Crimson Blood [Is This Peace]
Jaide's POV
*****
Shorai walked up beside me, swiped a finger across the face of the cabinet next to the one I was standing at, and gasped in mock amazement at the trail of white showing through the soot. She then looked at the tip of her finger and faked crying. "Such a good burrito. Gone to waste and to Mexi-heaven. Now the microwave is a different story." She stopped down and picked up a piece of Gundalinum (a cross of Gundanium and aluminum) that was part of the face of the microwave and stood showing it to me. "Such a sad fate, don't you think?" She acted all sad, stumbling over to Kosen-teki and faked fainting into his arms, then magically waking up and whining about the microwave.
Kosen-teki actually laughed. "See what you did? You killed the burrito! And Shorai's precious microwave! I should hurt you for that."
Shorai spoke in a faint whisper. "Little Munch-Munch... my little Munch-Munch Microwave..."
At that time, I could do nothing to help myself but double over in laughter. "L-little M-mun-munch Munch?!" I managed through hysterical giggles. "And I thought I was possessive!!!"
By this time, Adea was slowly backing away from us while Kyoretsu fell down in laughter as well.
*****
Adea's POV
Here I was, watching the whole group go insane. I raised an eyebrow in question, but decided against it. I turned and went to the cockpit to read. Humming to myself, I picked an operator's manual and plopped down in a high-backed chair. I kicked my feet up onto the control panel and crossed them at the ankles.
I flipped the book open and paged through. I sighed and shook my head. The marks of Jaide. Little stick figures were drawn on the pages dancing around making faces. On one page, there was a "group" shot and fortunately, we were more than sticks. Jaide and I flashed peace signs at the "camera" and were grinning like identical idiots. Kyoretsu was standing behind us, giving us rabbit ears. Shorai was grinning at the little scene and Kosen-teki was sitting in the corner half glaring at us over the little rectangle glasses he always wears; Jaide must've messed his hair up because it was sticking abnormally out to one side.
I couldn't help but laugh because underneath the picture scrawled in big fancy letters wrote: The Gang~ Friends to the Groosome End ^_^. How sweet. He spelled "gruesome" wrong.
Flipping through the rest of the book, I found Kosen-teki's notes scribbled in his cramped handwriting, then next to it, Jaide's sloppy barely-readable chicken scratch poking fun at the comments of K-T.
Suddenly a hand covered my eyes and an arm wrapped around my neck. "Guess who?"
I growled and the grip around my neck loosened. I swiveled the chair around and my watch was tossed into my hands. "Kyo-chan! Did you fix it??"
He nodded and sat in a chair a few feet away. "I replaced the wires you snapped but all it initially needed was a new numerical plate." He shrugged.
Dumbfounded, I sat there and simply stared at him.
As if reading my mind, he shrugged again. "I'm serious. You might just need to take better care of it."
I was about to say something else when the rest of the gang came barreling into the cockpit laughing and shouting.
*****
Shorai's POV
Insanity overtook the ship for a while until Adea nearly snapped after Jaide accidentally stepped on her watch. It didn't break, but it's the lack of thought that counts. She ran through the cockpit yelling and screaming Jaide's name as he took a turn and ran down the corridor.
"JAIDE!!" In no time, she caught up to him, and probably would have pounded him if it hadn't been for a loud mechanical voice booming throughout the ship.
"DOCKING. PLEASE BE SEATED."
Reluctantly, Adea walked past him to sit in a seat a few yards away next to the drink bar. However, she couldn't complete this task without gruffly pushing Jaide into the wall. The rest of us sat down around her and braced ourselves for the docking.
"Yay! We're home!" Jaide grinned dumbly. Adea sighed and shook her head.
"Shorai and me are the ones who're s'posed to be saying that." She looked at me.
"It's my home though, too!" He pouted and crossed his arms, but Adea just glared.
I grinned. "Be nice, A. Besides, you're supposed to be proud that your watch didn't break. Moreover, just for future reference, 'Shorai and I'. Okay?"
Kosen-teki slugged my shoulder lightly. "Hey, when'd you get all English Teacher? You know I'm failing English this marking period."
Laughing, I returned the punch, harder. "Failing by whose standards?? You have an 89%! Besides, I hate English. It's just that my friends back home all loved it and would lecture me all the time."
"...home..."
We looked at the empty seat Kyoretsu was sitting at, then, confused for a moment, we looked around the room and saw him standing by the window, his hand placed gingerly on the glass. Adea stood and walked over to him, but before she managed to say anything, a small gasp escaped her lips. By then, I also saw what they saw. We hadn't been docked yet. Our ship hovered there, but the gates wouldn't open. I knew the reason: The colony was dead. Besides the lower two levels, the uppermost one was also gone. We maneuvered the ship over to a smaller manual docking station on the other side of the colony and walked into what was once called home.
*****
Kosen-teki's POV
Whatever happened made me angry. All five public parks were trashed; the green grass, the tall trees, the flowerbeds, the benches, the people...everything gone or charred. Shorai gripped my arm in horror as we walked through the last park to check for survivors.
"S-Shaku...Why? Why would she do this??" She whimpered in utter disbelief.
I looked at her and faced her, taking her shoulders. "Even though she's your cousin, even though you believe you can do something to help her, you can't. Understand? There's NOTHING you can do for her now. She's paved her own path and she's not going to make another one." She didn't seem to want to listen, so she turned away from me and walked at a faster pace than the rest of us.
Sighing, I started after her. Adea jogged up to me. "That was a little harsh, K-T. She won't want to risk disbelieving in her cousin. Know what I mean?"
"I guess I don't..." I admitted.
She nodded and thought for a minute. "Your grandmother, Relena, think of Shorai like her. Relena fought hard for what she believed in, especially when it came to something, or someone, she cared about."
I nodded and sighed deeply. "I understand, but under these circumstances? Shorai's an orphan thanks to her cousin."
Kyoretsu came up beside me. "But that's what makes her cousin so important to her. Shaku's the only one she has left. Shorai thinks, and will even try to convince herself that there's still a chance. She can't accept that there might not be."
A shrill shriek kept me from replying. I saw Shorai had stopped ahead of us and stood there, motionless.
*****
Adea's POV
"Shorai?" Kosen-teki questioned when he got near enough for her to hear. She still didn't move, but called back:
"She's a horrible, horrible person."
I peered down and Shorai's feet and saw what she meant. What Shaku had done to the people. At the base of a tree, was a person curled up and charred beyond recognition. The face seemed to gape at us, its mouth twisted open into an eternal scream of agony.
Shorai's eyes watered but she said a prayer for the person without a break in her voice. However, on the closing line of "Amen", she turned to Kosen-teki and shook her head slowly. "Let's go, there's nothing left."
