{{STATUS: SECURITY LEVEL 1
DATE: 31.12.16
TOPIC: EMOTIONAL STATE OF FOUR


A: So, now you've seen him with your own eyes. What do you think?


B: What do the latest psychological reports on him say?


A: We don't use psychologists.


B: Why not?


A: They weren't brought up as humans. They're tools, nothing more. The signs that a psychologist would look for just aren't there. We rely solely on the judgment of those connected with the project. What do you think?


B: I think that he's psychologically unsuited for the kind of work you want him to do. It's obvious that he is very reluctant to kill, even for the Alliance, although he shows every indication of the same loyalty the others exhibit.


A: That's impossible. He was given exactly the same training as the others, and designed by the same scientists. You're suggesting that he feels compassion towards humans - an impossibility. Compassion requires empathy, and he is not human.


B: As much as I would like to believe otherwise, I cannot believe that you were able to control every aspect of their existence. The DNA before you changed it came from donors, didn't it?


A: We needed the basic material to make our changes. You can't make something from nothing, commander.


B: I'm not suggesting you should have. But by your own admission, there was something there before you started your tinkering. There may be something of the original donors in them, something that all of the training and conditioning cannot erase. They do have different personalities, don't they?


A: Yes.


B: Why should any of them have different personalities, if their training was identical? Why should anything be different?


A: There are uncontrollable factors...


B: Like the donors. Their parents, in a manner of speaking. I believe that if you force Four to do something that so obviously disturbing to him, you may push him past the brink of sanity. He walks that edge far too often, thanks to that barbaric method of punishment you've devised.


A: They must have structure in their lives. Threat of punishment provides structure.


B: Punishment, yes, but not torture.


A: I don't remember asking your opinion on my methods. Four was created for the same purposes as the others. He will complete his missions when he is ordered to, or he is useless. We have no use for projects that do not fulfill their functions.


B: In that case, I have finished with my review. I wish you the best of luck, Doctor.


A: You sound so sincere, I could almost believe you mean it.


B: I do mean it. If you fail, I can see the entire project blowing up in your face. And I don't know if even the Alliance could survive such an explosion.}}


----------


Three clenched his hands into fists. He would have started pacing, walking back and forth to let off some of the anxiety he was feeling, but only humans did things like that. So instead he tried to lose himself in discipline, the way Heero always did. He stared at the essay on economical use of suicide troops that he had chosen to read, but the words failed to have an impact on his brain. After a few seconds he looked up at the door again, then around the room. "How long has it been?" he asked, and instantly regretted breaking the silence as he felt Heero's eyes on him. He'll know what I'm thinking, and he'll think I'm weak.

"You have the same internal clock as the rest of us," Five grumbled, not looking up from his own work. "Figure it out yourself."

Three already had, but that wasn't why he had spoken. He didn't know exactly why he had spoken.

"It's been three hours and forty-six minutes," Two said to Three, glancing at Heero. "That's twenty-eight minutes longer then they ever left him in before."

"So?" Five asked, still not raising his head. "If he's being punished, it's because he did something wrong. Who are we to question the commanders?"

"If they kill him he's useless to them," Three said, more sharply then he intended. Five finally raised his head to look at Three, who instantly knew that he'd gone too far, almost lost control. Luckily the door slid open then, revealing Four and two soldiers. Four was standing on his own, but from the way the soldiers kept their hands on his arms, Three could tell that they expected him to collapse at any moment. Four took a step into the room, and instantly lurched towards the wall, almost falling right there. No one made any move to help him. The door closed.

Four stood there for a minute, leaning against the wall, while the others pretended to ignore him. They never openly acknowledged the issue when one of them was punished.

Finally Four walked to his desk and sat down. The files on the intruder were still on the screen, just the way Four had left them when the soldiers came to take him for punishment. He stared at the screen through red-rimmed eyes, his shoulders hunched forward, hands resting in his lap. Three had never seen him look so terrible, and he noticed red marks on Four's wrists. They must have added something new to the chamber and tied him down. "Four," he said quietly, instantly drawing the attention of the others. He was breaking an unsaid rule, talking to Four immediately after he returned from being punished.

Four knew he was breaking the rule, too, and barely turned his head. "What is it?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

Three swallowed, knowing that he was taking a big risk, that he might be punished himself for this, but he did have the best interests of the Alliance at heart. If Four didn't take some time to recover, he'd be useless for the Alliance. "You should rest."

