Warmly embraced by the planet far away
I want to thank you for giving my heart a place to stay
Gotta go sailing, go soaring, so you'll have to let me be
I'll never give up the moment, 'cause you believe in me.
-- "Airmail from the Moon"
Lady Une stood on the bridge of
the Novie starship, wearing the silvery garments of the Novie.
Behind her, Zwit pointed out the various buttons on the consoles
of the bridge. Around them, a dozen Novie worked to keep the ship
in good running order, their black claws skittering softly across
the gel-filled keys.
"There are nearly two
thousand of us on this ship, three hundred crew, and about
seventeen hundred civilians. We were one of three ships that
escape the invasion. The other two are smaller, but faster. We
parted on our separate ways to seek out new civilizations, to
warn them of the Setche. We are also seeking a new home of our
own."
Outside the main screen of the
bridge, the supply Side that they had docked to rotated gently,
bringing the soft blue planet Earth into view. When placed into
the perspective of a galactic invasion, our problems don't seem
so extraordinary, Lady Une mused.
"Perhaps you may stay on
Earth," she said quietly, glancing at him.
"Thank you for the
offer," Zwit said, his voice rather sad, "but we are
looking for a world of our own, able to sustain life, but
unhabited. It seems you all have enough troubles without us
bringing our own to you."
"We really are one human
family here, although we have a lot of trouble seeing it through
our own selfish pride and greed. It seems that no matter what we
do, we cannot escape war."
"War is a watermark on the
pages of history of all peoples," Zwit said. He reminded
Lady Une very much of Mariemeia then . . . no, he reminded her of
Treize. Her heart squeezed faintly, but she had buried her love
for the now lost warrior. He had done what he needed to do, what
he believed was right, and that was a conviction that she would
hold till her grave.
Zwit took her elbow and gently
directed her towards the corridor, which was dim, as usual. Zwit
had explained that they kept the light ambient unless a brighter
light was needed, to conserve energy.
"Tell me," Zwit asked
conversationally, "you say your world is built on war, yet
you have not asked for any knowledge of weapons. Why is
that?"
"We have tried to eliminate
offensive weapons as part of Miss Relena's ideal of pacifism.
Without weapons, there can be no more wars, so we have tried to
destroy all that we can. We don't know if that would work, as
even in our own history it has failed more often than not, but it
was worth a try."
"Pacifism is indeed a noble
ideal."
"It seems to be the only
way to achieve peace. But can we hold onto it? That is what we've
yet to find out."
They reached a small room that
Zwit called his "office," although it was the emptiest
office that Lady Une had ever seen. It held only two chairs and a
small vidscreen. No desk, no phone, no walls of file cabinets.
Zwit had explained that an empty office allowed him to think
without distractions. Lady Une had decided to strip her own
office down at the Preventers headquarters in such a fashion.
"The press conference ought
to be beginning soon. It's certainly going to be
interesting," Zwit said, and turned on the vidscreen. They
sat down to watch the broadcast from the capital Side of Colony
One.
* * *
"What do you mean, you
can't let me in?" Wu-fei said to the guard angrily.
"Miss Relena's orders.
She's not to be interrupted by anyone. Sir." The Preventer
looked apologetic, but he stood his ground. Not even his superior
officers could countermand an order from Queen Relena.
"But this is important!
Sally!" Wu-fei said, turning his desperate face to his
partner, "can't you do anything?"
Sally shrugged. "Relena is
afraid that a lot of groups are going to try to stop the
conference. It's natural that she keep herself isolated until
she's ready."
"But we actually have a
good reason!"
"We can talk to her after
the conference, Wu-Fei. Now that I think about it, that is
probably the best thing to do anyway. If we managed to call it
off now, we'd have a mob on our hands." Sally glanced toward
the main auditorium of the Colony One pressroom, which was
already overflowing with reporters, dignitaries from all
countries, and citizens who had come to watch the show.
Wu-fei flashed his dark, angry
eyes at her, but she knew he had conceded her the point.
"All right. We'll wait till
after. But we need triple security around that
girl." Wu-Fei stomped off to find some more Preventer
security officers. Sally watched him go with a wry grin. Their
methods were different, but their goals were the same.
"Tell Miss Relena that she
needs to be careful during the conference. We have some
information we need to share with her immediately
afterward."
"Yes ma'am!" The
Preventer saluted Sally as she went to find a seat, the wry
expression still on her face.
* * *
"I'll be doing all the
talking, Forwa. You just need to sit and . . ."
"And look like
myself?" Forwa grinned. "I can do that. These press
conference things are sure a big deal, no?"
"I'll be giving a formal
statement to the world on the situation as I see it. What I say
now determines how we proceed. It's not an easy situation."
"I'll say. Are you
nervous?"
Relena paused thoughtfully.
"Yes," she said calmly.
* * *
Heero and Duo, both back in
their old Preventers uniforms, stared down at the auditorium from
a balcony.
"I have a bad feeling about
this," Heero said, nodding to a group that had just entered
the already full auditorium. The group was slowly working its way
toward the front of the crowd.
"Hmmm, yeah, they do look
kinda sneaky, eh?"
"Very."
"Hey, look, there's
Relena."
Heero jumped a little, then
looked around casually. "I don't see her."
"Made ya look," Duo
said with a smirk, earning him a murderous look from Heero.
"Ah, there she is for real."
Relena emerged from the wings of
the small press stage, followed by Forwa, Dr. O' Malley, and
Quatre. The auditorium burst into applause, which quickly died
down as Relena approached the podium, her gait businesslike, her
shoulders square and purposeful. She wore a dark, bold blue
powersuit, but her hair was up. Heero knew that this meant she
was in "queen" mode. She was serious, all right.
"Citizens of Colony One, of
all the colonies, of Earth," she said carefully, her clear
voice carrying across the vast space easily. "The events of
the past few days have been a fulfillment of one of humanity's
oldest dreams. We have finally come into contact with beings from
outside our own world. The Novie have come from far across the
vast reaches of space to share with us a message of peace."