"What about the others?? About Gramma and Gramps?" Jaide inquired as he looked hopefully to each one of us.
I shook my head. "There's no way to know for sure. Shall we go, or camp here for the night? It's getting pretty dark."
An exchange of glances happened for about five seconds. There was no unanimous answer, the others just stood there shuffling their feet and staring uncomfortably at the ground.
"I say we go..." Shorai looked up after a long silence. "I want to know if the others are alright or not."
A nod came from Kosen-teki and Kyoretsu. Jaide looked at me. "Maybe...but... What if we don't like what we see?"
"We'll have to know some time."
"Do we? I mean-"
Kosen-teki cut him off. " Yes, unless you want your conscience to be overshadowed by the mystery whether your family is alive or not. Frankly, I don't take too kindly to that idea. I want to know what happened."
*****
Third Person POV
The trek to the nearest working hatch to the tunnels that spanned to colony was a long and trying one. The group had met up with five hatches until they found one that worked. Noticing that night was nearing, the hatch was marked and they headed for a nearby less-singed park to camp in.
"H-hey, guys?"
"Hmn?"
"Is it just me, or has it gotten a helluva lot colder since we left to look for Adea and Shorai?" Wrapping his arms around his shoulders, Jaide let out a shaky, cold breath.
Kyoretsu sighed deeply through his mouth, watching the fog of his breath escape and swirl into the night sky. "Shaku did it after all..."
Adea leaned close to Kyoretsu, curling up as tight as she could to stay warm. "What do you mean by that?"
Kosen-teki cleared his throat. "Shaku promised she'd freeze the colony. Something about her heart being cold as well."
"That sounds SO like her, the little satanic worshipper..." Shorai scoffed as she rested her head on Kosen-teki's shoulder. "I'm cold. Anyone have a lighter? There's plenty of crap to burn around here, you know."
Her suddenly dark humor startled the group and everyone let out a small laugh. Kosen-teki smiled grimly. "She probably got too sick and tired of waiting and just decided to bomb the place instead of making it a winter wonderland."
Adea let out a surprisingly loud laugh. "All of this grim joking is supposed to be my job! Ironic isn't it? Maybe she wanted US to freeze!! That's it. See? I have it all figured out." She stood and paced around to flex out her joints. She walked over to a corpse, grabbed its hand and dragged it back to the group. "Well? Bon appétit!"
"Hopefully you mean 'bonfire'?" Jaide asked raising his eyebrow in question.
She grinned.
Kosen-teki stood to fish a lighter out of his jean pocket, and, sparking it to life, set the flame to a twig, tossing it onto the body. The body almost immediately caught fire, bringing warmth, but the rude stench of burning flesh as well.
The group settled around the fire and fell asleep in wait of the new morning.
*****
Adea's POV
I woke up early with a stiff neck, stiff back and my knee twisted funny. Nevertheless, for some reason, I couldn't complain. With the gradual loss of climate control, the earth and sun became more visible. So, I swung myself up into a bare tree and scrambled skyward until the branches started to give slightly underneath my feet. Leaning back against the trunk, I wiggled into a comfortable position and pulled out an audio player that I picked up in the shuttle. I smiled slightly as my favorite band began to play. I listened to the music and watched intently as the darkness was chased away by the light on the earth. In a small amount of time, the sun's rays broke through the chilled atmosphere on the colony and gently basked it in a honey-colored glow.
I found myself singing along with another song in a lower, but harmonic key. "Don'cha know, know, know...It's love..."
An amused laugh brought me back to reality. "Yeah I do, I think ya love the earth too much. I've been standing here for the past twenty minutes and you never noticed me."
I looked down to see Kyoretsu standing there with his arms crossed tightly and his jaw chattered slightly as he spoke. "How can you love a place that you've never been to?"
"I...I dunno. I guess it's just from what people told me about it. I guess I just want to live there instead of being on a dead colony."
He looked hurt. "So you don't like being here? You don't love me?"
I laughed so suddenly I almost fell out of the tree. I could tell he was barely retaining a straight face.
"Adea!!"
This time I did fall. On my way down, a free hand luckily caught a branch. Still laughing, I managed a response. "No, you're a cruel, cruel person!"
Thankfully, my sarcasm went noticed and he laughed as well.
"Hey, A!" Shorai yawned as she walked toward the tree I was hanging out of.
"Sho-chan! Wassup? Have a good night's sleep? K-T seemed to make a nice pillow for you." I grinned and landed on the branch below me, then trotted down the rest of the way.
By the time I reached the ground, Shorai was blushing profusely. "That's none of your business."
I smiled. "So? Are you gonna tell me or not??"
She gasped and swatted at me. "Nosy!"
*****
Jaide's POV
After I was forced awake out of a dream of cranberry pudding, we gathered up what we had and left our camp to explore. The hatch led straight to the main section of the base. All that should have been awaiting our return was gone. K-T rummaged through a pile of papers then turned back toward us.
"Nothing." He shrugged. "It's sad, but this is all that's left."
Hearing his nonchalant attitude made me mad. "That can't just be it. There's gotta be SOMETHING!" I emphasized the last word by throwing my hands into the air. I started to head in the direction of the offices when Adea grabbed my wrist.
"You take the other wing, Sho' and I will take this one. Kosen-teki will head for the east wing and Kyoretsu takes the northwest wing. If any of you find anything substantial, I think we could all be able to fix the intercom, so just buzz the whole building and give your location. We'll be there in five minutes. Got it?"
The choruses of yes were like a starting gun to race. All at once, we headed for our designated wings.
*****
Kyoretsu's POV
I started pacing down the charred hallway, overstepping bricks and support beams that had fallen. Straining my ears, I thought I could barely hear some noise farther down the corridor. Taking my time as to not miss any detail, but also keeping my mind on the sound, I sang one of my favorite early-age songs. When I was little, my mother used to sing Maaya Sakamoto to me. Sakamoto-chan was one of the best singers a long time ago. Now, most of her songs had been remixed and such, but the original is always better. My mom had something that people called CD players a while back. She gave it to me as well as a few of Sakamoto-chan's CDs.
"...mado kara sasu hizashi wa atarashii hajimari sa ..chigau yo tada no getsuyou no asa ..itsumo no kurikaeshi..." I sang softly to myself. I loved this song. It seemed too ironic to me, and it rather left me with a sense to try at whatever I'm afraid of.
[Line translates to: The sunlight shining through the window is a new beginning. No it's not, it's just Monday morning. It's just a repeat of the same old thing.]
