Hi, this is my first GW fic. I hope you like it. The prologue is a bit long, but it basically
tells what's going on with everyone. The plot is tied to Wufei at first, just thought you should
know.
Thank for reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Under Pressure
Prologue
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Here are the papers you asked for, minister."
"Yes, thank you." Relena took the documents held out to her.
When the clerk had closed the door behind him, she sighed. 'I wish we wouldn't need all
this bureaucracy. It's enough to drive someone insane. If I wouldn't have to file every document
sevenfold with my personal signature on it, I'd have more time for the real issues.' She grinned.
'And more time for myself. I haven't slept one good night for the last week and that headache has
been plaguing me for days. When are people going to learn that when you live on the other side of
the earth night and day are reversed?'
She shook her head with a pained expression and began flicking through the papers, pulling
out a few documents. As she read them the door of her office opened and a middle aged woman came
in.
"Yes, Anna?"
"I brought today's mail, minister. And don't forget your lunch appointment with the president
of Brazil," the woman said. She placed a small pile of envelopes varying in size on Relena's desk.
"Thank you, I won't forget." Relena dismissed her with a smile and a nod.
"Like I would forget that guy," she murmured when her secretary had closed the door. She put
the papers aside and began sorting the mail. "President Biracky? What now?" She opened the letter.
It read:
Honored foreign minister Darlian,
After long consideration we have come to the conclusion we can not accept your offer
of joining the new Earth Covenant. Given the past we have no faith in an new alliance
of al the nations on earth. Consequently we will not send a representative to the
Senate. We thank you for your offer.
Yours faithfully,
blabla.
"Great," Relena moaned. "Another country who has turned us down. If this goes on the Covenant
will have no more than ten members. That's not much of an Earth Covenant." Still the refusal of all
those countries was understandable. In the past many nations put faith in the Earth Sphere Alliance
and after that OZ and Romafeller. They only brought war and destruction, including to Relena's
fatherland, the Cinq kingdom, where in the former royal palace she had setteld her office. Naturally
they were now suspicious of a new organization popping up, promoting peace and happiness for everyone.
And with even Relena Darlian in charge of the negotiations and candidate to be the head of the Senate,
government still refused to join. There was nothing to be done about it. Forcing nations to join would
violate everything the Covenant claimed to stand for.
Relena leaned back in her chair, her thoughts drifting. 'I could really use Heero right now. If
only he was here, just for a moment. He always gives me the strength to go on, even when I think I'm
about to collapse. His presence is like a drug.' She smiled rather slyly. And drugs are addictive. 'Oh,
wake up, Relena. Heero's not here right now. You're on your own. I wonder how he's doing? He has his
work cut out for him, bringing old and abandoned mining facilities in space back online. At least it'll
keep him busy, a little to busy to my taste.'
With a sigh she pulled herself back to reality, back to the paperwork spread before her. Two more
countries refused to join, while another asked when they can send their Senator. The enthusiasm displayed
in the letter made her smile. At least some people are optimistic.
~~~~~~
"Everyone stand back! It's about to blow!" Heero wiped the sweat of his face as he backed away.
A few seconds later the tunnels echoed with the sound of an explosion. The noise died away leaving the
workmen with their ears ringing, covered in dust.
"Nice and dirty work, huh Heero?" the man next to him, Anton, grunted.
"Yeah, remind me to tell Quatre he should install more showers in the barracks."
Anton just grinned, causing cracks in the dirt that has already dried on his face. Heero supposed
he didn't look much different after eight days in the tunnels of the mining asteroid, clearing caved
tunnels so the miners could reach the ore veins again. Five years after the war between the earth and
space ended, the rebuilding of both the earth and the colonies only just began. It's strange how
resilient humans are. Even the conflict caused by Mariemeia barely interfered with the rebuilding
of peoples homes. Heero shook his head. Even war could not completely numb people. 'At first I couldn't
believe it, so Quatre told me to come see it with my own eyes. He was right. Every colony is buzzing with
activity, working hard to rebuild what has been destroyed. Maybe it's also a way of forgetting the horrors
of the war. If you can no longer see what they caused, they seem further away.'
