Red Planet Interlude

"A person is only really alive when he is moving forward to something more." - Winfred Rhoades

-

The leading technician was a man only a few years older than Zechs and Noin, with a rangy, laid-back look to him, short dirty-blond hair, brown eyes and a toothpick in his mouth.

"Welcome to the legndary Mars," he said in a bored voice to the newcomers, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'm Grant, and you'll meet my partners later on. Come on, I'll show you the ropes."

Lucrezia was curious to the entire point of this venture, terra-forming the Red Planet. Setting up Mars to support life? The tourists were going to be thrilled. Citizens traveling to Mars as a summer vacation. Every science-fiction lover's dream.

She frowned up at the hundred-foot thick, semi-spherical, translucent steel membranes providing a livable environment, through which the stars were blurrily visible. The planet's true magneto-sphereless environment was killer compared to the moon, which was really just a rock circling Earth. Mars was an entire planet that had lost the ability to support life millions of years ago.

Her eyes fell to the large, long, roughly built structure inside the dome. It was similar to the Lunar Base at its beginning, having yet to be expanded for homesteaders. Most of it extended in tunnels and pathways underground beyond the dome.

Grant paused to say, "This is where you'll be living for the next year. It ain't much, but it's got the necessities. And a few gems we've added over the months."

"Hey, Grant, heads up!"

Lucrezia jumped, and Zechs started, too.

The voice came out of nowhere, followed by a figure swinging down from a cable extending from the uppermost part of the structure. Grant made a quick, smooth side-step out of the way, and the figure dropped into a flip, landing easily foot-first.

"Elle, would you quit being a screw-up?" Grant asked without the slightest irritation.

"But then I couldn't have fun with you." The woman straightened with a laugh, running a quick hand over her ruffled, shoulder-length brown hair. She was medium-height and trim, with sharp gray eyes and an obvious attitude.

Rolling his eyes, Grant bit into his toothpick, saying through his teeth, "Noin, Zechs, this is Ellisa, our lead architect. I prefer to call her 'that annoying bitch.'"

She enthusiastically flipped him off, then shook hands with both Zechs and Noin. "Forget he said that. Just call me Elle. Nice to meet you. Welcome to hell in space."

Lucrezia caught the way the corner of Zechs's mouth twitched with amusement, and decided she already liked Elle.

Maybe this terra-forming project would have a little more excitement than she'd thought. At least there were sane people to talk to now.

How very wrong she was.

-

Zechs had been wandering around the area, getting the lay of the land and memorizing ever twist and turn he needed to know. He and Noin would be specializing in shuttle missions, protecting the base from space raiders, technicians work, the occasional odd job, that sort of thing.

The terra-forming project won't be so difficult, he thought reasonably. And in a year, I'll be able to return to . . .

The thought trailed off. Return to what? What had he left to return to? Every event leading up to the destruction of Libra had prepared him for his eventual bloody and necessary death. From the moment he decided to give the world a war it would never, ever forget, he'd had no intention of surviving. There woudn't have been a point to his life.

Hell, there wasn't really a point now.

A year presumed dead. Some of it had been spent in a coma, recovering from injuries that he should have simply died from.

The probe had found him drifting in space, still in the remnants of the torn and defeated Epyon. His rescuers had been kind people, with a personal business of space salvaging, indifferent to his role in the war, and looking only to help a dying man.

Zechs paused at the very edge of the dome, where the stars could be seen more clearly and space was a warbly dark void.

It would have been so easy, then, to just give up and let himself die. No one would have blamed him. Most likely no one would mourn him, at least, not for long.

But there were two serious problems with those theories: First, he didn't deserve the easy way out. If he did, he'd be worse than a confused and worthless soldier; he'd be a coward. He couldn't be finished yet.

And second, someone would mourn him. Someone would care.

When he'd abruptly reappeared among the Preventers, he wasn't surprised that Noin's instincts had predicted his return. Her dusky violet eyes were unreadable that first time he saw her again. Something like happiness, anger, exasperation mixed with something indefinable had made her thoughts obscure to him. To this day, on the Red Planet, he didn't know exactly what she was thinking.

"I've waited all this time, Zechs. And I simply can't wait any longer."

Remembering those softly spoken words made him close his eyes and fiercely try to smother the confusion in his thoughts.

What had Noin really meant by those words? He'd replied, "Understood" with his usual unbreakable calm, but at that moment he hadn't understood. Or rather, he knew what she meant, but he hadn't known why.

It sounded almost like an ultimatum. She wouldn't wait any longer for him to . . . what?

Don't be a fool, Zechs, a quiet and mocking voice snapped at him. You know exactly what she wants from you. The question is, who can wait longer? Her to get it or you to give it? You'd better figure it out.

Shut up. Zechs crushed the whisper into the back of his mind. He hated that voice. It had seemed to calm slightly when he'd been more certain of his mission, but the Epyon had brought it back to life. The Epyon had done a lot of things. Zechs realized that he should have known better than to use anything wrought by Treize Khushrenada.

But then, he should have known better in a lot of situations.

"Zechs. Wing Zero tells me you have no future. What is the Epyon telling you?" Heero Yuy had once said.

The memory made Zechs laugh bitterly. Didn't Heero realize? Didn't he understand? The Epyon had been telling Zechs the exact same thing. He just hadn't cared any longer.

The past was the past.

And now he had no future.

The stretch of frozen red desert beyond the dome lay like his soul, tortured, unable to give or recieve life to anything, not even to himself.