Silence for the ordinary people is with the tongue, silence for the mystic is with the heart, and silence for the newtype is subduing the stray thoughts that come from their innermost beings.
- Zeon Zum Daikun

Chapter 20: Boundaries


- April 30, UC 0084 -
- 1940 hours (CST) -
The shuddering in the deck increased slightly as the ship passed through the massive airlock to Tycho City's space port, but a quick glance at the engineering panel on the side of the bridge reassured him. Minovksy power had been fluctuating ever since the ship first arrived on the moon, and with the almost 30 hour wait to load the last of the civilian ships into the port the limping Tarawa seemed eager to get to its resting place.

As soon as the Tarawa was fully inside, Naomi and Ryo glanced over the heads of the two helmsman at their stations and counted the number of ships waiting to greet them, "Those look like Federation vessels," Ryo muttered, a tiny note of anxiety slipping into his voice. "The Challenger and the Bounty."

Naomi nodded in agreement. "Captain Emeril did say the AEUG was sending a few ships to support... I'm just curious as to how they got their hands on a pair of brand-new cruisers?"

"Probably the same way they got their hands on the Tarawa." He waited for the gentle lurch as the Tarawa's landing pads touched the ground, then stood up from his chair and walked around to the rear of the sub bridge. "It's time we gave Captain Shiden a status report."

Naomi glanced back with a worried expression. "He's still in a coma, Brian. Give it a rest."

"If he wakes up, he'll want to know the condition of his ship. We should at least..."

Ryo jumped in with a word to slice the air, "This is your ship now, Brian. You're in command until the Captain recovers, and Pearson says that could be a VERY long time."

"Why me?" He grumbled, annoyed.

Ryo and Naomi walked across the sub-bridge to join him, both patting him on the back in a friendly expression. "Why not?" Ryo said with a grin, "Can you think of anyone more suitable?"

"Sure I can. Just gimme a minute..."

Naomi put her hands on his shoulders and started to shove, pushing him through the hatch in the back of the room and down the half-ruined corridor to the docking port further aft. "Now come on. The AEUG has a welcoming committee and everything. We can check on the Captain after all the formalities are finished." They stopped at the airlock and waited for the gangway arm to extend fully to the ship.

"Yeah, but..."

Naomi leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, at once silencing any complaints. "Be patient," she said gently, then stood at attention as the gangway arm locked into place.

Ryo chuckled. "You're a fine one to talk about patience, Naomi..."

Without even changing her posture, Naomi's fist popped out from her side and thumped him on the chest, immediately knocking the wind out of him before returning to her side to stand at attention again. Ryo staggered for a moment, coughed, then straightened up and stood back at attention. In another moment, they heard footsteps behind them; Lucy and Vanessa stepped up from the rear and stood at attention just behind them.

Naomi glanced back quickly and whispered, "Where's your brother?"

"He said he'd be late." Vanessa whispered, directing Naomi's attention back to the airlock as the pressure finally equalized.

The hatch finally opened before them, and the five Tarawa officers now stood face-to-face with a half dozen AEUG crewmen, some in Federation uniforms, some in the light green and white AEUG standard colors. The highest ranking officer in the group stepped aboard the ship first, and as soon as her foot touched the Tarawa's deck she stood at attention and saluted. "Commander Gwen Larson, EFS Challenger."

At the sight of her, Naomi's heart stopped beating for a full five seconds, then redoubled again in a mounting rage. Oh great. What's SHE doing here?

Brian saluted back. "Lieutenant Commander Brian Cunningham, acting Captain of the Tarawa. Thank you for your support, Commander."

Larson dropped the salute, looked over the five of them with a questioning eye. All of them looked tired, their uniforms ragged, still bearing brown stains from smoke or ash, and all but one of them had cuts and bruises on their faces. All but one... "Commander Wilson, I presume." She said, trying her best to sound friendly.

"Presume nothing. You know damn well who I am."

Everyone in the greeting parties from both groups locked their eyes onto them now; one didn't have to be a newtype to sense the waves of tension radiating from both of them.

"I know how you feel about this, but I have orders to support the Tarawa in operations once your repairs are completed. We need to work together on this..."

Naomi's voice turned to acid. "I never forget, Gwen. You betrayed me once, you'll do it again. I'll be keeping an eye on you."

In an effort to avert the impending battle, Brian cleared his throat loudly and brought Gwen's attention back his way, "I was under the impression we would be escorted to Sweetwater as soon as the repairs were finished?"

Gwen sighed. "A lot's changed in the last 24-hours. There's been a lot of anti-Earth political activity and the Federation is starting to crack down. I'll give you details later, but there's some trade issues in Side 2 and the AEUG is trying to resolve the situation."

"I see... so we'll be going back into combat as soon as we're repaired?"

"Maybe not. Our intelligence committee wants to interview your officers and check your gun cameras for data, then we'll know for sure. For now, you all should try to enjoy a bit of shore leave while we work on repairing your ship."