"Hey, come on, dreamer. We've got another pile of rocks to clear out." Anton nudged him forward.
Heero rested his shovel on his shoulder and walked towards the new hole made by the explosives.
"Honestly," Anton said "I'm seriously beginning to think you left your brains somewhere far away,
if you ever had them, that is."
Somewhere far away. That were where everyone was, right now. Quatre was busy keeping his father's
business together and looking after his sisters. This mining facility was one of the many in the hands of
the Winner family. Trowa was at the circus again and whether he was on Earth or at one of the colonies,
Heero didn't know. Duo could be anywhere and asking for Wufei's whereabouts was absolutely pointless.
Maybe he was searching for survivors of his native colony.
Only Relena was easy to keep track of. Every move of that woman was recorded by television stations
and newspaper reporters. She was desperately trying to build some kind of overall organization to unite the
earth and perhaps even space with it. Unfortunately not many people supported her ideas, no matter how admired
she was. Amazing how fast people could change in politics. 'They're probably just more cautious and who can
blame them? The last few years haven't been easy and people would much rather just cling on to what they have
instead of investing in something that could blow up in their faces. They don't want history to repeat itself.
But is it then so wrong what Relena is trying to accomplish? If people shut themselves away from each other,
wouldn't that just arouse more suspicion? I don't know, but that makes sense. In that new Covenant of hers
not much can remain hidden. Do al those countries refusing to join have something to hide, or am I being
paranoid? Maybe I don't want to know.' Heero grabbed his shovel with both hands and started adding his own
dust to the clouds hanging in the air.
~~~~~~
Two hands shook Duo awake rather roughly.
"Wake up Duo, or you'll be late again!" Hilde voice slowly penetrated his fuzzy brain. "Honestly, I
don't know how you do it! You can sleep twenty four hours and I'd still have trouble waking you!"
Moaning Duo worked himself upright, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Yeah well, I guess I'm trying
to make up for the lack of sleep I've had up until a few years ago."
"No you're not. You're just lazy," retorted Hilde. "Now, get up, of you're gonna have to find yourself
another job, again."
Muttering angrily under his breath he climbed out of bed. As soon as he stood on his feet, he was shoved
into the bathroom.
"I want to see you dressed in five minutes," she ordered him, and she slammed the door shut.
"I want to see you dressed in five minutes," Duo mimicked her. "Sheesh, it's not like we're still in
the army or something. Oh man, that's the last towel. What happened to the laundry?" He snatched the last clean
towel out of the closet. "Great, don't tell me the launderette is on strike!"
"Come on, Duo! Hurry up!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming! Don't get so worked up!" He quickly put on his clothes and ran out of the
bathroom.
Hilde immediately pressed a package in his hands. "Here, lunch. Now, hurry!"
"But... but what about breakfast?" he spluttered
"No time." She shoved a sandwich between his teeth, smothering all other protests. "Go, I'll see you
later."
"This is just great," Duo muttered. "I'm not used to a daily job. I was a soldier. I slept when I had
the chance. Since I don't have to fight anymore I sleep all the time. That's not a pattern easily broken. Hm,
good sandwich." He ran through the streets of the colony, to the pit where a new complex was being build. This
colony was one of the many where buildings were destroyed. The damage needed repairing. That attracted many
people, mainly from former military organizations. The soldiers had nothing to do now the war was over, and
chances on a new war grew very slim. 'Thank god, they have. I may be the God of Death, I'm glad I'm out of
commission. I was just hoping for a more quiet life. This running around, hurrying to get in time for my shift,
isn't exactly what I had in mind for the time after the war, the time of peace. Maybe in my mind I glorified
peace to much. I guess because in war I had to work my ass of, constantly saving everybody else, I thought
that in peacetime I'd have it easy going. I guess I was wrong. Oh well, I'll get used to it. It is kinda
nice, leading a normal life.'
"Well, you're in luck Maxwell, you're just in time. You're on the second team, so get yourself in gear."
"Sure thing, boss." Duo ran of to where the rest of his team was waiting to be brought to the top of the
building they were working on.
The supervisor of the structure site watched him go. "That guy spends his enthusiasm on the wrong thing.
