Author's Notes: Many thanks to all of you for your patience during this long wait! I'm afraid there will be another long wait for the next chapter - Christmas Day was probably the last day off (including weekends and my upcoming birthday) that I'll get until mid-February. Please do keep the feedback coming. I'm squeezing in writing and editing whenever I can, so there are more chapters in the pipeline after my big February work deadline passes!

Chapter Thirty-Six: Trouble in Paradise

Honolulu, Hawaii…
October 15, 2021…

Herc was grinning like a Cheshire cat as Devi led the way to her room. "I hope your sister's bunking with Kyrra."

"Oh, yes. I think they pulled rank on got their hands on a Jacuzzi suite. And yours knows not to expect you back tonight?"

He laughed as she pressed him against the door while slapping the Do Not Disturb sign into place. "Dunno if he's got a Jacuzzi suite, but - "

Suddenly, he faltered, his eyes off in the distance as he processed something not-so-good. Devi knew that look. Every Ranger who drifted knew it. "What's wrong? Herc?" Alarm killed her mood and the remnants of the alcohol in her system. Chuck was only eighteen, going wild at a party after his first kill… "Chuck, is he okay?"

" – yeah." Herc shook himself back into his own body, visibly resisting whatever was coming through the ghost drift. "Yeah, he's fine, just… well… doesn't like sensing me… you know, teenagers."

Oh. Well, shit. It was like a splash of cold water, turning tonight from a long time coming to really bloody awkward. Devi stared at the door. Do Not Disturb. Jaeger pilots getting some stress relief, it's not a crime. But… first and foremost came consideration for their drift partners.

Herc took a step away. "You'll not be up for asking forgiveness instead of permission, then." He sounded frustrated – hell, why shouldn't he be? Devi was the one who kept jerking him around.

Was that fair? It wasn't just about the two of them. "Not… not if he's got a problem, no. Whether it's justified or not," she added wryly. "Hawaii or not, it doesn't have to be straight to this." Especially not when I might want more than just a string of one-night stands.

To her intense relief – and very much to his credit – Herc took it gracefully. "Nah, we're both grown-ups. And we work together."

But Suze's frustration now blasted through Devi's head like feedback, and she winced. Herc grinned, trying to shrug it off, and Devi might have done, if this time her sister couldn't keep her thoughts to herself. Over five years of drifting had given them nearly-constant telepathy. Tell him something, you bloody idiot!

"Yeah, exactly. We work together. So we don't have to rush if… I don't want to." She gulped. It'd been a long, long time since she'd had to have a conversation like this. First time since before K-Day, really. Herc stared, but… did she dare to think it wasn't just embarrassment on his part? She tried to be coy about it, make herself seem a little less like she was in a Regency romance. "So I'm saying talk to your kid, Hercules. If you haven't explained the birds and the bees to him by now, you really need to catch up."

Herc guffawed, and they both leaned against the door. It made it less painful when she flipped the Do Not Disturb back off. "I wasn't that bad a parent. He knows about the facts of life… just maybe not that they still apply to me too."

Or… it occurred to Devi that Chuck and Herc had been drifting barely a year. While he'd undoubtedly pick up that Herc was getting lucky, would he realize Herc's wasn't just a Jaeger Fly? Hell, during their first few years, Devi and Suze probably couldn't have identified each other's partners without talking to each other. Chuck was still young, and being a tested pilot now with a kill to his name wouldn't change the fact that he'd only just turned eighteen. And his father a widower… Shatterdome gossip had noted (and marveled over) Herc's celibacy. The idea of him stepping back into the dating world might be unsettling to the kid.

"Suze agrees with you, for what it's worth," she told Herc. "That we should just seize the day, but – well, nothing's that simple. We've both got someone else weighing in on what goes on in our heads. It's not right to pretend we don't notice if it bothers Chuck."

Herc sighed dramatically. "You and Dr. Dahari, always at us to talk."