"Fair enough." Brian looked past her at the other officers lined up in the gangway behind her... finally noticing that one additional person was standing behind them dressed in civilian clothing. He recognized her immediately, and from he expression he could tell she recognized him. "I'll be damned! If that isn't little Sayla Mass all grown up!"

"That's Dr. Mass, now." She pushed her way through the officers and grinned at him. She looked him over for a few moments, then grinned wider, "And I'm impressed! I didn't think you would get that tall!"

"I told you I wouldn't always be short."

She didn't bother looking around for Alice, knowing of the girl's fate from the Titov's last report, but she did look over the others just long enough to see that they had been through quite an ordeal in the past few days. "There is much to discuss now," She said, turning back to the gangway and starting for the spaceport. "If you'll all please follow me, I'll clear everything up for you."

The AEUG officers all turned and followed her. Gwen shot one final glance at Naomi, then turned and joined the others while the Tarawa crewmen joined them.

Naomi stayed behind for a moment, debating with herself whether or not to participate in this, until the moment Ryo came up next to her and whispered in her ear, "What's with you, Commander? Personal grudge?"

"I don't expect you to understand this. Brian maybe, but not you."

"Try me."

"Forget it."

"Why not?"

"You're too normal. You couldn't possibly understand this." She pushed him away with a swat of her arm and followed the others down the gangway to the space port beyond.

- May 2, UC 0084 -
- 0720 hours (CST) -
It was times like this that gave Admiral Carter doubts about the validity of his new weapons program. Such a simple operation, not even as large or as dangerous as the three his pilots had accomplished with such ease, and yet he had come away from the battle with six dead mobile suits and three of his Flash Gundams destroyed. Conor's death was something he felt as a monetary loss more than anything; it would take weeks, perhaps even months to find and train another pilot to match his abilities.

And now the grim expressions of the remaining pilots, lined up shoulder to shoulder in his office, clearly no more pleased with the situation than he was. "I know what you're thinking," He said to all of them, not rising out of his chair, "But sometimes it happens like this. Those AEUG terrorists are more resourceful than we would have expected."

"And who gets the blame for this, Carter?" Miranda hissed, trying her hardest not to speak out of line, "How could an enemy mobile suit just slip in past our defenses completely unmolested?"

Carter stared at her for a moment, then stood up slowly and towered over them, "I think the real question is why you were unable to resolve the situation? We had four mobile suits against their two."

All of them hesitated for a moment, glancing around to see if anyone had an answer. Ultimately, their final gaze came to rest on the Lieutenant Nine; she sensed their attention focus on her, and immediately her blood started to heat up. "Conor launched into battle in a damaged mobile suit. He paid for that mistake with his life. Naomi Wilson is a tricky pilot, but she's still no match for me."

"And yet you failed to defeat her. Why is that?"

Nine thought for a moment, then glared in his direction, "Flash Gundam is fast, but it's much too heavy for close combat. There's no way I can beat Alpha Gundam with such a useless machine."

Carter raised a brow, noting how a weapon the pilot had used to destroy dozens of mobile suits and warships was suddenly considered 'useless.' Somehow it inspired him with even greater confidence. "So you want to use Lucifer, is that it?"

"I'll accept nothing less, sir."

Carter smiled, but Miranda almost bolted forward, slamming her fist on his desk, "You're gonna let HER pilot Lucifer? That's bullshit! You KNOW how much the rest of us have been waiting for a chance to kill Seven..."

"And you will have that chance, Miranda. The Agamemnon's group has just arrived in port here conduct their own repairs, and then they will support us in hunting the Tarawa."

"But...!"

"Agamemnon's pilots will be enough for their support troops, but only the five of you together will have the strength to defeat the Tarawa. The only way to defeat our enemies is to completely overwhelm them."

Ashitaka, normally silent, spoke up for the first time today, "What's so special about them anyway? Why do we need all this just to hunt down a single enemy warship, even IF Naomi's on board?"

"For one thing, it's no longer a single vessel. Tarawa's linked up with some AEUG militants, which means they're probably supported by as a small regiment of ships."

"Even so... why is this mission so important anyway?"

Carter could understand his confusion. He took a slow breath and answered, not just for him but for all five of them, "Because if we allow spacenoids to militarize again, it will be a disaster like nothing you can imagine. Federation security will be jeopardized like never before, society as we know it will be called into question. So far, the only military engagements with the AEUG have been by proxy, sending mercenaries or supporting our enemies against us. But now they've taken the next step, by harboring renegades and traitors to the Federation. And then what? They may begin to resist the Titans in open conflict, with their own fleets and guerilla bases. They may build new weapons, launch propaganda, start to organize the colonies against Earth, they may even insight a second One Year War. If we allow the seeds of rebellion to take root, then Operation Stardust will be just the tip of the iceberg."

Nine looked up suddenly, "Then when we find the Tarawa, we'll also destroy those who aided them? All of the militants and the rebels?"

Carter chuckled. "I don't plan on holding back that much. You're going to annihilate the Tarawa, it's supporters, and every living thing within 500 miles of it. No one who has seen the Tarawa will ever live to tell about it, but the colonies will learn to shun the AEUG or suffer the same fate."

