Chapter Eighteen

The shuttle had landed on the launch platform. Relena had tried, during the entire trip, to convince Mr Valliant that the Terraforming Project did not need these kind of desperate actions, that if they released her, she would keep fighting to give more funds to Mars but peacefully. She begged them not to attack the colonies.

Unfortunately for her, they would not listen to her reasons, she felt incredibly frustrated and also very scared. As soon as they landed Relena saw by the shuttle the last person she would have expected: Dr J. He was there with another guy with messy blonde hair that introduced himself as Dr Pieter van der Veert. His name was awfully familiar to Relena but she could not remember where from exactly.

As it was obvious to Mr Valliant that Relena was not going to cooperate, ordered the guards to take her into custody. Mr Valliant then left with Mr Taylor, Mr Lacroix and the two doctors.

Relena was taken to a room. They locked the door behind her and left her there sitting on a narrow bed. It was only then that she realised she had not eaten anything for the last twenty four hours. She was absolutely starving. She also needed a drink of water and a bathroom…

This kind of treatment would had been outrageous had it not been because there were bigger things at stake than her own health. But still, she needed some food fast. She was already feeling faint and she was sure this was not good for the baby.

"Hey! Is anybody there? I need to go to the bathroom!" Relena shouted. Then waited for a while. No reply. She was on her own. She tried again louder. Nothing. She decided then to just lay on the bed and wait to see if anyone came, for the time being she just had to ignore her needs…

Instead she started thinking where she had heard the name Pieter van der Veert. After a while, it came up, he was one of the genetic engineers that had cooperated with the training Heero had gone through. She had read it on some confidential files about Heero that she had requested to see as a special favour. Therefore, if he was there, it could only mean that Heero was also in this base. Then she remembered Mr Taylor's words: 'if anything else fails, she will be the perfect test for our perfect soldier…'. Relena realised what all of this meant. They wanted Heero to kill her!

Meanwhile Mr Valliant was about to make his announcement. He had prepared an statement and had requested some time to the worldwide TV channel.

"This is a message for the people from ESUN. I wish to declare that I have taken Relena Darlian-Peacecraft as a prisoner, unless 50 of the ESUN's resources are immediately allocated to the Terraforming Project of Mars, she will have to die. In case this is not a powerful enough reason, then the colonies will be crashed against the red planet. My team of scientists have invented a device that creates an artificially generated gravitational field in Mars. This device can be enhanced so much that all the colonies orbiting at the LaGrange point will be attracted to the Mars' surface. You have twenty four hours to take the decision. It is up to you representatives of ESUN to decide the fate of both the Vice Foreign Minister and, of course, the colonies"

Mr Valliant smiled. He was satisfied with the way the plan was going. Little he knew his luck was about to run out.

At the same time that his speech was being aired, Milliardo, Duo, Quatre and Trowa had arrived on the surface immediately above the secret base. Wufei was already there. He had decided to ignore Sally's command and had jumped off their shuttle to be there waiting for the guys. He thought that, since he had made the discovery, he deserved to be part of the action…

All five men discussed what was the best plan. Milliardo decided that the best option was to separate in three different groups: Quatre and Trowa would go and find the so-called gravitational device and would have to disconnect it. Wufei and Duo had to find Mr Valliant, much to the disappointment of both since one, Wufei, preferred to work alone, Duo did not want to be with a guy whose dark and humourless personality could only compete with Heero's. Milliardo would try to find his sister and, regretfully, he would also look out for Heero. They were all armed but the plan was not to kill anyone unless they found themselves in a life threatening situation.

After a while they finally found a way in. There was a small door carved in the mountain where the base was. Duo, using his well known ability to sneak in anywhere, forced the entrance hoping that the room would have a pressurization unit so they would not mess up with the environment inside the base. Thankfully the room itself was only an outside room. There was another door in front of them challenging Duo's skills yet again.

As soon as they were inside the designated groups separated to try to fulfil their mission as soon as possible and, as Duo put it, 'get the hell out of there'.