Tell me, why is it that all
things seem to have no meaning?
Don't you think that the world's just too cruel?
All that I want to say to you is that I am sorry
For being so hard to comprehend; that, and I love you.
--"Airmail from the Moon"
* * *
In space, the sound of the huge
Vernier rocket engines warming up did not carry like it would
have on Earth. Duo liked that. Space was much quieter than Earth
or the colonies. It gave Duo time to think, something Hilde often
suggested he do more of.
"The ministry of science
sure got this shuttle ready quickly," Duo commented to
Heero, who was staring at an image of Relena on the monitor.
"I have a sneaky suspicion that they had one all ready in
case they ever needed it." He touched the dashboard, which
was clean although worn. The shuttle had been a standard Earth to
Colony transport, but the Ministry had modified it with fast long
distance rockets to carry them on an intercept course with the
Object. The newer controls contrasted sharply with the slightly
aged interior.
Heero continued to stare at the
monitor image of Relena, which was piped in through a camera in
the passenger cabin. Duo grinned to himself. Hilde had given him
a very enthusiastic good-bye, but Heero did not have the benefit
of an eager girlfriend, and so had to suffer alone. "Ne,
Heero, maybe you ought to go to the passenger cabin yourself.
You'd have a better view," Duo teased. Heero gave Duo one of
his infamous Death Glares, but turned off the view screen with a
soft sigh. Duo decided wickedly to bother Heero about Relena for
the entire trip.
* * *
Relena tucked her feet into the
special zero-G boots that had been bolted to the floor of the
modified shuttle. In the three days since she'd agreed on behalf
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to represent Earth in the
event the signals were real, she'd been drilled on more zero-G
techniques than she'd ever had to learn before. The Ministry of
Science had initially balked when she'd expressed her wish to go
in person, since they had wanted a representative with some space
experience beyond normal travel. But Lady Une had a lot of clout,
and in the end, the team had consisted of herself, Relena, Lady
Une, Doctor O' Malley, Quatre, and Sally Po and Wu-Fei, who would
be acting as their guards. Oddly enough, her sister-in-law Noin
had decided not to go at the last minute. She'd called it
'personal' reasons and had smiled cattily on the viewscreen.
Relena had a sneaky suspicion she knew exactly why Noin had
changed her mind, even though she'd been so enthusiastic when
she'd called Relena to let her know she wasn't going. They would
have pushed the mission back two days for her, to allow transit
time from Mars, but Noin had been adament. She was not going into
zero-G.
Relena fingered the plastic
armrest idly while they waited to launch. The entire shuttle was
familiar, yet different from the ones she'd flown in hundreds of
times before. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the
missing seats and dimmed lights in this shuttle made the
passenger cabin seem a lot smaller. The fact that both Heero and
Duo were piloting also made a difference. Gone were the two
skinny teenagers who had alternately saved her or threatened to
kill her so many times in the past. In their place were two young
men, both full of promise and potential, having found their
places in life. They had changed, just as she had changed.
She hadn't seen Heero since the
wedding. He and Duo had not been in any of her trainings, since
they had to learn to pilot the shuttle, a time-consuming task.
He'd left her alone, after the wedding, without saying good-bye,
as usual. She wondered briefly if she'd see him at all during the
trip. She pretended that her heart did not beat faster at the
very thought.
* * *
Trowa clutched Dozé Winner's
hand in the control room of the colony launch pad. The seven year
old had been calm when he learned his Uncle Quatre was going to
the Object, and would be gone several days, but Trowa had assured
him that Quatre knew how to take care of himself out of some
adult instinct to tell a child what onself wanted or needed to
hear.
"All external systems
cleared," the head technician shouted out. The control room
was busy, far busier than had it been a normal shuttle launch.
The Vernier rockets that had been jury-rigged to the shuttle were
still prototypical. Technicians milled about, like little ants
whose colony had been kicked. Trowa smiled ever so faintly to
himself. In some ways the metaphor wasn't so far off.
"Copy that," Heero's
voice responded over the main speakers. "All external checks
cleared from here."
Dozé moved in closer to Trowa,
and Trowa squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"Don't worry," Trowa
whispered to him, "Quatre's with friends."
"Trowa Barton?" an
uncertain voice called from across the room. Trowa turned
slightly to see a harried woman in a Preventers uniform. She
picked her way carefully across the control room, trying not to
touch anything or anyone, as if she'd contaminate them, or worse,
pick up an infection herself. She held a yellow telefax in her
hand. Trowa felt a sudden stab of icy dread, but his face
betrayed nothing.
"I'm over here," he
said to the woman. She immediately looked relieved.
"Oh, there you are. This
came in for you from Preventers Headquarters on Colony Four about
an hour ago. . It's marked emergency . . . I don't know why I was
given delivery duty, but the sender insisted it go through the
Preventers." She shrugged and handed Trowa the telefax,
bowed slightly, and left.
Trowa let go of Dozé's hand,
and studied the fax. "From the Ringmaster?" he murmured
in surprise. The icy stab of dread returned. Something was wrong.
He opened the fax. And his heart plunged somewhere near his feet.
Sensing something wrong, Dozé
tugged on Trowa's jeans. "What ith it Uncle Trowa?"
"Catherine is
missing," Trowa managed to say evenly, even though his heart
was in his throat while somehow being in his feet at the same
time. He didn't want to lie to him.
"Who ith Catherine?"
Trowa clutched the telefax as if
it were a lifeline, wishing it would suddenly change into a
secret code, something, anything, so that it wouldn't mean what
it said. Catherine is missing. Catherine is gone.
"She's . . . my heart
sister. You may as well think of her as your Aunt
Catherine." They'd always suspected the connection, and
genetic testing had proved it, but he knew she was a sister of
the heart more than a sister of the blood.
