the back up power on."
"Understood! We'll send someone down immediately."
Abha returned to her office to impatiently wait.
Suddenly, she heard some machinery whining. Abha grabbed her meteor shard and exited her office, realizing the noise was coming from down the hall. She headed down it, trying to figure where it was coming from, and noticed it was nearby a room.
She grabbed a push broom that was leaning up against the wall and entered the room while holding the broom over her head.
"Who is there?" she shouted.
An old man in blue work clothes, wearing a cap and big sunglasses, jumped in fright. He dropped a long hose that happened to be hooked to a vacuum cleaner.
"Oh, woh!" he shouted. "Please don't hurt me! I'm only the night janitor!"
"What are you doing?"
"Eh, vacuuming?" he said, stupidly.
"Why here?"
"Because this is on my scheduled area to clean."
"You were not here last night, so why are you here now?"
"Eh, because I had to clean up the other side. New Pandora is no ordinary sized building. Can… can you please lower the broom."
"Do not tell me what to do!"
"All right, all right. No problem," he said while waving his hands up and down. "I'll just go somewhere else to clean."
"No you do not! You will stand there and wait."
"Eh, can I turn off my vacuum cleaner? It might blow a fuse again."
"Your vacuum cleaner did that?"
"It does that once in a while. So, can I turn it off?"
Abha thought for a second, and said, "No. Leave it on."
"Eh? Why?"
"Do not question me! I do not like it!"
The old man nodded.
Moments later, a security guard arrived, making Abha look away from the old man, and said, "About time you got here!"
"Sorry, ma'am," he said. "Can I help you with something?"
"Yes. You can escort this old man out of here, and tell him not to bother to show up for work tomorrow since he will be fired."
"What old man, ma'am?"
Abha's eyes burned with fury at the security guard, turned to face the old man, and said, "HIM!" However, he wasn't there. "What? Where did he go?"
"Ma'am?"
"Just shut up!" She walked back into her office with the guard behind her, opened her safe under her desk, and placed the shard inside it before closing and locking the door. "Lead me to Marcus's room!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Abha followed the security guard displeased. How dare an old man disrupt her work, vanish from her sight, and expect to get away with it. There was hell to pay!