Pity. Hey, you were are you going with those beams?" he shouted, startling the man driving the fork lift. "I
thought I told you to load them on the truck!" Grumbling the man stalked of.
~~~~~~
People applauded enthusiastically when the act ended. Catherine waved at the audience as she left the
arena. Trowa leaned against the lion cage. "Another huge success, I take it?"
She smiled. "Yes, but it was easier when you were still standing against that board. At least I could
be sure you wouldn't move."
"I know, but we needed a new lion tamer, and I was already available." He turned around and patted the
lion on the head through the bars. The lion purred loudly. Catherine looked on.
"How you do it, I don't know, but you're amazing with the wild animals. Your act is really the best of
our show."
Trowa didn't respond to that. 'It just happens, naturally. I like the animals and they know that, so they
don't hurt me. He sighed.
"What's wrong, Trowa?" Catherine asked. "Don't tell you're nervous. You're never nervous, even when it
would be the lions throwing knives at you."
He laughed. "I wouldn't say that. You might give some people the wrong ideas."
"I doubt it." He smiled at her.
"Hey, Trowa. I heard you got a promotion." A man blocked the light, standing at the entrance of the tent.
"Quatre. I didn't know you were on this colony."
Quatre stepped in the tent. "I'm traveling along many colonies for business."
"I heard about it."
Catherine smiled. "I'll leave you two to each other. Nice seeing you again Quatre."
"Nice seeing you too, Catherine."
As she left Quatre turned back to Trowa. "Things haven't been easy. The Winner company is now pretty much
the only company in space capable of making money, because it's so big and uses so many different resources. We're
currently also recovering all the mining asteroids. We have a couple on line now, and more to come in the next few
months. I'm trying to attract investors. The problem is, not many people still have confidence in anything that is
not from their colony. The Alliance cut the colonies away from each other. Then OZ reestablished communication. The
White Fang even united a part of the colonies for one common cause. And now that there are no imminent threats the
colonies are simply to scared to connect again. They prefer living in isolation, because they're afraid of creating
another all-powerful and dominating force like the Alliance or Romafeller that will only want to control them."
Trowa shook his head. "But isolation will arouse suspicion, leading to tension and eventually conflict."
Quatre sighed and set down to next him. "I know. It's a difficult situation. Both isolation and unison have
their downsides. It's hard to choose, but in the near future isolation holds the least danger."
"But a few generations from now, it will prove to lead to conflict, while a unison of governments, provided
it is controlled by several legislations, can serve as a peacekeeper."
"The Alliance was originally founded to be such a peacekeeper, but instead they became domineers."
"That was because they had weapons. Remember OZ was the military force of the Alliance. While the leaders of
the Alliance were talking on disarming, OZ wanted to control by using weaponry. Now weapons are banned, so the only
way for the Covenant to act as peacekeepers is by negotiations."
Quatre leaned back against the bars of the cage. "I'm afraid our current status is like a timebom. It can't
last forever. One day something will happen that will bring this situation out of control. Already people are
grumbling. Some protest about founding that Covenant, others say nations that don't join it, are undermining the
peace. Relena is desperately trying to tell people that joining the Covenant is not an obligation. It is from choice.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be decided now. It can wait. There's no deadline to it. Long before the colonies
even existed, there were several organizations on earth where numerous countries served on. Even long after they were
founded nations were still able to join."
Trowa shook his head. "They know that. I don't think it's the joining that troubles people so much. When a
situation similar to what we had the time of the Alliance occurs, they're afraid they cannot maintain neutrality.
They don't want to be caught in a maelstrom caused by others."
Quatre just nodded silently. They sat there for a while. The lion stared at their backs, lying quietly on
the floor of his cage. Trowa pondered on their conversation. It was true that the nations were reluctant towards
the new Covenant. They didn't see how it could be different, they only saw it's similarities with the Alliance and
Romafeller. Perhaps Relena had been to soon with presenting here plans two years back, but on the other hand. If she
had waited until the memories of the past had faded away, the nations and the colonies could have become to isolated
for any chance of success.
"We'll just have to wait and see, Quatre. Who knows, maybe Relena still has something up here sleeve. Even
the nations that don't want to join the Covenant, still trust her. Maybe if she is elected es leader of the Senate,
more government will consent."