"She hasn't lost her
touch," Duo said. "Yep, that's Relena all right. Only
she could convince a room full of old geezers that they were
acting like spoiled children, fighting with each other."
"But they have also come to
bring us a message of warning. I will not lie to you. The Novie
had told us of a potential attack from a hostile race of beings
known as the Setche. The Novie have also graciously offered to
share their knowledge of defensive systems in exchange for
supplies so that they may continue their journey to warn other
worlds of this danger. I have accepted their offer."
Suddenly, from the group of
black-clad bystanders that had worked their way from the center
of the room, a pyramid formed. At the top was a figure that was
familiar to Duo.
"Heero, that's
Catherine!"
Heero had already whipped out a
walkie talkie. "Sally, we've got trouble."
"I'm on it."
"You mean you've accepted
their offer of invasion," Purity sneered. She was wearing a
black powersuit, much like Relena's, with her black sunglasses
and a black trenchcoat. The Keep Earth Pure League below her
supported her steadily, so that she seemed to have risen from the
depths of the colony itself. "How can we trust these aliens?
How do we know they're not the ones planning the attack
themselves?"
"That was my
question," Wu-Fei said angrily, as he and a team of
Preventers rushed through the tittering crowd.
"We have only their
word," Relena said, her voice icy and controlled. "But
for me, that word is enough. My judgement in the past has been
sound. There is no logical reason to distrust them."
"And there is no logical
reason to believe them, either. Citizens of the Earth, of the
Colonies, I ask you for your support. We have enough trouble on
our world as it is. Why should we invite more! I call for the
immediate removal of the alien presence from Colony One!"
"Who is that?" Zwit
asked, slightly amused.
"She's the sister of one of
my former Preventers," Lady Une said, her face mildly
surprised. "But I thought she was a pacifist."
"Our world is peaceful. To
turn away our visitors would be an act that is against our
policies and ideals." Relena had leaned into the podium. She
was angrier than she had been in a long time, but for her, anger
led to a deadlier calm. Her mind was operating at its quickest
now.
"Our policies and ideals
only concern humans! I--," Purity cried, but she was cut off
as the Preventers reached the human pyramid and began spraying
laughing gas. The pyramid toppled, but a ribbon of KEP workers
had been left to the exit, and they crowd-surfed their leader
outside faster than the Preventers could keep up.
And, as Heero observed, the last
one at the door was Trowa. He stared at his former ally, his eyes
narrowing, and Trowa happened to look up at Heero's balcony.
Their eyes locked for a second, Heero's cold ones on Trowa's
expressionless ones. Trowa raised a single eyebrow, and then he
and Catherine-Purity were gone.
"Ah man, this is gonna be
one helluva mess, to clean up," Duo shouted over the chaos.
Relena had given up and fled offstage, surrounding herself and
Forwa with Preventers three deep.
"It has been a spectacular
disaster on one level, but I think Relena's still ahead."
"Eh?" Duo blinked as
they headed down the stairs.
"Relena didn't cause the
havoc, Purity did. The people will still trust Relena."
Heero shrugged.
"If you say so . . . oy!
Sally! Reporting for duty, ma'am!"
* * *
"What do you
mean, Relena's gone?" Wu-Fei screamed in frustration. After
they'd cleared out the crows from the auditorium, Wu-Fei had gone
directly back to Relena's temporary dressing room, only to find
it empty.
Sally shrugged.
"After this mess, I don't see why she would stay. You got
your wish, Wu-Fei. The press conference was stopped."
Wu-Fei opened his
mouth to say something in argument, but nothing came out. Sally
had a point. He closed his mouth, feeling quite foolish for a
moment. Then he stomped away, his face turning red in mingled
horror, anger, and embarassment.
"He just hates
it when I'm right," Sally said to no one in particular, and
followed him down the hallway.
* * *
One Week
Later
* * *
"Sorry I have to cut the
meeting short today, guys," Heero said to the group of seven
to ten year olds that were the members of the Colony One 4-H
club. The job was his hobby, although it was difficult to
schedule around his primary work as a shuttle pilot (and his
secondary work of watching Relena like a hawk.) He considered
this is atonement for his sins during the war. Every smile on a
child's face, every thought that had nothing to do with war or
fear, made Heero's soul heal just that little bit more.
"Heero, we
understand," Melinda, one of the oldest said. "You
gotta do all that grownup stuff. It's not fair, but I guess
someone has to do it."
"Yeah, without people like
Heero, we'd be stuck on the colony all the time!" Justin
(age five) piped in.
"And when have you left
the colony, ever?"
"I haven't yet but I will,
just watch. I'll leave anytime I want to someday."
Heero smiled faintly to himself,
as Justin and Melinda got into a shouting match. They were
allowed to argue all they wanted, so long as they remembered to
back their fights up with facts, and never to get physical.
"So, what're we doing
today, Heero?" Dozé Winner asked.
"Just some project work, as
usual. If we had more time, we could work on the group project
for the Gathering next month, but since I've got to leave early
we need to spend that time on the individual presentations."
In the hundreds of years since
its establishment on Earth, the 4-H had not changed in its
message of peace through community and individual work. Unlike
its gender specific counterparts, the 4-H promoted work
throughout the whole community. Heero's club's project was on
historical architecture on Colony One, and what needed to be done
to preserve it. The kids were having a blast, especially since it
meant they got to tour a lot of nifty old houses.
"I can too be a soldier!
You wouldn't understand cuz you're not a guy."
"The war's over. We don't
got no soldiers anymore."
"But Heero's a soldier,
aren't you, Heero?" Justin said pleadingly, turning to
Heero.
"Melinda's right. There
aren't any soldiers anymore."
Justin frowned. "Awww man.
I wanna be a ninja then."
Heero coughed faintly into his
hand and herded the dissenters over to the main group of
children, who were already at working planning the mock
restoration of their favorite house.
* * *
In the colony one shuttleport, a
technician made a few adjustments to a shuttle wing, whistling as
he did so. His eyes flashed briefly as he admired his work. He
left quietly.