I followed the halls until the noise got louder. I saw a faint glow of light coming from a room not too far ahead and when I trotted in, the place was trashed. The sound that echoed through the halls was of the video chips of Shaku bombing the room and the colony. On the screen of the monitor was a gut-wrenching clip of her staring straight into the camera saying:
"Hello pilots. If you ever do manage to find the two bitches out in space, and moreover, you manage to make it back here; I must admit, I'm impressed. However, if you manage to make it out of here alive, rest assured, you wont last much longer. As for the old fools...pray that you see them alive as well."
I growled and picked up the receiver for the intercom and, after tweaking a few wires, had it buzz to life.
*****
Adea's POV
"Pilots, I have found something. However, it is nothing substantial as to the location of the Gundam pilots and crew. I suspect they are with Shaku, but keep searching."
Kyoretsu's voice snapped me back into reality and I set down the pictures of my grandfather that I found on the table. Shorai jogged over to me from the room across the hall, her arms filled with a huge time detonation system. "Adea, there's something wrong here." She set the system down at my feet.
I looked up at her as I knelt down to inspect the system's wires. "It looks fine to me..."
"If that thing were to have gone off, it and the whole base would be gone." She pointed to the explosion radius- 950 square yards from system.
"You're pointing something new out?" I raised an eyebrow.
She growled and her finger moved slightly to the left. "Adea, look. There is Shaku's symbol. Like OZ or Romafellar, she leaves her mark everywhere to let people know that Shaku's troops killed so many!"
Staring at her made it obvious that I didn't quite understand.
"It's gonna detonate any time now! We have to get the HELL out of here."
"Ho-ly...shit...." I swallowed and dashed out of the room, yanking Shorai behind me. I concentrated and sent a message to everyone else through my mind. Grab whatever you have nearby and high-tail it out of here. Shaku's got another explosive in the office wing. I'm not sure if there are any others. To be safe, get to level 5 immediately!
We all met outside and had barely set foot in level 3 before we were knocked off our feet from an incredible tremor that shook the colony.
*****
Kosen-teki's POV
After everything had settled we took everything that we had brought and spread it out on the ground. Jaide had brought documents, Kyoretsu; video chips, Adea and Shorai; photos, and I with audio clips and a few papers.
We sat down around a fire that we had made and started a little show-and-tell-type presenting. We told where we found it and what we think the importance of it is. Jaide volunteered to go first. His find was simply the plans and lay out of the colony. Seeing that they were of little importance, we decided to allow him to imagine what they might be for.
"Well...Shaku could have used them to plot where to set the systems. Maybe she wanted to know the best coffee shops. I bet she hates coffee, I bet she wanted to make us suffer by destroying all the coffee shops, but ended up having to freeze the colony instead because the shops kept coming back like a bad virus!" He looked around at us with wide, child-like eyes that sparkled like aquamarines.
Adea laughed heartily. "You do have an underlying point there, Jaide. Maybe she used those plans to set bombs and traps." She pointed to the photos. "These are just for keep-sake. The whole thing is a photo album of the original pilots and their Gundam and designs. Useful?"
Shorai jumped in. "We believe so because of the strategies used to create the Gundams. This could be very helpful to Shaku if she wanted to create stronger mobile suits. So, just to be safe..." She gathered the pictures and held them near the fire.
I thought a little and remembered Adea's watch. "Wait, have Adea log in and save the documents to her watch's data file. Then burn them."
Jaide and Shorai both entered in the data, then tossed the materials into the flames.
Kyoretsu looked at his video chips. "We don't have a player..."
Adea took her watch off and tossed to Kyoretsu. "Green button opens the compartment, green closes, wait for it to register, green again to play. It's a hologram projection so set it on the ground when you finish."
The projection was incredibly brutal, even for me. We watched people being torched, beaten and killed. "This is what I saw, I watched most of it, and it gave no clue as to the others' location." Jaide explained as he handed the watch back to Adea.
I handed my audio clips to Adea. "Play them."
The clips were the size of sticks of gum, but could hold thousands of pieces of data. Hours of recording time at the least. She easily set the audio up and pulled out the headphones from her CD player that had been stashed in the cargo pocket of her pants. Everything had been hushed.
At first, there was nothing but very harsh static. Then there were loud footsteps and heavy breathing then the distinct voice of Heero Yuy. "Pilots, by the time you receive this, we will no longer be on the colony. I assure you that Shaku is the one who caused this destruction but we will not allow ourselves to be finished by the likes of a child. After listening to this message, the others and I will be stationed on Earth. Please follow the instructions with the hologram data encoded into this chip. We shall meet again at EBNOH."
"Ebnoh?" Shorai looked at me.
"Earth Based Neo-Operation Headquarters." I quickly answered. She nodded. "They developed it fifteen years ago with the best technology available. It was developed in case something like this happened."
*****
Adea's POV
After watching the directions, we went back to the shuttle and left. The estimated trip was a day seventeen hours...God help me. Sorry for being sarcastic, but the only good thing to do was sleep. After all, the kitchen was gone. Only foods that didn't perish in the explosion were cereal, white uncooked rice, and...cereal. We've been on the trip for three hours already and everyone's bored. Kyoretsu was arguing with Kosen-teki before we got started. The problem was how we would get to Earth. We only had a certain amount of fuel and no money, so Kosen-teki thought the best way was to take it slow and kind of float to Earth only using short bursts of speed to regain the correct sense of direction. Kyoretsu argued that we could sell some stuff at the nearest colony to get more fuel and use the fuel to make sure we land at the port that we were supposed to. The squabbling died down once Shorai and I broke the two up and we were on our way. Unfortunately, boredom was our only traveling companion....
Jaide suddenly popped up with an idea. "Hey! Adea! Play chess with me! We could have a tournament; the winner gets the box of Oreo O's."
Shorai laughed. "I'll play winner."
I grinned. "I can't play, so go on ahead."
She smiled and sat down in the chair opposite Jaide. I smiled and left them to their game.
My bunk on the shuttle was a small cot above Kyoretsu's cot. I had many books, games, and multimedia scattered on my bed. Hoisting myself up onto the cot, I cleared away enough junk so I could sit down. I picked up my journal and started to write about the past two days. I noted the bunking arrangement had been done with straws and strangely, everyone was happy with the deal. Jaide got his own bunk, Shorai shared a bunk with Kosen-teki and I shared one with Kyoretsu. I wrote about how Shorai was planning all the fun stuff we could do while we were on Earth like going to beaches and carnivals, which I only knew of the latter. She hadn't been to Earth for any extended period of time, none of us had, so this was a special and rare treat. She was doing nothing but planning. I think she even had a list.
I smiled to myself as I re-read what I wrote and decided to go back to the living quarters to watch whatever was happening.
*****
Kyoretsu's POV
I'd been watching the 'tournament' for about an hour or so when Adea finally came out of her cubby to join us. Shorai had easily beaten Jaide when I stepped in to play. She'd beaten me with luck, to that I swear. Afterward, Kosen-teki choiced to 'battle' her in her undefeated chess streak. That's where the battle had really started, and after three tied games, is still continuing.