The other man sighed. "Either way, I have a business to run and tonight I have a meeting over dinner with
a few prominents from this colony." He got up.
Trowa followed. "How long will you be here?"
"I don't know. The day after tomorrow I have to be on some other colony, but something might interfere with
those plans. I'll see if I still have to meet you again."He smiled sadly. "My company is taking so much of my time,
I can't even have a decent conversation with an old friend."
"I know. Life is hard, even without war. Take care Quatre."
"You too." Quatre left. Trowa stared at the empty space his friend just occupied. 'Quatre seems tired. He takes
on to much. I have rarely seen him more beaten than just now. I wonder how the others are doing.'
~~~~~~
The tops of Himalaya's were covered in snow all year. Icy winds swept across the high plains of Tibet. A lone
traveler stubbornly fought against the air currents. Dispite the cold the man didn't bother to button his coat. Neither
did he stop to admire the scenery or even reorientate himself. He traveled west in a straight line.
The words of the scientist still echoed in his mind. "We didn't know what caused it, but the energy readings we
recieved were sky high. We wanted to find out where they came from. From the research centre we couldn't be more specific
then somewhere in the western parts of Tibet. In order to find out more we went there. The closer we got, the clearer the
signal became. Finally we were able to pinpoint it's exact location. It turned out to be underground. How far we don't
know. Something happened before we could get into that. I still don't know how te describe it. Maybe it was part of the
security system of whatever we had found. In that case it was very effective. Only four of the fifty teammembers survived.
That was eleven years ago. Now, I don't understand why you're boss sent out such a young man, even though you were once one
of those Gundam pilots. If I were you I'd refuse this assignment. I say it's suicide."
'Can't say that ever scared me.' Since three years Wufei had worked as a freelancer taking on all kinds of jobs. Those
had taken him all around the world. This time he followed an eleven year old trace to the western border of Tibet. 'I wonder
if it's really as terrible as that guy said it was. People have a tendency to exaggarate dangers they've been in, to compensate
their own cowardness. It still a long way, but I'll get there. Two weeks from now, I'll see what that thing is.'
tells what's going on with everyone. The plot is tied to Wufei at first, just thought you should
know.
Thank for reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Under Pressure
Prologue
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Here are the papers you asked for, minister."
"Yes, thank you." Relena took the documents held out to her.
When the clerk had closed the door behind him, she sighed. 'I wish we wouldn't need all
this bureaucracy. It's enough to drive someone insane. If I wouldn't have to file every document
sevenfold with my personal signature on it, I'd have more time for the real issues.' She grinned.
'And more time for myself. I haven't slept one good night for the last week and that headache has
been plaguing me for days. When are people going to learn that when you live on the other side of
the earth night and day are reversed?'
She shook her head with a pained expression and began flicking through the papers, pulling
out a few documents. As she read them the door of her office opened and a middle aged woman came
in.
"Yes, Anna?"
"I brought today's mail, minister. And don't forget your lunch appointment with the president
of Brazil," the woman said. She placed a small pile of envelopes varying in size on Relena's desk.
"Thank you, I won't forget." Relena dismissed her with a smile and a nod.
"Like I would forget that guy," she murmured when her secretary had closed the door. She put
the papers aside and began sorting the mail. "President Biracky? What now?" She opened the letter.
It read:
Honored foreign minister Darlian,
After long consideration we have come to the conclusion we can not accept your offer
of joining the new Earth Covenant. Given the past we have no faith in an new alliance
of al the nations on earth. Consequently we will not send a representative to the
Senate. We thank you for your offer.
Yours faithfully,
blabla.
"Great," Relena moaned. "Another country who has turned us down. If this goes on the Covenant
will have no more than ten members. That's not much of an Earth Covenant." Still the refusal of all
those countries was understandable. In the past many nations put faith in the Earth Sphere Alliance
and after that OZ and Romafeller. They only brought war and destruction, including to Relena's
fatherland, the Cinq kingdom, where in the former royal palace she had setteld her office. Naturally
they were now suspicious of a new organization popping up, promoting peace and happiness for everyone.