* * *
"You're now looking at a
girl with a degree," Hilde said proudly to Duo. They were
visiting Relena on Colony One, since Relena would be going away
and wanted a few people she trusted to keep an eye on Forwa. It
was finally dawning on her that Dorothy and Forwa weren't exactly
the chummiest people around, and she figured that Hilde would do
much better with Forwa.
"I'm so glad,
Hildey-babe," Duo said, giving her a bear hug from where he
sat on Relena's living room couch. Across the room, Forwa watched
the loving couple in wistful amusement. She understood that
Relena was a very busy person, and she didn't really mind being
left in space while she did some work on the planet. Relena had
promised her a tour of the world once things had settled down a
bit, but right now she considered it too dangerous.
"Say, Forwa, has Relena
taken you shopping yet?" Hilde asked suddenly, shoving Duo
away when he started nibbling on her neck.
"Shopping? As in,
purchasing things? No," Forwa said. She had brought a few
changes of clothes with her, but even so, she'd ended up
borrowing a few outfits from Relena. The problem was that the
human was a bit larger than her, and so the clothers were baggy,
and all the wrong colors. Forwa preferred lemon yellows, or
grays, and all Relena had were pinks and blues.
"Well, then, that's what
we'll do as soon as Relena leaves," Hilde said with a smile.
"She gave me a credit card to cover you for the next week,
and why not take advantage of it?" Hilde grinned.
"A credit card?" Forwa
had to think about that. Just because she had a full command of
Japanese (and now English, thanks to a few quick sessions via
computer), she didn't understand a lot of idioms in either
language. The phrase "credit card" was the same in both
languages, and meant the same thing in both languages, but the
words themselves were English, and she had to stop and decipher
it.
"Don't worry, Relena's
rich. She's the only one of us who never had to worry about
money, the lucky girl," Hilde said. "Of course, now
that I have my associate's degree, I can go onto obtain my
bachelor's, and I'll be able to run the scrapyard much more
efficiently. Duo and I won't have to worry about it for much
long, either" Hilde beamed proudly again.
"Isn't she great?" Duo
said again, grinning wildly at Hilde. Forwa sighed. Humans were
so open in their affection . . .
* * *
Heero ran a pre-flight system
check. Since nothing terribly exciting had happened on the Novie
ship (besides the fact that he and Duo had apparently taken an
eight-hour nap), he had gone back to piloting Earth to Colony
shuttles now that his quarantine was over.
He glanced outside, where Relena
was saying goodbye to a party of well wishers, including Duo,
Hilde, and that alien girl. He was worried. The Keep Earth Pure
group hadn't made any moves since their stunt at Relena's press
conference the week before, and that did not bode well for the
future.
He caught himself admiring
Relena's trim, lithe form, today clad in a pale lavender
powersuit with a miniskirt instead of her usual pants. Her dark
blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, with the soft
wings of bangs framing her face. Back to normal working mode, he
thought. He actually liked her hair any way she wore it, when he
thought about it . . .
Shaking his head to clear the
unwelcome thoughts, he looked back toward his work. Relena was a
weakness. His only weakness. Something in the back of his head
was nagging for attention, but he ignored it, and instead went
back to checking readouts on the console while he waited for the
captain to arrive.
* * *
"Cheers, Willow,"
Wesley Twentyman said to his partner in crime from their
temporary office on Colony One, proffering his glass of
champagne. "Our work is almost complete. When Relena
Peacecraft goes back to Earth today, we can take take over this
Side, and from there, the whole Colony."
"Aren't you thinking a
little ahead?" Willow countered, ignoring his offer of a
toast. She didn't drink alcohol. Her glass was filled with
sensible V-8 juice. "It won't be that easy. As long as
Peacecraft is a major figure, our Purity doesn't stand a chance
of leading a successful revolt."
"Don't worry. After today,
Peacecraft will cease to be a major factor at all."
"You're not planning on
killing her, are you?"
Twentyman choked. "No, of
course not! But our benefactor said that he's going to take care
of her. Whether it involves killing her or not, our hands will be
clean. We're not murderers, dear Willow. We're just anarchists.
Creative anarchists, not destructive ones."
Willow twirled one of her dark
curls around one perfectly manicured finger. "Something
isn't right. Why would our boss "take care" of
Peacecraft? And how can he do it without harming her?"
"I never said that he
wasn't going to harm her. But our hands will be clean."
Willow stared at her partner,
who smugly downed his glass of champagne. He really is a bastard,
she thought. I should never have gotten involved with this . . .
I hate this stupid Goldberg Project (they had changed the name
again, deciding to attribute the plan to the original author.)
And yet, she'd always been strangely attracted to the slimy man.
He had charisma. And while his personal habits were always
untidy, he kept himself in perfect physical condition, and his
grooming was as impeccable as their own. Willow sighed. They
weren't quite opposites, but instead more like yin and yang, with
as much in common with each other as they had in difference.
A knock sounded on the door, and
one of the new recruits, someone by the name of Trowa, came in
bearing another one of those bio-safe boxes that were coming with
increasing frequency. The boss paid well, in his own fashion.
"I'll just leave this
here," the young man said, and then left, but not before
giving the coldest glare that Willow had ever seen to the
indolent Twentyman, who missed it entirely. Willow's eyes
narrowed as she watched him leave. Then she shook her head. She'd
been working with him for the past week, and he was really one of
the best recruits so far. She had probably just imagined it.
* * *
Relena hugged Forwa, then Hilde,
who as actually one of her closest female friends. She was glad
that the girl had finally obtained her first degree, an amazing
feat considering how war-torn outer space had been in the past
few years. Most of the small schools had shut down, but Hilde had
telecommuted to the University of Colony One, and managed to get
her associate's degree in business within a single year.
"Take care," she said,
and boarded the shuttle, unaware of who was piloting it.
* * *
The captain came in, and Heero
gave him a quick rundown of the pre-flight status. All systems
were normal.
