Riana's cheeks were still burning by the time they reached the Evangelion holding bay, but it was not just because of Gendo Ikari. He's right, she thought, I really screwed up today. Well, I'm not screwing this up. I'm going to become a pilot! Then the door opened, and she let out her breath in a gasp.
The holding bay was immense. Riana guessed that it was at least a half mile across, and probably forty stories high. It was subdivided into bays, with huge doors like the locks on a canal, some open and some closed. These bays opened into a single gigantic corridor that led to a set of blast doors marked, like all signs in NERV, in both English and Japanese, EVA LAUNCH CHAMBER. The fact that there were more than three bays seemed to suggest at some point NERV could and would field more of their mecha—and that assumed that this was the only holding bay in the Geofront. With that many Evas, Riana thought, NERV would be unstoppable. Is that what Gramma is afraid of? If Evas can generate those AT Fields, and they're impervious to conventional weapons, how powerful does that make NERV? And Gendo Ikari? She did not like the answer to those questions.
"This is EVA-00," Ritsuko suddenly spoke, which startled Riana. It was surprisingly quiet in the bay, aside from the burble of hushed conversation from a small battalion of techs working there. "Pilot Ayanami's Eva."
"The first one built?"
"The first prototype," Ritsuko confirmed. "We built others, of course—half-scale models, preproduction versions—that sort of thing. Unit Zero was the first full-scale prototype."
"It looks brand new."
"That's because we just repainted it. Blue suits Rei better than international orange, don't you think?" Ritsuko kept walking, which left Riana scrambling to catch up. Riana had seen plenty of mecha anime—one reason why she was looking forward to piloting one—and EVA-00 was, in her opinion, what a mecha should look like. It was sleek, almost humanlike, with a single eye that she thought might be a viewport.
EVA-01, which they came to next, looked like something out of a nightmare. Like EVA-00, it was immersed to its chest in orange goo Ritsuko called LCL. EVA-00's head was starkly functional, but EVA-01's looked like a cross between an angry praying mantis and Darth Vader. Its eyes were two black pits, and its visage made it look like it was grinning at her, in the same way a cat would grin at its dinner. She had seen it on the videos, but face to face with EVA-01 was something entirely different. She noted that 01 had indeed seen some hard fighting: its paint was dull and scarred, even mismatched in places where new armor plates were replaced. "This is Shinji's?" Riana asked.
"That's right," Ritsuko confirmed. "Though all Eva cockpits are universal. Shinji—Pilot Ikari—could pilot Unit Zero if we needed him to."
"It's hideous."
"We didn't spend money on aesthetics," Ritsuko said.
"Why purple?" Riana, despite herself, stepped closer to the Eva.
Ritsuko was silent for a moment, then admitted, "You know, I'm not entirely sure, Riana."
"Just hope mine isn't pink."
Ritsuko chuckled. "We wouldn't do that to you."
Riana got to the edge of the catwalk they stood on. From this angle, EVA-01's head loomed over her, which made it even more frightening. They may not have spent money on aesthetics, she mused, but they sure as hell wanted to make it look mean. It looks like a skull, or something out of one of those alien horror movies—
A pain like a scalpel shot across her forehead, and reflexively her left hand shot up to her temple. Her stomach lurched dangerously. Spots appeared before her eyes. Riana staggered and nearly fell. Something was suddenly very wrong.
Ritsuko grabbed her arm. "Riana? Riana, are you all right?"
"I…I don't know," Riana said. "I'm…" The pain faded just as quickly as it had come, and she found she was able to straighten up. "I think I'm okay. I don't know what happened…maybe it's this plugsuit."
Ritsuko looked more curious than anything else. "That's strange. Well, we'll make one more stop and then you can take it off."
"Sure." Riana followed Ritsuko, with one fearful glance back at EVA-01. She half-expected it to turn its head and stare after her, maybe even lunge for her, but the mecha had not moved at all. She focused her attention on EVA-02, which did not look much better than 01, with six eyes instead of two. There was the trill of a phone, and Ritsuko pulled her smartphone from a pocket in her lab coat. "Hai?" Riana could not follow what was said to her, but caught something about power levels. "Docchi?" Ritsuko demanded. Which one? There was more Japanese she could not follow, then Ritsuko signed off.
"Everything okay?"
Ritsuko nodded. "Lieutenant Ibuki in Terminal Dogma just wanted to report that your heart rate jumped."
"How did she know that?"
The doctor poked the plugsuit. "This allows us constant monitoring of your vital signs. Heart rate, oxygen level, any wounds—the suit will seal off automatically, and even administer CPR if necessary. If you feel the need to urinate—" Riana went beet red, and Ritsuko laughed. "Perhaps we can let that wait for another day." Now Riana felt even more naked. "It's invasive, yes, but it's necessary," Ritsuko assured her, and began to walk again. "In battle, we must know how our pilots are doing, neh? Ah, here we are." Ritsuko motioned to her right. "Your training wheels, Riana."
Riana turned and found herself face to face with yet another monster. It was shorter than the other Evas, and not quite as streamlined: whereas the other Evas' armor plates conformed roughly to a human design that slimmed down to narrow hips and legs, this model was more blocky, with wider hips and flat, angled armor panels. It lacked the high shoulder baffles of EVA-01 and 02, with more cut-down versions that stuck out ten feet to either side; Riana was reminded of the starched wings of a Japanese nobleman's kimono. Three ports dotted its chest, and it was bull-necked: the other Evas might have been inspired by samurai, ninjas, or bugs for all Riana knew, but this one looked like an American NFL linebacker. Compared to the bright blue, red, and purple of the other Evas, this one was finished in a dark gray, with panels picked out in white. Riana noted the color was almost identical to her plugsuit, and got the feeling that it was not coincidental.