And with even Relena Darlian in charge of the negotiations and candidate to be the head of the Senate,
government still refused to join. There was nothing to be done about it. Forcing nations to join would
violate everything the Covenant claimed to stand for.
Relena leaned back in her chair, her thoughts drifting. 'I could really use Heero right now. If
only he was here, just for a moment. He always gives me the strength to go on, even when I think I'm
about to collapse. His presence is like a drug.' She smiled rather slyly. And drugs are addictive. 'Oh,
wake up, Relena. Heero's not here right now. You're on your own. I wonder how he's doing? He has his
work cut out for him, bringing old and abandoned mining facilities in space back online. At least it'll
keep him busy, a little to busy to my taste.'
With a sigh she pulled herself back to reality, back to the paperwork spread before her. Two more
countries refused to join, while another asked when they can send their Senator. The enthusiasm displayed
in the letter made her smile. At least some people are optimistic.
~~~~~~
"Everyone stand back! It's about to blow!" Heero wiped the sweat of his face as he backed away.
A few seconds later the tunnels echoed with the sound of an explosion. The noise died away leaving the
workmen with their ears ringing, covered in dust.
"Nice and dirty work, huh Heero?" the man next to him, Anton, grunted.
"Yeah, remind me to tell Quatre he should install more showers in the barracks."
Anton just grinned, causing cracks in the dirt that has already dried on his face. Heero supposed
he didn't look much different after eight days in the tunnels of the mining asteroid, clearing caved
tunnels so the miners could reach the ore veins again. Five years after the war between the earth and
space ended, the rebuilding of both the earth and the colonies only just began. It's strange how
resilient humans are. Even the conflict caused by Mariemeia barely interfered with the rebuilding
of peoples homes. Heero shook his head. Even war could not completely numb people. 'At first I couldn't
believe it, so Quatre told me to come see it with my own eyes. He was right. Every colony is buzzing with
activity, working hard to rebuild what has been destroyed. Maybe it's also a way of forgetting the horrors
of the war. If you can no longer see what they caused, they seem further away.'
"Hey, come on, dreamer. We've got another pile of rocks to clear out." Anton nudged him forward.
Heero rested his shovel on his shoulder and walked towards the new hole made by the explosives.
"Honestly," Anton said "I'm seriously beginning to think you left your brains somewhere far away,
if you ever had them, that is."
Somewhere far away. That were where everyone was, right now. Quatre was busy keeping his father's
business together and looking after his sisters. This mining facility was one of the many in the hands of
the Winner family. Trowa was at the circus again and whether he was on Earth or at one of the colonies,
Heero didn't know. Duo could be anywhere and asking for Wufei's whereabouts was absolutely pointless.
Maybe he was searching for survivors of his native colony.
Only Relena was easy to keep track of. Every move of that woman was recorded by television stations
and newspaper reporters. She was desperately trying to build some kind of overall organization to unite the
earth and perhaps even space with it. Unfortunately not many people supported her ideas, no matter how admired
she was. Amazing how fast people could change in politics. 'They're probably just more cautious and who can
blame them? The last few years haven't been easy and people would much rather just cling on to what they have
instead of investing in something that could blow up in their faces. They don't want history to repeat itself.
But is it then so wrong what Relena is trying to accomplish? If people shut themselves away from each other,
wouldn't that just arouse more suspicion? I don't know, but that makes sense. In that new Covenant of hers
not much can remain hidden. Do al those countries refusing to join have something to hide, or am I being
paranoid? Maybe I don't want to know.' Heero grabbed his shovel with both hands and started adding his own
dust to the clouds hanging in the air.
~~~~~~
Two hands shook Duo awake rather roughly.
"Wake up Duo, or you'll be late again!" Hilde voice slowly penetrated his fuzzy brain. "Honestly, I
don't know how you do it! You can sleep twenty four hours and I'd still have trouble waking you!"
Moaning Duo worked himself upright, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Yeah well, I guess I'm trying
to make up for the lack of sleep I've had up until a few years ago."
"No you're not. You're just lazy," retorted Hilde. "Now, get up, of you're gonna have to find yourself
another job, again."
Muttering angrily under his breath he climbed out of bed. As soon as he stood on his feet, he was shoved
into the bathroom.