"We're flying Relena
Darlian again, in case you didn't know. I'm surprised she's going
to Earth so soon, what with this alien invasion and all."
"It's not an
invasion," Heero said sharply, before he realized that the
captain was joking. The captain chuckled, and Heero had the
presence of mind to feel chagrined.
"She has a lot on her
plate," Heero continued, a bit more calmly, turning on the
cabin vidscreen.
"You do know her, don't
you?" the captain said. Heero nodded slightly, confirming
the captain's suspicions. "You worked with her during the
war, right?"
Heero grimaced. He had never
spoke of his past to the captain, and until now, the captain had
never pried. "I wouldn't call it 'working.' Half the time I
was trying to assassinate her."
"Life and death are
connected in a very strange way. The fact that she's still alive
means that you really didn't want her dead, wouldn't you say,
lad? I can see the way you look at her." The captain was in
high spirits, and he did so love ribbing his copilot.
Heero gave him a half-hearted
Death Glare and went back to his work.
* * *
"Be well," Forwa
called, and Relena waved goodbye to her.
As the shuttle door closed,
Hilde grabbed Forwa's elbow. "Come on, I know just the
boutique to go to. And you too, Duo," Hilde said sharply, as
her significant other had made a move to go the other way.
"Awww, Hildey-babe,
shopping is girl's stuff . . ."
The two females dragged the
protesting Duo towards the groundcar that Relena had offered
them.
* * *
On the Novie ship, Lady Une and
Zwit were having lunch with a young man by the name of Cinch, who
was one of Zwit's favorite assistants, and one of the crew
closest to Forwa.
"Since Relena's gone for a
while, I think it would be best to send you to take care of Forwa
on the human colony," Zwit said casually. Cinch did not
react, but instead continued eating. Lady Une was impressed at
his control.
"Whatever you feel is
necessary, sir," Cinch said, taking a quiet sip of the
excellent wine that Zwit had chosen from his own personal
storage.
"I knew you'd see it that
way. You leave in two hours."
This time Cinch did react. He
nearly choked on his wine. In that instant he looked painfully
young. "Sir?"
Zwit smiled charmingly. Lady Une
smothered a giggle. Zwit knew how to command all right, and
sometimes that meant being a little bit of a bastard.
* * *
The shuttle took off for Earth
with little fanfare. Relena hummed softly to herself, and backed
some of her documents on her laptop up to her office on Colony
One via satellite, as was her habit. It was, so far, the
smoothest shuttle flight that she could recall.
And then, a small bang sounded
under the left wing. She thought nothing of it until her gas mask
fell in front of her, signifying a loss in cabin pressure.
Why today? she thought calmly,
putting the mask on. Of all the days for her shuttle to crash, it
would be today . . .
* * *
Heero and the captain thought a
little more of the noise than Relena had.
"Holy shit," the
captain said, losing all pretense of being a jolly old man.
"Something just took out our left engine."
"We're losing
altitude," Heero growled. "It also took out the wiring
systems, it looks like. We have no control over that wing
anymore."
The ground began to loom closer.
They were someplace over northern China, and the mountains did
not look inviting at all. Another explosion wracked the shuttle,
and this time a hundred warning bells and klaxons began screaming
for attention. Flames had erupted all along the left side of the
passenger cabin, and the entire wing assembly fell to pieces.
"We're going to
crash," the captain shouted above the din. "Darlian is
our only passenger. Grab a parachute and save her!" Heero
stared at the captain, dumbfounded for a moment, then nodded, and
grabbed his parachute from its emergency hutch behind his seat.
He fought his way through the
cabin door, which had locked when the wiring systems had gone
haywire. There were no stewardesses on this flight, as most of
the functions of them had long ago been automated, so Heero at
least didn't have to worry about anyone but Relena.
The captain goes down with the
ship, the old saying went. Heero fought back a wave of sadness,
and focused on the task at hand.
He almost whistled when he saw
the extent of the damage in the passenger cabin. No wonder all
the whistles had gone off. The left side of the shuttle was
completely gone. Relena was on the right side, by the window
seat, her old favorite place. She was unconscious, wearing the
oxygen mask, but it looked as though she'd escaped the worst of
the explosion. Heero shrugged on the parachute, freed her from
the seatbelt, tucked her inside his arms, and leapt outside the
shuttle through the hole torn in the side.
It was hard to hold onto her one
handed while he pulled the ripcord. Weak, Yuy, you've gotten
weak, he complained to himself as he juggled Relena in one arm.
She was still unconscious. The wind whipped her hair free from
its ponytail, blinding him for a moment.
"Dammit, I'm not ready to
die," Heero hollered at the wind and any gods who might
happen to be listening. He glanced up, relieved to see that the
leader chute had opened without a hitch, so that when he pulled
the second cord, the main chute opened properly. Behind and below
him, the shuttle suddenly exploded into a fireball, and the
shockwave propelled him forward a bit, the blast of hot air
changing their course towards a grassy field. Heero squeezed
Relena tighter, willing them both to survive.
As the ground grew closer, he
stretched his feet, knees loose to roll quicker, and molded
Relena's body to his as best as he could. He rounded his back to
absorb the impact. They hit the ground much too fast for safety,
and Heero remembered to buckle his legs before rolling over. They
flipped several times before coming to a stop, he on top of her,
debris from the shuttle landing quietly around them.
The entire thing had lasted less
then five minutes.
Heero carefully extracted
himself from Relena, hoping that he hadn't crushed her during
their fall. She still was not awake. He sat up, and cradled her
limp body in his arms. "Relena, don't do this to me,"
he said to her. She wasn't breathing, either. He laid her back on
the ground and blew a lungful of air into her mouth.
"Dammit, don't you die on me like this. Wake up!" He
breathed into her mouth again, and a tear escaped his eye and
fell onto her cheek.
She coughed, weakly, and opened
her eyes. "Heero," she croaked, and coughed again, a
little more strongly this time.
"Relena!" he cried,
and clutched her to him again, now weeping openly. "Thank
god," he whispered into her hair, over and over again.
