Project Omega

Episode 2: Multinational Advanced Tactical Response Institution X

Gendo Ikari sat at the head of the table with Fuyutsuki at his right hand and Ritsuko at his left.

"Welcome to MATRIX," he said to the people assembled around the table, "Dr. Akagi has already briefed all of you why you are here and what the purpose of this institution is. Are there any questions?"

No one said a word.

"Good. Mr. Kaji, What is the current status of our security?"

"The computer firewall system is online and all of the necessary personnel have been transferred and are on duty. However, I cannot guarantee the security of the mainframe as there are some very skilled hackers out there."

"I have a handle on that," said Ritsuko, "The AI mainframe is secure and we don't have to worry about someone penetrating into the primary databanks. However, if other AI systems tried to hack in, that would be a different story entirely."

"Understood. Mr. Horaki, how are your teams proceeding with construction of Tokyo 3?"

"We are finished with the central areas and the suburbs surrounding the city. The wall has been erected to surround the inner city and we have six towers each equipped with Patriot missiles from the Americans."

"And what of the construction of the airfield?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"That is almost completed." Horaki adjusted his glasses before continuing. "The squadron of the American F-22 Raptors will be able to move in two weeks from now."

"Good. Dr. Akagi. What progress has your teams made in deciphering the alien species' language?"

"It is taking longer than we thought," Ritsuko answered, "The aliens have an alphabet of thirty letters but their math system is based on a binary code. That is making some of the translation tricky and sometimes even inaccurate. We are currently reworking the translation program to correct those errors."

"What about the purpose of some of the devices?"

"We have figured out some of the equipment, but even that will take a lot longer. We just started."

"Very well. Meeting dismissed. I suggest all of you get back to work quickly."

Everyone but Fuyutsuki left the room. When they were gone Fuyutsuki swerved his chair to face Gendo.

"Do you really think it will make a difference?" he asked.

"Everything makes a difference," Gendo replied, "However small it may be, with enough of them you can destroy a nation."

"Or Seele."

"Seele is another variable. It is better to eliminate all variables, but over time their effects are lessened. That will do for now."



"Toji! Here's a copy of the tape," Kensuke said and handed Toji a cassette.

"You do have backups right?"

"Of course. And you won't believe what's on the tape."

"As long as it gets me off I really don't care."

"Hey guys."

"Hey Shin-man. So where's the devil girl?"

Kensuke got knocked off his desk and onto the floor by a bookbag. Hikari had a furious face on.

"Don't you dare call Asuka that!" she yelled, "or you're going to get worse!"

"All right class rep. Jeez. You didn't have to hit so hard."

"In my opinion, she should have hit harder."

Asuka walked into the classroom and glared at Kensuke. He eyed her nervously, unable to avert his gaze.

"Now, what did you say?"

"Nothing."

"Good. Maybe you should always keep quiet."

Asuka hugged Shinji and took her seat with Rei behind her. Kensuke stared at Rei but Shinji shot him a warning glance. He sighed and turned back to leaning back in his chair. Misato came in and class started.

"Stand, bow, sit."

"All right class, I hope you all finished your homework cause you're all turning it in today."

A huge pile of paper appeared on everyone's desk. Misato ignored them and wrote on the board the assignments they needed to have ready. Suddenly the classroom door opened and with a man standing in the doorway.

"You!" Misato screamed.

"Hey Katsuragi. Long time no see."

Misato screamed and tried to back away.

"What are you doing here!"

"Is this any way to greet an old friend?" Kaji said as he walked into the classroom. "Hey class. How's Misato been treating you? Never expected her to become a teacher."

"Kaji! I have a class! You shouldn't be here!"

"Well, I just wanted to get to know an old friend and new neighbor."

At that point Misato fainted. Kaji walked over and picked her up and placed her in her chair.

"Hey class. So is she always like this?"

"Hardly," a student said, "Who are you?"

"I'm her ex-boyfriend. I guess she didn't take it very well, me showing up that is."

The class broke out in laughter. They had never seen their teacher react this way. She usually was calm and composed, though she did have a funny sense of humor. Kaji sat on the desk in front on an unconscious Misato.

"Well, I guess I'll have to stay here until she wakes up. So, anyone want to hear some funny stories?"