Trowa made a snap decision. He
had to find her. He wondered how he could take Dozé with him;
Quatre had trusted him enough to leave his heir with him, and
Trowa did not want to violate that trust. Ah . . . of course.
"We'll need to make a field
trip to Colony Four. How would you like to go to the
circus?" Trowa hated the thought of putting Quatre's heir in
danger, but the boy would be safe enough with the Ringmaster. Of
course, Trowa had though Catherine was safe enough with the
Ringmaster as well. But he couldn't just dump Dozé with his
aunts with no warning. They were all hardworking business women.
They'd been more than happy to let Quatre take the boy in after
his mother died.
Dozé broke into another one of
his infectious grins, the ones that had Quatre wrapped around his
little finger. "I've never been to the circuth. But what
about Uncle Quatre?" He pointed to the shuttle, through the
spaceport window. "He's there. He can't go with us."
"No, he can't," Trowa
said, standing up again. "But we'll be back long before he
is." I hope, he added silently.
Dozé thought seriously for a
few moments, then nodded wisely. "We won't tell him we went
to the circuth without him, Uncle Trowa. That way he won't be
mad."
Trowa sighed, and took the boy's
hand again. It would have to do.
* * *
"T-80."
"Launch is all green,"
the main technician said. "You boys in there ready?"
"We're ready."
"T-75."
"Here we go, man," Duo
said, double checking to make sure his helmet was locked on
securely. They'd be wearing space suits for the entirety of the
flight, as a safety precaution. Zero-G did nasty things to a
human for extended periods of time, and if the cabin became
depressurized, it was better to be already suited. "This is
gonna be one wild ride."
"If you say so," Heero
said, checking his own helmet as well. "I just agreed to
pilot so I could make sure Relena was safe."
"Uh huh," Duo said,
disbelieving.
"T-60."
"So . . . what are you
going to say to her?"
"I don't know," Heero
said flatly.
* * *
Relena curled her fingers around
the armrest again, the fabric interior of her space suit gloves
suddenly feeling cloying and damp. Across the aisle, Quatre
looked faintly green in his space suit helmet.
"Heero," she whispered
for no reason at all.
* * *
"Come on, Heero, I'm a
romantic at heart," Duo swooned, gesturing dramatically.
"You're the only one out of the group who hasn't admitted
his feelings for the one he loves. Even Trowa and Quatre are
braver than you. At least they spend time with each other. All
you do is ignore her and fester in your own guilt."
"T - 30."
"Hnn." Heero grunted
and gave Duo another Death Glare. Duo laughed, and began to flip
more flight switches. Heero joined him, and for a few moments,
they moved through a complicated choreography of dancing toggles
and levers.
An auto stewardess came on.
"Please remember to fasten your seat belts and have your
trays in the locked and upright position. Thank you for flying
with United."
"I can't believe they left that
on," Duo complained. "How cheesy! Our big moment, and
they had to ruin it with a stewardess." He throttled the
engines up to full blast. Those in the shuttle could no longer
hear the countdown, but it appeared on the dashboard in large red
LCD numbers.
* * *
Trowa heard the countdown, and
saw it as well. He whispered along with the head technician.
"T -10 . . . nine . . .eight . . . seven . . . six," he
squeezed Dozé's hand once more, as much for the boy's comfort as
for his own. If something went wrong and they lost Quatre...
". . .five. . .four. . .three. . .two. . .one. . ."
And with a mighty roar, the
prototype Vernier rockets blasted the shuttle away from the
Side's dock.
* * *
The were accelerating at nearly
two and a half Gs, which may not seem like a lot, but it was
plenty uncomfortable for the shuttle occupants.
"I hate this part,"
Duo choked out, resisting the instinct to shut his eyes.
"Doesn't everyone?"
Heero agreed, as they strained against the inertial forces.
* * *
In the cabin, the team of six
suffered through the takeoff in silence. Relena drew strength
from the thought of Heero in the cabin. Quatre thought of Trowa,
and his nephew, waiting for him to return. Trowa hadn't wanted to
go, surprising Quatre, but had instead volunteered to take care
of Dozé while Quatre was away.
* * *
Inside the Side shuttle port,
the post-launch celebration had already begun. Someone had
actually broken out a bottle of champagne, and a regular party
had somehow started up amidst the control panels and technical
readouts.
Trowa watched the shuttle fly
off until it was a tiny dot. He continued watching for a long
time after it had disappeared, until Dozé impatiently tugged on
his arm.
"It'th gone now, Uncle
Trowa," Dozé said sadly.
"Yes," Trowa said, but
he did not move.
"Don't you havta go to
Colony Four and find your sithter?" Dozé's clear,
intelligent gaze pinned Trowa down.
Trowa blinked and looked at the
boy in surprise. He was only seven, but as Quatre had pointed
out, he was as perceptive as adults ten times his age.
"You're right. Let's
go." Trowa glanced once more at the empty viewscreen, and
led Dozé Winner through the swarm of celebrating technicians.
* * *
The initial burst of
acceleration finally tapered off, and they settled down into a
zero-G environment. Duo gasped and leaned back, taking off his
helmet and breathing the recycled, pure air of the pilot's cabin.
"Man, that was worse than
even Deathscythe ever did to me. I have a feeling that's what
Tallgeese must have felt like . . . my insides are all squished
. . . I don't wanna do that again anytime soon."
"If this whole trip is a
hoax, you'll be doing it again in fourteen hours." Heero
also took off his helmet, and hung it casually from a peg on the
cockpit wall.
"I'll have had a nice nap
before then. It'll feel like tomorrow. Speaking of naps . . . you
want the first break, or shall I?"
"Go ahead," Heero
said, waving Duo away. "I can't face her yet."