It was the head that caught her attention most. It was a cross between the oblong functionality of EVA-00 and the grinning terror of EVA-01. Its nose ended in almost a snout, and like 01, it seemed to have jagged teeth, as well as two, dark eyes. Two triangular bumps stood up from either side of the skull, and Riana suddenly realized what the head resembled. "A wolf," she said. "It looks like a wolf."
"That is somewhat intentional," Ritsuko said at Riana's side. "We were experimenting with head designs at this point. We weren't really sure how to proceed…at one point, we even set the 'eyes'—those are sensors, by the way, not viewports—on either side of the head, like deer. Then Commander Ikari mentioned that the Evas are, in their own way, hunters. Much like human beings, their eyes should be set forward. In the first production model—EVA-02—we went with omnidirectional multisensors. More efficient than the human style, or the single lens of Unit Zero, and…" Ritsuko smiled. "Sumimasen, Riana. I tend to get a little carried away by my life's work."
"That's okay." Riana leaned over the railing. She was glad that she did not get the headache this time. "Does it have a number?"
"It was called EVA-A, because it was built as a proof-of-concept machine and technology demonstrator for the UN. Since then we've used it to test mainly new weapon designs and pilot control interfaces, mainly for EVA-03, which as you may know, is being built in the United States, along with EVA-04. Because of that, we gave it the hybrid designation of EVA-03A."
"So…it's basically some sort of Frankenstein."
"On the contrary," Ritsuko corrected, a little miffed at one of her creations being maligned. "EVA-03A is meant to be an intermediate step—a trainer, if you like. We always intended to build training versions of the Evas, but because of funding and events, we were never able to do so. Pilot Ayanami and Pilot Akagi never needed them, and there wasn't time for Pilot Ikari. You, we can take our time with and evaluate. If you pass our tests and become a pilot, you will almost certainly get one of the American-built Evas—entirely appropriate, you may agree."
Riana laughed a little. "And it makes good press."
"You're right," Ritsuko nodded. "I'm glad to see that you do sense some of the reasons why you are here. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get funding to save the world."
"Fair enough." Riana turned her attention back to EVA-03A. It too seemed to grin at her, but for some reason it felt almost friendly. "So when do I get to take her out?"
"Her?" Ritsuko raised an eyebrow. "Hm. It always seemed like a 'he' to me…perhaps tomorrow. You've had quite the first day, Riana, and I'm a little concerned about what happened to you just now. I don't think it's the plugsuit; I think you're just exhausted."
"Yeah, could be." Riana abruptly noticed that Rei Ayanami was walking towards them; the other girl had an unnerving tendency to appear out of thin air. "Rei will show you back to the locker room," Ritsuko said, "and Major Katsuragi will take you back to her apartment. You'll probably only be there a few more days until we can find you a place. Sleep well, Riana."
"Thanks, Doctor Akagi." She bowed to the doctor, then followed Rei—but not without one backward glance at EVA-03A. It seemed to wait for her, patiently. She hurried past EVA-01, which seemed to wait for something entirely more sinister.
Ritsuko made her way back to the bridge at Terminal Dogma. It was deserted—by now, it was getting on into the evening, and with NERV on stand-down, Makato Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba were gone for the day. Only Maya Ibuki was left, tapping away at her computer. "Good evening, Ibuki-san," Ritsuko said.
Maya jumped a little, but turned in her seat. "Oh, sempai! Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."
She leaned over Maya's seat. "I want to see Riana Arashikaze's vital signs, just before you called me."
"Right away, sempai." Maya's fingers skipped across the keyboard. She brought up two windows on the screen: one a readout of Riana's vitals, the other a feed capture from the cameras mounted in the Eva holding bay. "Here she is following you. She stops right in front of Unit Zero for a minute…checks it out…then she runs to catch up with you at Unit One." The heart rate slightly jumped, the settled down, then sped up again. "She gets kind of pale here. I think she's scared of Unit One," Maya laughed.
"We're used to the Evas. She isn't." Ritsuko, contrary to popular belief at NERV, was not a humorless woman, but she was in no mood for levity. Maya's giggles ceased instantly and they went back to watching the feed. Riana walked forward to the edge of the catwalk, touched her forehead, and almost went down. Ritsuko glanced at the first monitor: Riana's heart rate jumped alarmingly, faster than if she was running; blood flow increased to the extremities. "Fight or flight reaction," Ritsuko mused. She froze the image.
"If Unit One scared her that bad—" Maya began.
"She's not looking at Unit One," Ritsuko cut her off. "She's not looking at anything." She cursed under her breath; if Riana had been in an Eva, they could have monitored her brain patterns as well. "All right. Now what about Unit One?"
"That's what I called you about," Maya said, rather unnecessarily, since Ritsuko already knew that. She brought up a new window. EVA-01's neural network had briefly lit up, showing activity. In theory, this was impossible, as there was no pilot inside. The network pulsed for a few moments, then shut down back to its normal, dormant state.
"Did you run a diagnostic?" Ritsuko asked.
"Of course. It's fine. No damage, nothing." Maya hesitated. "Sempai, I know the Evas are kind of…alive. We saw what Unit One did when Shinji was knocked out fighting Sachiel. There was no danger this time, though. I don't know what it is. I ran a diagnostic on the circuits, too…I thought maybe it was a computer error—"
"No, something set it off." Ritsuko stared at the figure of Riana Arashikaze. Or someone, she added to herself.