Now she was laughing, and deliberately avoiding looking at that nice hotel bed and how very lonely it'd be by herself. Maybe they could… no, not even that. Chuck wouldn't understand until they had that talk. "Does he… know that it's me?" Herc frowned to himself. "Maybe that's the way. We work together, we're mates, sometimes, it's just…the way it works out. After all, he must know Rangers do that."

"I'll sound him out. Tomorrow, maybe he'll be in a good mood," Herc added sourly. Devi managed not to giggle. So that brat had plans of his own tonight, for which he was not seeking permission, but had made it very clear via the ghost drift that he Did Not Approve of his father indulging the same pleasures of the flesh, in Hawaii, no less.

So that was all. They could manage tonight like adults. If Herc wanted… "If you'd rather go find someone a bit less complicated, I don't mind."

Herc smiled, and something made heat grow in her. "Maybe I'd… rather see where we go. Once we've got the kid sorted out."

He came towards her again, and gave her a far less awkward kiss. I don't want to drop this, she wanted to say. I want a chance with you. I just know we can't disregard Chuck. Perhaps it wouldn't be complete endorsement from the start, but the fact that it was Devi… maybe she'd have some clout. He still might be doubtful, or maybe the fact that both Devi and Herc had held off to talk with him would calm him down, let him know he wasn't being abandoned by his father. Fellow Rangers or not, that's what I'd owe to the child of a man I wanted, even just to date.

"Then I'll wait. Until we know we're not unsettling the co-pilots. We've got three more days, you know."

October 16, 2021…

Psst! "Hey, Tendo, wake up! You owe me twenty bucks!"

"Muh? Wha?" Tendo untangled himself from a pile of crew on the beach. (All the resort security had looked the other way when it was PPDC personnel staying out past hours.)

Alison and a couple of the crew from the other mechs were clustered around one of the few bars that was still open. "Herc just got spotted on the walk of shame, babe!"

"Dammit!" Tendo pulled out his wallet. "I used to be better at predicting the hook-ups. Was I at least right about Chuck and Evie Nakano?"

"That one you got right, man, but hang onto your cash." Christian Warner would disclaim participating in the hookup pool when his sister was around (Chloe Warner did NOT approve) but he was a shameless gossip otherwise. "I saw Herc. Babes, that ain't the walk of shame, that's the walk of disappointment."

"Aw, come on," one of Vulcan's crew, Erin, gave him a shove. "Dev's been hot for Herc almost from day one. They might've just been trying to keep a low profile, get him back to his room before Chuck gets home."

Christian shook his head and raised his right hand. "Scout's honor. It did not happen tonight, not unless it was the quickiest quickie in the history of quicks, and neither of them are like that. Devi's too nice to kick a guy out of her bed even if he wasn't all that, and Herc's too gentlemanly to bang and run." He hastily looked around to make sure Chloe wasn't in the vicinity, and Alison and Tendo laughed. "They had second thoughts."

The wagerers pondered that information. "Damn." Erin contemplated her twenty dollars and made a face. "Susanti's gonna be pissed. She's been shipping her sister and Herc so bad, you'd think this was a Marvel movie."

"I cannot bloody believe you sent him away." Suze was indeed ready to strangle her sister.

"Chuck - "

"Fuck Chuck!" Susanti realized what she'd said a split-second after she said it and hit Devi with a pillow. "That came out wrong, but you bloody well know what I mean. He's bloody eighteen, Dev, so he can get the hell over who his dad sleeps with!"

Devi caught the pillow on the second swing and threw it across the room. This whole conversation had started like a shared laugh, but something harder and hotter inside was taking over, and she wasn't finding it so funny anymore. "Yeah, because I'm a cocktease who owes it to Herc to let him in my pants."

"That is NOT what I meant and you bloody well know it!"

"Well, what do you mean, then?" Devi didn't intend to actually stick around for explanations, except that Suze got between her and the door.

"Was that a rhetorical question, then?"

Devi seriously considered fighting her way past. "Fine, it was. Now let me out. We haven't had a holiday in years, and I don't want to wreck it."

Suze softened a little, but didn't let her pass. "It doesn't have to wreck it, but let me say my piece."