I munched on some chips barely paying any attention to the game. I watched Adea as she sat down at the bar and took out a soda from the cooler. She tapped the tab once with her nail then snapped it open.
"Do you want a soda or something?" Her question made me realize that I had been staring.
I diverted my eyes to the tabletop and shook my head. "No thanks."
She stood, walked over to me and sat down in the chair beside mine. "Who's winning?"
"Shorai and Kosen-teki have had three tied games and I think this is their fourth. I'm not too sure who's going to win, but I'm rooting for K-T." I grinned.
Adea smiled, then laughed. "Well then I guess I'll have to vote for Shorai. And as a matter of fact, I'll put a bet on her too." She reached into her trench coat pocket and pulled out four credit chips. I noticed two had a 7,000 credit limit. She placed them down in front of me. "Well? A total of about 30,000 credit bits should be a good bet. Are you willing to place anything?"
I sighed. "Adea, that's a LOT of money, are you sure you're willing to put that much down??"
"Of course! Besides, I want to see how good you are at placing bets."
"Money shouldn't just be wasted on a bet, you know." I looked up at her seriously.
She winked and laughed. "It won't be wasted because I know I'll win!!"
"I see what you're trying to do, but it won't work, I'll win so..." I pulled out my wallet and slapped fourteen credit chips onto the table, "I'll put down 200,000 credit bits."
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "You are NUTS!" She held back laughter as she placed a few more credit chips on the table. "Make it 500,000 bits. I have faith in Shorai that she'll win."
We both continued placing and rearranging our bets, and near the betting spree we had gotten down to betting what was simply around us because we had already placed all of our money on the line. Adea had bet the "guaranteed" big screen TV that she was insisting was at EBNOH. I, however, since I was more sensible, bet my whole audio chip collection. That was over 500 clips and most of them, Adea seemed to like.
But.....
We fought and fought and fought as we placed more and more bets. What Adea and I failed to realize was that the game had LONG since ended and the two competitors were quietly talking as they read the news and sipped at steaming hot tea.
*****
Shorai's POV
Yes, I knew Kyoretsu and Adea had been placing bets on the chess match, and for a little while I was flattered. Then amusement overtook flattery. Kosen-teki and I had been done with the game for about an hour when other two figured out that we weren't playing any more. Within seconds of realization, both of them had rushed to our side, begging to know who won.
"Please, please, please, please, please??" Shouted Adea over Kyoretsu's calls of:
"I bet all of the stuff I own, we gotta know who won!"
Kosen-teki and I exchanged amused glances and we both knew to keep our mouths shut. To them anyway...
"That was a good game, Shorai-chan. I would have never guessed you would be able to play so well. Maybe we could play again sometime." He smiled warmly, his eyes sparkling.
I eagerly returned his smile and nodded. "I was expecting Kyoretsu to be a challenge, but he was a fly beneath a swatter."
"HEY!!!" Came his reply, which went ignored.
Kosen-teki laughed and sipped at his tea. "Believe it or not, Heero taught me. He learned from Relena-sama. And I think Grandmother was born a champion. She led the world to a period of peace, and it's sad that now that period has been broken. But now it seems like this is what peace feels like, but I have to ask myself, 'Is this peace?' Even this temporary moment in which we aren't fighting, if we just extend it for a month, a year, maybe a decade...Is it really peace?"
"You sound a lot like her. You have many of her beliefs, despite your name." I sighed. "I miss Mom. I miss my whole family. And I hate feeling like the victim all of the time..."
I looked up at him in surprise when he took my hand and spoke. "You *are* a victim. You've lost your family, that's horrible. But Shaku is the real victim because she's hurt you. I won't stand for that, but she's the victim because she's missed out on a real life. You have a life, you have friends."
"I have you." I smiled and he nodded.
*****
Adea's POV
Awww! I could tell something was going on between the two. God, where's a camera when you need it?? I laughed inwardly. Shorai had a dazed look in her eyes and Kosen-teki was holding her hand and smiling at her. So sweet!
But I still wanted to know who won the chess match. I smiled and led Kyoretsu out of the room to help me find Jaide. The fact that I hadn't seen Jaide for the whole duration of the main flight made me a little cautious. Kyoretsu couldn't help but make me feel like an idiot, but what could I possibly say? Jaide was a creature of mischief.
"I think he can very well take care of himself, Adea."
"But it's the taking care about others that has me worried. For all we know, that critter could be eating the rest of our food." I shrugged as I peeked around every corner so as not to scare the inhabitant of the spaceship.
As we rounded the corner to the bunks, we found him.
A smile from ear to ear crossed Kyoretsu's face. "He's sleeping. How expected."
Laughing slightly, I stepped near Jaide and pulled the box of corn flakes out of his arm and brushed a few of the flakes off of his shirt. "I guess he ate too much. At least we know now that he'll be snoozing for most of the trip-"
A small moan and a wave of the arm from our bedridden friend cut me off in mid-sentence. "Tha'z what you think..." Yawning rather loudly, he turned and rolled off the bed, flomping onto the floor and crushing the box of cereal I had recently set there. "I half heard everything and was-" Another yawn made him halt what he was saying, "I guess," yawn, "I fell asleep after watching a rather interesting documentation on the theories of early space travel in which rockets were shot up into the atmosphere until they broke through into a world with zero gravitational force..."
"Huh...?"
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hand, Jaide finally sat up from his position on the floor and grinned at us. "Chickens can fly, but then they smash the fence."
Kyoretsu and I exchanged glances of confusion until I came to a slight understanding and whispered my thought into his ear. "It must just be a temporary state of semi-consciousness in which he's actually portrayed as an intelligent being." I crossed my arms in amusement as I watched Jaide cluck and flap his arms like a chicken a few times to give us a good reason that we should've locked him up long ago.
"In other words, he's smarter when he's asleep?"
"Indefinitely." I grinned. "It's almost sad. He's actually smart."
Jaide whined when he figured out we were talking about him. I took him by the wrist, pulled him to his feet and led him to the main room where Shorai and Kosen-teki had been playing chess. When we got there, they were playing chess once again, only the atmosphere seemed more relaxed. Jaide galloped up to them with a curious look on his crumb-covered face.
In a small childish voice he questioned the two at the table, "Why are you still playing?"
Shorai laughed and mussed his hair. "We stopped and we started another game about five minutes ago."
"Ohhhh...OTAY!" He dashed off to find more food.
I walked up to the table and placed a hand on the surface, tapping my nails on the stainless steel rhythmically. "So...who won that tournament?"