"I want to see you dressed in five minutes," she ordered him, and she slammed the door shut.
"I want to see you dressed in five minutes," Duo mimicked her. "Sheesh, it's not like we're still in
the army or something. Oh man, that's the last towel. What happened to the laundry?" He snatched the last clean
towel out of the closet. "Great, don't tell me the launderette is on strike!"
"Come on, Duo! Hurry up!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming! Don't get so worked up!" He quickly put on his clothes and ran out of the
bathroom.
Hilde immediately pressed a package in his hands. "Here, lunch. Now, hurry!"
"But... but what about breakfast?" he spluttered
"No time." She shoved a sandwich between his teeth, smothering all other protests. "Go, I'll see you
later."
"This is just great," Duo muttered. "I'm not used to a daily job. I was a soldier. I slept when I had
the chance. Since I don't have to fight anymore I sleep all the time. That's not a pattern easily broken. Hm,
good sandwich." He ran through the streets of the colony, to the pit where a new complex was being build. This
colony was one of the many where buildings were destroyed. The damage needed repairing. That attracted many
people, mainly from former military organizations. The soldiers had nothing to do now the war was over, and
chances on a new war grew very slim. 'Thank god, they have. I may be the God of Death, I'm glad I'm out of
commission. I was just hoping for a more quiet life. This running around, hurrying to get in time for my shift,
isn't exactly what I had in mind for the time after the war, the time of peace. Maybe in my mind I glorified
peace to much. I guess because in war I had to work my ass of, constantly saving everybody else, I thought
that in peacetime I'd have it easy going. I guess I was wrong. Oh well, I'll get used to it. It is kinda
nice, leading a normal life.'
"Well, you're in luck Maxwell, you're just in time. You're on the second team, so get yourself in gear."
"Sure thing, boss." Duo ran of to where the rest of his team was waiting to be brought to the top of the
building they were working on.
The supervisor of the structure site watched him go. "That guy spends his enthusiasm on the wrong thing.
Pity. Hey, you were are you going with those beams?" he shouted, startling the man driving the fork lift. "I
thought I told you to load them on the truck!" Grumbling the man stalked of.
~~~~~~
People applauded enthusiastically when the act ended. Catherine waved at the audience as she left the
arena. Trowa leaned against the lion cage. "Another huge success, I take it?"
She smiled. "Yes, but it was easier when you were still standing against that board. At least I could
be sure you wouldn't move."
"I know, but we needed a new lion tamer, and I was already available." He turned around and patted the
lion on the head through the bars. The lion purred loudly. Catherine looked on.
"How you do it, I don't know, but you're amazing with the wild animals. Your act is really the best of
our show."
Trowa didn't respond to that. 'It just happens, naturally. I like the animals and they know that, so they
don't hurt me. He sighed.
"What's wrong, Trowa?" Catherine asked. "Don't tell you're nervous. You're never nervous, even when it
would be the lions throwing knives at you."
He laughed. "I wouldn't say that. You might give some people the wrong ideas."
"I doubt it." He smiled at her.
"Hey, Trowa. I heard you got a promotion." A man blocked the light, standing at the entrance of the tent.
"Quatre. I didn't know you were on this colony."
Quatre stepped in the tent. "I'm traveling along many colonies for business."
"I heard about it."
Catherine smiled. "I'll leave you two to each other. Nice seeing you again Quatre."
"Nice seeing you too, Catherine."
As she left Quatre turned back to Trowa. "Things haven't been easy. The Winner company is now pretty much
the only company in space capable of making money, because it's so big and uses so many different resources. We're
currently also recovering all the mining asteroids. We have a couple on line now, and more to come in the next few
months. I'm trying to attract investors. The problem is, not many people still have confidence in anything that is
not from their colony. The Alliance cut the colonies away from each other. Then OZ reestablished communication. The
White Fang even united a part of the colonies for one common cause. And now that there are no imminent threats the
colonies are simply to scared to connect again. They prefer living in isolation, because they're afraid of creating
another all-powerful and dominating force like the Alliance or Romafeller that will only want to control them."
Trowa shook his head. "But isolation will arouse suspicion, leading to tension and eventually conflict."