The other four pilots gave of grunts of approval, but Nine's heart started beating faster, "But Carter, you can't do that! You'll just kill thousands of people for no reason at all!"

"But it WILL have a reason," Uylana jumped in, "It'll set an example to the spacenoids. They'll see that anyone who associates with AEUG will be slaughtered, no questions asked. They wouldn't dare harbor anti-Earth rebels once we show them the price they'll pay."

Nine stood stiff for a moment, then sagged and stared at her feet. "That's not right. We have to destroy our enemies, not make new ones."

"We will have no enemies as long as the spacenoids understand that they cannot oppose us. Force is the only language these people understand." Carter could tell Nine still wasn't buying into it, and somewhere in the back of his mind he didn't blame her. But her dissent was something that, as always, annoyed him, "If you disapprove, Miranda can pilot Lucifer in your place."

Now she looked up again, the fire back in her eyes much to Carter's great pleasure. "I'll destroy the Tarawa and anything else that gets in my way. If you wanna wipe out a bunch of civilians like a two-bit Zabi, you leave me the hell out of it." She turned slowly for the door, followed the wall for a few feet until she had her way out.

Once she was out of earshot, Carter regarded the remaining for pilots and looked at each of them in the eye, "We don't know where the Tarawa's gone to, but drawing them out won't be too difficult. For now, all of you should get some rest and enjoy yourselves. We'll be in port for a few days while we conduct repairs and replace the mobile suit teams."

All four of them gave him a rather sloppy salute, then turned for the same door Nine had used and slunk away towards their respective business. Carter waited until the door had closed behind them, then opened a secure line to the Agamemnon, just now entering port at the other side of the colony. Admiral Dyson's face appeared on the monitor, a slight smirk emerging from his lumpy features and greasy hair. "I hear you had some trouble with the Tarawa. Lost one of your special pilots did you?"

Carter was not amused. "Your friend Naomi is very clever when she wants to be."

"Tell me about it. I suppose you'll be asking our support next time she pops up?"

Carter nodded. "With all the political upheaval in Side 2, it's likely they'll resurface somewhere nearby for a demonstration."

"Then we should inspire them to take a more active role in the situation."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

Dyson winked on the monitor, "Leave that to me. I'll contact Colonel Bosque at Green Noa-II and get his approval first."

"Approval for what?" Carter said, more curious than ever.

"You'll see." He reached for a control panel somewhere off screen and added, "And you won't be disappointed," With a flick of his finger he closed the channel again, leaving Carter to wonder.


- 0950 hours (CST) -
His eyelids felt sticky and crusted over, and it took a surprising amount of effort just to open them. The right one first, then the left, and even as he did he found that even the dim light above his bed was intolerably bright; he closed his eyes again and moaned, "If this isn't the Drake Hotel in Dakar, I'm going back to sleep." He said in a raspy, pained voice. Brian put his hand on the Captain's shoulder, and immediately he opened his eyes again and squinted at him. "You look like hell, Lieutenant."

"Good to see you too, Sir." Brian pulled a chair next to the Captain's bed and turned down the light another level. "They say you'll be hypersensitive for a few days. It's a symptom of decompression sickness."

The Captain looked at him in confusion. "I don't feel all that bad though."

Brian shrugged. "That's because you're paralyzed."

The Captain tested Brian's statement and after a moment discovered he was unable to feel or move any part of his body below about mid-chest. "What's the good news?" He said, his voice croaking in dryness.

"It's not permanent."

Shiden smiled. "Oh, grand... But I meant the Tarawa. What's our condition?"

Brian sighed and compiled his mental damage report one last time. "It's bad, sir. Fifty-three dead, forty wounded, sixteen unaccounted for. Portside MS deck is still intact, but needs some extensive repairs. The gravity block is also damaged, along with the Minovsky lift system."

The Captain could sense by now the part Brian had been avoiding. "And the bridge?"

"Destroyed, sir. Don't you remember?"

"What about the senior officers? How many of others made it?"

Brian's face saddened, his eyes darkening a shade. "Only you and Garcia, and she's still in rehab. None of the others..."

The Captain was silent for a few moments, a mask of emptiness like chiseled marble covering his face. In his eyes Brian could see the wave of emotions at the news, but beyond that the Captain showed no signs of emotion whatsoever. "You're telling me half the crew is out of action, along with the entire command staff?"

"Yes sir. It's not so bad now, we managed to put in to a friendly port."

"I gathered as much. You wouldn't be standing here talking to me if we hadn't." The Captain tried to sit up, but lacking sufficient muscle control he settled for a momentary lifting of his head to examine his surroundings. The infirmary seemed surprisingly devoid of patience at this point, something that gave him an indication of the passing of time. "How long have we been in port?"

"Eight days, sir."

If his legs had worked he would have leapt out of the bed and tackled him. "And you left me here sleeping while my ship was in such a condition?"