"Man, Heero, you gotta get
your life straightened out. Stop procrastinating." Duo stood
up and set his helmet on the copilot's chair.
"I don't see you protesting
the first break," Heero commented, deadpan.
Duo quirked his lips in a half
grin and left his best friend to figure it out. When he stepped
outside the cockpit door, Relena glanced up sharply. The six
passengers had also removed their helmets, and Duo saw that her
hair was piled on top, in a style he'd only seen once before,
when she was acting Queen of the World. Upon seeing Duo instead
of Heero, a flicker of disappointment crossed over her face. Oh
yes, as much as she'd deny it, the princess was still very much
in love with Heero. She pretended to have been glancing around
the cabin nonchalantly.
Looks like they both need my
help. Gee, I never thought I'd be playing matchmaker for them...
He walked down the cabin aisle,
ostensibly toward Quatre, with whom he intended to have a good
gabfest before he took his nap. But as he passed by Relena, he
touched her shoulder, and quietly said to her, "There's an
empty seat next to Heero, now, you know."
She looked at him, startled, and
blinked. Duo winked back before making a show of plunking down
next to Quatre. No one else in the cabin seemed to have had
noticed the exchange.
Relena, being herself, resisted
temptation as long as she could. She was over Heero. She was. She
really was.
But this was a chance to at
least talk to him . . . as friends...
After a few moments, she
scurried up to the cockpit door, held her breath, and went
inside.
* * *
Heero almost jumped when the
cockpit door opened. During the war, he'd learned that Duo
refused to enter the cabin except for emergencies when it was his
break time. A quick glance at the slight shadow on the console
informed him that it wasn't Duo, though. Another glance at the
faint reflection on the windshield confirmed his nightmare: it was
Relena.
"Heero," she said
softly.
He squinted his eyes shut in
frustration. He wasn't ready to face her. He never was. All she
had to do was say his name and he could no longer think clearly.
Damn the woman.
She entered the cockpit quietly,
her space suit not quite hiding the gentle curves of her slender
figure. Her hair was piled messily on top of her head, in the
latest Gibson girl revival style, with two wings of hair framing
her face as always. She sat gracefully in the copilot's seat,
taking care not to touch anything. She'd transformed into a true
beauty in the last year, her face displaying the same elegant
bone structure that made her brother appear like the prince he
was.
She clasped her hands on her
lap, primly, and stared ahead. Heero was only slightly mollified
that she was as nervous as he. She was silent for a long time,
but then spoke softly, her mellifluous voice trained by years of
political hardball to display exactly the emotion she wished.
"It's funny, really. I've thought about meeting you again .
. . after the wedding. But now I don't know what to say."
"Hnn." Heero didn't
know what to say either.
Relena smiled faintly to
herself. "Maybe I should ask you to kill me again, for old
time's sake."
He glanced at her, not quite
believing his ears. "Or maybe, 'how are you?' is a good
place to start."
"Of course." She
smiled again, willing to play the game. "How are you,
Heero?"
He looked at her from the corned
of his eyes again. "I asked you first." Good gods, was
he actually flirting with her? He steeled himself. I will not
lose it. I will not lose it. She doesn't belong to you Heero. She
never can. She never will.
"Ah," Relena permitted
herself a small laugh, and tried to cross her legs, no mean feat
in a space suit. She rearranged her legs awkwardly a few times
before giving up. Composure instantly regained, she tried a
different tack. A direct approach. "I've missed you
terribly, Heero."
Heero decided a blow in the gut
would have been less damaging. His heart ached as if her words
were a physical assault. She just couldn't see that they were
worlds apart, that it would never work, no matter how much they
each longed for each other.
"I know you don't feel the
same way about me as I did . . . as I do about you, Heero,"
she said, fighting a childlike urge to sniffle. Pouting was not
the best tactic to take with Heero. Honesty was a lot more
brutal, and worked better. "But you could have at least said
good-bye. That's three times you've left me without a word now,
Heero."
"It's not that," he
ground out, still not looking at her. "You have your world,
and a murderer like me has no part in it."
"Did you ever think to ask
me if I wanted you in 'my world?'" she objected, feeling
herself grow cross. This wasn't going quite the way she had
planned. "'My world,' as you put it, would always include
you, no matter what. Heero," she pleaded, leaning across and
resting her hand on his arm. Heero jumped as if even through two
space suits she burned him. "We're friends. I don't ever
want to lose you as a friend."
He clasped her hand with his
other own, and gently lifted it from his arm, looking at her
directly for the first time. "I need to make sure you are
safe. I promised to protect you. As long as you are safe, then we
can both get on with our lives."
Heero wished he could take the
words back as soon as he'd said them.
Relena kept her face carefully
blank, but he could see that he'd hurt her. Good. If she was mad
at him, then she'd keep her distance.
"Do I truly mean so little
to you? A princess in a tower, content to know that her knight
will keep her safe?" Her expression softened, and she stood
up. "Heero, maybe I don't want protection from you. Maybe I
just want company. You're the only person who has ever understood
me." She trailed her gloved hand across his cheek, and left
the cockpit.
Heero wasn't entirely sure, but
he thought he heard her mutter "idiot" as she left. He
slumped in his seat, then stared at the ceiling above him.
"I blew it," he said to no one in particular.
* * *
"So how ya been, Quatre?
You and Trowa ever gonna tie the knot?"
"Oh no," Quatre said,
blushing furiously. "It's not like that. We're just good
friends."
"Suuuure. A little birdie
told me that you've named your nephew your sole heir. I take it
that means your sisters got you reinherited?"