Quatre sighed and set down to next him. "I know. It's a difficult situation. Both isolation and unison have
their downsides. It's hard to choose, but in the near future isolation holds the least danger."
"But a few generations from now, it will prove to lead to conflict, while a unison of governments, provided
it is controlled by several legislations, can serve as a peacekeeper."
"The Alliance was originally founded to be such a peacekeeper, but instead they became domineers."
"That was because they had weapons. Remember OZ was the military force of the Alliance. While the leaders of
the Alliance were talking on disarming, OZ wanted to control by using weaponry. Now weapons are banned, so the only
way for the Covenant to act as peacekeepers is by negotiations."
Quatre leaned back against the bars of the cage. "I'm afraid our current status is like a timebom. It can't
last forever. One day something will happen that will bring this situation out of control. Already people are
grumbling. Some protest about founding that Covenant, others say nations that don't join it, are undermining the
peace. Relena is desperately trying to tell people that joining the Covenant is not an obligation. It is from choice.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be decided now. It can wait. There's no deadline to it. Long before the colonies
even existed, there were several organizations on earth where numerous countries served on. Even long after they were
founded nations were still able to join."
Trowa shook his head. "They know that. I don't think it's the joining that troubles people so much. When a
situation similar to what we had the time of the Alliance occurs, they're afraid they cannot maintain neutrality.
They don't want to be caught in a maelstrom caused by others."
Quatre just nodded silently. They sat there for a while. The lion stared at their backs, lying quietly on
the floor of his cage. Trowa pondered on their conversation. It was true that the nations were reluctant towards
the new Covenant. They didn't see how it could be different, they only saw it's similarities with the Alliance and
Romafeller. Perhaps Relena had been to soon with presenting here plans two years back, but on the other hand. If she
had waited until the memories of the past had faded away, the nations and the colonies could have become to isolated
for any chance of success.
"We'll just have to wait and see, Quatre. Who knows, maybe Relena still has something up here sleeve. Even
the nations that don't want to join the Covenant, still trust her. Maybe if she is elected es leader of the Senate,
more government will consent."
The other man sighed. "Either way, I have a business to run and tonight I have a meeting over dinner with
a few prominents from this colony." He got up.
Trowa followed. "How long will you be here?"
"I don't know. The day after tomorrow I have to be on some other colony, but something might interfere with
those plans. I'll see if I still have to meet you again."He smiled sadly. "My company is taking so much of my time,
I can't even have a decent conversation with an old friend."
"I know. Life is hard, even without war. Take care Quatre."
"You too." Quatre left. Trowa stared at the empty space his friend just occupied. 'Quatre seems tired. He takes
on to much. I have rarely seen him more beaten than just now. I wonder how the others are doing.'
~~~~~~
The tops of Himalaya's were covered in snow all year. Icy winds swept across the high plains of Tibet. A lone
traveler stubbornly fought against the air currents. Dispite the cold the man didn't bother to button his coat. Neither
did he stop to admire the scenery or even reorientate himself. He traveled west in a straight line.
The words of the scientist still echoed in his mind. "We didn't know what caused it, but the energy readings we
recieved were sky high. We wanted to find out where they came from. From the research centre we couldn't be more specific
then somewhere in the western parts of Tibet. In order to find out more we went there. The closer we got, the clearer the
signal became. Finally we were able to pinpoint it's exact location. It turned out to be underground. How far we don't
know. Something happened before we could get into that. I still don't know how te describe it. Maybe it was part of the
security system of whatever we had found. In that case it was very effective. Only four of the fifty teammembers survived.
That was eleven years ago. Now, I don't understand why you're boss sent out such a young man, even though you were once one
of those Gundam pilots. If I were you I'd refuse this assignment. I say it's suicide."
'Can't say that ever scared me.' Since three years Wufei had worked as a freelancer taking on all kinds of jobs. Those
had taken him all around the world. This time he followed an eleven year old trace to the western border of Tibet. 'I wonder
if it's really as terrible as that guy said it was. People have a tendency to exaggarate dangers they've been in, to compensate
their own cowardness. It still a long way, but I'll get there. Two weeks from now, I'll see what that thing is.'