Brian shrugged. "You were in a coma, sir. I figured you could use the rest."

The Captain started another protest, then fell silent. "Well, we're still alive, so I guess the ship is in good hands."

"Yes Sir. Ryo and Naomi sortied right after they hit us and knocked out the enemy pursuit. Because of them, we were able to make it all the way back to Luna, along with the civilian convoy."

Shiden grinned. "That may be, but that's not what I meant."

"Sir?"

He patted himself for a few moments, realizing for the first time the absence of his uniform. Squinting through the glare of the lights he located his jacket, folded across the chair on the other side of his desk. "Hand me that, will you?" He said, nodding towards the jacket. Brian obliged him, walking around the bed for the jacket and holding it up for him just within arms reach. The Captain tugged at the collars for a moment, then gestured for Brian to put it back on the chair. "Now this might just be the morphine talking," He gestured for Brian to lean closer, "But this ship needs a Captain and I'm in no condition..."

"Captain, you're not going to...!" Two quick movements of his bandaged hands and Shiden released him. Brian looked at the rank insignia on his collar for just a moment, then frowned. "You're serious aren't you?"

"Stop whining. You've been drafted, Lieutenant... er, Captain Anderson."

Brian shifted his weight awkwardly for a moment, then sighed. "Sir, what about Naomi or Lucy? Or better yet, Commander Martinez has more command experience..."

Captain Shiden sat up as much as he could, adjusting the recline of the bed to support him. "Brian, Lucy and Naomi are the two of most formidable pilots this side of Mars. It's in their blood, it comes natural to them, and as a matter of fact it's about the only thing they do well. Haven't you ever wondered why the highest ranking pilot on this ship is a barely literate, 17-year-old ex-refugee??"

In truth he had always found it unusual, but had never thought deeply about it until this moment. "I see your point, sir... but that still doesn't explain why you chose me."

Shiden grinned. "That should be obvious, Brian. You're a fine officer, in fact your discipline and training as an officer of the line far surpass your piloting ability."

Brian read between the lines. "But... I'm a lot better than Mike or Rico..."

"Certainly. But I wouldn't trust either of them with command of this ship. And since we've joined forces with the AEUG on what I assume to be a formal basis, we'll always have plenty of mobile suit pilots."

Brian glanced at the badge on his collar again and chewed his lip anxiously. "I don't know, sir. I haven't even been through OCS, how in the world am I supposed to take command of a battleship?"

Captain Shiden smiled and rolled back over on his side. "Trust your instincts. As for me, my legs hurt, and I'm going back to sleep if you don't mind."

Is it me, or has the Captain finally gone senile from all this? "You have any pointers, sir? Anything that might help me out?"

Shiden was silent for a moment, then rolled back over with a somber expression, "Just one thing," He said, "As far as this crew is concerned, you know everything there is to know in about tactics and maneuvers. But any subject not directly related to the ships standard operations, just repeat the Captain's montra: Don't ask me, I only work here."

"Uh... right, Captain. I'll remember that." Brian nodded in understanding, then turned and left the infirmary in hopes of scrounging up a satisfying drink. Maybe I should take command after all. Captain Shiden seems really out of it.


- May 14, UC 0084 -
- 2241 hours (CST) -
Lieutenant Gardner had a full weapons lock, but the range to the target was much too far now. Sweat was starting to collect in his faceplate, but the enemy pilot didn't seem in the least bit phased by the dizzying array of maneuvers he had inflicted on both of them. "Stay with em, Sully!" He shouted to his wingman.

"They're toying with us!"

"Stay with him anyway! Let's see if we can't nail him before he runs for it!"

Sullivan thought for half a second, reversing his turn to match the mobile suit in the distance. The enemy fired a long burst from his machinegun as he came around, then turned and put some distance between them again. "Right... moving like that he's gotta be burnin fuel like crazy."

Gardner split to one side and fired off a long burst from his GM rifle, crossing over the head of the enemy suit, but from off to one side a second unit he hadn't noticed before emerged from behind one of the rocks and fired off a single rocket from its own heavy machinegun. Gardner had just enough time to dodge out of the line of fire, but Sullivan reacted too slowly and caught most of the burst in his armor. He felt a few shells ripping through the lower waist armor before one lucky round pieced a fuel tank and his right leg exploded.

"Get outa there, Sully!" Gardner had only time for the one warning as he returned fire with his machinegun. The enemy suit let off a token burst in reply, then darted back behind the rock from whence it came.

Sullivan checked his computer readouts, then sighed in relief. "It's not as bad as it looks. I'm still in this fight..."

A garbled signal crackled through the Minovsky particle interference on their channel and Captain Moran's angelic voice beaconed to them from the bridge of their cruiser, "Sedona to all patrol units, we have a civilian transport attempting to run the blockade. Regroup at the following coordinates immediately."

Lieutenant Gardner fired a short burst from his machinegun as a parting shot before turning back to rejoin the ship. "Damn them, they're only decoys."

"Naval blockade, huh? Whose brilliant idea was that?"