Quatre gratefully latched onto
the subject change. His relationship with Trowa, unstable and
unsure as it was, was not something he wanted to discuss with
anyone just yet. "Yes. My sister Loreana managed to pull a
few legal strings last year. They also granted me custody of my
oldest nephew. You remember that he lost he mom last year, and
I've been taking care of him?" Duo nodded, he'd learned that
much at the wedding. "All his aunts agree that he's a quiet
genius. He reminds me of Trowa --" Quatre cut himself off
before he went any further with that line of thought. Everything
reminded him of Trowa. The shuttle reminded him of Trowa. His
space suit reminded him of Trowa. The old magazine in the seat in
front of him reminded him of Trowa. That was what love did to a
person, after all... "What about you and Hilde? Hasn't she
coerced you into marriage yet?"
Duo nearly choked. "Marry?
Hilde? No way." He burned even more brightly red than
Quatre. "I'm going to be a bachelor forever. Hilde is
a..." he searched for an adequate phrase to describe the
wonderful package that was Hilde, and found one. "She's a
business partner."
"A business partner you
live with," Quatre pointed out, his eyes feigning innocence.
Duo pursed his lips and scowled
prettily. "We have separate rooms."
"Suuure," Quatre
teased, echoing Duo from a few minutes before. Before Duo could
respond, however, Relena stepped out of the cockpit door, looking
almost upset and amused at the same time. She sighed and went
back to her seat, unsteady in the absence of gravity, ignoring
the rest of the group, who all pretended not to be looking at
her.
"Looks like Heero blew
it," Duo whispered to Quatre.
"I think you're right. Poor
Heero."
"Yeah, well, I'm not giving
up. They belong together, he's just on this weird kick that he's
not worthy of her, or something." Duo yawned mightily, and
stretched. "Well, I'm off to catch forty winks. Say hi to
Trowa for me, Quatre," he said, winking at Quatre.
"I tell you, it's not like
that," Quatre denied, blushing again.
Duo smirked and rolled his eyes.
* * *
The passengers eventually all
fell asleep, except Heero, who stared at the controls, tortured
by his own inadequacies and pain.
* * *
Trowa and Dozé had to wait
nearly twelve hours before a transport became available to take
them to Colony Four. He was getting more and more worried,
especially as the cameras showed reports of the riots on Colony
Four. Trowa hoped Catherine wasn't caught in any of them.
* * *
Catherine woke up in a dark but
warm place. Her head hurt. She tried to feel other parts of her
body, but the pounding in her skull demanded the full attention
of her consciousness.
What happened? She tried to
remember the last few day's events. She had gone along with the
crowd, and found herself angry at Relena Peacecraft for bringing
them into another war. No, wait, that wasn't right . . . Relena
hated war as much as she herself...
Catherine tried to clear her
head by shaking it, a mistake. The pounding grew worse.
"Hello?" she cried, struggling to move. She was tied up
tightly in a chair. "Someone? Anyone?" she faltered,
then began struggling harder. "Trowa, help me..." she
cried, tears slipping down her cheeks.
* * *
Trowa thought he heard Catherine
call his name. He did not dismiss psychic phenomena easily -- no
one could deny the deep bond that Heero and Relena shared, one
that according to Heero had formed within the space of a few
moments on the Earth.
Dozé Winner had stayed true to
his name, and had nodded off on the seat next to him.
Catherine had last been seen on
Colony Four, the night the first of the riots started. His
instincts told him that it wasn't a coincidence.
* * *
"Are you sure the girl has
no family?" the woman in black said to the man. They were in
their darkened office on Colony Four, deep within the bowels of
an otherwise empty office building. They'd acquired the office
building several weeks ago, after learning that the top floor was
a greenhouse. They both liked that. The office itself was
spacious and dim, and thanks to the non efforts of the man,
already becoming cluttered beyond belief. But the Buttercup
project had to go on, and the woman didn't have time to pick up
after her sloppy partner.
The Humperdinck Project had been
renamed the Buttercup project, a name that was no better than its
predecessor, in the woman's opinion. The only thing worse than
starting a war based on the plot of a book was starting a war
based on the plot of a book that made fun of itself.
"None on record. Her name
is Catherine Bloom. Her family was killed when she was little.
She was raised in the circus. And what can a bunch of clowns do
to stop us?" The man leaned against his desk, lighting a
cigarette. He smiled to himself. The girl was perfect, absolutely
perfect for their plans. The preliminary interrogation had let
them know that she hated war more than anything, and would do
everything short of actually starting one herself to prevent it.
The irony was impeccable.
"We need to keep her
unconscious until that mission returns. If our data is correct,
we'll be able to completely indoctrinate her afterward." The
woman extinguished his cigarette in annoyance, pinching the end
with her bare fingers. "Wesley, I do wish you'd stop smoking
those damn things. New lungs are expensive."
"After this project, dear
Willow, we'll be able to afford a dozen lungs." He lit
another cigarette, perversely, and smirked at his business
partner. "And things are going extremely well. I couldn't
have genetically engineered a more perfect specimen than the
girl."
"Genetic engineering is not
only the wrong term and illegal, it's impossible." Willow
Sable, the science half of the brains behind the Buttercup
Project, dug around a file cabinet drawer and extracted a box of
sterile syringes. She unwrapped one, and pulled out a small vial
from the drawer, and filled the syringe with the dark blue
liquid. "This will put her back to sleep for another two
days. By then we'll know if this mission is a success or
not."
"What if it isn't? What if
there are no aliens?" Wesley, in charge of the actual cult
formation, had left all the techie stuff to his brainiac partner.
"Oh, there are. I never did
show you the second video, did I? Not even the little exploration
party got to see that. I have some contacts in very high places
in the science institute." She picked up a remote control
from on top of the file cabinet, and flicked on a tiny thirteen
inch viewscreen in the corner. "Now tell me there aren't
aliens out there."