*****
Continued in Part Six- EBNOH and Paradise [Will It Last]
Jaide's POV
*****
Shorai walked up beside me, swiped a finger across the face of the cabinet next to the one I was standing at, and gasped in mock amazement at the trail of white showing through the soot. She then looked at the tip of her finger and faked crying. "Such a good burrito. Gone to waste and to Mexi-heaven. Now the microwave is a different story." She stopped down and picked up a piece of Gundalinum (a cross of Gundanium and aluminum) that was part of the face of the microwave and stood showing it to me. "Such a sad fate, don't you think?" She acted all sad, stumbling over to Kosen-teki and faked fainting into his arms, then magically waking up and whining about the microwave.
Kosen-teki actually laughed. "See what you did? You killed the burrito! And Shorai's precious microwave! I should hurt you for that."
Shorai spoke in a faint whisper. "Little Munch-Munch... my little Munch-Munch Microwave..."
At that time, I could do nothing to help myself but double over in laughter. "L-little M-mun-munch Munch?!" I managed through hysterical giggles. "And I thought I was possessive!!!"
By this time, Adea was slowly backing away from us while Kyoretsu fell down in laughter as well.
*****
Adea's POV
Here I was, watching the whole group go insane. I raised an eyebrow in question, but decided against it. I turned and went to the cockpit to read. Humming to myself, I picked an operator's manual and plopped down in a high-backed chair. I kicked my feet up onto the control panel and crossed them at the ankles.
I flipped the book open and paged through. I sighed and shook my head. The marks of Jaide. Little stick figures were drawn on the pages dancing around making faces. On one page, there was a "group" shot and fortunately, we were more than sticks. Jaide and I flashed peace signs at the "camera" and were grinning like identical idiots. Kyoretsu was standing behind us, giving us rabbit ears. Shorai was grinning at the little scene and Kosen-teki was sitting in the corner half glaring at us over the little rectangle glasses he always wears; Jaide must've messed his hair up because it was sticking abnormally out to one side.
I couldn't help but laugh because underneath the picture scrawled in big fancy letters wrote: The Gang~ Friends to the Groosome End ^_^. How sweet. He spelled "gruesome" wrong.
Flipping through the rest of the book, I found Kosen-teki's notes scribbled in his cramped handwriting, then next to it, Jaide's sloppy barely-readable chicken scratch poking fun at the comments of K-T.
Suddenly a hand covered my eyes and an arm wrapped around my neck. "Guess who?"
I growled and the grip around my neck loosened. I swiveled the chair around and my watch was tossed into my hands. "Kyo-chan! Did you fix it??"
He nodded and sat in a chair a few feet away. "I replaced the wires you snapped but all it initially needed was a new numerical plate." He shrugged.
Dumbfounded, I sat there and simply stared at him.
As if reading my mind, he shrugged again. "I'm serious. You might just need to take better care of it."
I was about to say something else when the rest of the gang came barreling into the cockpit laughing and shouting.
*****
Shorai's POV
Insanity overtook the ship for a while until Adea nearly snapped after Jaide accidentally stepped on her watch. It didn't break, but it's the lack of thought that counts. She ran through the cockpit yelling and screaming Jaide's name as he took a turn and ran down the corridor.
"JAIDE!!" In no time, she caught up to him, and probably would have pounded him if it hadn't been for a loud mechanical voice booming throughout the ship.
"DOCKING. PLEASE BE SEATED."
Reluctantly, Adea walked past him to sit in a seat a few yards away next to the drink bar. However, she couldn't complete this task without gruffly pushing Jaide into the wall. The rest of us sat down around her and braced ourselves for the docking.
"Yay! We're home!" Jaide grinned dumbly. Adea sighed and shook her head.
"Shorai and me are the ones who're s'posed to be saying that." She looked at me.
"It's my home though, too!" He pouted and crossed his arms, but Adea just glared.
I grinned. "Be nice, A. Besides, you're supposed to be proud that your watch didn't break. Moreover, just for future reference, 'Shorai and I'. Okay?"
Kosen-teki slugged my shoulder lightly. "Hey, when'd you get all English Teacher? You know I'm failing English this marking period."
Laughing, I returned the punch, harder. "Failing by whose standards?? You have an 89%! Besides, I hate English. It's just that my friends back home all loved it and would lecture me all the time."
"...home..."
We looked at the empty seat Kyoretsu was sitting at, then, confused for a moment, we looked around the room and saw him standing by the window, his hand placed gingerly on the glass. Adea stood and walked over to him, but before she managed to say anything, a small gasp escaped her lips. By then, I also saw what they saw. We hadn't been docked yet. Our ship hovered there, but the gates wouldn't open. I knew the reason: The colony was dead. Besides the lower two levels, the uppermost one was also gone. We maneuvered the ship over to a smaller manual docking station on the other side of the colony and walked into what was once called home.
*****
Kosen-teki's POV
Whatever happened made me angry. All five public parks were trashed; the green grass, the tall trees, the flowerbeds, the benches, the people...everything gone or charred. Shorai gripped my arm in horror as we walked through the last park to check for survivors.
"S-Shaku...Why? Why would she do this??" She whimpered in utter disbelief.
I looked at her and faced her, taking her shoulders. "Even though she's your cousin, even though you believe you can do something to help her, you can't. Understand? There's NOTHING you can do for her now. She's paved her own path and she's not going to make another one." She didn't seem to want to listen, so she turned away from me and walked at a faster pace than the rest of us.
Sighing, I started after her. Adea jogged up to me. "That was a little harsh, K-T. She won't want to risk disbelieving in her cousin. Know what I mean?"
"I guess I don't..." I admitted.
She nodded and thought for a minute. "Your grandmother, Relena, think of Shorai like her. Relena fought hard for what she believed in, especially when it came to something, or someone, she cared about."
I nodded and sighed deeply. "I understand, but under these circumstances? Shorai's an orphan thanks to her cousin."
Kyoretsu came up beside me. "But that's what makes her cousin so important to her. Shaku's the only one she has left. Shorai thinks, and will even try to convince herself that there's still a chance. She can't accept that there might not be."
A shrill shriek kept me from replying. I saw Shorai had stopped ahead of us and stood there, motionless.
*****
Adea's POV
"Shorai?" Kosen-teki questioned when he got near enough for her to hear. She still didn't move, but called back:
"She's a horrible, horrible person."
I peered down and Shorai's feet and saw what she meant. What Shaku had done to the people. At the base of a tree, was a person curled up and charred beyond recognition. The face seemed to gape at us, its mouth twisted open into an eternal scream of agony.
Shorai's eyes watered but she said a prayer for the person without a break in her voice. However, on the closing line of "Amen", she turned to Kosen-teki and shook her head slowly. "Let's go, there's nothing left."