Four turned his head back to the screen. "I have work to do."

Three knew better than to glance in Heero's direction - all he would get was that unblinking stare, and Five was probably ready to report him right now. So he looked at Two, who was watching Four intently, and Three noticed that Two was frowning. Just slightly, just a slight crease at the corner of his mouth, invisible to anyone but one of his fellow creations, but Three noticed it. "Four," he said again, a little louder, and noticed the way that Four hunched his shoulders a little bit when Three said his name.

"I have work to do," Four repeated a little louder, but that only served to show everyone exactly how hoarse his voice actually was.

Then Four raised his right hand to shift the screen down, and everyone saw how violently his hand was shaking. Four realized that they'd seen it a half second too late, after he clutched his right hand to his chest to stop the trembling. He looked around, saw that everyone had seen the gesture, and let his head drop to his chest in shame at his weakness.

"If you keep going now, you're going to make a mistake, you may miss something," Three urged. "If you want to serve the Alliance best, you have to be alert. Rest for an hour or two, then get back to work."

Four considered that for a second, then pulled his hand away from his chest and stared at it for a moment. Immediately the uncontrolled trembling started again, and he grabbed his wrist with his left hand to stop it, then nodded at Three. His face was an unreadable mask - for once his discipline was holding - but Three knew he was miserable. Four just wasn't as good as the rest of them, and he knew it as well as they did. He started to stand up, then almost fell to the ground when his legs wouldn't support him. He would have, except that Three was looking out for that and managed to catch him, easily supporting his weight. Then, to his surprise, Two was on the other side of Four, helping to carry him to his bunk. Between the two of them, it was simple, and in a few seconds Four was lying on his bunk, already unconscious.

Two was refusing to meet anyone's gaze, but Three could see a hint of a self-righteous smile on his face.

"He's weak," Five said, finally breaking the silence.

Three glared at him, with his back towards the cameras so the commanders couldn't see. "He has his strengths," he said softly.

"Like what?" Five asked scornfully.

"He lasted... what? Three hours and forty-seven minutes? That's an hour and twenty-two minutes better than your record, and fifty-six minutes better than Heero's."

Five glared back at him, but before he could say anything, Heero spoke.

"Five is right, Four is weak, but that doesn't mean that he can't be useful. He's better with computers then any of us, and better at interrogations, too. Just because he's weaker than any of us, doesn't mean that the Alliance shouldn't use him. Our purpose is to serve the Alliance, nothing more."

"He's still weak," Five muttered

"But Heero's right, he does have some uses," Two said cautiously. "And we do exist for the Alliance - they must see something useful in him."

"Of course they do," Three said, amazed that the others hadn't seen it. "Just because he's weaker than us doesn't mean that much to them. He's still stronger, faster, smarter than a human, even in the areas that we consider weaknesses. He can still serve the Alliance better than any human."

"And he's stronger than us in a few areas. Instead of mocking Four, you should try to figure out why he's so much better at some things then we are, and so much weaker in so many other areas," Heero advised. "That's what I do. We exist only for the Alliance, to serve the people; we should try to become as useful for them as possible."

Three nodded agreement, but he thought, Is that all Four is to you, Heero? Just a way to make yourself stronger for the Alliance? He knew that was the truth, and he also knew that he shouldn't have a problem with it. Everything Heero had said was completely right, completely logical. It was exactly what they'd been taught, what Heero lived, every second, every day of his existence, that's why he was the best, right? The only thing he ever cared about was becoming the strongest, so that he could serve the Alliance best.

And that's right. Why can't I be like that? Because he wasn't like that, and he knew it. Three knew that deep down in the back of his mind, he counted his fellow subjects more important than the Alliance. He was always more concerned with what they did to Four than with what he could do for the Alliance. The Alliance was important, of course, and he desperately wanted to serve it, just like the others, but if, for some impossible reason, it ever came to him to decide between the Alliance and his companions, he already knew what his choice would be.

And that makes me even weaker than Four. At least his desire to serve the Alliance is pure. If he is weak, what does that make me?

----------

A few days later Arthur finished his report. He would have finished it earlier, but a good deal of his time was occupied with drills, more lessons, and over three hours in the chamber. He actually lost more than three hours there, because he had to sleep for several hours after that to recover from his punishment. At least no one openly looked at him with contempt when he came back from one of his punishments. If nothing else, he had gained the respect of his comrades in his ability to withstand torture. It wasn't worth it.