Wesley's jaw dropped open, the
cigarette falling unheeded to the ground. "Holy shit,"
he choked out.
Willow smiled. That little video
had cost her dearly; her Geneveve Switzer Brilliant Pink, to be
exact. She wasn't kidding when she said she had friends in high
places.
On the screen, three human-like
figures marched across a silver floor, their violet cloaks vivid
against the starry background.
* * *
With two hours left in the
journey, both Heero and Duo were back in the cockpit. Relena had
thankfully been asleep when Heero had gone on his break. Duo did
not mention how Relena had fidgeted until she'd fallen asleep,
reading information she'd been given about the nature of the
object. Heero did not mention what had happened, either. They
worked in companionable silence for the remainder of the voyage.
The Object appeared as a dull
twinkle in the center of the star field through the viewscreen.
It had been growing steadily brighter as they approached; the
shiny metal had a much higher albedo than its asteroid neighbors.
"Time to decelerate,"
Duo said softly. The shuttle had behaved very nicely during the
last leg of the trip, and he hoped that it wouldn't give them any
trouble now that they were so close to their goal.
"Ne, Heero," Duo said,
gently lowering a lever, " is it just me, or does something
feel strange about this?"
"About what?" Heero
answered, adjusting a lever himself.
"This whole trip . . .
thing." He waved his hand vaguely. "It's all to neat.
Too cut and dried. Bizarre object appears, lets send an
expedition! and it happens to include four Gundam pilots, and two
world leaders."
"We volunteered to
go," Heero reminded him.
"Something just doesn't
feel right." Duo sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"Or maybe I'm just nervous. Damn, I wish Hilde were here. I
could use a back rub." Duo smirked casually at Heero.
"Say, Heero, you think --"
"No."
"You don't even know what I
was going to ask! Well, that's just fine then." Duo sulked
and adjusted their speed some more.
* * *
"We're almost there,"
Lady Une said, standing up. "Please put your helmets back
on. We don't know what we're going to encounter out there --
atmospheric contaminants, dead life forms . . . Dr. O Malley will
run an atmospheric analyzer, but even so, no one is to remove
their helmets. Understood?"
For the first time, the
passengers could see the details of the Object. It loomed in
their view screens, a titanium monstrosity with highlights of
metallic purple. Lady Une glanced out of one of the modified
shuttle windows, and silently prayed to whatever gods may be that
the beings they were about to encounter weren't hostile. She
alone had been privy to viewing the second video besides the
scientists, and it was she who had convinced them that they
needed a diplomat along. Not even her team of Preventers, Sally
and Wu-Fei, knew what they were going to find.
* * *
"Damn! Something just took
over my controls!" Duo yelped. He began frantically trying
to regain control, but whatever had the ship in its hold wasn't
letting go.
"Mine too. We're caught in
some sort of guidance system." Heero was much calmer than
his copilot.
"We're just gonna let them
. . . it . . . whatever . . . get away with this? Fire the
accelerator!" He reached over do just that.
"No, it would be a waste of
fuel. This is what we wanted, isn't it?" Heero released his
controls at stared at the Object, looming ever closer in their
field.
"Heero, you're acting
weird. Stop freaking me out, man." He tried desperately to
regain control of the shuttle, but to no avail. "I don't
like this at all. Why are you so cool with this?"
Heero shrugged. "I've got .
. . a gut instinct that everything we will all right. And when
everything else fails, trust your emotions, remember?"
Duo sighed and gave in.
"Yeah, I suppose. But I don't have to like it."
"I never said I liked it.
But it's not as if we have choice."
* * *
Those in the cabin were
oblivious to the plight of the pilots, who had decided not to
scare everyone. The Object sucked them into its gleaming maw, the
shiny metal reflecting their own dingy shuttle perfectly. It was
a silent cruising, still in the vacuum of space. The passage was
clean of any bumps, like the manifestation of a perfect
mathematical construct, glassy smooth.
"It looks so empty,"
Quatre whispered.
"It does," Lady Une
agreed, biting her lip. Had they been wrong? Was it a derelict
after all? Was all this for nothing?
* * *
Their controls suddenly came
back online, and they floated freely for a few seconds before
Heero realized that whatever had had them in its grips had let
go. They had been pulled into a large, hollow chamber.
"I think it's a landing
bay." Heero said, and worked a few microthrusters so that
they gently touched the nearest surface to the bottom.
"Holy shit . . . there's
gravity!" Duo cried as they suddenly felt a familiar pull.
It was a welcome respite from the zero-G they'd endured during
the flight. "What the hell . . . something this size
shouldn't be putting out anywhere near this much gravity..."
"The chamber is
pressurizing," Heero said, even his voice registering a note
of surprise. "It looks like a mix of carbon, nitrogen, and
oxygen, with other trace gases."
* * *
"Look! A door is
opening!" Duo said in a hushed, awed voice. The six
passengers in the cabin stood up, unconsciously. A faint vapor
seeped out from underneath the door, illuminated by bright
floodlights on the other side. Their chamber was dim, and the
effect when three shadows appeared was as dramatic as it had been
calculated to be.
They were humans, or humanoid,
as the old Earth term described the general shape of two arms,
two legs, a torso, and a head. Although they were but vague, fog
smeared shadows, their robes flapped around two obvious legs, and
their arms pulled the top portions tightly around them, like
bats. They processed slowly toward the shuttle.
"They sure know how to make
an entrance," Duo said, as he flipped on the cabin
loudspeaker. "Lady Une, did you guys have any idea that . .
. that . . .?" Even Duo was at a loss for words as suddenly
all the lights in the chamber came on at once.
The three aliens stopped a dozen
meters away from the shuttle. They had human like faces, except
they were in shades of maroon, with hair in shades of gray. One
was noticeably shorter than the others. Duo had a sudden insight
that she was a young female.