Gardner sighed. "Probably some tree-hugging bureaucrat who's never been in space before. They only sent a dozen ships to cut off the commercial lines of Side 2. On all the charts, the area we have to cover is about 650 kilometers across..."

"Except space is three dimensional. That's almost four-thousand kilometers square. They might as well ask one ship to patrol an area the size of Texas."

A tiny flash of light appeared ahead of them, then two more behind, both of them the lights if verniers from enemy mobile suits closing in on them. "Who the hell is building those things?" Gardner said anxiously.

"They're very cheap machines. Who ISN'T building them?"

"Yeah, really."

Up ahead, their sensors registered the heat signatures of a heavy transport's engines blazing, the Sedona's main engines only a few hundred kilometers behind it. Obviously, this one transport was well on its way through the blockade line before their sensors had spotted it. Garnder's computer picked up something else unusual off to their right. "Looks like four more of em coming out of the debris field."

Sullivan growled. "More decoys."

"Yeah, but we still can't turn our backs to them." Gardner maneuvered to face the new incoming enemies, and as soon as they came into range all four of them opened fire in a concentrated pattern. He could tell they were primarily aiming for Sully's machine, hoping to pick off the gimped one so they could gang up on the other more effectively, but it also meant that their attention would be divided at exactly the wrong moment. "Sully, when I tell you, break down for two seconds and then charge full-forward. We'll try and hi-low them."

"Copy that..." Sully moved into formation alongside as they closed in, both dodging another massed burst of rifle and machinegun fire from the four Hercules. As soon as they were closed, Gardner gave a whistle and both of the mobile suits fired reverse thrusters, cutting their velocity down to nothing. All four of the Hercules opened fire as soon as they had an angle, and in the same instant Sullivan's mobile suit charged forward on full thrust while Gardner rolled out and started to circle. Sullivan opened fire with his machinegun and both head vulcans to draw all of their attention while Gardner locked on at his leisure, waited for the right moment, and squeezed off a burst.

A hail of shells ripped into the torso of the first mobile suit, shredding its innards like so much meat before the fuel tanks ruptured and the mobile suit died in flames. Gardner locked onto another unit and fired, but the enemy suit dodged the burst directly into the path of Sullivan's beam saber. "Two down," He reported, backing away to get some distance between the other two.

Gardner started to line up an attack on a third suit, but out of the corner of his eye he caught the flash of an explosion and a burst of machinegun fire glistening in the distance. It took only a sideways glance to know for sure. The cruiser had been hit by a large bazooka round, a column of flame jetting out from its starboard side just to below of the main gun. "Damn! Sedona's taking fire"

"You pull back to support! I'll cover you!"

"Don't be long, Sully." Gardner turned and rushed back to the ship at full thrust, forcing himself not to look back at what he feared could be a very grisly fate for his damaged comrade. Yet the closer he got to the Sedona, the more he worried for his own safety; the ship had taken a direct hit from an anti-warship round, with three mobile suits buzzing around it avoiding the anti-aircraft fire, plinking at it with rifles. After what seemed like a thousand lifetimes the ship was finally close enough to fire; he started to wish he had a full-sized beam rifle as he had back during the war. "Sit tight, Sedona, I'll pull em off ya!"

He locked onto the first mobile suit at a truly impossible range, but held his fire until he was sure he was close enough. "C'mon... c'mon..." The suit came around the bow of the ship and rose up a dozen meters, took aim with its rifle directly into the Sedona's bridge, stopping for just an instant to make sure its shot would not miss.

"Gotcha!" Gardner let off the last rounds from his magazine just before the suit could fire, tearing it to pieces on the spot. "Who's next? C'mon!" He locked onto the next one and changed magazines, but this time he was never given a chance to fire.

A bright crimson beam of energy lanced out from the distance, crossing directly over the Sedon's bridge before slicing through the torso of the lead Hercules, destroying the machine in a fraction of an instant. Two more shots burst out from the darkness, but the remaining Hercules unit was already on the run before the blasts could get near it. The three units engaging Sullivan broke off as well, as did the other decoy units fighting the Sedona's second patrol team on the other side of the debris field.

Gardner turned to the source of it and pulled forward his sniper scope, zooming to maximum resolution to get a better look at his new allies. As soon as he did, his eyes narrowed to slits. "Titans. That's just perfect..."

The pilot signaled him as he came into communications range, and Gardner held his tongue for the sake of what he assumed would be a very long joint operation. "This is Commander Alfa A. Bate of the Titans 04th mobile suit team. Titans forces are standing by to help enforce the embargo. Be advised, you are now under the direct authority of Admiral Juan Dyson until further notice." The GM Quell zipped past the ship without so much as a friendly wave, and the half-dozen warship fleet it had been riding point for seemed to be exhibiting similar behavior.

Lieutenant Gardner had never imagined that such a meaningless and petty operation like the Side 2 embargo would expand into such a chaos, but with the arrival of the Titans forces it stood to reason that something more was going on than simple reinforcement. "Hey Sully," He said, switching over to a secure line, "If the Titans are here, does that mean these mobile suits are AEUG?"