"And who the hell says you get a 'piece' in my love life?"

"You do, remember, or is it only Chuck whose feelings matter?"

…Fuck. Devi looked down. With no good response coming to mind, she turned away and went out onto the balcony. It was a pretty day. Were Hawaii's beaches that much lovelier than Australia's, or was it just the tourist mythos about the place? She almost shut the door behind her, but some combination of guilt and frustration and loneliness made her stop. It came from both her own head and the ghost drift. For a few minutes, she just stood there, breathing the salty air… until she caught a whiff of something nasty. Sulfur and ammonia, maybe just industrial fumes from the busy city… or maybe the kaiju carcass still being wrestled onto the aircraft carrier a couple of miles offshore.

Suze came out and sat on the lounge chair. "Are you really going to hold out for Chuck's blessing to move on Herc?"

Devi sighed. It wouldn't do any good to pretend that she knew exactly what she was holding out for. Not with Susanti. "Not his 'blessing,' no. It's not as if I'm hoping to be his stepmum by year's end." Well, all right, maybe the thought's occurred to me now and then. "But I don't want to hurt him either. Even if he weren't Herc's co-pilot, that'd be true, and it's even more true because they drift. That's the first consideration."

"Maybe. But I don't think that's what's stopping you."

"No?" She couldn't help the edge in her voice. Well, I'm so fucking sorry for giving a damn about how other people feel. She managed not to say it out loud, but Suze heard it anyway and pursed her lips. Don't glare at me for what I think. At least I try not to say hurtful things out loud.

And I'm not trying to be hurtful. "Is it really about Chuck, or just you afraid to take a risk?" I'm in your head too much to miss the way you feel about him. You keep talking yourself out of actually acting on what you want, and now he's waiting too. He didn't have to spend last night alone after you backed off, but he did.

"Well, it's not just about what I want."

"Dev." Susanti's voice was hard, a warning that she wouldn't be put off. But it wasn't as unsympathetic as it might have been. It only made Devi cringe more. "That's not what this is about. And yeah, at the end of the day, you are jerking him around. And by extension, you're jerking Chuck and me around."

Suze didn't elaborate. She didn't need to. They were drift partners, and even if they hadn't been… Devi would probably have known what her sister was saying. What Susanti was finally forcing herself to say.

This isn't about family or camaraderie. It isn't about concern for Chuck or Herc. You're playing a dangerous game, and it has to stop.

It's not a game.

Isn't it? Was that her sister she was arguing with inside her head, or her own conscience? It wasn't just them she was being unfair to. There was an audience in her head whether either of them wanted it that way or not.

This back and forth's driving me mad, and it's not doing Herc and Chuck any favors either. It has to stop, Dev. Make up your mind. "We're not allowed to be normal, remember?" her sister said aloud. "Not about anything." Or anyone. Least of all other Rangers. "If you want Herc, act on it. Chuck can get over it. Or if you really can't handle if it the kid goes into a snit, then let it go for good and find someone else.

Suze was right. They both knew it. There was a line in the sand, and none of them could afford Devi trying to walk it any longer. She knew the risks. She knew the consequences. Time to decide.

October 17, 2021…

Half the visiting population of Honolulu was spying on the Hansen-Hassan negotiations over the remainder of their holiday. Chuck wasn't visibly out of sorts, but he did seem to be making an awfully conscious effort to avoid his father. He and Evie Nakano were occupied with every tourist activity they could find, while Evie's co-pilot had found himself a local surfing instructor.

"Damn, I thought Danny and Evie were gonna be another pair that ended up married," said Tendo, having lost a bet on that portion of the bracket.

Sasha Kaidanovsky shook her head, twirling a bottle of vodka in an ice bucket and accepting her winnings. (By all accounts, Sasha had never lost one of the gossip betting pools.) "Daniel Oliver has always liked boys. He and Evelyn take care of each other – they're young and lively – but without the drift, they would not. She is an adventurous girl, but only with boys. Her only regret is that Daniel's Hawaiian friend wasn't interested in them both."