He flipped the cabin loudspeaker
again. "Damn, Heero, what the hell did we get ourselves
into?"
"Hnn," Heero said,
unable to answer his best friend's question.
* * *
"I suppose we go out,"
Relena said. "They look peaceful enough."
"Everything looks peaceful
to you," Wu-Fei muttered darkly. Sally nudged him every so
slightly with her elbow.
"You're right," Lady
Une reluctantly said to Relena, ignoring her Preventers.
"Something feels wrong, though." She opened the hatch
to the shuttle. Outside, the lights brightened even more, so that
the landing bay appeared as bright as daylight on Earth. Sally
exited first, followed by Lady Une and Relena, who were flanked
by Quatre and Dr. O' Malley. Wu-fei finished the small party.
Heero and Duo had opted to stay inside the shuttle as backup.
Relena, Lady Une, and Wu-Fei were all wired to a panic button.
The humans and the aliens faced
off, five against three, each waiting for the other to make the
first move.
Relena finally decided that all
the standing around was silly, and she stepped forward. Still in
her full space suit, she raised her hands, palm up, in what she
hoped was a gesture for peace, showing that she held no weapons.
The middle alien spoke.
"You may take your suits off," he said in a pleasant
bass -- and in perfect, perfect Japanese.
Relena's eyes widened to
saucers, but to her credit, she kept her cool. Mentally
apologizing to Lady Une, she reached up and took off her helmet.
Lady Une jumped as though she
wanted to grab Relena, but Quatre stopped her. She glared at him
for an instant, but he just shook his head.
Relena was foolish, but she
believed that only an idealist could reach for the clearest
visions of mankind. She breathed the air deeply. It was clean and
crisp, and smelled faintly of wisteria or lavender.
"You are trusting,"
the middle alien said again, his voice laced with genuine
amusement. "That is good. In this universe of ours, so few
are willing to trust anymore." He bowed. "I am Captain
Zwit, of the Novie. To my left is General Threigh, and to my
right is Lietenant Forwa." They each nodded as he recognized
them.
The tallest of them was Threigh.
He was lean and hardened, his salt and pepper gray hair cut
short, barely curling behind his ears. Zwit was only slightly
shorter, although his size was much greater. The female appeared
even younger up close. Relena was startled to see she was even
younger than she herself had been before the start of the war.
The girl appeared as calm and composed as the two older men next
to her, however. And the one who called himself Zwit was also
devastatingly handsome, by human standards.
Relena bowed in return. How they
spoke Japanese would have to remain a mystery for the moment. She
was already planning on killing Lady Une with her bare hands for
dragging her into this with no warning -- later, though. Calmness
now. Relena breathed in and out slowly. Reality is stranger than
fiction.
"I am Relena Peacecraft.
With me are Lady Une, Doctor O' Malley, Quatre Raberba Winner,
Preventer Sally Po, and Preventer Chang Wu-Fei. I am the Vice
Foreign Minister of the New Earth Alliance." She had chosen
her words carefully. The last thing she needed was Zwit saying
'take me to your leader.'
"There are two more on the
ship," Zwit said casually.
He's good, Relena said. Her face
betrayed nothing. "They are our pilots. Heero Yuy and Duo
Maxwell. They wish to remain inside."
* * *
"You gettin' all this,
Heero? Man, am I gonna have a tale to tell Hilde..."
"You'll do nothing of the
sort. This is going to be so top secret . . . just think, they'll
say Relena's gone over to the other side . . ."
Duo rolled his eyes.
"You're imagining things, Heero. Oh, look, Relena's taking
off her suit..."
Heero pretended he did not take
a sudden interest in the disrobing of a certain diplomat.
* * *
"You may take off your
suits, if you like," Zwit said. They were still squared off,
five against three. "Our temperatures tend to be warmer than
those of your world, from the information we have analyzed so
far."
Relena unzipped her suit, and
wished there were a more graceful way to get out of the silly
things as she nearly tripped and fell flat on her face taking it
off. She was glad she'd chosen the dark blue power suit over the
pink one; the Novie seemed to prefer bold colors, judging from
their own royal purple robes. Out of seemingly nowhere a fourth
Novie appeared, carrying a cart with oddly heighted rods on it.
The Novie took her suit before she'd had a chance to even wonder
what to do with it, and hung it on a peg. Ah, a clothes rack,
then.
"Feel free to use that as
long as you need," Zwit said, the slightest hint in his
voice. The other five humans reluctantly took off their suits,
the Novie rushing to gather them and hang them up.
"Follow me," Zwit
said. As one, his entourage turned to face the door, and they
retreated towards it. But Relena could have sworn she'd seen the
young female give her a faintly timid smile before she turned
completely.
A friend, Relena thought
suddenly. No matter what else happened, that girl was on their
side, she decided. Relena knew she had a habit of making snap
judgments -- Heero was her most famous example of that fault, but
hadn't she been dead on with him?
So she followed them, the rest
of the humans tagging raggedly compared to the precision of the
Novie, none of them knowing quite what to expect.
* * *
Heero and Duo watched the party
leave the landing bay.
"You're just gonna let her
go off with them, eh?"
"She's safe with Sally and
Wu-fei there."
"Uh huh. So," Duo said
casually, leaning back in his chair, "what exactly did you
say to Relena to piss her off so much?"
"I don't want to talk about
it." Heero glowered at the console.
"Sure you don't," Duo
said with a knowing grin."
"I don't."
"You sure?" Duo's grin
got wider. C'mon, Heero...
"I'm not going to tell you,
Duo."
"I know."
"It's not of your
business."
"I know."
"Quit smirking. It's not as
if I did anything wrong."
