Intruder - Part Fifteen
Lunch...
Wufei, fed up with sitting in his room, had gone to find Heero. He wanted to find out if the intruder really was made of Gundanium. Walking up the corridor, he could smell cooking. ~ Quatre was supposed to be resting. ~
It was still possible he could black out again, but he'd got away with it because Duo had now taken up the position of the patient. ~ Duo, patient? ~ A faint smile passed his features as he opened the door to the Mess hall.
As he'd guessed, it was Quatre cooking, but he wasn't alone, as Heero was standing over the parts of the intruder, which was strewn across the table. As he entered Quatre turned around to see who it was.
"Oh, Hi Wufei. Are you hungry?"
Chang thought for a moment. "Yes. A little."
"Ok, you can have some of this when its finished." Quatre continued his cooking.
He turned to Heero, who was examining part of the robotic assassin. To Wufei, it looked almost like-
"The power source. A mini fusion reactor equipped with sufficient shielding to silence it." Heero explained. He placed a large sheet of metal back over it, and removed it again. "Very sophisticated." He put if down on the table carefully, and picked up another piece. The Gundam style head/mask. It had no crest, but other than that, wouldn't have looked too out of place in the Hangar. He offered it to Wufei, who declined, and picked up another bit. Turning it over in his hands he offered a suggestion.
"Weapon storage?"
"If it was full size, it would be the pilot's cockpit."
"..." Chang placed it back where it had come from, and traded for a new piece.
"What do you think this is for?" he asked, giving it to Heero. He took it, and wiped it clean on his shirt.
"Hmm..." he moved a few pieces on it and a light flickered on. It sparked. Heero was checking it over as he spoke.
"Self detonation mechanism. If it has as much power as the other one, then-"
"Other one?" Wufei inquired.
"Yes. It would seem - ah, there it is." He pulled a couple of wires out. It sparked again then went out. "-the other one was not made entirely of Gundanium, only a small part of it. That part actually." He pointed to the pilot's seat Wufei had picked up earlier. That part only is made from Gundanium. The piece I found wasn't from the robot.
"Then where-" He stopped, as if he had just solved the puzzle, or at least part of it.
"Sandrock." He said simply.
Quatre turned his attention back to the other two. "What!? How could it-"
"Duo's room, now." Heero said, getting an idea.
"But won't he-"
"Are you coming or not Quatre?"
"Yes" ~ If its to do with Sandrock then of course I'm going. Lunch will have to wait. ~
"Right then." He said, and they left.
Quatre turned off the oven and put his meal in the fridge. Then he went after them.
Trowa didn't like to admit it, but Hilde was actually very good with the whole Charlie thing. What he meant was, that he'd expected her to, well he didn't know what he'd expected here to do, but he didn't think she'd be like this...
"Charlie? Charlie, c'mon. C'm'ere." He came. "There's a good boy, aren't you great!"
She was sitting on the sofa, and Charlie had come over and sat next to her. She was roughly scratching his neck, and under his head. He was sitting there with his eyes shut, and the loud 'purring' noise was coming from him again.
Trowa watched as he laid his head down on her lap, and continued purring. She was stroking the back of his neck now, combing his scruffy mane with her fingers.
Looking up at Trowa, she smiled at him;
"How am I doing?"
He nodded. Charlie gazed up at her with those big brown eyes.
"Oh, sorry Chars."
~ Chars? Great, now he has three names. ~
"Trowa?" Hilde asked.
He looked up at her.
"Don't lions usually have kinda yellow eyes?"
"It depends on the parents."
"Oh."
Charlie meanwhile was busy registering Hilde's scent, and fixing it to the memory of her. He knew she would always give him plenty of attention, just like his playmate.
When Heero, Wufei and Quatre got to Duo's room, they found it still reasonably tidy, this was very unusual, especially for Duo, but they had all been so busy, he just can't have had enough time to mess it up again.
They all went in, and Wufei started scanning the camera views. He soon found it.
"This one" he pointed at the screen which showed Sandrock.
Heero flipped it over to the main screen, and started to rewind.
"When did you go out this morning, Wufei?"
"With Quatre? About 11.00am. But it was yesterday that I thought it had moved."
