Flashback chapter this time....
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Book II: The Star Moves Not But In His Sphere
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Chapter Two
"Where forces overwhelm can be like a hard
rock cast onto eggs--through contrasts in strength."
--Sun
Tzu (The Art of War)
**A.C. 193**
The rhythmic clack of Une's bootheels echoed
through the empty corridor. Ahead, the
fierce African sun beat through the reinforced glass of the flight-deck door. She was early, she'd planned it that way, so that no-one else
would be at the site while she greeted her new fighting companion alone.
She let the door close behind her and strode onto
the tarmac, shrugging out of her jacket and draping it over her arm. It was too hot, and as this undertaking
redefined the word 'classified,' it wouldn't really matter if she was out of
uniform. They were hiding in a
long-unused base in the Nairobi desert for a reason, after all, and if the
Alliance top brass found out about them, they'd have bigger things to worry
about than a little breach of dress code.
Like the giant mobile suit standing at solemn
attention on the tarmac to greet her. One-quarter again larger than any of the suits the Alliance soldiers
used, it still managed to look unassuming in its mottled-brown camouflage
paint.
"So this is it. What do you think of her?" A soft, feminine voice
interrupted Une's thoughts.
"Valkyrie...impressive," she confirmed,
turning to greet the slight, russet-tressed woman who greeted her. "Leia. You're early."
The young woman nodded. "I am...I knew you'd be out here before anyone
else." She was in tan slacks and a
light blue t-shirt, her own lab coat bunched up under her arm. Apparently she thought it was too hot for
uniforms as well.
"And you were looking for me," Une said. Leia nodded confirmation. "What's the matter?"
The redhead's smooth face was troubled, but she
avoided the question. "I'm still
impressed we finished her, really. I
know the little data I brought wasn't much help--it makes me wonder who Treize
had to sleep with to get the plans from the Tallgeese."
Une coughed delicately. "Treize is a married man," she reminded her companion
wryly. "If anyone's honour was
compromised getting that data, I expect it would have been Zechs."
"Hm." Leia cocked her head, considering. "Can't say I wouldn't enjoy being the one who--"
"And /you/," Une interrupted mildly,
"are a married woman as well. In
case you forgot."
"Not for a minute," the other answered
honestly. "Truthfully, Nicole--the
way the two of them act together, as close as they are--if I didn't have
evidence to the contrary, I would've thought they were together."
Une rolled her eyes. "That's only because you've never seen Zechs when he gets
around Lucrezia Noin. He's only a few
months younger than I am, but he may as well be twelve and pulling on her
pigtails. If she had any."
Leia laughed. "That's your old roommate, right? I hear the Academy likes to pair child prodigies together whenever
possible."
"That's the one." Une shrugged diffidently; she had mixed
feelings concerning the Lake Victoria Academy's other prize pilot. "It's sad really--she's the best thing
to happen to the Alliance in an age, but she holds back on purpose so Zechs
gets rated higher. And he /knows/ she
does it, too--so why bother?"
"If it's working for her, who cares?"
Leia countered playfully. "Though
I can't see /you/ hiding your talent for any man's affection, Nic."
Une snorted. "And look where it's got me so far. I've only ever been interested in one anyway, and he's married to
you."
The older girl's face fell, though she did her best
to conceal it. "Yes, I
know." Gamely she tried to bring
their conversation back to its light-hearted tone. "You made it sound like Zechs is taken, but there's still
Otto...or Nathan. He's a
sweetheart."
"And I've known him since I was four,"
Une pointed out dryly. "It's hard
to think romantically about someone who you /know/ used to wear superhero
underwear and eat Play-doh." She
sighed, resting a hand against the cold hard metal of the Valkyrie's leg, as if
she were drawing strength from it.
"I want to hate you, you know," she
confessed quietly. "But I
can't."
"I'm glad," said Leia, just as
softly. "Because I'd really like
us to be friends."
Une forced a wan smile. "Just keep your slimy brother away from me. He scares the shit out of me."