Sullivan thought about it for a long moment, but decided not to form an opinion yet. "Let me put it this way, Lieutenant," He said, a grin spreading on his face, "If the AEUG wasn't here before, you can bet your ass they will be soon now that the Titans are here."


- May 15, UC 0084 -
- 0631 hours (CST) -
Ryo hit the ground and rolled off his shoulder, rebound to his feet and surprised her as she lunged in again, catching her arm at the elbow and sending her flying in the very same shoulder-throw maneuver. Naomi hit the matt with a dull thud, unable to roll, with Ryo landing on top of her and pinning her down for the time being, "Pink or blue?" He said, catching his breath.

Naomi caught her breath for a moment, then shoved him back. "No!"

"Lace? Strings?"

"I said no!" She shoved him back again, kipped to her feet at the same time he did, immediately locking arms with him again and grappling for position.

"C'mon, just gimme a clue!"

She grappled with him for another moment, then shoved him away and started to circle again. "What's the first number of your doorcode?"

"I asked you first, you answer first. Now what color are your panties?"

She backpedaled a few feet to give herself some distance, knowing and not caring he could predict what she was about to do. "I'll tell you if you beat me!" She planted both feet and took off towards him in a sprint, bounding off the matt at the last moment and leaping into the air in a flying kick.

Ryo caught her by her ankle and wrist, swinging her downwards to slam her down on the matt... and at the last moment she tucked to the side and rolled over, planting her feet on the matt behind him and flinging him into the air even as he tried to throw her. In the low gravity he ended up tumbling almost twelve feet into the air, and catching her balance Naomi sprinted across the matt for a finale, "You're such an asshole!" She sprang off the matt just short of him and leapt into the air to intercept him, curling up one leg and snapping off a spinning heal-kick into his gut, sending Ryo tumbling across the room to crash against the far wall next to the door, bouncing off and crashing to the ground.

Ryo coughed twice, tried to stand up, collapsed again on his face, then immediately sprang up and tried to look valiant. "Lucky shot."

"Luck my ass. Remember, I trained in this gravity. This is my home turf."

Ryo stepped back up to the matt, brushed the dust from his T-shirt and set himself up again in a fighting stance. "Who taught you how to fight anyway? You use a kickboxing stance, but your technique reminds me of Judo... sort of."

Naomi grinned. "In this gravity, throwing techniques are your best friend. You don't have a lot of weight to shift, so you have to use it wisely."

Ryo nodded, adjusting the position of his foot on the matt, "You know it's only a matter of time before I figure out what color they are."

"And it's only a matter of time before I get to your secret stash... by the way, just how much ramen are we talking about anyway?"

"How much?" He sprang forward in one massive leap, jabbing twice with his left, then two hard punches with his right, letter her block with the usual ease. He tossed two more jabs at her knee with his right foot, shifting her feet where he wanted them and setting her up for his move. She tried at him with a right cross, but timing her movement he bounced off the matt and snap kicked her under the jaw before she could block. Naomi ended up flipping head over heals, ultimately landing on her stomach a few feet away from him. "Let me put it this way," He stepped up next to her and reached down to pull her back up, "It's enough to feed Mike for a month."

Naomi grabbed his hand and pulled up to her feet, brushed the dirt off her tank top and glared at him. "That's a lot of ramen."

"Damn right."

She patted him on the shoulder and started to walk back out of the gym, then at the last moment stopped and stuck her index finger and thumb into her cheek.

"What's wrong?" Ryo asked after a moment.

Her fingers fiddled around in her cheek for a moment, then gave a yank, and came out of her mouth with one of her wisdom teeth. She glared at it for a moment, then looked up at Ryo with a friendly smile. "Nice kick."

"That doesn't hurt?"

"Nope. It's fake." She gestured for him to move closer and look at it, and once he did he found himself staring at it in curiosity.

It looked normal on the outside, but examining the underside where the root of the tooth should have been he saw a tiny metal cylinder with three small grooves cut into the sides of it. "A transmitter."

"Uh huh."

Ryo felt a chill run down his spine. "Then the Titans know where we are?"

"Hell no. I fried this thing before the Tarawa even left port, way back before Operation Stardust. I meant to have Pearson yank it, but I guess it slipped my mind."

Ryo looked at the false tooth for a moment more, and all at once an idea came to him. "I'm assuming that was planted on you when you joined Project N?"

Naomi nodded. "Carter keeps very close track of his test subjects."

"Then... Alice should have one installed as well, right?"

Naomi raised a brow, the thought occurring to her suddenly as well as the usefulness of it. "It has a range of about 500 kilometers."

"Then we should be able to track Alice wherever she goes, right? I mean... well she won't be able to sneak up on us like she usually does?"

Naomi nodded, a smile forming on her face. "I'll get Kelly to rig a transponder to key on it. Good idea, by the way."

"Thank you." He started off towards the men's locker room to change clothes and shower, but no sooner did he push through the door did he notice Naomi casually follow him inside. "Ladies room is down the hall, Commander."

