Coalition Base

Trynity brought her father a cup of coffee, then sat beside him. His computer screen was already blank by the time he took the coffee from her. As she sipped from her own mug, she glanced at his papers hoping to get a clue about his secret work, but she saw only random strings of etters and numbers, many crossed out. Trynity could make no sense of it.

"How are you feeling today, pumpkin?"

She glanced at him, suddenly embarrassed. Her head ached and she had a sour stomach. Trynity didn't remember singing nursery rhymes after being dragged from her damaged mobile suit. She suspected Dr. Stryfe of Over-exaggerating her inebriation. She would remember singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, wouldn't she? And where had she learned that rhyme?

He was still waiting for her answer. "I have learned a lesson," she told him before sipping more coffee.

Her father watched her as she drank some of his. "I trust you to take better care of yourself in the future with young Nelson. He is a bit older and a bit wiser in the ways of the world."

While she was glad of his confidence in her and wasn't lecturing her, a part of Trynity wished he would take a more active role in her personal life. As a child she had gotten in his way, and as a young adult, she felt more like a lab assistant than a daughter. Since her arrival at the Coalition base, Trynity wasn't sure what role she had in his life. Unfortunately, she concluded that she was just the pilot of his creation.

"The double-edged beam saber is prepared for the Shadowhawk," he told her, cementing her conclusion. "But you need more preparation in order to use it with any kind of proficiency. I have a replay of your litle training display yesterday." He flipped on the computer screen and keyed in a code, and Trynity cringed, not wanting to see her drunken behavior of the day before.

But instead of the battle, Duo Maxwell's face appeared. "Okay, you got me. I'm looking for Trynity."

"Oops!" Her father chuckled. "Wrong file!" He seemed to take an unusually long time finding the correct code. Duo's face remained frozen on the screen. Trynity couldn't help but stare at him and his silly, adorable grin. Then she shuddered. Was she still drunk? How could she think that he actually liked her? What would he see in her anyway? He was probably hoping to get her to return so that he could copy her homework.

The screen went blank, and she felt a little empty inside until she heard her father chuckle. Trynity frowned at him, then realized she was touching the necklace. She shouldn't even wear the damn thing!

"You aren't going to talk about him, are you, pumpkin?"

"There is nothing to talk about," she snapped. Only a few moments ago she wanted him to be more like a father, and now she wanted him to butt out. She wasn't going to tell him anything!

"I do know that he is one of Miliardo Peacecraft's wards. You lived under the same roof." He wriggled his brows.

Trynity gritted her teeth and slammed down her coffee mug. Just what did he mean by that? "There is nothing to talk about!"

He chuckled. "You would be amazed by what I can find with this computer. School records, for example." He raised a brow. "Discipline records. You'd think they would lock some of that private material a little tighter. Even an inexperienced hacker such as myself can find out information that shouldn't be available to the general public about the antics of teenagers at the Academy."

Her face was flaming, and she had nothing to say to explain herself. Her thoughts centered on that incident in Headmaster Himmler's outer office, when Duo had tried to kiss her.

Dr. Stryfe now laughed and pinched her cheek. "I never thought my Trynity would be anything but a model student. I only tried to find something out about that young Duo Maxwell that has you all a twitter. I wasn't expecting to find dozens of reports about your behavior." He winked as he put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. "I only hope that you and young Maxwell had fun terrorizing your teachers."

Trynity shrugged off his arm. "It wasn't like that! I didn't terrorize anybody! And certainly not in collusion with that lame-brain."

He nodded, but clearly didn't believe her.

"Well," she conceded, "perhaps I could have been a bit nicer to Dr. Plume, after all, he probably wasn't able to stay current in the latest research findings." When he raised a skeptical brow, she sighed. "All right! I didn't like Miss Dimster one bit! But I did not destroy that ratty old bear of hers. Those other jackasses did it!"

"You didn't mention that business in the headmaster's office," he commented with a raised brow.

"I don't want to talk about it!" She saw no point in discussing something she didn't understand herself. Besides, it hurt to remember. Duo Maxwell had been toying with her!

"Well," he said after a moment of silence. "Your fun is over. There is only work for the Coalition in your future. You certainly don't have time to waste planning what to wear to the Spring Ball."

Although she had spilled most of her coffee, Trynity picked up the mug and drank more. "Does this work bother you?" she asked, her eyes looking past him to the technicians outside the lab in the hanger working to refit the Taurus suits to transform them into Sagitariens.

Her father sighed and pressed keys on his computer. "I cannot say that I am pleased to be here, pumpkin, but I have become a realist. In time of war, the generals turn to scientists. What difference does it make for whom I do my work? I couldn't keep you in deep space anymore, with only me and the Shadowhawk for company. I had believed that Miliardo Peacecraft would maintain peace, that he would encourage my work while you found out there was more to life than that gundam. But the more I learn of him, the more I am sure that my life in the Cinq Kingdom would be little different than it is here. He is a man of war. The fact that he did not destroy the gundams as a sign of his commitment to peace proves it."

"But he did not begin this war," she argued.

"We are not to decide who begins a war or who is justified. I build the machines, and you use them to carry out missions."