"And Chuck?" Tendo asked, grinning.

Aleksis was the one who answered that: "If it is alive, willing, and human, Chuck will do it." There were squeals and snorts of laughter and gasps from the more innocent souls. Tendo slapped his thighs, chortling at all the reactions. After a year on Team Striker Eureka, he couldn't deny, Aleksis had the way of it.

"You have to be careful who you say that around, my friend," he warned Aleksis, doing a quick check for reporters. "Some of the Aussies still think of Chuck as their baby. They get weirded out by including him in the hookup stuff."

"He has only been eighteen for a few months. Psst!" Alison poked him when she spotted Devi and Suze coming back from whatever excursion they'd been on. "Seriously, what is she waiting for?!"

Sasha snorted. "She is a right-hand pilot. It is the same reason she and Herc cannot dance well together. Neither is willing to relinquish the lead."

Tendo and the crew mulled over that. Most of them had been betting big on an epic bodice-ripper consummation of Devi and Herc's very obvious attraction… but looking at the stats chart, Tendo noticed Sasha had not. "Really? You think not at all? Never?" Devi and Herc had been making eyes at each other since Tendo had joined the team, and according to the Aussies, it had been going on long before that.

"Alas." Sasha shook her head and considered Devi, who was sitting at one of the resort bars like she was waiting for someone. "Hercules does not like complications. Nor does she. It is too complicated for either of them."

When she picked up through the ghost drift that Herc hadn't managed to come straight out and talk to Chuck, Suze was frustrated (again) but not surprised. The whole thing was turning into a complete train wreck, making her feel like she had a perpetual itch inside her skull. She came dangerously close to storming up to the man and bellowing, "Just fucking shag already!"

The tension was palpable enough that Herc did mumble to Devi that maybe she'd get more out of Chuck than he had. Coward, Suze thought.

Devi approaching Chuck herself, as if asking bloody permission, was not what Suze would have considered an ideal outcome, but… at least her sister was doing something instead of continuing to moon about Herc, carrying on with this will-they-won't-they soap opera.

Suze really wasn't planning on or trying to eavesdrop on that uncomfortable conversation. But there was a problem with five-plus years of drifting... the stronger the emotions, the stronger the ghost drift. Devi was so nervous when she went to find Chuck that everything she saw and heard, said and felt was being broadcast through the ghost drift. Suze might as well have been following her on a hidden camera.

When Chuck saw Devi approaching, the scowl on his face made Susanti's connection to her sister's senses that much harder to ignore. For a minute, it looked as if he'd just storm off without talking to Devi at all. Susanti's blood boiled as hurt sizzled through her sister.

That bloody, petty brat - no. It wasn't right to try to influence this. She stumbled out onto the beach and stared at the waves. Rolling, rolling, foam making patterns on their crests and all the aqua and indigo colors, seagulls dipping and diving, as if there was never any danger of a monster rising out of this ocean...

But it was like a television - with surround sound - that she couldn't fully turn off. The best she could hope for was not to deliberately try to affect how Devi handled it. Suze had said her piece. Now the rest - and ultimately, the choice - lay in her sister's hands.

"I thought maybe you didn't know it was me the other night."

Chuck shrugged. "Two days out of combat drift. I couldn't very well not know." He kept his attention on Max, who was enjoying rolling around in the sand.

Devi started toward him, but he stiffened, as uncomfortable in her presence as he'd been at thirteen. It cut her deep, making it feel like the years she'd spent with him weren't worth anything.

Devi knew Herc and Suze wanted her to tell the kid to get over it. He shouldn't get veto power over his father's relationships. Chuck was too dedicated to piloting to let a stupid squabble with his father put the drift at risk. He'd deal with it.

Devi sat down on the sand where she was, a few paces away. He shot a quick look at her before turning his attention back to Max. "You're not all right with it, I guess."

It wasn't a question. The kid shrugged. "Not up to me."