The class cheered and Kaji went on to tell of the time Misato got drunk and thought a statue was some famous actor. This was not going to be an ordinary day.



"Dr. Akagi?"

"Yes?"

"Umm, I think I found the computer code."

Ritsuko walked over to Maya and looked over her shoulder at the monitor. Lines of strange symbols sped down, though two symbols kept repeating.

Maya typed in a few commands and the computer displayed the two repeating symbols in two windows over the code.

"Aren't these two the numbers in their math system?" Maya asked.

"Yes, they are. Now, what is this one here?"

Ritsuko entered a search command but the computer came up with nothing."

"Huh. Well, we have a new mystery to solve. Get Shigeru and Makoto to help you out if you need it. I need to finish up this report and I'll come back and see what you've found."

"Yes ma'am."

Maya called over the two men and they took the two consoles next to her. All brought up the code she had pulled and began searching for matches for the non-repeating symbols. They spent several minutes searching all known data archives but found nothing.

"Why can't we find anything?" Maya said in frustration.

"These are alien," said Shigeru, "I really don't think we can could figure out something like this so easily."

Kaji suddenly appeared in the office.

"Mr. Ryoji!" Maya said in surprise, "You shouldn't be in here."

"I am chief of security," Kaji replied with a grin, "I can know what I am guarding."

He walked over and looked at the screen.

"Hmm. Can you enlarge that one?"

Maya did so and Kaji looked at it thoughtfully.

"Kind of reminds me of Orion."

"Excuse me?"

"Orion the Hunter. The constellation."

Maya gasped. "That's it! Check for constellations! I'm sorry Mr. Ryoji, but we have work to do."

She gently pushed Kaji out the door before he could say a word and closed it.

"Help a girl and she pushes you out," he muttered with a smile, "Kind of like Misato sometimes."

The thoughts of what had happened when Misato woke up made his smile grow. It was rather hysterical and the class certainly got good entertainment out of it. He sighed and headed back towards his office.



"Anything?" Maya asked after a few more minutes had passed.

"I can't find anything," said Makoto, "That symbol might match Orion but the others don't match any constellation I can find."

"Try old astrological symbols then," said Maya, "I'm going to take a look at the pattern in the code."

She opened another window to type her notes in and started looking at the symbols. Between every two unknowns there were six of the binary numbers. This pattern always repeated itself over and over again. She tried to use the binary system that Earth computers used to calculate the numbers' values but came up blank. She then tried several other codes but they all failed as well. Just then the door opened again.

"Mr. Ryoji, I thought I told you we were working," Maya said absentmindedly.

"Did Kaji bother you?"

Maya jumped and spun her chair around.

"Dr. Akagi! I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Kaji always tries to hit on other women. If he ever wants to win back Misato that's something he'll have to stop doing."

"You seem to know Mr. Ryoji well."

"He and I were friends in college, though he went to work for the Japanese embassy in Germany. So what have you found?"

"Well, Mr. Ryoji wasn't completely unhelpful. He recognized this symbol as the constellation Orion."

Maya pointed to the symbol currently in a third window on her monitor.

"We checked for other matches with constellations but we couldn't find anything," Shigeru added.

"Try rotating some of the star patterns," Ritsuko suggested, "This is an alien ship and it's been to a lot of places. That might help."

The two men nodded and started another search. This time they had to modify parts of the search program to change the positions of the constellations.

"Maya, what else did you find?"

"Well, between every two of these symbols, there are six binary symbols. I don't know exactly what they mean but so far I haven't found one repeating sequence."

"Maybe it's not computer code," said Ritsuko, "It looks more like data. We'll have to run some more checks on it though."

"Yes ma'am."



Misato was still fuming over Kaji visiting her. He had embarrassed her in front of the entire class and the worst thing was she was actually glad to see him. Well, he would learn his lesson the harsh way. She finished eating her lunch and walked back to the classroom. The kids were also going to learn not to ever laugh at her like that again unless she let them. How much homework would she assign tonight?

"Misato, some guy left a message for you this morning."

A vein popped in Misato's head. She was pretty sure which guy it was. She took the note and thanked the secretary.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed.