"Of course . . . you never
make mistakes."
Heero gave him the coldest Death
Glare he'd ever seen. But he had to make Heero crack, or else his
plans for matchmaking would go down the tubes. For now, though, a
feral glint in Heero's eyes warned him to back off.
"I wonder how they're doing
in there," Duo mused, letting the subject drop for the
moment.
Out of nowhere, a heavy silence
fell over the two pilots, like a layer of deepest black velvet,
muffling and blinding them all at once. They both slumped forward
in their seatbelts, unconscious.
* * *
The trio of Novie led the way
through silvery corridors. Overhead, the lighting was gentle and
muted, the ceiling a frosted silver that reflect the lighting all
around, bathing everything in even, bluish light. They walked in
silence.
How is it that they speak
Japanese? Relena wondered. True, the language was one of the
three most common on Earth now, and it was the language pretty
much everyone in the colonies used along with English, but the
odds of the same language developing on another planet . . . no,
they had to have been studying Earth for some time, she decided.
So they knew of the wars, and hopefully their current peace.
They had landed in a nacelle of
the giant vessel, and they had been walking toward the middle.
The hallway led to an open circular courtyard, and a clear dome
replaced the silvery ceiling, so that star shine bled in,
mingling with the ambient lighting from hidden sconces in the
walls. Greenery burst from every corner, and the plants bloomed
in all colors, a marked contrast from the oppressive gray and
purple of the rest of the ship. The courtyard was evidently a
common area, as there were hundreds of Novie milling about, some
sitting on benches, talking, others hurrying purposefully. They
all seemed to be wearing gauzy silver clothing, in contrast to
the formal purple robes of Zwit, Threigh, and Forwa.
"Those who live on the ship
are very glad to see you," Zwit said to the humans, turning
his head ever so slightly over his shoulder.
Some of the other Novie had
paused to look at the humans, in curiosity. Quatre waved shyly.
Dr. O' Malley had whipped out a notebook and was writing as fast
as he could. Relena tried to not to appear rude as she secretly
gawked.
"This way," Zwit said,
and led them down another corridor. This one was much wider and
shorter than the landing bay corridor had been, and purple doors
line the walls. He pressed his palm in the center of one door,
and it opened with the hiss of hydraulics, revealing a large
conference room. Relena grinned suddenly. Dr. O Malley would fit
right in here, if no one else would.
Zwit gestured for them to sit,
but he himself remained standing, and he paced around the room,
restless. The short female whispered something to Zwit, who
shooed her away with a smile. She glanced shyly at Relena one
more time before leaving.
"I'm sorry for the
formality back there. We are a very proper race, in some
respects, and that particular tradition has dated back since we
first came into contact with other intelligent beings. You're
probably wondering how we speak your language. It's quite simple
-- we've been receiving broadcasts from your world from the last
hundred years or so on our journey. It was added to our catalogue
of languages, and a few doses of hypnotic language treatment
allowed me to learn it fairly quickly. It's a rather lovely
language, I must say, phonetically not unlike our own. In fact,
we two races seem to have much in common. But I digress."
Zwit finally took his seat. For
the first time, Relena noticed that his fingers -- as well as
those of the other two Novie -- ended not in three joints, like
humans, but with four smaller joints, with large claws on the
ends. It was a very disorienting effect -- their hands appeared
to be broken and too long at the same time.
"We have come here in
peace," Zwit began again, "to warn you of a danger that
may be headed your way. There is a race of mechanical
monstrosities who attacked our world. They call themselves the
Setche. They are brutal and merciless, seeking out worlds with
natural resources, destroying their inhabitants, and clearing the
way for their own colonization. We, the Novie, have dedicated our
lives to warning the rest of the Galaxy of this impending
disaster." He cast his eyes downward, suddenly appearing
older, a few saddened lines forming around his otherwise handsome
mouth. "Unfortunately, many of the peoples we find did not
believe us or trust us. They are now gone. Some did not even
bother to investigate a strange ship appearing in their solar
system, or worse, they tried to shoot at us." He looked
directly at Relena, who matched him stare for stare. She
shivered, though. His eyes were icy cold.
"We wish to help you
prepare in case the Setche ever come and attack your world. That
is our self-appointed mission. On our journey, we have acquired
an enormous amount of defensive information that will allow you
to withstand an attack by the Setche. In exchange, we ask merely
for supplies to help us continue on our journey, to warn others
of the threat of the Setche."
There was contemplative silence
around the table, as they each sunk into the contemplative
whirlpool of their thoughts.
"If your require more time
to think upon our offer, that is fine." He made a
surprisingly human gesture, turning his palm upward, as if
offering them more time from his hand.
Relena startled the humans by
standing up. This is why she had been sent along, wasn't it?
"No more time is needed. We
will accept your offer. And, thank you." She bowed deeply.
Secretly, she hoped that she hadn't just struck a deal with the
devil.
* * *
Darkness. Pain. Flashes of
light.
Heero woke up, screaming.
Everything was blurred, in shades of black and white. He could
not feel his arms and legs, and the world kept spinning.
Images and sounds . . . he
thought he saw Duo, dead and bleeding on a table across the room.
"Duo!" he tried to shout, but nothing came out from his
throat.
Suddenly a face -- an alien face
-- swam into focus above him.
"He's awake," a voice
said frantically, although the face above him didn't move.
"Who..." Heero tried
to shout again, but his throat was blocked. The face went out of
focus, and the world blacked out once more.
The next time he woke up, the
pain was gone, although everything still seemed to be in black
and white. Heero tried to rub his eyes clear, but he found he was
strapped to a table, giving him flashbacks of that time he was
strapped down in Sally's hospital. He craned his neck, and
thought he saw Duo on the table next to him.
A shadow appeared over him.