"Thank god you're alive . . . "
* * *
Forwa emerged from the boutique
changing room, wearing a pair of jeans and a sunny yellow shirt.
Hilde knew her fashions well, and had picked out a style of jeans
that was flattering to Forwa's tiny figure, then combined a tight
top, giving her a look that echoed the vintage Before Colony
1990s look that was all the vogue at the moment.
Duo was sitting outside the
boutique, ignoring the intense shopping that had been going on
for the past hour. His cell phone range suddenly, and he welcomed
the distraction.
"Yo," he said casually
into the phone. "Oh, hey Dorothy. Yeah, they went
shopping." He listened for a few moments. "It is a
drag, isn't it? But Hildey just loves this sort of thing."
He listened again, his face registering surprise. "Another
one? Come to the Colony? Well, that's cool. We're at the Side
001C73 shopping mall, if you want to meet us there . . . It
is low key, believe me, no one's questioned Forwa yet, she
looks less exotic than some of the punks that hang out here.
We'll meet you for lunch at the Picadilly on the North Side,
how's that? . . . Okay, bye, see ya then." Duo scowled at
the phone after she hung up. He'd never liked Dorothy. Relena and
Quatre were the only people who insisted that she was a nice
person, deep down inside. To Duo she seemed like a whiny
sycophant.
The girls came out of the store,
carrying two stuffed shopping bags apiece. "We went a little
overboard," Hilde admitted sheepishly. Forwa was wearing one
of her new outfits, and Duo did have to admit it was a vast
improvement over Relena's slightly too big and much too frumpy
powersuit. Hilde had always had good taste in clothes.
"Change of plans, guys.
We're meeting Dorothy for lunch. Hey, Forwa, do you know some guy
named Cinch? Because your father just sent him over here to
Colony One to see you."
Forwa blinked, and then grinned
happily. "Oh, do I know Cinch . . ."
* * *
Word of the shuttle crash was
slow. A satellite had caught the first explosion on film, but not
the second or third, so no one in the shuttle control system was
aware of how much damage had been done. They had lost any contact
with it, and many people were assuming the worst.
"I want utmost secrecy on
this," the head of PR operations for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs said, slamming his fist onto the desk as an underling
asked if she should call a reporter.
But the Preventers were privy to
information not for public knowledge, and Wu-Fei and Sally heard
of it quickly.
"It was the aliens, I'm
sure of it," Wu-Fei said angrily. "Relena should have
listened to me last week."
"She had other things on
her mind, Wu-Fei," Sally said, as they hopped into a rescue
craft on a Colony One Side. "Until we figure out what
happened, we can't assign any blame at all."
"It was either them or the
Anti Alien League, and I don't think they'd have the guts to pull
something like this."
"C'mon, Wu-Fei, let's just
go . . "
Sally had the amazing ability to
stay calm no matter what. It was something that had always
impressed Wu-Fei, at the same time it frustrated him beyond all
reasoning. If she would only get upset once in a while, it might
make his life a little easier to deal with, but no, she was
always perfectly stable, faintly amused, and always sensible. It
drove him crazy.
Stupid woman, he thought
faintly, as he started up the emergency craft.
* * *
Cinch frowned at the tall,
elegant human female who had quietly fetched him from the Colony
Side where the Novie ship was docked. She seemed so friendly and
helpful on the surface, but he knew that it was all an act. He
found it rather sad. He also found himself staring at her
eyebrows more than once as the small Side shuttle took them from
the supply Side to the larger, residential one that Forwa had
been staying on. Her eyebrows fascinated him. They forked for no
reason at all, and extended nearly an inch beyond the sides of
her face. Did she wax them to make them do that? Or were they
simply naturally coarse? He had to stop himself from touching
them on more than one occasion.
Cinch was not a handsome person,
not by human or Novie standards, but instead he exuded a youthful
buoyancy that fooled most people into thinking he was. His hair
fell in a natural tangle of slate gray curls to his slightly
pointed ears, a style he'd affected so that people would not pay
attention to his nose, which was slightly snub and hooked all at
the same time.
"Zwit sent me just to look
after her until Miss Relena returns. I'm usually with her for
diplomatic missions, actually. This was the first time she'd been
sent on her own, but with the problems at the press conference,
her father figured that this was all for the best."
"Of course," Dorothy
said primly, smoothing out her skirt. "We don't want
anything to happen to her at all. Miss Relena would be most
upset."
Cinch gave her a strange look,
then picked up a magazine that had been left behind by an earlier
passenger. He blinked for a few times before realizing that the
magazine was not in the language that he had been speaking with
Dorothy, but in another one, one that he didn't even recognize.
The characters were the same as the second language he had
learned, for the most part, but it was so much garble.
"Oh, sorry, that one
appears to be in Spanish," Dorothy said, and plucked it from
his grasp. "Let's see . . . here's one in Japanese."
Cinch frowned at the second
magazine. The title of it was in English.
"Newtype? What is a
'newtype?'"
* * *
Quatre and Dozé were the first
civilians to hear of the crash, through a call from Trowa. They
had been playing chess, Dozé with the quiet eyes easily beating
his uncle, when the call came. Quatre left the room to answer it.
"Trowa!" Quatre cried
happily. "I was worried about you!"
"Sorry for leaving you like
that, Quatre," Trowa said in a quiet voice. "Listen,
something terrible just happened, and I need your help. Relena's
shuttle crashed. Heero was the pilot. But something else even
worse has happened. Meet me on Colony Four in one day,
okay?"
Trowa hung up the phone, leaving
Quatre shocked, and puzzled over what could be worse than Relena
and Heero crashing. He stared at the empty vidphone for a few
moments, his mouth agape, trying to reconcile his thoughts with
the idea of a world without Relena. It was very hard. He
swallowed, trying to keep himself calm, then returned to Dozé in
the other room.
"We're going to Colony
Four," he said simply, not trusting himself to say any more.
Dozé's eyes widened, but he didn't ask any more, but quietly
left the chess game, although not before sliding his queen into a
checkmate position.