"Yesterday? What time?"
"10.00am."
Quatre was sitting on the bed, staring into the floor.
~ This was on purpose? But who? ~
As he was looking down he noticed a pair of jeans sticking out from under the bed. The bit he could see had a brown stripe across it. ~ Oh, Duo. What are you up to now? ~
He glanced over to see what the other two were doing. Sandrock was on the main screen, and they were watching Trowa doing something to it. Quatre was torn. He wanted to stay and watch, to find out what was going on. But he also wanted to go and find Duo, wanting to know what he was doing up, and out of the medlab. The other two were so engrossed in the proceedings on the TV, that they were practically ignoring him. ~ I'll go and find Duo. ~
"Excuse me? Heero? Wufei? I'm going to," he paused thinking of an excuse, and wondering if they'd heard him. "I'm going to finish lunch."
"Not for me." Wufei said, watching the resident acrobat climbing around on Sandrock. Heero said nothing. Quatre left for the mess hall, I he wasn't in the medlab and he wasn't in his room, then that would be the first place to check.
Hilde was still stroking a very contented Charlie. He'd dozed off, and was sleeping with his head still on her lap.
"Uh- My legs have gone to sleep."
Trowa looked up, disturbed from his thoughts.
"When are we going to let him out?"
"Hmm, what do you mean, out?"
"Y'know, just in the corridors."
"I suppose we could let him out now."
"He's asleep."
"Not for long."
"But-"
"Charlie!"
The lion sprang off the sofa, and went to Trowa. He followed as he opened the door.
"Go on then."
Charlie sniffed the door and slipped out in to the hall.
"There."
Hilde watched in silence. Trowa left, and was about to close the door on her when he remembered she was there.
"Coming?"
"Yes."
Quatre had reached the Mess hall door. It was closed. It was hardly ever closed. Gently so as not to make a noise, he opened it. As he had thought Duo was indeed out of bed, and currently rummaging through the fridge, absently humming a tune. Quatre noticed that his braid had been retied at the end, and hardly looked any different from usual.
He stood in the door way and watched as he picked up a packet of something, and closed the fridge. He then opened the cupboards to get a plate, and, sighed. It was empty. *Mutter mumble complain * Quatre watched as Duo put whatever it was in the microwave, *whir...ping *and almost immediately took it out again. Holding the hot whatever it was in the now empty plastic wrapper, he bent down, and got another little plastic packet out of the freezer below the counter, holding it in his mouth while he stood up, and shut the door. He then turned around, packet still in mouth, and saw Quatre. Quatre smiled at him and waved. Duo opened his mouth to speak, and had to catch the second packet as it fell.
"Uh, Hi Cat. What're y' doin'? Spyin' on me?"
"Duo, just answer me this, What are you doing?"
"Havin' a picnic. What's it look like?"
Quatre frowned, and crossed his arms. Duo shrugged, and started his lunch. Quatre was still watching, and wanted to hear the excuse.
"I'm provin' that I'm not a charity case, an' I can cope for myself. I don't need anyone lookin' after me, or keepin' an eye on me. I ain't a kid no more."
Quatre's expression softened, in apology for pressing him. But still seemed curious as to what it was exactly that Duo was eating. He explained.
"Microwave sausage rolls...my specialty."
"Really? How do you do them?"
"Well, first y' get them outta the fridge, an' stick 'em in the Micro for about 10 - 30 seconds, and, well, that's it, simple."
"Aw, Duo, honestly."
"Y' didn't think I made 'em did you? Are you crazy? No chance!" He laughed.
He'd finished his lunch, and opened the other packet. Quatre eyed it suspiciously.
"This? Ice cream. In chocolate." He grinned. "I got Hilde t' bring 'em over last time, an' I've been savin' 'em for later."
Quatre shook his head and smiled. Duo ducked under the counter and re-emerged holding another of the shiny golden packets. He threw it across to Quatre, and ignored the stab of pain for moving his shoulder too fast with a chest injury.
"Here, you have this one."
Quatre caught it. "Thanks." He beamed.
