Episode 14: Until Death do us Part
With the fall of Eden, Earth refocuses its efforts to better itself. With the help of the Edenite Tenant Aelan Marcus, Earth experiences a period of unprecedented advancement. The world is rapidly changing, and it appears to be for the better.
Then from an era long thought forgotten, comes a nightmare that could destroy all that had been built…
Antarctica…
"All right… sensor drops in place." One of the survey team announced, "Let 'er rip!"
"Confirmed, beginning sensor sweeps." Another team member stated. There was a soft hum from the sensor unit as is scanned through the sheet of ice below, and to the cavern that held so much controversy.
When it was finished, the entire seven-man survey team huddled around the readouts, hoping to get some sort of idea as to how much was down there. The foreman of the team then pointed to the monitor on the sensor unit. "There it is, definitely Duriam, and a very large amount of it, too."
"That does explain a lot." Another member quipped. Now that the secret to forging Durium was discovered, there was a high demand for the supermetal, and simply not the resources to supply it. Most assuredly that this was the reason that South Am and Southeast Asia were almost ready to go to war over these caverns. This amount of Durium would be able to fund 10 nations.
"Do you think that we'd be able to get a closer look?" One of the team suggested. "All the Durium seems to be rather concentrated in one area of the cavern. Doesn't anyone else find this curious?"
Several others had to admit their curiosity as well. "All right… let's risk it. Increase the resolution 300%." The foreman finally conceded. Such a heavy sonar barrage could cause the entire cavern to collapse, but the chances were still small.
However, luck was (or more appropriately wasn't) on their side. The sonar barrage did indeed start the cavern ceiling to collapse. The foreman quickly tried to rush his team out of the cavern, but watched helplessly as one of his team fell through the ice, and into the cavern below.
Remington Geoffrey had heard once that 'It wasn't the fall that ever hurt anyone, it was the sudden stop at the end.' With much chagrin, he realized that the saying was quite accurate. He slowly stood to make sure that nothing was broken. Other than some expected soreness and a few bruises, he was unharmed. Satisfied, and somewhat amazed, that he was at least all in one piece, he started to scan his new surroundings.
The first thing he did was look up. Thirty-five feet never seemed like much when displayed on a computer screen. In real life, it was quite an intimidating height indeed. From his vantage point, he could barely see the other members of his survey team looking over the edge.
"You all right, young man?" The foreman asked in concern.
"Considering that I just took a 35 foot fall, I'd say I'm quite well." Remington answered.
"Good. We'll get something down here to pull you up, just hang tight."
"Sure thing, boss." The young surveyor replied, then got to looking around the cavern proper. At the south end, where the sensors had detected the Durium was an object that caused Remington to exclaim, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"
The foreman quickly asked, "What is it? What do you see?"
Remington walked south, eventually disappearing from the view of the rest of the survey team. The foreman then patched into Remington's comm signal, demanding, "What is down there, Remington?"
The young man looked over the object repeatedly. While definitely in a state of prolonged neglect, its shape and design was unmistakable, the engines on what must have been the rear of the vessel, along with the black glass substance in the front were a dead giveaway.
"It's… a space vessel, sir. A large one." Remington gasped, unable to take his eyes off the hulking monstrosity.
"Did you hit your head, Remington?" The foreman asked, "This cavern has been sealed for God knows how long. Who could have possibly have built a spaceship?"
Remington looked over the hull of the craft, noticing the strange symbols along the starboard side of the craft. "I not sure, sir, but I never said it was made on Earth. I'm going to check inside."
It appeared that the foreman was about to object, but then relented, "All right, kid, but keep your eyes open. I don't want that thing collapsing on you. It could be very unstable, especially having half the ceiling falling on it."
"Understood." Remington acknowledged, then stepped through a large breach on the starboard side. Fortunately, he remembered to carry a spotlight with him, for the ship's interior was very dark.
He strode through the darkened halls with trepidation, glancing in every direction and every intersection. Eventually, he found his way to what had been the bridge. Glancing at the panels, he noticed that one of them was still lighted.
"Sir, you aren't going to believe this… but this ship still has power."
"WHAT? Do you realize how long this thing must have been buried under all this ice?" The foreman challenged.
"I know, sir… but it is." Underneath the monitor was a small red button. Cautiously, he pushed it down. There was the sound of groaning metal, then suddenly a wall panel to his left pulled away. In utter disbelief, Remington moaned, "There… is NO way…"
"What? What is it, Remington?"