Trynity was disappointed in her father's ambivalence. He truly didn't seem to care, and as a result, nor did she. He was disillusioned by the forces that bent him to their will, first Barton, now Nelson. Although a man with peaceful ideals, he had spent most of his life perfecting machines of destruction. She realized that her father never once mentioned escaping; he even seemed content with his work for the Coalition. Trynity could not afford to consider whether what they did was right or wrong, or even whose side they should fight. She had no choice, and even if she did, how could she decide? Was the jealous, resentful Nelson in the wrong? Or was he right for rebelling against the devious Miliardo Peacecraft who hid gundams he had been ordered to destroy while pretending to champion peace? For better of worse, Trynity was a Coalition soldier.

After reviewing with her father the battle from the day before, she realized by watching Lars' movements against her, that he was not training her honestly. She made her way to the training deck where she found him steadfastly practicing with the bow. He shot a final arrow that found dead center before he turned to her.

"I didn't think I would see you all day, Trynity Stryfe."

She frowned as she took off her jacket and picked up a staff leaning against the wall. "There is work to be done." Trynity wanted to club Lars who stood smirking at her, but she forced herself to be calm as he set aside the bow. They both knew he had purposely gotten her drunk; and she had made a fool of herself. Had the gundam not appeared, she wasn't sure what would have happened between them. Trynity could not forgive that.

Lars took up his staff. "I should call you Itsy Bitsy Trynity."

Her face heated with embarrassment. "Shut up! You were ordered to train me, and you have held back."

Lars did not deny it. He smiled and she gripped the staff tighter in her hands. "I thought it prudent to keep some of my secrets. I wouldn't want you using them on me."

"Is that all?" She snorted contemptuously. "Then you have my word that I will not engage you in combat again. Your secrets will be our secrets."

He took a step closer to her. "We could share a lot more, Trynity."

Trynity swung the staff, but he parried it, expecting her to react. He was as aggravating as Duo Maxwell, but in a different, dangerous way. "Just teach me."

His dark, intense gaze fixed on hers. She couldn't look away. "There is much I could teach you, Itsy Bitsy, but this place isn't really conducive to it." He took a step toward her, the staff dropping from his hands. Then his hands were over his and he towered above her. Trynity's heart was racing and she couldn't breathe. He bent his head to her, and she raised her face to him.

The telcom buzzed, and she reacted by swinging up the staff. Lars barely ducked in time to avoid a nasty blow to the head. He swore viciously, then marched to the screen set in the wall. He punched the button to answer. His brother's face appeared, and Trynity could see that the elder Nelson was furious by the stony set to his features.

"I am surprised, brother, that I would find the two of you in the training room. Your lack of skill, the both of you, make me wonder what you two actually do in there."

Trynity shot Lars an angry look, then stepped forward. "I assure you, colonel, that the problem will be rectified."

"As usual, Lieutenant Stryfe, I have complete faith in you." Colonel Nelson sneered at his brother. "As for you, Lars, I suggest you follow Lieutenant Stryfe's example."

Lars didn't respond, but Trynity knew he was quaking with fury. Good. They might have a meaningful training session instead of his practice attempt to seduce her. How had she been so naïve as to fall for it again!

"In thirty-six hours," continued Colonel Nelson, "You will be engaging in battle against the Cinq Kingdom. Three of the five gundams will leave Earth accompanied by four dozen Leos and two dozen Taurus suits. The Leos will come from the Dover base, and the Taurus suits from the Space Outpost will rendezvous with them. Their orders are to destroy the Coalition forces."

"Will there be any mobile dolls?" asked Lars.

"Indeed. They will also be dispatched from the outpost, but they will be under my control." Trynity knew by that unpleasant smile that the mobile dolls would not be attacking the Coalition forces. "During the battle, I will be returning to the base on a command shuttle."

"You said three of the five gundams," pointed out Lars. "Where are the others? Why don't they attack together?"

Nelson continued to smile. "I thought it best to split them up. Major Po is suspicious, but she cannot change my orders. The two other gundams will follow with reinforcements, but by the time they enter battle it will be too late."

"Are the gundams to be destroyed?" asked Trynity. She hated to think of such fine mobile suits being rendered to space debris to be collected and used by Nelson.

"No. We will capture them and give the pilots an opportunity to rethink their allegiance."

"There are seven gundams on Earth," Trynity reminded him. "The Epyon has surely been repaired by now, and there is the other gundam which engaged the Shadowhawk, gundam 08."

"Yes, the gundam known as the Valkyrie. They are unavailable. Seems Miliardo Peacecraft took out both on a training expedition and he has not returned." Nelson snorted with disgust. "I have no doubt his little holiday has something to do with that female that has him tied in knots. He will regret his lack or logical priorities."

"Miliardo Peacecraft will pursue you," predicted Lars.

Nelson laughed. "Zechs Merquise would pursue, and he would be merciless, but since he has become Miliardo Peacecraft, he has grown soft and useless. He has even allowed his hands to be tied by the Cinq Kingdom Assembly."

"Don't underestimate your enemy," commented Trynity.

"I will leave my enemies in your capable hands, Lieutenant Stryfe. See that you do not repeat the debacle of yesterday." The transmission ended.

Lars stared at the blank screen for a moment, then turned back to Trynity. "We have thirty-six hours. I thought we would have longer, but now we will have to spend every spare moment in here." He sighed regrettably. "Training. If you do not learn to use the double-beam saber by then, you will be defeated by gundam 02."

He didn't need to tell her. "And you surely realize that if you do not hit your targets, you will leave yourself vulnerable to attack."

By the look in his eyes, she knew he had already surmised that.

"So we train," he said.
"Or we will die."