And as frustrated and stung as she was, Devi couldn't miss it. Nearly a mile down the beach, staring at the sea, Suze couldn't miss it either, and it flashed through both of their stomachs. The set of his shoulders, the tension in his jaw... this wasn't just a sulk. Chuck was hurt. Not by his old man flirting, but by Devi being the one he flirted with. It wasn't just that Herc had miffed him; Chuck was upset with them both. This wasn't just jealousy about having to share Herc's attention.

Devi got up and came closer, and this time, Chuck let her. But he leaned away and muttered, "You can do what you like. It doesn't matter what I think."

"Yes, it does." To me. She didn't have to say that out loud. Chuck would scoff if she'd tried to insist that his wishes mattered to Herc. Two years of drifting, now with a kill, and he still doubted it. Was this the first time he'd doubted his worth to Devi? So she waited until he looked at her. "Things will go badly again sometimes. We'll win some battles, and we'll lose some. We'll lose other crew, other Jaegers, even if we do win the war."

That startled Chuck. "You don't think we'll win?"

"Not always. The only ones in a war like this who don't doubt anything wear red robes and chant over kaiju bones." Chuck snorted, but he grinned. "Sometimes when Ketteridge is being an ass, we've wished we were at a different Shatterdome. But no other Dome had you to remind us every day what we were fighting for." Devi smirked and gave Max an especially-vigorous head knuckling. "And Max." Chuck laughed and dodged her attempt at giving his head the same treatment. "You mattered to us before you ever set foot in a conn-pod. Don't ever think that'll change."

Chuck looked at her, then quickly turned his gaze out to the ocean. "Then... you and my dad..."

A pang of regret went through Devi to think about it, but she pushed it down with more resolve than she'd felt starting this conversation. "We got carried away." She could almost convince herself that she meant it. "After a kill, too much to drink, celebrating, it happens. We've got to work together." She gave Chuck a pointed look. "Though bear in mind, I'm not a nun and your dad's not a monk." She smirked at the strangled noise the kid made and how red his ears suddenly were. "That's asking too much of him and me."

"Wasn't expecting anything like that," Chuck muttered. But he let her pull him to his feet and went with her back to the resort to have dinner.

Suze sprawled on the sand and looked up at the sky. So that was it. Had Herc picked it up in the ghost drift from Chuck? Maybe not in this semi-voyeuristic clarity, but he'd probably caught the gist of it. It was Devi's decision, she reminded herself. Devi or Herc could have made the call not to continue the chase. Herc had been ready to hold out, to tell Chuck to deal with it like a grown up and get over it... but Devi wasn't.

Suze being cross towards Chuck would only irritate Devi, so Suze tried not to be. The look on Chuck's face when Suze arrived at the dinner buffet didn't help; he reminded her of a dog caught chewing someone's shoes.

Stop cringing at me, you little brat. I still love you. She remembered what Danny Oliver had used to say when the boys fought, what Chuck had blurted out the night he got drunk after the confrontation over the Academy application. Devi'd been right in what she told him today. You may be a selfish little shit, but none of us could live without you.

He's eighteen. He's allowed to be selfish once in awhile, Devi informed her through the ghost drift, leaping to Chuck's defense.

Suze looked down the table at her sister and rolled her eyes. And you're thirty with a martyr complex the size of Mauna Kea. You and Herc are allowed to have an adult relationship. But she knew Devi was resolved, so she dropped the subject.

Kyrra hadn't been a ghost drift eyewitness to any of today's awkward conversations, but she quickly worked out what had happened when Devi and Herc had what was clearly an awkward conversation off on the edge of one of the pool decks, then went in different directions. "I guess that means no go." Suze shook her head and threw herself onto the sand with a dramatic sigh. "It'll get easier when we're all back at the Dome in a normal routine. At least they finally talked it out."

"Yeah." Suze avoided her girlfriend's gaze, but Kyrra was onto her.

"It was up to them, love. Either one of them had the right to take it further or lower the boom."