"What about the others?? About Gramma and Gramps?" Jaide inquired as he looked hopefully to each one of us.
I shook my head. "There's no way to know for sure. Shall we go, or camp here for the night? It's getting pretty dark."
An exchange of glances happened for about five seconds. There was no unanimous answer, the others just stood there shuffling their feet and staring uncomfortably at the ground.
"I say we go..." Shorai looked up after a long silence. "I want to know if the others are alright or not."
A nod came from Kosen-teki and Kyoretsu. Jaide looked at me. "Maybe...but... What if we don't like what we see?"
"We'll have to know some time."
"Do we? I mean-"
Kosen-teki cut him off. " Yes, unless you want your conscience to be overshadowed by the mystery whether your family is alive or not. Frankly, I don't take too kindly to that idea. I want to know what happened."
*****
Third Person POV
The trek to the nearest working hatch to the tunnels that spanned to colony was a long and trying one. The group had met up with five hatches until they found one that worked. Noticing that night was nearing, the hatch was marked and they headed for a nearby less-singed park to camp in.
"H-hey, guys?"
"Hmn?"
"Is it just me, or has it gotten a helluva lot colder since we left to look for Adea and Shorai?" Wrapping his arms around his shoulders, Jaide let out a shaky, cold breath.
Kyoretsu sighed deeply through his mouth, watching the fog of his breath escape and swirl into the night sky. "Shaku did it after all..."
Adea leaned close to Kyoretsu, curling up as tight as she could to stay warm. "What do you mean by that?"
Kosen-teki cleared his throat. "Shaku promised she'd freeze the colony. Something about her heart being cold as well."
"That sounds SO like her, the little satanic worshipper..." Shorai scoffed as she rested her head on Kosen-teki's shoulder. "I'm cold. Anyone have a lighter? There's plenty of crap to burn around here, you know."
Her suddenly dark humor startled the group and everyone let out a small laugh. Kosen-teki smiled grimly. "She probably got too sick and tired of waiting and just decided to bomb the place instead of making it a winter wonderland."
Adea let out a surprisingly loud laugh. "All of this grim joking is supposed to be my job! Ironic isn't it? Maybe she wanted US to freeze!! That's it. See? I have it all figured out." She stood and paced around to flex out her joints. She walked over to a corpse, grabbed its hand and dragged it back to the group. "Well? Bon appétit!"
"Hopefully you mean 'bonfire'?" Jaide asked raising his eyebrow in question.
She grinned.
Kosen-teki stood to fish a lighter out of his jean pocket, and, sparking it to life, set the flame to a twig, tossing it onto the body. The body almost immediately caught fire, bringing warmth, but the rude stench of burning flesh as well.
The group settled around the fire and fell asleep in wait of the new morning.
*****
Adea's POV
I woke up early with a stiff neck, stiff back and my knee twisted funny. Nevertheless, for some reason, I couldn't complain. With the gradual loss of climate control, the earth and sun became more visible. So, I swung myself up into a bare tree and scrambled skyward until the branches started to give slightly underneath my feet. Leaning back against the trunk, I wiggled into a comfortable position and pulled out an audio player that I picked up in the shuttle. I smiled slightly as my favorite band began to play. I listened to the music and watched intently as the darkness was chased away by the light on the earth. In a small amount of time, the sun's rays broke through the chilled atmosphere on the colony and gently basked it in a honey-colored glow.
I found myself singing along with another song in a lower, but harmonic key. "Don'cha know, know, know...It's love..."
An amused laugh brought me back to reality. "Yeah I do, I think ya love the earth too much. I've been standing here for the past twenty minutes and you never noticed me."
I looked down to see Kyoretsu standing there with his arms crossed tightly and his jaw chattered slightly as he spoke. "How can you love a place that you've never been to?"
"I...I dunno. I guess it's just from what people told me about it. I guess I just want to live there instead of being on a dead colony."
He looked hurt. "So you don't like being here? You don't love me?"
I laughed so suddenly I almost fell out of the tree. I could tell he was barely retaining a straight face.
"Adea!!"
This time I did fall. On my way down, a free hand luckily caught a branch. Still laughing, I managed a response. "No, you're a cruel, cruel person!"
Thankfully, my sarcasm went noticed and he laughed as well.
"Hey, A!" Shorai yawned as she walked toward the tree I was hanging out of.
"Sho-chan! Wassup? Have a good night's sleep? K-T seemed to make a nice pillow for you." I grinned and landed on the branch below me, then trotted down the rest of the way.
By the time I reached the ground, Shorai was blushing profusely. "That's none of your business."
I smiled. "So? Are you gonna tell me or not??"
She gasped and swatted at me. "Nosy!"
*****
Jaide's POV
After I was forced awake out of a dream of cranberry pudding, we gathered up what we had and left our camp to explore. The hatch led straight to the main section of the base. All that should have been awaiting our return was gone. K-T rummaged through a pile of papers then turned back toward us.
"Nothing." He shrugged. "It's sad, but this is all that's left."
Hearing his nonchalant attitude made me mad. "That can't just be it. There's gotta be SOMETHING!" I emphasized the last word by throwing my hands into the air. I started to head in the direction of the offices when Adea grabbed my wrist.
"You take the other wing, Sho' and I will take this one. Kosen-teki will head for the east wing and Kyoretsu takes the northwest wing. If any of you find anything substantial, I think we could all be able to fix the intercom, so just buzz the whole building and give your location. We'll be there in five minutes. Got it?"
The choruses of yes were like a starting gun to race. All at once, we headed for our designated wings.
*****
Kyoretsu's POV
I started pacing down the charred hallway, overstepping bricks and support beams that had fallen. Straining my ears, I thought I could barely hear some noise farther down the corridor. Taking my time as to not miss any detail, but also keeping my mind on the sound, I sang one of my favorite early-age songs. When I was little, my mother used to sing Maaya Sakamoto to me. Sakamoto-chan was one of the best singers a long time ago. Now, most of her songs had been remixed and such, but the original is always better. My mom had something that people called CD players a while back. She gave it to me as well as a few of Sakamoto-chan's CDs.
"...mado kara sasu hizashi wa atarashii hajimari sa ..chigau yo tada no getsuyou no asa ..itsumo no kurikaeshi..." I sang softly to myself. I loved this song. It seemed too ironic to me, and it rather left me with a sense to try at whatever I'm afraid of.
[Line translates to: The sunlight shining through the window is a new beginning. No it's not, it's just Monday morning. It's just a repeat of the same old thing.]