Everyone in the office turned their heads and looked at Misato. Her face turned beet red and she ran out of the office.

"I am going to kill you for this Kaji," Misato muttered to herself.



"Shinji, what are your plans for the weekend?" Asuka asked.

"My family isn't doing anything that I know of."

"Okay," said Asuka, "Well, want to come with me and Hikari to that new game corner?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Hey! Why didn't you tell me you were going to a game corner this weekend!" Toji demanded.

"Asuka just wanted it to be the three of us," Hikari confessed, "Sorry Toji, but we already made plans."

"Well, maybe next time."

"So how did the meeting with the principal go?" Hikari asked.

"Very well. The guy nearly pissed in his pants when he realized I knew who had really done it. Of course, since he doesn't want to lose his job or have his salary cut he let me off the hook."

A black sports car suddenly pulled up and an American got out. The man had very dark brown hair, almost black, and was wearing sunglasses. He also had a suit on. He walked into the building and came out a few minutes later with Kaji behind him. They got back into the car and left.

"I wonder who that man was," Asuka said.

"Probably someone that works with Kaji," Shinji suggested, "We'd better finish eating our lunches. Class will start soon."



"So what's the big rush?" Kaji asked.

"Seele is starting to suspect someone they thought they could trust."

"No big surprise. So how did my cover get blown?"

"Not you. Someone else."

"Gendo?"

"Correct. It seems he overstepped in a few places. Seele will require that you give them a report on his reliability. Others in MATRIX will also be sending in their reports."

"So what exactly am I supposed to do?" Kaji asked.

"Nothing for now. Write an honest report, or as honest as you can manage. We will take care of it from there."

The man kept driving until they reached the entrance to MATRIX. He let Kaji off there and left. Kaji passed through the security checkpoint without any trouble and went back to his office. He found a pile of paperwork waiting for him.

"A life behind the desk," he said to himself with amusement, "Not as exciting as working in Berlin, but far safer. For now."



The American drove to the airport and parked his car inside a large military transport. He then got off and boarded another plane, an air force passenger plane. There were five security officers on the plane though what they could do if a fighter attacked them he did not know. The man took out his pistol and unloaded it. He then set the weapon and ammo on a tray and the attendant took it away. Another attendant came up to him carrying another tray with a strange looking weapon on it. It was the size of a large pistol but was more fluid. It also had what looked like a laser pointer on it. The man picked it up and holstered it in the inside of his suit. He took his seat and the plane lifted off for Area 51.



"Dr. Akagi! We found something!"

Ritsuko looked up from her computer and saw Makoto standing across the room waving excitably.

"I'm on my way," she said.

She followed Makoto to the elevator and they took it all the way down to the hanger. When they came out dozens of engineers and scientists were running around. Workers were also running towards the ship. Ritsuko and Makoto put on helmets and turned on the flashlights strapped on them. They were escorted by several workers and researchers as they entered the alien ship. Two scientists guided them through the ship and brought them into a massive chamber. The chamber was completely white and there were eighteen tubes on one of the walls. Inside each one of them there were embryos of strange creatures, all of them no larger than a half-dollar coin. Ritsuko looked at the creatures closely.

"Are they alive?" she asked.

One of the scientists pressed a key on a panel on the wall and consoles rose from under the floor for all of the tubes.

"We think this displays the vital signs of these creatures," the scientist said, "though which is which we have no idea."

"It is as if they are in stasis," another scientist added, "though we don't know if something was in the eighteenth tube but escaped."

"That is not a happy thought," Ritsuko said, "I want this chamber under guard at all times. No one may come in or out without my permission. This is too important a discovery to let just anyone who wants to see it come in. Understood?"

Everyone around her nodded.

"Good. Dr. Matsu, put together a team to study them but don't disturb anything."

"Yes ma'am."

"The rest of you, get back to work. We have other things that need studying besides these aliens.

The other scientists quickly dispersed though Matsu caught a few of them. Ritsuko took one last look at the aliens before leaving the chamber as well. This might be the most exciting of the discoveries, but time would tell if it was the most important. She returned to her office and kept looking through the data that Maya had found. That young woman was very good at finding things and would be a very valuable part of MATRIX soon.