Two and Five had been discretely smug when they found out that Arthur hadn't actually gotten a regular mission yet, although Two tried to hide it. He was generally more considerate than Five, just caught up in his duty to the Alliance to become the best soldier he could be. Heero and Three were just curious about what Arthur had been ordered to do.

When Arthur finished his report, he explained his findings to the others. Not only did it give them a chance to catch any mistakes he might have made, sharing information was valuable. There was no telling when one of them might be sent to another colony where they might find similar sabotage. "Whoever did this was good, and I mean amazing, for a human," he told them. "The system I designed has many layers overlapping, so that someone who might get through the first would get caught by the others."

"I remember," Three said slowly. "You had a problem with the energy surge - the layers, if made continuously, built up more and more energy until they got too hot and either melted down or exploded. I remember you mentioning that you found some way around it."

"Yes. The energy buildup is only a problem if the stream is continuous. I built a slight gap in each of the layers, it lasts about one tenth of a second every minute, to prevent the overload. Now, whoever did this somehow managed to jump from gap to gap almost continuously, and in that way worked their way through the protection."

"Wait a minute. How could a human do that?" Two asked. "Their reaction time isn't that good."

"I know, but Intelligence is finding the guy, not me, and I don't have access to their findings, so I can't answer that question. I thought for a while that they might have built a computer program, but I don't think so anymore. There's too much randomness to the program for another computer to be able to calculate. It has to be a human, but not one like any I've ever heard of."

"I've heard that an area of Alliance Intelligence is trying to merge a human mind with a computer," Five observed. "So far no viable results. Is it possible that the Rebels," he growled the word as if it were an epithet, "have already developed such technology?"

"I doubt it," Heero said. "They don't have the resources or the skilled technicians necessary for that sort of research."

"Four," Three said thoughtfully. "Could one of us have gotten through your system?"

"Probably, but I never tried. Why? You don't think that the Rebels have the technology to create on of us?" Arthur looked at Heero, who shook his head.

"No, they're barely able to buy enough weapons to arm themselves. They don't have any resources to divert to experiments like us."

"I didn't say they did," Three said matter-of-factly. "I was just pointing out that there are other options to computers that might explain how it was done."

Aware that he was treading on dangerous ground for just talking about this with the others, Arthur turned the conversation back to his findings. "I solved that problem by attaching little alarms to each of the gaps. If anything touches them, we get a warning. I've got a new security protocol that ought to take care of the intruder creating fake identities for themselves and hiding in the system." He transmitted the data to the others, and saw them nod approvingly. "It will take me less than an hour to set all of that up once I clear it with the commanders."

"Why didn't the regular security programs catch it?" Two wanted to know.

"Well, first the data was fed directly into the main computer, which bypassed most of the security we have on that count. The reason the snooper programs that patrol the system didn't catch it is that they're programmed to find irregularities. Whoever created the fake ID was good. They snuck back into the system to make little additions to the file, changing the posting, adding reports on the fake officer's performance. Except for the fact that the officer didn't exist, there was nothing to indicate that there was anything unusual about him.

"Now, I've also been tracing what the intruder did with the access he had. From what I can tell, he's been moving in and out of the Alliance system without any problems, possibly on a daily basis. From his position, he could pull up virtually any file anywhere in the system - everything from classified commands and top-secret orders to what was on the dinner menu for one of our bases on a particular day. He could have seen anything. I think he's probably responsible for the failure of many major Alliance offensives in the last few years, that is, assuming he's one of the Rebels, or at least has been feeding information to them."

"Rebels," Five growled in a low voice.

"It ends now," Arthur said, glad that he was able to help the Alliance, even if it was just with computer stuff like this. "This ought to cut them off." He paused for a second as he noticed a blip at the bottom of his screen. They got feeds all the time this way, informing them of their training schedules or of staff rotations. He automatically clicked on it - no reason to leave it until later. It was a simple message, probably created and passed on by the computer to their desks automatically without ever having by seen by human eyes, informing them that a Dr. Kay was being transferred to their project.