Leia nodded. "I know. I told him to
leave you alone, but I don't know if he listened. I couldn't tell him I knew about his trying to recruit you for
Operation Meteor, so I'm afraid he thinks I just meant stay away from you
romantically."
One dark eyebrow arched gracefully over a hazel
eye. "Leia, there is nothing
/romantic/ about Trowa. Nothing. Slimy, yes. Scary as shit, yes. But not
romantic. You of all people should be
able to tell the difference, you're married to Treize."
A blush suffused the other woman's cheek, a smile
curving her lips involuntarily. "True. But look at it this
way--if he /hadn't/ tried to recruit you to pilot Heavyarms, we would never
have known what my family was planning."
Une frowned. "Which brings me to a question...Leia, does /Treize/ know what your
family is planning? Have you told
him?"
She shook her head, her eyes fixed momentarily on
her feet. "No. I couldn't--I didn't know how to bring it
up...especially after I'd already told him I'd found the research on my own in
the lab."
The pieces fell into place only too quickly for
Une. "Let me guess...he was so
proud of you for it that you couldn't bear to shatter his illusions about being
married to the earthsphere's greatest physicist."
Leia tossed her hair jauntily. "I /am/ the earthsphere's greatest
physicist," she teased, winking, but almost immediately her expression
turned serious again. "You're
brave, Nicole. Have I told you
that?"
Une blushed, scuffing at the melting ground with
the toe of her over-polished boot. "Not brave, just stupid. Besides, there's nothing to worry about, right? I'm trusting you didn't build me something
that's going to fall apart?"
"I didn't build it," the scientist
reminded her mildly. "But that's
not what I mean. The details on the
cockpit system were a bit sketchy; I had to design a lot of it myself."
"If you're trying to tell me it's not finished
after all--" Une began, and Leia
shook her head.
"No, that's not it. It's just...complicated. I took the early code from the Tallgeese, but I had to modify it a
bit. You'll see when you start. You'll manage it fine."
"That's the plan." Une broke off the conversation to raise one
arm in greeting as the deck-door swung open and a trio of men, all tall,
graceful and resplendant in Specials uniforms, strode out to join them.
"She is impressive, isn't she?" Treize
Khushrenada gazed up the solid metal body of the Valkyrie with approval. "Well done, Zechs; you and Otto have
outdone yourselves."
Zechs Merquise, a head shorter but more
distinctive, if only because of the silver helmet he was never seen without,
gave an indifferent shrug. "We
just put the parts together, sir. Leia
and Nicole have the hard parts."
Treize smiled easily. "Hopefully not too hard." From somewhere within the folds of his jacket--how was it, Une
wondered, that he didn't seem to feel the heat as the rest of them did?--he
drew out a bottle of champagne. "For a christening," he explained, "and a toast all in
one. If you all swear never to tell
another living soul you saw me drinking straight from the bottle."
"Who, us?" Nathan Blythe asked
innocently, winking at Une from where he stood behind the others. Superhero underwear notwithstanding, her
childhood playmate had grown up to be quite handsome, with perpetually-tousled
dark hair and soft doe-brown eyes that would have been intoxicating on anyone,
man or woman. He was the only civilian
among them, having decided that the medical profession was his one true
calling. "Healing people suits me
better than hurting them," he had told Une in confidence before they had
parted ways for their respective vocations.
Zechs had not been a part of their circle until he
was almost ten, when he came to live under the care of one of the Khushrenada
cousins. Treize' ancestors, it seemed,
had felt the need to make sure their family line was in absolutely no danger of
dying out, if only by collateral means. And it was Treize who had introduced Zechs to a younger Nathan and
Nicole--presumably so he, already a teenager, would be spared having to act as
playmate to the younger set. But they
had all grown into each other in time. Nicole had grown into Treize more than he ever meant her to. She had been sixteen--that magical age when
princesses are supposed to be whisked off into the sunset by their own Prince
Charming--when her Prince Charming was married to a colony scientist who just
happened to be heiress to a fortune far greater than Une's comparitably humble
endowment. Now he had an adorable young
daughter and a wife he adored, and seemed completely happy that way.