* * *
Wesley Twentyman swirled the
brandy in his glass, admiring his hosts' taste in licquor. The
host himself, Twentyman's erstwhile boss, was across the room
from him in a surprisingly opulant office in an unmarked building
on one of the oldest Sides in all of space. This was Twentyman's
first face to face, well, face to shadow meeting with the man who
had been feeding his and Willow's addiction to orchids.
His unnamed benefactor's chair
faced the wall, reminding Twentyman of so many B movie villains
who did the same thing. There was a reason they did it, of
course. It was quite effective in maintaining the barrier.
"I trust you enjoyed the
Peppermint Tigers," the host said, his voice pleasant.
Twentyman swallowed quietly. The orchids had completed his
Brazilian collection, making him the only owner of the complete
set in the world. Among his small circle of friends and
acquaintances, it was the greatest height of distinction to
"complete" a country. And no one before him had
completed Brazil.
"Yes," he said
truthfully. "Willow was ecstatic."
"How is the girl, anyway?
She's a bright one, she is. You ought to do right by her and
marry her."
Wesley nearly spit out the
mouthful of brandy he had just sipped. MarryWillow? That was
absurd! They weren't even in that kind of relationship!
"Just kidding," the
host said lightly, lifting his glass in a quiet toast. "I
know you are partners and nothing more. You should not show your
feelings so easily, though. Had I said something else equally
shocking to you, it would have been dangerous. Now, onto
business."
Wesley cleared his throat and
leaned back, trying to regain his compusure. The idea of marrying
Willow -- *Willow* -- had rattled him more than he wanted anyone
to know. He was destined to be an eternal bachelor, after all. No
one married scum like him, which was just fine.
"The plan I spoke of
earlier has been executed."
Twentyman hadn't heard about
anything, so he assumed the press had been told to hush it
up." So Darlian is out of the pictured?"
"She is down, but she is
not out. I made a small miscalculation."
"But if her plane crashed,
then surely . . . "
"The copilot was Heero
Yuy."
Wesley swirled his brandy
nervously. "I see," he lied as he had failed to do so
entirely.
"No, you do not. If anyone
could survive a plane crash, it is that former Gundam pilot, and
if he survived, he would not let Darlian die. No, they're alive
out there, somewhere."
* * *
Heero paused in the act of
tearing strips of the parachute to pieces to sneeze, almost at
the same time as Relena. They looked wonderingly at each other,
and she squirmed uncomfortably where she was sitting, as the
sneezes had disturbed her wounded arm.
"Must be some pollen or
something," she said, shaking her head to clear it, her
loosened hair tickleing her back. Heero had had to remove her
blouse to get at her wounded arm, but she felt completely
comfortable around him with only her bra on. It felt oddly
liberating, too, to have the sun warming her bare skin in the
middle of the grassy field.
"I can remember you doing
this for me on several occasions," Heero said gruffly as he
continued tearing the parachute. Relena being without a shirt was
having much more of an effect on him than it was on her. She was
so damn calm, it was even more maddening for him.
Relena smiled at him, entirely
failing to notice what Heero was going through. "Yes, I
remember. That time on the ship . . ."
" . . .when you were an
idiot and tried to play bodyguard for me when Duo was about to
shoot me."
Relena frowned prettily.
"But you were wounded."
"I should have died then.
It would have saved the world a lot of pain and bloodshed."
"Heero," Relena said
sharply, her frown becoming real, grabbing his shoulder with her
good arm. "Don't belittle your value to this world. You have
done far more to help than anyone else. Without you . . . I would
still be a princess in an ivory tower, oblivious to the pain of
the world. Without you, Trieze may not have died. He would have
been ruling the world, and there would have been even more
bloodshed."
Heero was silent for a moment,
then he contined tearing off strips of his uniform shirt.
Relena's words may have been true, but he was still a murderer,
with sins to atone for . . .
Weak.
Heero startled, wondering where
the voice had come from. Suddenly the world turned round him, and
he dropped his shirt in horror. Thousands of shadows arose from
the blackened plain around him, surrounding him, pointing fingers
at him. Relena had disappeared. The sky went from blue to
nightmarish gray, and the world strobed in the lightning from the
storm above. The shadows chanted at him.
weak weak weak weak weak weak
"Know your weakness, Heero
Yuy," a familiar voice said. The lead shadow stepped out, in
front of him, pointing an accusing, skeletal finger at him.
"And know your strengths."
strength strength strength
strength
"Heero!"
Relena's voice cut through the
illusion, and suddenly the voices vanished. He realized that he
was sweating profusely, that his undershirt was soaked, that he
was shaking violently on the ground, Relena's face above him, her
hair framed by the afternoon sun. Had he been having a seizure?
And then he remembered . . . the ship . . . the shadow . . . this
was the second time he'd had a seizure like that. The first time
had been on the Novie ship. He remembered it all now. He and Duo
hadn't fallen asleep at all. Had they been tortured? No, the
shadows weren't Novie . . . they were human.
"How long . . . how long
was I out?" he asked, staring straight up, too surprised to
move.
"Almost ten minutes,"
Relena said, her voice breaking. Heero looked at her in wonder.
She had had her plane blown up, her arm burnt severely, and she
had stayed calm the entire time. But now she was weeping openly,
her tears running down her face almost continuously.
Over him.
He stared at her, deeply
touched, and absently reached up to brush a tear off her face.
"Don't cry for me, Relena," he scolded softly.
"I can't help it. I was so
worried. What happened? Are you all right?"
Heero sat up, and caught her in
a deep hug, avoiding her burnt arm. "I just had a small dose
of truth, that's all, Relena," he said. "And I realized
something. Something important."
Relena studied at him, her eyes
searching his face for some clue that he hadn't gone mad.
"What, Heero? What did you realize?"
"That you're my strength,
Relena. My weakness. You're both, and I need to stop running away
from that." He moved his face closer to hers, his lips
hovering inches from her own, his breath warm against her
tearstained skin. Then he kissed her, and for Heero Yuy, all was
lost.