Usually he would just file such messages away in the back of his mind. He never forgot anything, but some things just weren't worth spending any time thinking about. If he ever met this Dr. Kay, he would recognize his name. Other than that, the data had no value to him. That was what usually happened. But right now his recent studies were at the top of his mind, and this message touched off a familiar chord. We destroyed the file that he'd been using to get inside. He wouldn't try again so soon... would he?

"What is it?" Three asked, noticing the difference in his face.

"There's a new doctor assigned to our project," Arthur said, quickly calling up personnel files. He started searching through them. He quickly found Dr. Kay. The man had a full history, records of his excellent performance at other tasks which led to him being assigned here. The picture was clear, as were the finger-prints and retinal images. It all looked perfectly normal. But still...

"So?" Two asked as Arthur went back into the program, going through old records that were on their way out of the system. Every day thousands of data bites were destroyed so that they didn't fall into the hands of the Alliance's enemies, but before they were destroyed, they were usually held for a few days. Surely old personnel files would be among them...

"I think it's stretching coincidence that they would transfer someone new here just a few days after someone got in using the cover of being transferred to the project."

"You think it's the intruder again." Heero said, suddenly intense. "You're trying to verify it."

"How?" Two asked, suddenly gaining a great deal of interest in Arthur's work.

"I'm looking for an old version of the personnel files. I can't tell from the current files which ones have been here for some time, and which were created recently, but if the intruder really is trying to get back in, then this Dr. Kay won't exist in an older version of the files," Arthur replied while typing at his keyboard. "Here it is." He quickly scanned the listings. "There's no Dr. Kay!"

"I'm instituting a trace," Three said, sitting down at his own desk. The others quickly followed suit.

"Let's see if we can trap him," Heero said. "How long has he been on?"

"An hour at least. He's been downloading our files."

"Can you block him?"

"Not until we find him."

"Trace under progress," Three reported.

"I've locked him out of Quadrant A," Five reported.

Arthur quickly sealed off their section of the computer from the main Alliance system. Now the only way the intruder could get out was to disconnect entirely from the system, which could damage computers if done too quickly.

"Quadrant C, locked off," Two reported.

"I'll lock him out of Quadrant D," Heero told Arthur. "Then he's yours."

Arthur nodded quickly, surprised and pleased by Heero's tacit admission that Arthur was the best among them at dealing with computers. "I'll get him." Heero shut off Quadrant D, and Arthur started to work. It was harder to find the intruder within a specific quadrant than to just lock him out of one, but file by file Arthur worked his way through the quadrant, chasing the intruder in front of him. He almost had the intruder when suddenly words appeared on his screen.

{Who are you?}

Arthur stared at the screen.

"What the hell?" Two muttered. "Are you guys getting this too?"

{Which one are you?}

"It's the intruder. He's talking to us," Arthur muttered. "Heero, can I answer?"
Heero was nominally their leader, and since he was the only one who had actually completed a mission, he had more authority.

Heero hesitated, then nodded, and Arthur turned to his screen.

{Identify yourself. You have broken Alliance law and will be prosecuted.}

{Which one are you?} the intruder repeated.

{What are you talking about?}

{I know you.} The words sent a shiver up and down Arthur's spine. He glanced at Heero, who nodded for him to continue, then glanced meaningfully at Three. Arthur nodded as he understood - the longer he kept the intruder talking to him, the longer Three would have to trace the call.

{What do you mean, you know me?}

{You're Four, aren't you?}

Arthur jumped a little and looked at the others, who stared back at him with wide eyes.

{I don't know what you're talking about.}

{Yes, you do, Four. I want you to give One a message. Tell him that I know who he is, and I know what he did to Representative Surd. He will be punished for his crime, and so will the rest of you, if you continue on the same course.}

Arthur glanced at the others. As usual, Heero had no expression on his face, but he saw naked shock on Two's face, and anger on Five's. {Who are you?} he demanded.

{I'm someone who knows exactly what you are, and who can keep up with you. You've only been facing ordinary humans before. Now you're against me, and you're going to lose.}

{Who are you?}

{I am your enemy, the only one that matters. As my words are carried to the Rebels, they will destroy you. This is the last you will hear from me until you are looking down the barrel of my gun. Know this and be forewarned.}

Arthur frowned. The intruder, whoever he was, was being typically vague and threatening, just like most of his kind. Filthy Rebels, always hiding and fighting without revealing themselves. Arthur started to type again, trying to draw out the conversation so that Three could finish his trace, but something suddenly occurred to him. Just as he was trying to keep the intruder on the line for the trace, the intruder was trying to keep him on the line for some other reason. That was the reason for all the vague threats and general statements - to buy time. Meanwhile the intruder is still in the system, still pulling information off the system, maybe doing damage to it... "Cut the line!" he snapped.