Remington approached the long stasis tube, bathed in a gentle blue light. Looking over the tube, and noticing the various lights dancing about the tube, he commented, "I know where the power on this ship is going, sir."
"Where?"
"It's powering a stasis tube of some sort. There's something still alive down here."
There was silence on the other end, the foreman obviously stunned to silence. Meanwhile, Remington looked over the large, well built form inside. The man's features were stunningly humanoid, but as he looked at the person's face, he noticed that his eyelids were open slightly, the pupils looked like pinpoints surrounded by deep crimson irises.
At that moment it all clicked. The Durium… the vessel… the symbols… all he had heard… there was only one explanation. The ship was from Eden, and the man in stasis was an Edenite…
North Am, Estate of the Advisor, New Richmond…
Aelan looked around pleasantly at the gathered guests that had stayed after his announcement for re-election. Noin leaned over his shoulder, and asked, "You look surprised."
The North Am advisor shook his head, and said, "I'm amazed by the support I've received. I had figured once news of my… not so Terran origins… were made public that I'd rapidly lose my clout. Humanity had a tendency to be rather xenophobic in my estimation."
Noin laughed softly, and replied, "People are more convinced by actions rather than by ancestry. You've been around long enough for most people to realize you aren't a threat."
"How many people would think that if they knew why I came here in the first place?" Aelan queried
Noin nodded, and replied, "Not many… but I won't let that be held against you. That'll be our little secret." She added with a wry smile, then suddenly slapped herself, "Oh, by the way, I want you to meet one of your supporters." As Aelan turned, Noin introduced her to a petite woman with flowing brown hair, "Aelan this is Une, one of the Preventers that I was a part of."
Aelan nodded, "Yes, Lady Une. I had heard of you, but I don't think we were ever properly introduced."
"Probably because I was too busy trying to figure out how you were able to court Lucrezia and several of the Gundam pilots into your service. All Quatre ever does is praise your accomplishments every time I see him."
Aelan laughed, and replied, "Why do I highly doubt that?"
Noin stepped away, and replied, "I think I'll leave you two be. I think someone is calling me."
Noin watch the pair as they eventually sat down at a small table in the corner of the reception area. Their candid conversation lead to Une leaning forward and looking into Aelan's eyes, most likely drawn by their unusual color.
"Aelan would never let me get away with that…" Noin snorted, "Don't you even get too close, Une. He's not avail… what the hell am I doing?" Noin almost couldn't believe herself seething. "Why am I getting all angry about this?"
She decided she needed to stop glaring over at Une and Aelan before someone got the wrong idea. Noin quickly began to mingle with the rest of crowd, but would occasionally catch herself glaring back to make sure nothing was going on. Even her attitude was disturbing her.
Fortunately, her attention was distracted when Relena stood up. With an amused glare, she pulled Heero up as well. Noin laughed as she noticed that Heero was blushing. It was rare that Heero was embarrased, and Noin smirked when she realized that she had left her camera at home.
Relena then smiled, and Noin could swear that she was almost floating on air. "I know that this reception is for Aelan, but if you don't mind, Advisor, Heero and I have some news of our own."
When Aelan gave full permission, Relena nearly sang out, "Heero and I have decided to get married! I'm sorry, it may sound silly of me, but I just had to share this happy day with everyone."
As hard as Heero was trying to contain himself, the red flush to his cheeks was a dead giveaway. He was just as excited as Relena was, he was simply trying to pretend he wasn't. Noin knew that she had to find a recording of this, all of it was simply too classic. In all the excitement, Noin had finally managed to forget about Aelan and Une, but not for long…
For such a large crowd, they had been quite tidy. Usually Aelan had noticed that there was an exponential relation to the amount of trash and the number of people involved.
As he picked up the final piece of litter, he heard Noin's voice. "Don't you have a cleaning crew that takes care of that?"
Aelan looked up at the young admiral, then replied, "I didn't want to waste their time with such a small mess."
Noin nodded, then licked her lips nervously. Finally, she said sheepishly, "That's good. I wanted to talk to you alone, anyway…"
"What about?"
Noin bit her lip gently, then stated, "I saw you and Une, and started to feel… jealous. I was upset that you two were able to hit it off so easily. It made me wonder if I was letting something special to me just slip away."
Soon, Noin was mere inches away from Aelan's face, and as she leaned forward, the Edenite quickly put his hand in between the pair. "Lucrezia, I can't do this. You know I can't."
Somewhat saddened, yet understanding, Noin pulled away. "You have a dedication that I should have myself."