"I know." Am I allowed to be disappointed that this wasn't the way I'd wanted it to end? Or… maybe this was just the part of Suze that was tapped into Devi's emotions, feeling the sting. It'd been Devi's decision to give up the chase… but Suze of all people knew that just because Devi decided something wasn't a good idea didn't mean she wouldn't wish things were different.

"Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Our world's a bloody complicated place. More than ever, especially for Rangers. And few more than that pair. Life's even less normal for them than it is for us," said Kyrra.

October 25, 2021…
Sydney Shatterdome…

If people were tense and edgy upon the return to Sydney, Chuck ignored the occasional glare that Team Vulcan cast at him. Even more the little splinters of resentment that came through the ghost drift from his old man.

Unlike you, she actually gave a damn what I thought, so I told her the truth. Maybe now you can find someone your own age if it's that important to get laid.

Contrary to what he'd heard some of the personnel whisper when they didn't think he was in earshot, Chuck didn't expect his father to be a monk. Herc hadn't been near a woman since Mum died; Chuck wasn't stupid enough to expect him to be the celibate widower forever (as much as he'd rather not know either way, drifting didn't allow for willful ignorance of embarrassing details.)

Things were a bit awkward at first. Well, they'd all just have to get over it and move on. Chuck was all too ready to do that, despite being by far the youngest.

At least they had the distraction of the post-engagement investigation. The tacticians, K-Watch, J-Techs, and all the rest of the crew had to pick apart the fight second by second, identify everything that had gone right, wrong, or any combination of the two, figure out what was new and what was outdated. J-Tech and Senior Engineering were especially focused on this fight, since it was the first for a newly-launched Jaeger and the Mark-5 line. (Even if there wasn't a "line" beyond Striker yet.)

There were long teleconferences between Nagasaki, Sydney, Hawaii, and the Assembly sites for both Jaegers, and while Chuck's backside was sore from sitting in a chair for hours, the whole thing wasn't as godawful boring as he expected it to be.

"You sustained far less hull damage than expected," said Priya Katwal, once the J-Techs had climbed up and down Striker's entire superstructure with high-definition scanners and cameras, documenting every inch of his hull so a hologram could be produced showing every dent and scratch from the fight.

Dr. Katwal was head of the Mark-5 Initial Combat Review project. Most people were impressed by her; she was ranked only by Jasper Schoenfeld himself, and she was designer of nearly every conn-pod in existence. Of bloody course, Marshal Ketteridge was constantly wanting updates from Schoenfeld. He also clearly didn't think much of Dr. Lea Franklin, Katwal's second-in-command for this review.

If Chuck and Herc were a little unnerved by Franklin, well, at least they had a good reason. Both of them carried the drift memories that had triggered the disaster in Manila: Scott looming over a small, vulnerable looking girl in Gipsy Danger's jacket. He fortunately hadn't had the guts to mess with a PPDC officer beyond his usual slime-and-leer, but the drift had told Herc all too well what Scott had wanted to do.

Of the former Gipsy Danger crew who had been in Manila, few knew the role Franklin had unwittingly played, but to Chuck and Herc's shared relief, nobody said a word. Tendo was all casual cheer when he introduced them, and the Hansens were grateful for it.

Chuck had to admit he was thrown by the idea that a child-sized twenty-two-year-old had made it past the first cut at the Academy, let alone got a doctorate in Electrical Engineering, but Tendo just laughed at the look on his face. "Little Lea gets that a lot. Don't underestimate her, boyo."

Devi, Susanti, and Indra invited Lea to spar in the Kwoon with them, and Chuck saw that Tendo's assessment was accurate. A lot of the J-Techs went easy on the physical drilling once they were out of contention to be pilots, and commanding officers didn't care much, but Lea still knew her Bushido. She didn't win any matches against the Rangers, but could still beat Tendo and Indra. (She blushed and demurred when one of Vulcan's crew suggested she attempt the Ranger-carrying challenge.)

To Chuck's intense relief, Striker came through with a mostly-clean bill of health. "The joint shields performed beautifully," Lea told them during the final review. Her shyness in social settings disappeared altogether when she was talking about schematics on the holoprojector. She re-played several shots of Ceramander body-slamming them or slapping its limbs against theirs. "Blows like this have taken earlier models out of commission for months or years. All your hydraulic lines and muscle strands stayed intact after eight hours of close-quarters combat."