Hilde went out into the corridor after Charlie. He'd already gone off down towards the Pilot's wing. She followed him, with Trowa behind her. He didn't know why he was going there, with her, but vaguely he wondered if maybe he should watch Charlie, just to make sure he doesn't do anything he shouldn't or whatever. He also wanted to find out if Heero had found anything new. Going after Hilde, who was going after Charlie, who in turn seemed to be looking for the other pilots, wasn't really very interesting, but it was a good excuse to wander around doing nothing.
Wufei and Heero were still working on the DCS. They had already decided that it wasn't Trowa, even if it did look like him. Trowa wouldn't harm Quatre, he was his best friend.
~ But can we prove it? ~
They could. At the time at which 'Trowa' was in the Hangar, he was also in the corridor, fixing up the mess made by the explosion with Heero. This was confirmed when 'Trowa' disappeared from view behind Sandrock, and didn't come out again. However 'Duo' did. This was a mistake, because at that moment the ceiling hatch opened, and in came Altron. 'Duo' ran out the Hangar, and round the corner out of sight, but not before Wufei had gotten out of Nataku, and shouted to "Maxwell" who was retreating around the corner. Wufei on screen looked a little confused, but very calm, and reasonably pleased with himself. The Wufei sitting next to Heero then pointed to himself, and rewound then played back the last couple minutes as he explained what had happened.
"Here I land, and think Sandrock has moved, although it has not. Then I get out, and I see Maxwell going round the corner. I call him, but he doesn't answer. Then I leave."
"What about before you came in? Did anything happen then?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Nothing? At all?"
"I was out destroying mines. There was some MD too. Then I came back in. My radar blipped, so I checked it, but nothing was there." Wufei reported his actions.
Heero nodded, and rewound to the bit just before Altron returned. He flicked through a couple of different views. He got to the one he was looking for. There in the center of the screen was a large image of Nataku, firing reverse thrusters to slow for landing.
"When did the radar go?"
"Just before entering the hatch."
The same view, a little later, showed the back of Altron close to entering the Hangar bay. There was nothing else, just stars and empty space, with Colony L6 in the very far background. ~ Nothing? There must be something somewhere ~
At that moment, the door opened...
Lunch...
Wufei, fed up with sitting in his room, had gone to find Heero. He wanted to find out if the intruder really was made of Gundanium. Walking up the corridor, he could smell cooking. ~ Quatre was supposed to be resting. ~
It was still possible he could black out again, but he'd got away with it because Duo had now taken up the position of the patient. ~ Duo, patient? ~ A faint smile passed his features as he opened the door to the Mess hall.
As he'd guessed, it was Quatre cooking, but he wasn't alone, as Heero was standing over the parts of the intruder, which was strewn across the table. As he entered Quatre turned around to see who it was.
"Oh, Hi Wufei. Are you hungry?"
Chang thought for a moment. "Yes. A little."
"Ok, you can have some of this when its finished." Quatre continued his cooking.
He turned to Heero, who was examining part of the robotic assassin. To Wufei, it looked almost like-
"The power source. A mini fusion reactor equipped with sufficient shielding to silence it." Heero explained. He placed a large sheet of metal back over it, and removed it again. "Very sophisticated." He put if down on the table carefully, and picked up another piece. The Gundam style head/mask. It had no crest, but other than that, wouldn't have looked too out of place in the Hangar. He offered it to Wufei, who declined, and picked up another bit. Turning it over in his hands he offered a suggestion.
"Weapon storage?"
"If it was full size, it would be the pilot's cockpit."
"..." Chang placed it back where it had come from, and traded for a new piece.
"What do you think this is for?" he asked, giving it to Heero. He took it, and wiped it clean on his shirt.
"Hmm..." he moved a few pieces on it and a light flickered on. It sparked. Heero was checking it over as he spoke.
"Self detonation mechanism. If it has as much power as the other one, then-"
"Other one?" Wufei inquired.
"Yes. It would seem - ah, there it is." He pulled a couple of wires out. It sparked again then went out. "-the other one was not made entirely of Gundanium, only a small part of it. That part actually." He pointed to the pilot's seat Wufei had picked up earlier. That part only is made from Gundanium. The piece I found wasn't from the robot.