"Here." Zechs pressed the bottle into her hands and she tilted it back for a
drink. Champagne was too dry for her
taste, but she would never have admitted it. So she just drank, and passed the bottle on to Leia.
"To success!" Treize said, lifting the bottle when it made its way to him
again. "And to secrets, and to
those we trust enough to keep them."
They all chorused their agreement, and Treize held
out his hands. "Leia...Nic...would
you like to do the honours?"
Two slender women's hands grasped the neck of the
bottle. "On three?" Leia
asked, and Une nodded. "One..."
"Two..." Une whispered.
"Three!" they called in unison, smashing
the bottle against the monstrous mobile suit's leg. Glass shattered and champagne sprayed everwhere, spotting Une's
white uniform pants and Leia's t-shirt.
The Valkyrie was born.
****
"What the--Nic, what's going on?" Zechs punched frantically at the laptop
keys, scowling at the rows of data scrolling down the screen. "Leia! What the hell do these numbers mean?"
Treize seized control of the microphone, calling
into it desperately. "Nicole! Are you all right?"
In answer, Une's shrill scream scraped through the
tiny speaker, thick with a pain that wrenched at his heart. Something was going wrong--none of them knew
what, but it was fast becoming clear that if they didn't somehow extricate her
from the Valkyrie, his prize pilot and oldest friend was going to die in her
cockpit.
The giant mech, bursting out of her pilot's
control, almost toppled to the ground, keeping herself aright only at the last
moment by a quick pulse of one vernier engine. Already there was considerable structural damage to the building itself
where she had smashed into it, and the smoking remains of one wall was all that
was left after one blast of the Valkyrie's main weapon.
In the cockpit, Une yanked at the controls, cursing
madly under her breath, trying to drag the mechanical beast into
submission. But it beat at her mind,
pounding incessantly in her temples til its pulse merged with her heartbeat and
drew her inside it. It was quieter
there, but not peaceful--it was like the eye of a hurricane, a cold centre
surrounded by howling, unconquerable winds.
Valkyrie ripped her open and dove through her
exposed self, stripping her mind of all its secrets, its fears, its hidden
desires. It steeped them in chaos,
warped them with rage, and fed them back into her, til its molten ire coursed
through her blood and beat in her ears.
//Kill,// it told her. //Annihilate! Destroy!// Its urge was
overwhelming, impossible to fight, though her soul, held prisoner in her body,
strained against it with all its fading strength.
"Nicole!" Her name, screamed at her from outside--her friends. Nathan. Zechs. /Treize/. She had to protect Treize, no matter what. If it meant her own life, or the destruction of the Valkyrie, or
the absolute failure of their secret project--the mobile suit /knew/ what was
most important to her, and seized on it, making her secret goal its own.
She was losing control. Her innermost self was still being ripped
away, all her thoughts used to fuel the Valkyrie's frenzy of destruction. The suit was alive, and it was war itself,
just as the battle maiden it was named for. It knew too much about her. She
was guiding it, however unwillingly, and it had already beaten her.
"Nicole! Shut it down--" Leia had
run toward her, away from the relative shelter of the wall, and was screaming
numbers and code at her that Une could no longer understand. She tried to yell to her, to make her get
back, get away, out of reach of the psychotic machine that knew only hatred,
and /knew/ somehow that the scientist was the chief obstacle between her and
Treize--
"Leia! Get out of the way!" Treize
was running toward his wife, but Valkyrie was already in motion. A shriek of defiance, of despair, ripped
from Une's throat as she watched the skyline spinning on her viewscreen. She heaved desperately at the controls,
every part of her conscious self pushing at the system dominating her
mind.
The Valkyrie landed on its side with a
crash. Une's voice broke--and so did
her mind. She felt the /crack/, the
sudden absence of a significant part of herself, and light swam dizzily in
front of her eyes as they sunk closed.
But she could hear, even as the darkness swept
in to claim her, Treize' heartbroken sobbing of Leia's name.
****