"Nope. They converted it into a broom closet. I suppose women don't work out here very often."

Ryo thought about it for a few moments, then sighed and sat down on a bench. "If Brian asks, this never happened."

Naomi sat down on the other end of the bench at another locker. "What difference does that make?"

"Please! I've seen you together, everybody knows you two have a thing. So you and Brian did the nasty, huh?"

Naomi chuckled, almost girlishly and pulled off her T-shirt. Ryo respectfully turned his back to her. "It's sort of a fling right now, but... well, let's wait and see where it goes?"

"If I know Brian, it won't go far. He gets bored easily."

"Bored how?" She discarded the rest of her clothes in favor of a bath towel and darted into a shower stall before he could sneak a peak. "With women or sex?"

"Both." He listened for the sound of running water in the showers before turning back to his locker and changing his own clothes. "It's always this way. He gets hot and heavy with some girl for a while, then next thing you know he stands her up on a date to take Alice to the movies or something."

"But Alice isn't here..."

"Well think about it," Ryo tossed aside his own clothes and stepped into the stall next to hers. "With Alice piloting that new mobile suit, Brian's likely to focus on her like never before. Obsessive behavior is his motto when it comes to family matters."

Naomi thought about it for a few moments, realizing at length that Ryo was right. "Well... I can live with that. I mean, she is his baby sister after all." She looked around the stall in frustration, then added, "You have shampoo over there?"

He slid the bottle under the gap between the wall and the floor and Naomi snatched it up with her toes. "Speaking of sisters," Ryo said, changing the subject, "What's up with Commander Larson? If I didn't know better I'd swear you two were related."

Naomi's jaw clenched reflexively. "We're not."

"You sure? She looks a lot like you."

"Nope." She rinsed her hair down under the spray, letting the water pressure message her scalp. "Just somebody I used to know a long time ago."

Ryo took a stab in the dark. "Does this have anything to do with your sister Anna?"

With a growl, Naomi turned off the shower and stormed out of the stall, dried herself quickly with her towel and started back into her uniform before the conversation could drag on. "I told you before, you wouldn't understand."

"I beg to differ." Ryo stepped out of the stall after her, not really caring anymore that both of them were completely naked in a public locker room. "What is it about me that makes me unable to understand?"

Naomi stepped into a pair of sweat pants, Ryo pulled on his boxers. "You had a happy childhood. You had a family, a roof over your head, you had a home, a job, you even had a girlfriend who wasn't bad looking."

"And that makes us so different? I killed three mobile suits with a construction pod during the One Week Battle... is that something Beaver Cleaver could do?"

Naomi chuckled, wiggling into a fresh sports-bra. "Okay, you want the truth?"

"Of course I do." Ryo pulled on his T-shirt.

Naomi stood up and walked across the locker room and stepped up onto the bench in front of him. "I'll tell you what we'll do," A mischievous grin spread across her face, something that completely failed to surprise him. She reached into his locker and snatched a black pen, held it up to the center of her sternum and drew a tiny black circle. "If you can land a punch right here, I'll tell you the whole story about Gwen and Anna and me. All the details, no matter how embarrassing."

"C'mon, I just got out of the shower..."

"Then make it quick before we get all sweaty again."

"Could you at least put some clothes on?"

"Don't be a wuss. C'mon!"

He looked around the locker room to make sure they were alone again, not wanting to have any sort of audience for the always comical sight of a pair of officers sparing in their underwear. He stepped up and stood on the bench with her, squared up in front of her, cracked his knuckles and shifted his weight. They stood perfectly still for almost a full minute, staring at each other...

Then Ryo moved. He started with a jab to throw her off, then led with two more to test her defenses. Naomi swatted his hands away and back-stepped, still grinning as the game went on. "Keep trying," she taunted.

Ryo tried again, attacking with one arm, feinting with the left, then leading with a quick kick to her ankle to throw her off balance. She stooped to adjust for just a moment, but ducked again before his fist could hit the mark. "Nice one!"

"I'm not done!" He moved in again, with more quick jabs with his left, then came flying out from the right with a punch that would have leveled her on contact.

She saw it coming well ahead of time and ducked it fully, then straightened up just in time to block another attack just short of hitting the mark. "Getting warmer."

"You have no idea." This time when he jabbed again, all the strength was gone from his arms. He seemed to be relaxed now, barely using any force at all, and just for a moment when she let her guard down he went around her block and gently tapped her on the forehead. She swatted his hand away in annoyance, but he reached up with his other hand and tapped her again.

"Stop that." She growled."

"Stop what?" He threw another ineffectual jab at the top of her head, and as she blocked with one arm he used the opening to reach in and gently slap the side of her face.

"So you're giving up?" She said, her playful grin all but vanished.

"Hell no." He shifted his weight back a bit, putting some distance between then, tossing out a few useless jabs he knew she would simply block without any effort.

"This is boring now."

"I think this is a lot of fun."

"I give up."