"Then where-" He stopped, as if he had just solved the puzzle, or at least part of it.
"Sandrock." He said simply.
Quatre turned his attention back to the other two. "What!? How could it-"
"Duo's room, now." Heero said, getting an idea.
"But won't he-"
"Are you coming or not Quatre?"
"Yes" ~ If its to do with Sandrock then of course I'm going. Lunch will have to wait. ~
"Right then." He said, and they left.
Quatre turned off the oven and put his meal in the fridge. Then he went after them.
Trowa didn't like to admit it, but Hilde was actually very good with the whole Charlie thing. What he meant was, that he'd expected her to, well he didn't know what he'd expected here to do, but he didn't think she'd be like this...
"Charlie? Charlie, c'mon. C'm'ere." He came. "There's a good boy, aren't you great!"
She was sitting on the sofa, and Charlie had come over and sat next to her. She was roughly scratching his neck, and under his head. He was sitting there with his eyes shut, and the loud 'purring' noise was coming from him again.
Trowa watched as he laid his head down on her lap, and continued purring. She was stroking the back of his neck now, combing his scruffy mane with her fingers.
Looking up at Trowa, she smiled at him;
"How am I doing?"
He nodded. Charlie gazed up at her with those big brown eyes.
"Oh, sorry Chars."
~ Chars? Great, now he has three names. ~
"Trowa?" Hilde asked.
He looked up at her.
"Don't lions usually have kinda yellow eyes?"
"It depends on the parents."
"Oh."
Charlie meanwhile was busy registering Hilde's scent, and fixing it to the memory of her. He knew she would always give him plenty of attention, just like his playmate.
When Heero, Wufei and Quatre got to Duo's room, they found it still reasonably tidy, this was very unusual, especially for Duo, but they had all been so busy, he just can't have had enough time to mess it up again.
They all went in, and Wufei started scanning the camera views. He soon found it.
"This one" he pointed at the screen which showed Sandrock.
Heero flipped it over to the main screen, and started to rewind.
"When did you go out this morning, Wufei?"
"With Quatre? About 11.00am. But it was yesterday that I thought it had moved."
"Yesterday? What time?"
"10.00am."
Quatre was sitting on the bed, staring into the floor.
~ This was on purpose? But who? ~
As he was looking down he noticed a pair of jeans sticking out from under the bed. The bit he could see had a brown stripe across it. ~ Oh, Duo. What are you up to now? ~
He glanced over to see what the other two were doing. Sandrock was on the main screen, and they were watching Trowa doing something to it. Quatre was torn. He wanted to stay and watch, to find out what was going on. But he also wanted to go and find Duo, wanting to know what he was doing up, and out of the medlab. The other two were so engrossed in the proceedings on the TV, that they were practically ignoring him. ~ I'll go and find Duo. ~
"Excuse me? Heero? Wufei? I'm going to," he paused thinking of an excuse, and wondering if they'd heard him. "I'm going to finish lunch."
"Not for me." Wufei said, watching the resident acrobat climbing around on Sandrock. Heero said nothing. Quatre left for the mess hall, I he wasn't in the medlab and he wasn't in his room, then that would be the first place to check.
Hilde was still stroking a very contented Charlie. He'd dozed off, and was sleeping with his head still on her lap.
"Uh- My legs have gone to sleep."
Trowa looked up, disturbed from his thoughts.
"When are we going to let him out?"
"Hmm, what do you mean, out?"
"Y'know, just in the corridors."
"I suppose we could let him out now."
"He's asleep."
"Not for long."
"But-"
"Charlie!"
The lion sprang off the sofa, and went to Trowa. He followed as he opened the door.
"Go on then."
Charlie sniffed the door and slipped out in to the hall.
"There."
Hilde watched in silence. Trowa left, and was about to close the door on her when he remembered she was there.
"Coming?"
"Yes."
Quatre had reached the Mess hall door. It was closed. It was hardly ever closed. Gently so as not to make a noise, he opened it. As he had thought Duo was indeed out of bed, and currently rummaging through the fridge, absently humming a tune. Quatre noticed that his braid had been retied at the end, and hardly looked any different from usual.