* * *
"So Darlian is still a
player in the game."
"Unfortunately, yes. But I
have a little something that will changed all that, if she
survived." The host leaned back far enough to hand Wesley a
small document packet, sealed with the wax of Romefeller.
Wesley frowned hesitantly.
"Don't open it," the host warned. "Just read
this." He handed him another stack of documents, loose this
time, then his posture relaxed again. "Once this becomes
public, your Purity will stand to rule the world, and Darlian
will no longer matter."
Wesley took the documents, and
flipped to the first page. He frowned as he read the top line.
Then his eyes widened in mingled shock and wonder as he realized
what he held.
"I, Trieze Kreshrenada, of
sound mind and body, do hearby declare this to be my solemn . . .
this is . . ." Wesley breathed.
"Trieze Krushrenda's will.
His missing will. Stamped, sealed, and then handed to me
personally by one of the more delightfully corrupt soliciters of
Romefeller. Skip all the boring estate stuff, and go down to the
third page, fourth paragraph."
"'In the event that I am
killed honorably while serving my term as the sovereign of
Romefeller, the title of sovereign shall fall to one Relena
Peacecraft, princess of Sanq.' That chit . . . she's bloody queen
again, isn't she?"
The host smiled. "Although
Romefeller is nowhere near the powerhouse it used to be, and the
unified earth sphere is a democracy . . . she's still the queen.
And she has been for three years, and no one has ever bothered to
figure it out. Trieze's will was supposedly lost. But that was
because I found it."
"But the seal . . ."
"I am a scientist,"
the host said, his voice suddenly sharp. "I don't need to
break a seal to learn the meaning. And this is exactly the sort
of stunt Krushrenada would have loved. He's probably grinning in
his grave."
"Damn him," Twentyman
said softly. "He may be rotting in Hell now, but damn him
again anyway. And damn her too. She's going to become even more
of a rival for Purity." Twentyman was again failing to see
the big picture.
"No need to damn the
damned," the host chided softly. "Nor the doomed."
* * *
Relena had to break off Heero's
frantic kisses to sneeze twice again. "Someone must really
hate me," she gasped, as he took the opportunity to kiss
other, just as delightful parts of her.
"Or you're allergic to
me," Heero mumbled between kisses, then shut up as he
continued the task at hand.
"Never," Relena
objected, then hushed as well. It didn't matter whether someone
else hated her. Right now all she could think about was Heero.
* * *
"So now what?"
"In any case, this won't
need to become public for a while. While Darlian is down, go
ahead and bring your Purity to the forefront again. And take out
the alien girl, if you can get to her."
"Now that I've already
taken care of," Twentyman said. "Or should I say,
Willow has."
* * *
One Willow Sable, PhD, peered
around the corner of her cart in the Side Mall. She felt
extremely undignified selling pagers to the mall riffraff. Her
partner, that new recruit Trowa Barton, had comendeered a small
cart through some means, and Willow did not really care to ask
him exactly how he had done it. He was a good worker, that
Barton. Less than a week after he'd joined their forces, he was
already her favorite volunteer. She had discounted the look that
he'd given Twentyman that morning as her own eyes playing tricks
on her.
Trowa was about as passionate
for the actual cause as she herself, meaning he stared
impassively while Purity gave her speeches. That suited her just
fine. He was probably in it for economic reasons, too.
It was funny. He even looked a
little like the girl. Same delicate nose, same softly tanned skin
tone. Perhaps it was simply that they were both Hispanic. Willow
cleared her head of those idle thoughts, and stared at her
quarry, her dark, beringed hand gripping the cart more tightly.
There. The alien girl, Forwa,
and the humans who were currently her hosts had sat down at a
table in the Picadilly Cafeteria, the former with a small
sampling of everything the resteraunt had to offer filling five
plates, and the others bearing a more conventional lunchtime
fare. Hmmm. How could they pull this off?
"If I disguise myself as
waiter, I could get inside," Trowa suggested. Willow shook
her head.
"It won't do us any good.
She won't leave the table without an escort."
"Hmmm."
The two unenthusiastic Keep
Earth Human Leaguers stared at the lunchers, neither coming up
with a sufficient plan. Trowa knew that he had to let Duo or
Hilde see him, so that they would know Forwa was safe. With
Relena gone (and Heero, too; Trowa had hacked into the air
shuttle scheduling systems to confirm his hunch after he'd
overheard Twentyman discussing the plan), the world needed to
know that the alien girl was all right, and if they knew that he
was involved with the operation, then they would know that she
would be safe even if she was kidnapped. Duo knew his
"disguise and infiltate" style very well after the
incident during the Barton War.
While they were staring, their
task suddenly became infinitely more complicated as Dorothy
Catalonia appeared, her radar eyebrows seeming to twitch as she
located the lunching trio. Worse, behind her was . . . another
alien.
"Shit," Willow said,
biting one perfectly manicured acrylic nail nervously.
"This is the first I've
heard of another alien," Trowa whispered to her, as
surprised as she.
"There was only one. And
now there are two. They're multiplying." Willow's wide,
deeply painted lips had narrowed into a thin line. Trowa felt
almost sorry for the African woman. She was not cut out for this
sort of thing at all. For one thing, she stood out among the
gaily punk crowd of the Colony One side, in her prim, formal
little powersuit. She was also much taller than pretty much
everyone around her, including himself. All this for a bunch of
flowers?
They continued watching the
group, despairing of ever completing their goal of kidnapping
Forwa.
And suddenly, a golden
opportunity extended itself.
* * *
"Duo, Hilde, meet Cinch, my
. . .my . . ." Forwa faltered. It was hard to describe her
relationship with Cinch in one neat phrase.
"I'm Forwa's
guardian," Cinch filled in helpfully, and extended a hand
toward Duo, then Hilde. "Dorothy has told me that you're
taking care of Forwa while Miss Relena is traveling to Earth. I
thank you."
"And Forwa's told us all
about you, Cinch," Duo said in response. "Sit, you all.