He jabbed again, letting her block, then reached around her arm and pinched her skin just above her hip. "I don't."

Mockery was all she could take; now Naomi threw a punch. Ryo dodged it as it came out, then two more behind it as she tried to knock him off the bench. He blocked a right cross, a hook, a pair of snap kicks in short order, then answered with one of his own right into the pit of her gut.

The moment it made contact he felt something in his own stomach, a fluttering sensation, as if the already low gravity of the moon were fading somehow... he tried to ignore it as Naomi charged in again, letting fly with the full force of her fist against his head. He let her make contact, knocking him into a full spin on the bench, and as he steadied himself again he was satisfied to see she was once again overextended. She had forgotten the point of the game. "I told you this was fun!" He shouted, lunging forward.

She dove forward at him in what would have been an impressive football tackle, if only Ryo hadn't left his feet at that moment, leaping to one side and springing off a row of lockers next to the bench before rebounding back in her direction and catching her from the side with his left fist.

Naomi ended up in a tumble, rolling across the floor haphazardly before finally coming to rest on her back in a bit of a daze. She looked up and cleared her head just in time to see Ryo appear above her, his fist already on his downward plunge to the appointed mark. "Now quit hiding things from me!" He shouted out, half playfully as his hand came down. Reflexively, Naomi raised her own arm in hopes of striking back...

To their combined amazement, neither of their fists made contact. Instead of striking against bone and flesh, each hit the center of the other's chest and passed right through as if it were a mirage and disappearing within, each taking in the entire length of the other's arm with nothing to emerge from the other side.

Gravity faded away, a field of brilliant stars surged around them, blinding them, stripping away the world and leaving them alone in a sea of light. He was completely alone now, and had the strangest sensation as if he were floating at the bottom of the ocean. He couldn't see or hear anything around him other than a distance whispering voice on the tip of his ear. He listened for a few moments, and the voice became clearer, "Nice punch."

"Thank you," He whispered back, not really understanding where the voice was coming from. "No one's ever done that before have they?"

"Only one... Samir did, a long time ago. He's always been good and breaking down barriers."

He squinted through the sea of light and saw her there, bathed in a luminous foam like liquid fire. It had to stare at her for several moments before he noticed something was different about her... her hair color had changed from cherry red to a jet-black. Looking at Naomi in this way, it was the first time he had ever seen her as beautiful. "Why?" He asked gently.

"Because you respect me, Ryo. I didn't want to jeopardize that."

Ryo nodded, and found himself slowly drifting closer to her. "Why are you always building barriers? To keep people like me out?"

"No," She said, a note of shyness in her voice. "To keep myself in."

"Why?"

"I'm not as strong as you are, Ryo, though I'd like to be. I always heard about what you did during the war and it inspired me to become stronger. You see, you taught me how to keep on living no matter how painful it was, and it's a lesson I never forgot. You were my idol."

He felt a tingle in his face and chest as if his entire body were blushing. "You never told me that before... I guess I understand why."

She paused for a moment, allowing herself to drift closer to him. Somehow the light she wore as a garment warmed him as she came closer, "I admire you, Ryo. Even after they took away everything you cared about, you still fought back and you punished them for it. If I was half the person you are..."

He reached out to her, the heat from the lights warming his skin almost to the point of burning until he could feel the fire in the center of his chest. "Don't be silly, Naomi," He took her hand and pulled her in closer, finally able to look into her eyes, "You've tackled bigger problems than I have ever imagined. You're twice the person I am... if anything, I should be the one to admire you."

She smiled at the thought, drawing nearer to him each moment. The lights swirling around her came up around both of them and began to seal them off from the rest of the world, "I've always been with you, Ryo..."

"I know." The light started to close around them and the world started to fade to darkness, "And we always will..."

He snapped awake with a throbbing in the sides of his head, looked around in confusion. He was lying on his back in a shower stall in the locker room with the privacy curtain closed. Naomi was curled up next to him like a kitten, her head resting on her chest like a pillow, fast asleep. From the tiny puddle of drool on his chest and Naomi's gentle snoring he could guess she had been asleep for at least two hours, but it still left him to wonder just how exactly they had ended up in the shower in the first place. He tried to remember how they had come to this position, even wondered if a bit of alcohol wasn't involved... but when he searched his memory for answers, he began to find memories of a life that was not his. He remembered Granada, the slums, the predators, the lunatic street preachers who all too often doubled as pimps. He remembered Gwen Larson, he remembered Anna, for one brief horrifying moment he ever remembered Admiral Dyson...

He banished the memory with a strong force of will, fighting the chill that ran down his spine as the images and sensations lingered in his brain. "My God..." He whispered, looking at the young officer sleeping next to him, seeing her as she was for the first time since he had met her.

A slip of paper tucked into the strap on the back of her bra caught his attention, and plucking it from confinement he read it over out of curiosity: Whatever the hell has gotten into you two, I hope you managed to work it out of your system. Briefing at 19:00 hours tomorrow, be there or be square. – Love, Mike.