He stood in the door way and watched as he picked up a packet of something, and closed the fridge. He then opened the cupboards to get a plate, and, sighed. It was empty. *Mutter mumble complain * Quatre watched as Duo put whatever it was in the microwave, *whir...ping *and almost immediately took it out again. Holding the hot whatever it was in the now empty plastic wrapper, he bent down, and got another little plastic packet out of the freezer below the counter, holding it in his mouth while he stood up, and shut the door. He then turned around, packet still in mouth, and saw Quatre. Quatre smiled at him and waved. Duo opened his mouth to speak, and had to catch the second packet as it fell.
"Uh, Hi Cat. What're y' doin'? Spyin' on me?"
"Duo, just answer me this, What are you doing?"
"Havin' a picnic. What's it look like?"
Quatre frowned, and crossed his arms. Duo shrugged, and started his lunch. Quatre was still watching, and wanted to hear the excuse.
"I'm provin' that I'm not a charity case, an' I can cope for myself. I don't need anyone lookin' after me, or keepin' an eye on me. I ain't a kid no more."
Quatre's expression softened, in apology for pressing him. But still seemed curious as to what it was exactly that Duo was eating. He explained.
"Microwave sausage rolls...my specialty."
"Really? How do you do them?"
"Well, first y' get them outta the fridge, an' stick 'em in the Micro for about 10 - 30 seconds, and, well, that's it, simple."
"Aw, Duo, honestly."
"Y' didn't think I made 'em did you? Are you crazy? No chance!" He laughed.
He'd finished his lunch, and opened the other packet. Quatre eyed it suspiciously.
"This? Ice cream. In chocolate." He grinned. "I got Hilde t' bring 'em over last time, an' I've been savin' 'em for later."
Quatre shook his head and smiled. Duo ducked under the counter and re-emerged holding another of the shiny golden packets. He threw it across to Quatre, and ignored the stab of pain for moving his shoulder too fast with a chest injury.
"Here, you have this one."
Quatre caught it. "Thanks." He beamed.
Hilde went out into the corridor after Charlie. He'd already gone off down towards the Pilot's wing. She followed him, with Trowa behind her. He didn't know why he was going there, with her, but vaguely he wondered if maybe he should watch Charlie, just to make sure he doesn't do anything he shouldn't or whatever. He also wanted to find out if Heero had found anything new. Going after Hilde, who was going after Charlie, who in turn seemed to be looking for the other pilots, wasn't really very interesting, but it was a good excuse to wander around doing nothing.
Wufei and Heero were still working on the DCS. They had already decided that it wasn't Trowa, even if it did look like him. Trowa wouldn't harm Quatre, he was his best friend.
~ But can we prove it? ~
They could. At the time at which 'Trowa' was in the Hangar, he was also in the corridor, fixing up the mess made by the explosion with Heero. This was confirmed when 'Trowa' disappeared from view behind Sandrock, and didn't come out again. However 'Duo' did. This was a mistake, because at that moment the ceiling hatch opened, and in came Altron. 'Duo' ran out the Hangar, and round the corner out of sight, but not before Wufei had gotten out of Nataku, and shouted to "Maxwell" who was retreating around the corner. Wufei on screen looked a little confused, but very calm, and reasonably pleased with himself. The Wufei sitting next to Heero then pointed to himself, and rewound then played back the last couple minutes as he explained what had happened.
"Here I land, and think Sandrock has moved, although it has not. Then I get out, and I see Maxwell going round the corner. I call him, but he doesn't answer. Then I leave."
"What about before you came in? Did anything happen then?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Nothing? At all?"
"I was out destroying mines. There was some MD too. Then I came back in. My radar blipped, so I checked it, but nothing was there." Wufei reported his actions.
Heero nodded, and rewound to the bit just before Altron returned. He flicked through a couple of different views. He got to the one he was looking for. There in the center of the screen was a large image of Nataku, firing reverse thrusters to slow for landing.
"When did the radar go?"
"Just before entering the hatch."
The same view, a little later, showed the back of Altron close to entering the Hangar bay. There was nothing else, just stars and empty space, with Colony L6 in the very far background. ~ Nothing? There must be something somewhere ~
At that moment, the door opened...