Two, who had control of the line, looked at him. "What?"

"Cut it!" he shouted, and Two actually obeyed him.

"Why did you do that?!" Five demanded. "You cut off the trace!"

"It's all right," Three said. "It was useless. Whoever he is, he's covered his tracks well. The signal was bounced off a dozen satellites all around Centari and all the way to Earth. There could have been a dozen more in front of it, between us and the location. Why did you cut it off, Four?"

"He was trying to keep us on the line," Arthur said, staring at the words that remained on the screen. "He was doing the same thing we were doing, trying to buy time, while he was still downloading information. Remember, I never actually trapped him. He started talking to us to distract us, and we fell for it."

-----------

After the first contact, the boys worked feverishly to discover who the intruder was and how much he knew about them. They were never able to find out anything, but for the first time in their lives the missions they planned (and later carried out as they each became operational) started to fail as someone out guessed them. They would plan a strike on a known Rebel base, only to arrive and find that it had been deserted just hours before. A public figure or civilians would have to be sacrificed for the good of the Alliance, only to have the Rebels spreading information about the Alliance and it's true agenda before the blood had cooled. The information they spread was all lies, of course, but it was turning the general public against the Alliance, and giving the Rebels a support base that they'd never had before.

Despite the fact that they'd cut off access to the Alliance's central computer, the Rebels continued to act as if they had complete access to it. Arthur became positive that that was the case and spent many hours going through files, passwords, and records, trying to figure out where there might be a leak, even going so far as to check the personnel records against civilian records on Earth, to make sure the people actually existed.

There were leaks within the Rebels that gave them some information, but after a while even those became suspect as the 'leads' they got all petered out to nothing. In order to prove the validity of their suspicions the traitors in the Rebels were ordered to give some solid information about a Rebel strike, rather than only passive information (this had been done in order to shield the agents). The information was provided, but when the Alliance agents arrived, there was nothing there, and at the same time the Rebels executed a very successful attack on a soldier barrack, killing dozens of Alliance soldiers. The boys became very quiet and very angry when this news was brought to them. Among the dead found there were the agents who had provided the information, but autopsy reports showed that they had been dead for weeks or longer, indicating that whoever had killed them had been toying with the Alliance, knowingly feeding them bad information. The worst part of that was that they had known the correct channels, the proper way for passing the information along, which indicated that the enemy had vast knowledge of Alliance Intelligence, possibly that the entire branch was compromised.

While spies throughout the Alliance sought out more information about this new threat, the boys worked furiously to keep up. The deadly game between their unseen enemy and the boys continued for a year or more. Sometimes the boys managed to outplay or outguess their enemy, and sometimes he beat them. And whenever that happened, people on one side or another died, but after all this time, they were no closer to discovering the identity of the intruder.

-------------

Rina studied the three screens in front of her with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. The problem was not with the ongoing war with the members of Project Titan. With fewer resources but almost unlimited information on them, even to the point of videos of their planning sessions, she was barely managing to keep up with their plans for her. Leaving the bodies of the spies when they made that strike at the barracks of the Alliance soldiers had been a good idea. It was keeping them off-balance, unsure of what she meant by that gesture. Was it arrogance, to show how long she'd known about them? Or maybe a warning not to send anyone else in? Or maybe even that she was some sort of religious nut who insisted on giving them an honorable burial, or some other nonsense like that? She doubted that the real reason, that she'd done it solely to throw them off-track, would ever occur to them.

However, it took a certain amount of effort to stay ahead of them. Her research indicated that they were close to finding the pattern she'd embedded in the last persona she'd used to shield herself. That meant it was time to switch tactics entirely and start on a new path, but not before she used one last ploy. Assuming that they'd seen the pattern, she'd have the Rebels plant evidence that that person was still in command. The boys would, of course, jump on that and arrange an ambush at her next presumed target. At which point she would switch on them, either arranging to ambush the ambushers, or strike at an entirely different spot. She'd done this three times so far, and they hadn't caught on yet, but it was only a matter of time until they caught on to the pattern in the bigger picture. Then she'd have to drastically change her tactics. But that wasn't a problem yet.