Eat. Forwa's eyes are bigger than her stomach." He shoved
one of Forwa's many untouched plates toward Dorothy and Cinch.
"That they are," Cinch
agreed. Forwa shot him a hurt look, but she grinned at his
teasing. She had explained to Duo that Cinch was more like an
older brother to her than anything else, and it was quite
accurate from their behavior.
Dorothy glanced from Cinch to
Forwa, an odd look in her eyes. She hadn't liked the alien girl,
much as she didn't like Hilde. They had the same sort of puppyish
personality. Dorothy had mistakingly assumed that all the aliens
must be like her.
But Cinch . . . he was
different. He was open, and would tease, but he made it known
that while he showed the friendly side most of the time, he was
deep down a very serious person. Dorothy had always liked that in
people. Her own personality was much the same way; she appeared
whiny on the surface in order to hide the calculating mind
beneath. Being two-faced was a regretful side effect of being
raised in Romefeller. Everyone was polite or downright supplicant
on the surface. Appearances had to be maintained while they all
plotted to overthrow each other.
Dorothy found herself staring at
him talk animatedly with the others, his soft gray curls bobbing
as he spoke. His hair was the most incredible thing she'd ever
seen. She wanted to reach out and pull one curl, just to see it
spring back. . . Startled at herself, Dorothy blinked. Where had
that thought come from?
"And so, this is the first
time that Forwa was ever allowed to come on a mission by herself.
We meant to have her do the entire thing on her own, but with the
inflamed situation among the Keep Earth Human League -- and yes,
we know about that, the reaction is quite common among isolated
species, don't feel ashamed -- her father sent me here."
"Daddy treats me like a
two-year old," Forwa complained.
"I'm sure he's only worried
about you, Miss Forwa," Dorothy stepped in.
"I know," Forwa
grumbled, then smiled again. She leaned forward to ask Hilde
something, and Hilde whispered the answer back.
"Excuse me, I need to run
to the . . . powder room," Forwa said, slightly embarassed.
She slid her chair back with a squeak, then tiptoed across the
resteraunt floor, not drawing a second glance now that she
blended in with the fashions of the day. Hilde followed her,
pausing only to glare at Duo as he patted her bottom on the way
past.
* * *
"Okay, perfect. When she
comes back, you grab the girl, and I'll . . . move this cart over
there." Willow paused. "Can she fit inside this thing?
Oh, bother . . . she'll be fussing . . ."
"No, I'll distract her
guardian. You grab the girl. And to keep her from making a scene
. . ." Trowa hed up a small washcloth. There was a small
blue stain in the center.
"Of course, the knockout
juice that Wesley had me make for Purity. Perfect."
Trowa nodded. The liquid was not
only good for injections, but also had an ether-like effect when
inhaled. Forwa would be knocked out in moments -- that is, if it
worked on Novie as well as humans.
They split up. Trowa crept up
behind a booth on the way to the restrooms, and as Hilde walked
past, he grabbed her arm. She whirled around in surprise, but she
relaxed when she saw who it was.
"Trowa! Hi, how are
you?" she chirped automatically.
"I'm not bad. Quatre is
also well. But I need to talk to you." He pulled her further
behind the booth, and apologized for the upcoming fabrication.
"I have it on good authority that someone is planning to
kidnap Forwa."
Hilde frowned, and expression
that made her cute, heart shaped face look less worried and more
pouty. "Why would anyone want to kidnap Forwa? She's just a
kid. Why would anyone want to kidnap her? And how do you know
about it?"
"Don't forget, I was a
Preventer for a whole year. I still have contacts. How has she
been doing? Have you seen anyone suspicious?"
"Well, now that you mention
it, there was this creepy lady in the Gap, she kept staring at
us, as if she wanted to shoot Forwa or something. And the cashier
here refused to talk to us! And . . ." As Hilde babbled
(much as Trowa knew she would; Hilde was the only person he knew
that was more talkative than Duo), Willow Sable caught the alien
girl as she was emerging from the restroom, and placed the cloth
over her mouth. Forwa was out in a second. The whole thing had
taken less than a minute, and had been done in total silence.
"Anyway, Hilde, be careful.
And tell everyone I said hi. Also, tell Duo that no matter what
happens, I'll be looking out for Forwa from the inside. He'll
know what I mean."
Hilde shook her head in
confusion, but reached up on tiptoe and gave Trowa a kiss on the
cheek. "I'll tell him. Now, I better go catch Forwa before
something happens to her. . . Be well, Trowa." Hilde
scurried over to the restroom, and went inside the door.
Trowa helped Willow stuff the
unconscious alien girl into the cart, and they both exited the
resteraunt, then the mall, completely unnnoticed. Trowa knew that
the alien girl would probably be safer with him than Hilde or Duo
any day. For one thing, he didn't intend to let anyone kidnap her
while she was under his care.
"You're a good worker,
Barton," Willow Sable said, as they put the entire cart into
the back of her SUV groundcar. Trowa said nothing. With Heero and
Relena probably dead, and the alien girl missing, there would be
no one to stop Catherine from starting a war against the aliens.
Except him. And to do so, he
needed Forwa on his side.
* * *
[Ending Song: The Promise, by Michael Nyman]
Episode Five: Lady Une discovers a terrible secret
about the Novie; Trowa and Forwa plot to rescue Catherine; the
world is doubly stunned by the apparent death of then restoration
of the crown to Relena Peacecraft. Relena is not dead, however,
and the Preventers launch a desperate plan to rescue both her and
Heero Yuy.
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 lyrics used in the beginning of
each episode are an English arrangement by Cat Who, and are not
the official lyrics, nor are they an entirely accurate
translation.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not
mine. It belongs to TV Tokyo, Sunrise/Bandai, and Sotsu Agency.
All characters are used without permission, but please bear in
mind, I am not making any money off of this. Airmail from the
Moon ©1999 Two Mix. Watermark, Taliesin Arrangement is ©1995
The Taliesin Orchestra and Enya. Both songs are used without
permission.
Watermark
By: Catwho