"Who are you?" Heero
asked, trying to sound as menacing as possible.
"No one," the shadow
answered, "you are imagining me."
Heero strained to escape from
his bonds, but back in Sally's hospital he'd been in peak
condition, and since he'd become a pilot he'd slacked off on his
training a lot.
"What do you want from
me?"
"Know your strengths,
Perfect Soldier," the voice said, and the shadow began to
fade. "That is all we want. And know your weaknesses."
The shadow was gone, and Heero
closed his eyes. His head was still throbbing, but something was
wrong. Am I dead? No, he'd been dead once before . . . it wasn't
anything like this. This was too strange to be death.
The velvet blackness enveloped
him again, and Heero willingly fell into its embrace, allowing it
to take him away from whatever it was that told him what he
didn't want to hear -- that he was both weak and strong, and that
he could not, as yet, tell the difference . . .
* * *
The party was walking back down
the corridors to the human's shuttle. Zwit had loosened his
hitherto tightly wrapped cloak so that it billowed out behind him
dramatically. Underneath, he wore a uniform not unlike that of
Oz, although simpler and without the epilauts and gold trim. He
was tall, and so similar to a human that Relena wondered if she
had been wrong to become an atheist after the war. Conscious
creation?
"You can move your ship to
Colony One," she said as they stood outside of the shuttle.
"It has all the resources necessarily to replenish your
supplies. You may go there anytime you wish; we'll make all the
necessary arrangements."
"Thank you," Zwit
smarmed. "And to begin our exchange of knowledge, I'd like
to send you a goodwill ambassador, Forwa, my daughter. She wants
to go with you, if that's all right." The girl who had
greeted them with Zwit and Threigh walked through the large door
on cue. She, too, had opened up her cloak, and she was wearing a
long lemon creamy dress that complemented her lavender skin and
ash gray hair. "She is a highly skilled diplomat, and has
full technical knowledge of all our defense systems. If you like,
you may leave someone with us in exchange."
Relena was startled. Leave one
of the party behind? She glanced hesitantly at Quatre -- no,
Trowa would kill her. Dr. O Malley? He was no diplomat. The same
thing went for Sally and Wu-Fei, and it would be a little unfair
to separate them, anyway. That left herself, and Lady Une.
"I'll go," Lady Une
said, simply. Relena sensed she'd switched to her calmer
personality. The two Lady Unes may have merged after Treize's
death, but even so, she switched "modes." Nice Lady Une
had taken over. They did not need to worry about her.
Lady Une stepped forward into
Forwa's place.
"Lady Une is one of our
most respected officers," Relena said, following Zwit's
example. "She was instrumental in developing the peace on
our world in the past few years."
Nice Lady Une looked the
absolute picture of a shy, demure diplomat. She took off her
glasses and smiled winsomely. Zwit looked pleased.
"That is all settled, then.
We will go to your colony, and we will meet again."
The five humans and the Novie
climbed the steps to the shuttle, the latter a little unsure of
her footing but determined not to trip. A worker brought back
their space suits, but Lady Une motioned to leave hers behind.
She was already deep in conversation with the alien leader.
* * *
Heero and Duo groggily woke up,
still in their pilots chairs, although neither remembered what
had happened.
"I can't believe we fell
asleep. Some backup we are," Duo said, rubbing his face in
irritation.
"I have a feeling something
important happened and we missed it," Heero said stonily.
"Eh?"
Heero was about to elaborate
when Quatre opened the door,.
"We're ready to leave any
time, guys," he said, not sounding impatient, as that was
not his nature, but he did have a hint of gentle reprovement in
his voice.
"That was quick. What'd
those weird aliens have to say?"
"Quick?" Quatre looked
surprised. "We spent nearly six hours discussing everything
from political beliefs to sanitation. Then we spent another two
or three hashing out defense systems. We're all dead on our feet
in here. And we picked up an extra passenger, but Lady Une's
staying behind, so don't be surprised when you don't see her. I
hope you guys had a good rest, at least..." Quatre yawned
slightly, and politely covered up his mouth before leaving the
cockpit.
"Eight hours?" Duo
said, staring at Heero. Heero stared back.
"I know something happened.
Why the hell can't I remember?" Heero grabbed his head in
frustration.
"Man, if I had napped for
eight hours, I just know I'd feel better than this . . ."
* * *
Forwa stared at the stars as
they traveled. The humans had all fallen asleep, but she was
fresh as a daisy still. Even as a child she'd only needed a few
hours of sleep to keep going strong all day.
Primitive. The rocket was
primitive. But Father had said they had something that could help
them.
What? What did the humans have
that could help the Novie on their never-ending quest?
* * *
[Ending Song: Watermark, by The Taliesin Orchestra]
Episode Three: The humans return to find
a divided Earth as the Keep Earth Pure/Anti-Alien League, led by
Catherine, gains power. Trowa and Quatre discover many things
about themselves, while Heero and Relena discover their
loneliness.
Want the lyrics for Airmail from the Moon? They are at the Anime
Lyrics Library, courtesy
of kaijyuu M of the Two Mix Electronic Library. The arrangement used at the beginning
of each episode is by me, and is not official, nor very accurate.
But it's pretty darn close, and you can sing along to it, too!
I don't own Gundam Wing or any
of the characters in here so far. If I did, I would be rich, but
alas, I'm obviously poor. Oh well. Gundam Wing is actually owned
by Bandai Visual, Sotsu Agency, and TV Tokyo. Airmail from the
Moon is ©1999 to Two Mix. It is used without permission, and
will be taken down if either member of Two Mix complains.
Watermark, Taliesin Mix is ©1995 to The Taliesin and Orchestra
and Enya. It is also used without permission, and will be removed
if anyone complains.
Watermark
By: Catwho