Almost absentmindedly she started creating a new persona in her mind to hide behind. The last had been a young, vibrant man, brilliant but prone to taking large risks. The next should be an older man, she decided, maybe an old war veteran or something like that. The Rebels had gotten nervous under the rule of the previous leader, and this time had opted for someone more conservative, less risky, she thought, rounding out the story behind the character. And so they had chosen an older man with lots of experience. Information coming out of the Rebels would be cut down to a minimum, but there'd be less strikes, as well, maybe a building up period in recruitment. The last few strikes she had made had been pretty dramatic, and the constant stream of propaganda that was sent out was having its effect. There were more supporters of the Rebels in the colonies and on Earth then ever before, not that it made much of a difference as long as the Alliance was firmly in control, but it was swelling the ranks of the Rebels, at least in Alpha colony.

The new persona would only be good for a month or two, at the most, then she'd have to switch it out for someone more young and ready to act, but it didn't matter. In fact, it would be good to break up her routine by retiring someone who hadn't been figured out by the boys. That was, if she could keep them from figuring her out in that time. They were getting better at this. A little bit of confusion was in order, she made a mental note of that as she finished preparations to discard her latest persona.

Once all of that was done, and she'd finished doing to data analysis, replacing the high-tech computers the Rebels couldn't afford, most of the night had gone by. She needed very little sleep, but she did need some, so Rina started to prepare for bed. She turned off two of the screens, leaving the third, the troubling one, staring at her from the darkness.

She'd known this was coming. She'd officially joined the Rebels almost two years ago, and since then, as they got used to her, she had been steadily rising in power. She'd been the leader in all but name for the last six months, so she should have expected them to ask her to make it official. But despite all of that, it still came as a shock. She didn't want this responsibility, didn't ask for it, but she had known it was coming. She'd already dedicated her life to the Rebels, and she was most fit to lead them. She should accept the offer and become the official leader of the Rebels. Very little would change, actually. Most of the common Rebels would never know who she was, and she'd continue to hide behind others, only exposing herself directly when she was desperately needed. Certainly it would be useful not to have to convince people to listen to her all the time, although the important ones did that, anyway. No, the only real change would be in them - and her - acknowledging what had already happened.

So why am I so reluctant? she wondered.

The real reason was because she didn't want to take responsibility. As long as she was 'only' an advisor, she could lie to herself, a little, and tell herself that she wasn't responsible for the deaths of all the people she killed. Countless Alliance soldiers had fallen because of her, and many Rebels as well. When was it that I learned how to knowingly order men to their deaths without flinching? Sometime in the last year, I suppose, she observed with a detachment that disturbed her. Rina had only recently noticed the change in herself, and was not pleased. Especially not when she couldn't remember exactly when the change had taken place. Her first kill had been traumatic, a horrible experience. Years ago, when she sent information to the Rebels and some of them were killed, that had been bad enough. But in the last few years, she personally met the Rebels. After that, sending them to their deaths was much, much worse. Sometime between when she first started sending people she knew to die and now, something had changed. Driven by the desperate situation of the Rebels and the first real challenge she'd ever faced, Rina had bent to necessity and ordered her own men into the field, knowing they would die but gaining her valuable information not stored in the computers, or occasionally, time to run.

But now... Taking the reins of power would mean full responsibility on her for every Rebel that died as long as she remained in control, and the thought terrified her.
s
That realization was followed by a flash of anger directed at herself. The responsibility was there whether she took the power or not, and not taking it would represent a type of cowardice that Rina hated, even more so when she found it in herself.

Angry at life and the Alliance for putting her in this situation, and even more angry with herself for feeling that way, Rina typed out her response to the Rebels offer. Then she promised herself she'd never even think that way again.

-------------

"So who do you think this new Phoenix person is?" Herc asked. He was currently doing handstand pushups to keep in shape between missions. His bangs were hanging in front of his eyes, obscuring any view of them. He'd grown his hair as long as their commanders would permit it, just a couple of inches long. And the only reason they allowed that was because it made him look more like a normal human. After that point had been made to their commanders, they'd all been ordered to grow their hair into the current styles popular in the colonies.