The American was sleeping on the airplane when an attendant woke him up. He took the phone she was holding out and smiled at her.

"Yes?"

"How did it go?"

"I hope this is a secure channel," he replied.

"We're using the Uniplex code."

The man wasn't that impressed. However, even the Magi computers had trouble breaking through the Uniplex code. It was safe enough.

"He understands his instructions. He'll carry them out."

"Are you sure this meeting was necessary?"

"I'm paid to do my work Mr. President. I don't just request something like this on a whim. MATRIX is up to something and I intend to find out and if I must, stop them."

"Very well. Have a nice flight."

"Thank you Mr. President. Goodnight."

The president hung up and the man gave the phone back to the attendant. He closed his eyes again and tried to get some more sleep. Even on the new Concorde planes, it was still a long flight in his opinion.



Shinji and Asuka were out in the park on another date. They had dinner at a cheap restaurant that actually had pretty good food. According to Asuka, her father had left for Germany in the morning so Shinji had nothing to worry about. They sat on the bench and watched the sunset.

"It's rather romantic," Asuka said, "though I don't even know how many times we've seen it."

"Well, it's more practical than watching a sunrise," Shinji joked.

"I am never going to get up early enough to see that," said Asuka, "This girl likes to sleep in."

"I think Ms Katsuragi would have given us even more homework had Kensuke not given her that man's address."

"I wonder what she's going to do with it?" Asuka said out loud, "It ought to be pretty funny."

"We'll know she did someone the day she comes in acting all smug and full of herself."

"How true my Shinji-baka."

"Am I ever wrong, my Asuka-chan?"

Asuka giggled and kissed Shinji again. It felt nice snuggling up to him.

"Come on, we have go get home."

Asuka groaned but let Shinji pick her up. She held his arm as the two walked back to the apartment. She kissed him goodbye one more time before going into her apartment. Shinji looked at her door for a few seconds before returning to his.

"Welcome back," Yui greeted her son, "How was the date?"

"It was fine."

"You know, when the two of you first met each other, both Kyoko and I knew that you two would end up together."

"So who do you think Rei will end up with?" Shinji asked with a grin.

"I don't know. Rei certainly has attracted a lot of looks from a lot of the boys at your school, but she isn't interested in any of them."

Shinji yawned. "I'm going to take a shower and go to bed."

"Goodnight Shinji."

"Goodnight Mom."



The plane landed on the airstrip. The man disembarked and was greeted by two colonels.

"Lieutenant-General James Walker," one said.

"That's me."

"Please come with us. Our scientists think they've found something."

James followed the two into Hanger 18 and took an elevator down. It stopped and they got out. They walked down a long corridor and entered a large chamber with eight special forces operatives guarding it. The large door at the end had NERV written on it and the guards all had a red leaf on their shoulders. The two colonels walked to two separate consoles and inserted their keys. They entered a code and turned the keys at the same time. The doors opened and James walked in with the officers behind him. He placed his hand on a scanner and a laser read his palm print. He then took a retinal scan and the next set of doors opened. They then entered the National Ecumenical Research Vatic. A scientist immediately ran up to them.

"General, colonels, this way."

He led them through the corridors and stopped in front of the entrance to the observation deck. He entered a code and the doors opened. The four walked in and looked down on the laboratory. James looked down on the examination table. He walked over to a console and entered several commands. The cameras zoomed in on the girl lying on the table. She looked to be of fourteen years of age and had long brown hair. Her eyes were closed but a file had already been gathered on her and the color was red.

"Two days ago she was an embryo," the scientist suddenly said.

James' head snapped around and he looked at the scientist. He then looked at the girl again.

"I assume you're referring to the embryo we retrieved from Antarctica."

"Yes sir."

"Keep me informed."

James turned off the console and left with the two colonels. This was going to be a very interesting assignment.

End of Chapter 2

Misato: You cannot leave us hanging like this!

Me: I'm the author, I do what I like.

Misato: At least make it so that I actually work for MATRIX or NERV!

Me: The closest I can do in the near future is have you start dating Kaji again.

Misato: Is there any way around that?

Me: It's going to happen sooner or later.

Misato: Make it later.

Me: Okay, you're just giving yourself more grief.

Z98