The engineers from Brisbane were delighted, but Ketteridge was impatient. "So when can he return to active duty?"

"If the rest of the system diagnostics come back clean, by the end of the week," said Priya. She gave Ketteridge a thin smile. "You'll just have to make do with the most successful Jaeger on Earth for a few more days."

Chuck wasn't sure whether the surge of delight at Priya's sly jab was from his own head or his old man - but they both had to stifle snorts of laughter.

November 2021…

After Ceramander came the next attempt at an offensive. Striker Eureka's combat performance had a number of countries reconsidering their budgets, imagining a Mark-5 protecting their vulnerable borders. But the price tag remained extreme for an individual nation, even the wealthiest ones, and the diplomatic complications numerous if more than one nation were to pool their funds. To Stacker Pentecost's disappointment, so far, none of the negotiations had borne fruit.

What the member countries did agree on was the cost of a precision assault on the Breach: a nuclear depth charge, nearly half a megaton, to be lowered directly into it by a sophisticated automated system that would only arm the device after it was below the sea floor.

"We've developed releases like this before," Geophysicist Vanessa Gottlieb briefed the task force. "It's the same trigger system that allowed us to release the Dante Explorer probes into the Yellowstone magma chamber. With each new event, K-Science has taken readings on the electromagnetic signals coming from the Breach. The deployment line will keep the payload from impacting the walls or the sea floor - and even if the line is severed, it won't detonate."

"But are we certain this thing is going to go through the Breach?" demanded Representative Taylor from the US.

"Of course, we're not certain," she replied, so quickly and matter-of-factly that there were murmurs from the listeners. "Certainty is for charlatans. You asked for a device that would deliver your payload into the mouth of the Breach at a decreased risk of impacting on the sea floor or the upper walls. A depth charge and anchor line will eliminate most of the variables, but the forces within the Breach itself remain largely unknown."

"What sort of forces could affect the payload?" asked Caitlin from next to Stacker.

"Gravity, for one. Make no mistake, Doctor. The Breach is a doorway to another world, very possibly another dimension. The electromagnetic signals that emit from it when a kaiju emerges indicate a weaker gravitational pull than Earth - which is one possible explanation of how these enormous creatures keep moving through it so easily. It could function as a whirlpool from their environment to ours. Charged particles and byproducts of extreme electromagnetic forces and chemical reactions more deadly than anything found on this planet have been detected - which would also explain why the kaiju can withstand a nuclear explosion."

"Anyone would think those things had been designed by Satan," said Marshall Quijano from Panama City.

Dr. Gottlieb smirked to someone off camera, and a male voice remarked, "That is one of the more outlandish theories being explored by some of our more eccentric personnel."

"Hey, I heard that, and it's a valid theory, Hermann!" someone squawked on the line from one of the other K-Science labs.

Stacker said quickly, "Can we return to the subject, Dr. Gottlieb?"

"Which Gottlieb?" someone quipped.

"Whichever one can explain the likelihood that this thing actually works - certainty aside," said Marshall Morais from Lima.

Vanessa Gottlieb smiled and stepped aside. "That would be your numbers expert."

Hermann Gottlieb stepped into the frame. "Dr. Gottlieb has accounted for as many variables on this planet as is feasible," he informed the watchers, gesturing slightly towards his wife. "The launch will occur at the four-week point, increasing the probability that the Breach will be open. The greatest variable is whatever force allows the kaiju to pass through. If it is indeed a gravity differential, it may resist our efforts to move any object in the opposite direction through the throat. The closer the payload is to the Breach, the less signal we will have, and the less control we will have over its guidance systems. We can safely assume that if it enters the Breach, there will be little if no remote guidance remaining."

"So unless we've got a few volunteers for a suicide mission, it's a Hail Mary pass," remarked Jasper Schoenfeld.