I followed the halls until the noise got louder. I saw a faint glow of light coming from a room not too far ahead and when I trotted in, the place was trashed. The sound that echoed through the halls was of the video chips of Shaku bombing the room and the colony. On the screen of the monitor was a gut-wrenching clip of her staring straight into the camera saying:
"Hello pilots. If you ever do manage to find the two bitches out in space, and moreover, you manage to make it back here; I must admit, I'm impressed. However, if you manage to make it out of here alive, rest assured, you wont last much longer. As for the old fools...pray that you see them alive as well."
I growled and picked up the receiver for the intercom and, after tweaking a few wires, had it buzz to life.
*****
Adea's POV
"Pilots, I have found something. However, it is nothing substantial as to the location of the Gundam pilots and crew. I suspect they are with Shaku, but keep searching."
Kyoretsu's voice snapped me back into reality and I set down the pictures of my grandfather that I found on the table. Shorai jogged over to me from the room across the hall, her arms filled with a huge time detonation system. "Adea, there's something wrong here." She set the system down at my feet.
I looked up at her as I knelt down to inspect the system's wires. "It looks fine to me..."
"If that thing were to have gone off, it and the whole base would be gone." She pointed to the explosion radius- 950 square yards from system.
"You're pointing something new out?" I raised an eyebrow.
She growled and her finger moved slightly to the left. "Adea, look. There is Shaku's symbol. Like OZ or Romafellar, she leaves her mark everywhere to let people know that Shaku's troops killed so many!"
Staring at her made it obvious that I didn't quite understand.
"It's gonna detonate any time now! We have to get the HELL out of here."
"Ho-ly...shit...." I swallowed and dashed out of the room, yanking Shorai behind me. I concentrated and sent a message to everyone else through my mind. Grab whatever you have nearby and high-tail it out of here. Shaku's got another explosive in the office wing. I'm not sure if there are any others. To be safe, get to level 5 immediately!
We all met outside and had barely set foot in level 3 before we were knocked off our feet from an incredible tremor that shook the colony.
*****
Kosen-teki's POV
After everything had settled we took everything that we had brought and spread it out on the ground. Jaide had brought documents, Kyoretsu; video chips, Adea and Shorai; photos, and I with audio clips and a few papers.
We sat down around a fire that we had made and started a little show-and-tell-type presenting. We told where we found it and what we think the importance of it is. Jaide volunteered to go first. His find was simply the plans and lay out of the colony. Seeing that they were of little importance, we decided to allow him to imagine what they might be for.
"Well...Shaku could have used them to plot where to set the systems. Maybe she wanted to know the best coffee shops. I bet she hates coffee, I bet she wanted to make us suffer by destroying all the coffee shops, but ended up having to freeze the colony instead because the shops kept coming back like a bad virus!" He looked around at us with wide, child-like eyes that sparkled like aquamarines.
Adea laughed heartily. "You do have an underlying point there, Jaide. Maybe she used those plans to set bombs and traps." She pointed to the photos. "These are just for keep-sake. The whole thing is a photo album of the original pilots and their Gundam and designs. Useful?"
Shorai jumped in. "We believe so because of the strategies used to create the Gundams. This could be very helpful to Shaku if she wanted to create stronger mobile suits. So, just to be safe..." She gathered the pictures and held them near the fire.
I thought a little and remembered Adea's watch. "Wait, have Adea log in and save the documents to her watch's data file. Then burn them."
Jaide and Shorai both entered in the data, then tossed the materials into the flames.
Kyoretsu looked at his video chips. "We don't have a player..."
Adea took her watch off and tossed to Kyoretsu. "Green button opens the compartment, green closes, wait for it to register, green again to play. It's a hologram projection so set it on the ground when you finish."
The projection was incredibly brutal, even for me. We watched people being torched, beaten and killed. "This is what I saw, I watched most of it, and it gave no clue as to the others' location." Jaide explained as he handed the watch back to Adea.
I handed my audio clips to Adea. "Play them."
The clips were the size of sticks of gum, but could hold thousands of pieces of data. Hours of recording time at the least. She easily set the audio up and pulled out the headphones from her CD player that had been stashed in the cargo pocket of her pants. Everything had been hushed.
At first, there was nothing but very harsh static. Then there were loud footsteps and heavy breathing then the distinct voice of Heero Yuy. "Pilots, by the time you receive this, we will no longer be on the colony. I assure you that Shaku is the one who caused this destruction but we will not allow ourselves to be finished by the likes of a child. After listening to this message, the others and I will be stationed on Earth. Please follow the instructions with the hologram data encoded into this chip. We shall meet again at EBNOH."
"Ebnoh?" Shorai looked at me.
"Earth Based Neo-Operation Headquarters." I quickly answered. She nodded. "They developed it fifteen years ago with the best technology available. It was developed in case something like this happened."
*****
Adea's POV
After watching the directions, we went back to the shuttle and left. The estimated trip was a day seventeen hours...God help me. Sorry for being sarcastic, but the only good thing to do was sleep. After all, the kitchen was gone. Only foods that didn't perish in the explosion were cereal, white uncooked rice, and...cereal. We've been on the trip for three hours already and everyone's bored. Kyoretsu was arguing with Kosen-teki before we got started. The problem was how we would get to Earth. We only had a certain amount of fuel and no money, so Kosen-teki thought the best way was to take it slow and kind of float to Earth only using short bursts of speed to regain the correct sense of direction. Kyoretsu argued that we could sell some stuff at the nearest colony to get more fuel and use the fuel to make sure we land at the port that we were supposed to. The squabbling died down once Shorai and I broke the two up and we were on our way. Unfortunately, boredom was our only traveling companion....
Jaide suddenly popped up with an idea. "Hey! Adea! Play chess with me! We could have a tournament; the winner gets the box of Oreo O's."
Shorai laughed. "I'll play winner."
I grinned. "I can't play, so go on ahead."
She smiled and sat down in the chair opposite Jaide. I smiled and left them to their game.
My bunk on the shuttle was a small cot above Kyoretsu's cot. I had many books, games, and multimedia scattered on my bed. Hoisting myself up onto the cot, I cleared away enough junk so I could sit down. I picked up my journal and started to write about the past two days. I noted the bunking arrangement had been done with straws and strangely, everyone was happy with the deal. Jaide got his own bunk, Shorai shared a bunk with Kosen-teki and I shared one with Kyoretsu. I wrote about how Shorai was planning all the fun stuff we could do while we were on Earth like going to beaches and carnivals, which I only knew of the latter. She hadn't been to Earth for any extended period of time, none of us had, so this was a special and rare treat. She was doing nothing but planning. I think she even had a list.
I smiled to myself as I re-read what I wrote and decided to go back to the living quarters to watch whatever was happening.
*****
Kyoretsu's POV
I'd been watching the 'tournament' for about an hour or so when Adea finally came out of her cubby to join us. Shorai had easily beaten Jaide when I stepped in to play. She'd beaten me with luck, to that I swear. Afterward, Kosen-teki choiced to 'battle' her in her undefeated chess streak. That's where the battle had really started, and after three tied games, is still continuing.