Aelan then cupped her chin, and replied, "I may not be able to be what you want me to be, but let me assure you that I know the pain you are feeling. It is tough, and I will always be here when you need a shoulder to cry on."
"Thank you, Aelan." Noin replied, "You are right. Perhaps I'm still hurting from Miliardo's death. I apologize."
"You'll never stop hurting, Noin." Aelan replied, "But you will learn to become stronger. If you ever forget this pain, THAT is when you should be concerned."
Aelan closed the door to the bedroom, and stared down at the knob. That had been a very tense moment, and he had been surprised by his own initial response. He really hadn't wanted to push her away.
"Who in the hell do you think you are?" A voice rasped.
Aelan instantly recognized the voice, even though he had only heard it a couple of times. "Lucrezia really thinks you're dead this time." Aelan answered, turning around
Miliardo Peacecraft shrugged, and retorted, "That is probably for the best." Then he demanded again, "One more time. Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"How dare you reject Noin like that? Just because your some damn Edenite makes you too good for a human? I can tell you care, so what is stopping you?" Miliardo glared at Aelan, almost murderously.
"I would think that you'd be happy that I'm keeping my distance." Aelan retorted.
"The only thing that would make me happy is to see Noin happy. Now answer my question."
Aelan sighed, and replied, "It has nothing to do with Lucrezia, Mr. Peacecraft. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't."
When it became apparent that Miliardo was not going to accept that answer, he added, "Perhaps I should explain. They made me grow my hair out before I left Eden so that people wouldn't see this." With that, he pulled up his hairline, revealing a bright red circular mark on his right temple. "The Tenant Council was worried that it would stand out."
Miliardo looked closer, and asked, "What is it?"
"It is the equivalent to a human wedding ring." Aelan answered, "The Edenites believed in forever unions, and this mark is a symbol of that permanent ideal."
"Where is your wife?"
"Dead." Aelan answered, "And I killed her."
Miliardo was silent, and Aelan took that as an opportunity to explain. "When I had been promoted to Tenant, I decided to visit my wife. At the time, she was working in the cybernetic field with a man named Ventrali Gorrs."
"Ventrali Gorrs." Miliardo hissed, "Any relation to a certain Kiron Gorrs?"
"Brothers." Aelan replied, but began to sense he was drifting from the topic, "Anyway, Ventrali had been working on a way to utilize cybernetic systems to bring people who were dead back to life. I attended the first attempt to revive someone under the Eternal Project. With it, Edenites were to become immortal."
"Reawakening Frankenstein's monster." Miliardo mused, "That entire Gorrs family seems to be all the same. Kiron ranting about being a god, Ventrali's desire to attain immortality, someone should have killed the brats as they had been born."
Aelan ignored Miliardo's comments. Once again, they were drifting from the topic at hand. "The project was a failure. For reasons that no one knows to this day, the cyborg went berserk."
Aelan then dropped his head, remembering this was always difficult. "In its rampage, my wife tried to stop it, and she was stuck in the main research bay as the cyborg destroyed the main support pilliar to the entire section. From there, it started to make its way outside the facility. Once outside, there would have been no way to stop it."
"I was able to reach the terminal that controlled the cyborg's life-support systems. Then I noticed the supports to the research bay starting to give. A small beam fell on my wife, trapping her inside. There, I was stuck with a choice. I didn't have the time to pull my wife out of the wreckage, and disable the cyborg before it escaped the facility."
"Using my Tenant access, I disabled the cyborg, and turned just in time to see the entire bay collapse. They found her body three hours later."
"You made the choice that saved billions of lives, yet sacrificed the one you loved." Miliardo summerized, "And yet, even though your wife is dead, you still are devoted to her totally."
Aelan nodded, "As I said, Edenite marriages are forever. However, my devotion is no longer total, although I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing…"
Back in Antarctica…
Remington woke up from his deep slumber to the sound of the foreman of the survey team shouting. As Remington emerged from his tent, the foreman quickly rushed up to him.
"We have a problem, kid." He gasped urgently.
"What's up, sir?"
The foreman took a deep breath, and replied, "Remember that Edenite you found? Well, he's gone. All that is left was an empty stasis tube."
Next Time…
Relena goes shopping, and rumors of an even deeper reason for Relena's actions stem as Noin, Duo, and Aelan compare notes. But what begins as an innocent shopping spree quickly turns to terror, as Aelan is attacked by a strange being with the appearance of an Edenite, and Relena gets caught in the middle.
Coming in Episode 15: Wounds of the Heart