"I doubt he exists," Heero replied, glancing at Arthur, who was busy searching for clues that would tell them where to expect the next Rebel strike. Michael and Kan were out, scouting a likely site themselves after the last team they sent out disappeared without a trace. That was their primary occupation nowadays, when they weren't given an actual mission to complete. They had been instructed to keep on searching for ways to hurt the Rebels. They were having less success then Heero liked to admit. They all burned with the desire to help the Alliance and the people, and right now they were all extremely frustrated at their failure to find any of the various leaders of the Rebels in the two years since Hiro's first mission.

Arthur had come up with various profiles of the different leaders - there were five that they could see, based on different types of strategies, different styles... He'd come up with them, then thrown them out when another person took over, or when he felt that the information they received was planted just to throw them off track. Heero had no idea where he was getting his ideas from, but trusted that Arthur was doing the best possible work on this project. His instincts for this sort of thing were unmatched, even among the other four. He might be weak, but in this thing he was the undisputed expert.

"Damn it!" Four exclaimed in an uncharacteristic show of frustration. But there was more excitement in his voice now, although his face was expressionless. At least that much of his discipline was holding, Heero observed disapprovingly.

"What is it?" Herc asked without standing up.

"I'm such a fool!" Arthur berated himself. "It was right here all along and I missed it!"

"Missed what?" Heero asked, walking over.

"The big pattern. All this time we were trying to figure out how the Rebels switched leaders so often without losing their organization, and we were trying to figure out who the new leaders were by their actions!"

"So?" Herc asked, finally stopping his exercise and coming over. "That makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Not if there was no changeover in the Rebel leadership," Arthur said. His eyes were half-closed as he obviously was analyzing data, trying to fit things together now that he had a new theory.

"There was a definite change in strategy," Heero pointed out. He wanted some sort of logical proof before he accepted Arthur's theory. Arthur was usually right with this sort of thing, but he wouldn't trust his instincts that far.

"Not if you look at those changes as part of an overall strategy," Arthur said, opening his eyes.

"Say again?" Herc asked.

"If we look for an overall strategy, and assume that there was no actual change in leadership, there is a definite pattern. Look, a new strategy... a character, like the ones we play, suddenly shows up, with no lapse in time from the last and no inefficiency among the Rebels. We assumed that the leaders were grooming their replacements, but what if there is no change? The character remains for a period of time, two, three, or four months, and just as we begin to see definite patterns, it changes. But the last action of the old character, the predictable one, is completely radical and catches us off-guard. It happens again, and again, and again... See what I'm saying?"

Heero nodded, and Herc muttered, "That son of a bitch! It's been one person the whole time! But the pattern changes with this last person. The latest... what did you call it? Character? The latest character vanished without a strike, and now there are rumors about this Phoenix guy."

Arthur looked worried. "I don't know if the Phoenix actually exists. I doubt it, it's probably just another character, with a name thrown in to throw us off-guard, but I'm not sure."

The door opened and as they all snapped to attention, Mem walked in. "Still, excellent work, Four. Your observations will be immediately passed along to Intelligence. You have a new mission, a long-term one this time, on Umbra Space Station. Most of the population of the station are from Earth, so you will be given special skin-dyes and other equipment to blend in there. As soon as the other two return, report to the briefing room for more instructions." He turned to leave, then gave Arthur one last glance. "You may prove to be of some use to the Alliance yet."

Arthur's face was absolutely rigid, but Heero knew that he had been deeply hurt by the comment, and wondered why Mem had made it. Arthur lived for the Alliance, the way they all did, and if he was weaker than the others, he was well aware of it and angry with himself for that weakness. Mem's comment did nothing but remind him of that, which was pointless. The only meaning it could have had was to hurt Arthur, if he had feelings like a human, which he didn't. Maybe that was it, Mem was trying to remind Arthur of what he was. But why would that be necessary? It wasn't as if Arthur thought he was human. The thought was ridiculous. So then why had he done it?

Try as he might, Heero couldn't come up with an answer.




Hiya. Um, some people mentioned last time that they thought this was a prequel to "The Others" but changed their minds when the names didn't match. This is the base story for that AU - I changed the character's names in "The Others" to help me remember the differences between the characters, since "The Others" is a sort of AU to Project Titan. It got really confusing, which is why I changed the characters' names in the first place. Anyway, it IS the prequel to "The Others", for all intents and purposes. Just wanted to clear that up. :) 7/22/01