I munched on some chips barely paying any attention to the game. I watched Adea as she sat down at the bar and took out a soda from the cooler. She tapped the tab once with her nail then snapped it open.
"Do you want a soda or something?" Her question made me realize that I had been staring.
I diverted my eyes to the tabletop and shook my head. "No thanks."
She stood, walked over to me and sat down in the chair beside mine. "Who's winning?"
"Shorai and Kosen-teki have had three tied games and I think this is their fourth. I'm not too sure who's going to win, but I'm rooting for K-T." I grinned.
Adea smiled, then laughed. "Well then I guess I'll have to vote for Shorai. And as a matter of fact, I'll put a bet on her too." She reached into her trench coat pocket and pulled out four credit chips. I noticed two had a 7,000 credit limit. She placed them down in front of me. "Well? A total of about 30,000 credit bits should be a good bet. Are you willing to place anything?"
I sighed. "Adea, that's a LOT of money, are you sure you're willing to put that much down??"
"Of course! Besides, I want to see how good you are at placing bets."
"Money shouldn't just be wasted on a bet, you know." I looked up at her seriously.
She winked and laughed. "It won't be wasted because I know I'll win!!"
"I see what you're trying to do, but it won't work, I'll win so..." I pulled out my wallet and slapped fourteen credit chips onto the table, "I'll put down 200,000 credit bits."
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "You are NUTS!" She held back laughter as she placed a few more credit chips on the table. "Make it 500,000 bits. I have faith in Shorai that she'll win."
We both continued placing and rearranging our bets, and near the betting spree we had gotten down to betting what was simply around us because we had already placed all of our money on the line. Adea had bet the "guaranteed" big screen TV that she was insisting was at EBNOH. I, however, since I was more sensible, bet my whole audio chip collection. That was over 500 clips and most of them, Adea seemed to like.
But.....
We fought and fought and fought as we placed more and more bets. What Adea and I failed to realize was that the game had LONG since ended and the two competitors were quietly talking as they read the news and sipped at steaming hot tea.
*****
Shorai's POV
Yes, I knew Kyoretsu and Adea had been placing bets on the chess match, and for a little while I was flattered. Then amusement overtook flattery. Kosen-teki and I had been done with the game for about an hour when other two figured out that we weren't playing any more. Within seconds of realization, both of them had rushed to our side, begging to know who won.
"Please, please, please, please, please??" Shouted Adea over Kyoretsu's calls of:
"I bet all of the stuff I own, we gotta know who won!"
Kosen-teki and I exchanged amused glances and we both knew to keep our mouths shut. To them anyway...
"That was a good game, Shorai-chan. I would have never guessed you would be able to play so well. Maybe we could play again sometime." He smiled warmly, his eyes sparkling.
I eagerly returned his smile and nodded. "I was expecting Kyoretsu to be a challenge, but he was a fly beneath a swatter."
"HEY!!!" Came his reply, which went ignored.
Kosen-teki laughed and sipped at his tea. "Believe it or not, Heero taught me. He learned from Relena-sama. And I think Grandmother was born a champion. She led the world to a period of peace, and it's sad that now that period has been broken. But now it seems like this is what peace feels like, but I have to ask myself, 'Is this peace?' Even this temporary moment in which we aren't fighting, if we just extend it for a month, a year, maybe a decade...Is it really peace?"
"You sound a lot like her. You have many of her beliefs, despite your name." I sighed. "I miss Mom. I miss my whole family. And I hate feeling like the victim all of the time..."
I looked up at him in surprise when he took my hand and spoke. "You *are* a victim. You've lost your family, that's horrible. But Shaku is the real victim because she's hurt you. I won't stand for that, but she's the victim because she's missed out on a real life. You have a life, you have friends."
"I have you." I smiled and he nodded.
*****
Adea's POV
Awww! I could tell something was going on between the two. God, where's a camera when you need it?? I laughed inwardly. Shorai had a dazed look in her eyes and Kosen-teki was holding her hand and smiling at her. So sweet!
But I still wanted to know who won the chess match. I smiled and led Kyoretsu out of the room to help me find Jaide. The fact that I hadn't seen Jaide for the whole duration of the main flight made me a little cautious. Kyoretsu couldn't help but make me feel like an idiot, but what could I possibly say? Jaide was a creature of mischief.
"I think he can very well take care of himself, Adea."
"But it's the taking care about others that has me worried. For all we know, that critter could be eating the rest of our food." I shrugged as I peeked around every corner so as not to scare the inhabitant of the spaceship.
As we rounded the corner to the bunks, we found him.
A smile from ear to ear crossed Kyoretsu's face. "He's sleeping. How expected."
Laughing slightly, I stepped near Jaide and pulled the box of corn flakes out of his arm and brushed a few of the flakes off of his shirt. "I guess he ate too much. At least we know now that he'll be snoozing for most of the trip-"
A small moan and a wave of the arm from our bedridden friend cut me off in mid-sentence. "Tha'z what you think..." Yawning rather loudly, he turned and rolled off the bed, flomping onto the floor and crushing the box of cereal I had recently set there. "I half heard everything and was-" Another yawn made him halt what he was saying, "I guess," yawn, "I fell asleep after watching a rather interesting documentation on the theories of early space travel in which rockets were shot up into the atmosphere until they broke through into a world with zero gravitational force..."
"Huh...?"
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hand, Jaide finally sat up from his position on the floor and grinned at us. "Chickens can fly, but then they smash the fence."
Kyoretsu and I exchanged glances of confusion until I came to a slight understanding and whispered my thought into his ear. "It must just be a temporary state of semi-consciousness in which he's actually portrayed as an intelligent being." I crossed my arms in amusement as I watched Jaide cluck and flap his arms like a chicken a few times to give us a good reason that we should've locked him up long ago.
"In other words, he's smarter when he's asleep?"
"Indefinitely." I grinned. "It's almost sad. He's actually smart."
Jaide whined when he figured out we were talking about him. I took him by the wrist, pulled him to his feet and led him to the main room where Shorai and Kosen-teki had been playing chess. When we got there, they were playing chess once again, only the atmosphere seemed more relaxed. Jaide galloped up to them with a curious look on his crumb-covered face.
In a small childish voice he questioned the two at the table, "Why are you still playing?"
Shorai laughed and mussed his hair. "We stopped and we started another game about five minutes ago."
"Ohhhh...OTAY!" He dashed off to find more food.
I walked up to the table and placed a hand on the surface, tapping my nails on the stainless steel rhythmically. "So...who won that tournament?"
*****
Continued in Part Six- EBNOH and Paradise [Will It Last]