"And we can safely expect the detonation to destroy the majority of our monitoring equipment at the site," Vanessa Gottlieb warned. "Which means that if the attack fails, there will be no warning of the next kaiju until K-Watch is able to replace the monitors."

"Wonderful." Representative Taylor and Secretary General Krieger exchanged glances. "That wall is looking better and better."

"Or we go back to the drawing board, since a wall will be even less effective than conventional weapons," Caitlin retorted.

Hermann Gottlieb snorted. "I quite agree with Dr. Lightcap. There is no human-manufactured material that will withstand a sustained kaiju attack."

The predictions of both Gottliebs were sound. Signal from the payload decreased the closer it came to the Breach, but it did descend far enough for the bomb to be armed. Detonation was anticlimactic, since all of the monitors and transmitters were indeed obliterated by the blast. Since the last readings indicated the payload had been well into the mouth of the Breach, Stacker and the other observers were hopeful... but Vanessa Gottlieb, to their surprise, was the first to deem the mission a failure.

"The readings of the shock waves are too large. I don't believe the payload entered the Breach itself. The explosion occurred entirely on this side, in this world."

"So you don't think it reached depth?" asked Secretary General Krieger.

"No, the payload did reach depth. It was well past the detonation depth threshold - the trigger worked precisely as we intended. But something caused the blast force to rebound entirely. I think it's very unlikely that any kaiju on the other side of the Breach even knew anything was amiss."

"Remind me again why we put a vital offensive in the hands of some egghead's trophy wife?" muttered one of the Americans, accidentally (or not) leaving his microphone on.

Plenty of the participants, both male and female, glowered, among them Hermann Gottlieb, though Vanessa Gottlieb didn't even blink. "You put in the hands of the most qualified person in K-Science," Caitlin snapped. "She warned you from Day One that there were flaws inherent in remote delivery."

That surprised Stacker, because Caitlin was always the first to shoot down any proposal of non-remote delivery. She considered nothing worth a suicide mission, and like the Gottliebs and (fortunately) a small majority of the decision-makers, that the answer to closing the Breach lay in the realm of calculation and precision and further study.

"When can we be certain of the result of this mission?" asked Jasper Schoenfeld.

Dr. Gottlieb smiled grimly. "Just as with all the previous ones. When the next kaiju arrives."

To Be Continued...

Coming Soon: The results of this latest attack on the Breach are revealed, and the Jaeger Program faces another tough test, which is witnessed from a certain teenaged bystander with Ranger dreams of her own. Mako Mori is in the house in Chapter Thirty-Seven: The View From The Gallery!

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Original Character Guide

Marshal Blake Ketteridge: Commanding Officer of Sydney Shatterdome. Australia's senior liaison to the PPDC, a former Air Vice Marshall of the Royal Australian Air Force.

Kyrra Taior: Chief Engineer for Lucky Seven, then Striker Eureka. Aboriginal, Herc's age. Youngest and sole surviving daughter of Marian Taior, an elderly aboriginal woman who occasionally looked after Chuck when he was younger.

Erin Price Riley: One of Vulcan Specter's spotter pilots, age 28, African-American from Chicago, Illinois, married to an Australian engineer, Callum Riley.

Christian Warner: Former Gipsy Danger drivesuit technician, age 30ish, African-American from Atlanta, GA, attended Academy with Beckets and his sister, Chloe. After Yancy Becket's death, he transferred to K-Watch with Chloe permanently, unable to work on another Jaeger crew.

Chloe Warner: K-Watch worker in Honolulu, transferred after she and her brother Christian failed to become Rangers at Academy. Late 20s.

Dr. Lea Franklin - age 22, lived in San Jose, California. Sole survivor of K-Day out of her family because she was traveling abroad with a school group. Extremely gifted, but has intense social anxiety due to PTSD. Attended the Jaeger Academy with the Beckets and Tendo Choi in 2016 and became a J-Tech Engineer.

Dr. Priya Katwal: J-Tech senior Engineer, formerly NASA, now designs conn-pod support systems, Indian, late 50s.