Disclaimer: Usual applies.
7nth chapter already! *sniff* Hope you enjoy it.
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Rachael had argued with her the morning after the conference, just as Relena was finished packing what little she needed for a week-long vacation. Once out of the suite, though, she quieted in contemplation of where she would go, seeing as Relena had every intention on going through with this vacation (which she had to grudgingly admit to). The entire team, having had no real warning beforehand, was thrown off balance by their employer's quick departure and felt yet undecided as to what they would be doing in the time left to them. Meanwhile, the other party, with some grumbling, began churning out the ideas necessary to polish off the project of restoring and rebuilding the older colonies through the second plan.
Their shuttle left early, before the media caught wind of the Vice Foreign Minister Darlian's vacationing abroad, so nothing but the ride to the airport was rushed. Heero, yet reluctant, was silent much of the way but Relena didn't mind. She entertained herself with old memories of the training center, which she really was looking forward to. She wondered if Heero had made any memories there as well, whether he might share or keep to himself. The shuttle ride was generally quiet but for the hum of working machinery and the few passengers on board - a minimum of ten passengers were required to be on a spacecraft as small as this in order to take off, otherwise, the shuttle was too light in its travels to and from destinations.
The training center was located on a well-planned orbit around the moon, sturdy for its age but in danger of experiencing meteor showers. It had once been larger but a section used for storage had been torn off in one such meteor shower, leaving the center to continue alone. That section was never rebuilt and it was decided to balance the center with weighty objects to cement it in its course - at that point, they began training pilots and space GI's in heavy machinery with as-heavy ammunition on top of the equipment they had been using for the past century.
A small inn crowded a corner of the once-planned colony - now barely worth the title, and few called it that nowadays - and it was there Heero sent their luggage. He gave Relena the choice of coming with him or going with the luggage to the Inn: leaving their bags in the hands of a professional errand boy they headed for the training center. The flight had been quick and she was not as tired as she would have felt fresh off a shuttle flight between earth and space, but the strange tension that had sprung up shortly before their flight continued to subdue the conversation.
Being on such small ground lent the place the air of being inside a fish bowl - so obviously tiny in a place very big. On a larger colony, space surrounded a person entirely but there was a horizon to separate the colony from the void: in this case, the edges of the colony were steeply, unevenly rounded, and space pressed in on the glass-plate shell protecting their atmosphere with silent, but consistent ferocity. If one turned in the other direction, one's eye was partially, if not filled with a numbing, sobering view of the moon. It was close enough to see its many eye sockets and the pale, tight, pocked and dipping surface; the Beauty of Earth and the Hag of Space was gone, replaced by something as shockingly ugly as it was startling and poetic.
The layout of the tiny half-colony was this: one large, wide lane in which shuttles rested before or after take-off and a few streets leading from it to form, first of all, a residential area of three buildings - the lodgings of several military families. Next came a small, two-lane street that led to the court of a small Inn, then a couple of storage buildings and a bath house that lay, completely severed from the Inn, on the right. Lastly, another vein of the main street wandered off to sit at the back of the colony, the only way to the training center itself. The area that had been torn off during a meteor shower a decade ago could easily be spotted: a twisted shred of metal, wires and beams extended, like a withered limb, from the side of the half-colony into space.
Despite how small the half-colony was they took a bus to the 'center. It was an unusual ride in which Heero continued to speak monosyllabically, much to the more-gregarious driver's chagrin. Relena watched the edge of the half-colony dip into space with reserve, not impressed by its position in the less-populated regions of the universe. Unwillingly letting her gaze return again and again to the moon Relena joined Heero in his silence, her fingers cramping in her lap as she laced them together. She couldn't remember this from her childhood - she felt back through all those years without reliving the feeling of being in danger of falling off the colony onto the moon, nothing. Apparently, the last visit had left her with fewer memories than she realized, even though it had been one of the few trips she had taken with both her parents.
The bus ride was short; the few buildings acting as apartments for military families came and went; Relena thought she had seen a few lawnchairs around the compound as well as a small playground. The Inn was bare of decoration, settled in the midst of a large lot. Ahead, the center crouched against the wall of the half-colony, a moving van parked out front into which boxes were piled as they approached.
For the next week the training center was open to visitors; students of the center had left earlier as the equipment was packed. Following behind Heero Relena let old memories color the otherwise drab and unmarked surroundings; uneven patches of white on the walls proved the former existence of pictures having once been hung there - plaques and templates, now removed, left behind an outline of where they had previously sat. Though small in outward appearance the training center felt larger once one was inside; space had been oddly wrangled to achieve the largest training rooms possible, creating the smallest of restrooms and broom closets. They passed through one such training room with a dome-shaped ceiling; impressions and markings on the floor vouched for a specific use having been practiced before the dismantling of the colony.
Relena pointed the markings out and asked Heero about them.
"Aries Simulation room. Used to train pilots operating an Aries," He glanced at the ceiling, "Before they were let into battle."
"They had training machines meant specifically for Aries?" She remarked incredulously. "Did they have the same for Leos? And - other dolls?"
"Yeah..somewhere. They served other functions as well - general distress simulations, emergency operation in combat, zero-gravity simulations..." He turned around, glancing over his shoulder as he spoke. "Some undergraduates came here with little experience of being in a spacecraft without gravity control. Under supervision they would practice being in those surroundings." He spoke quietly, his voice never making it past Relena's ears. She nodded.
"My father and I were given a tour of the more touristic views, I suppose. I never saw these rooms. How many students were allowed in a given year?"
"That depended on their type of training."
"Ah." They exited the room through a different door than they had entered - it did not resemble a tourist-friendly hall but Heero seemed to know his way. Staying close to his side Relena caught peeks at things that had not yet been packed - including a memorial statue of an early astronaut, the importance of which eluded her for the time.
She glanced at Heero's face but the expression on it meant little. He seemed intent on walking down the corridor; the only other topic of discussion she felt available was inappropriate, as it referred to what he did before the war, or perhaps, during it. Though her own discomfort would have been slight, had the subject arisen, she felt Heero had long refused preparations for facing it, which would cause him to resent both her and his self at the resurfacing of these unpleasant memories in conversation. Swinging her arms at her sides Relena silently gazed around herself, interested in any scrap of detail the scarce halls contained.
Only a minute later they met with the end of that hall - and came upon a yet untapped view the half-colony offered. Obviously meant to be seen only by the staff - they were too far into the bowels of the training center to have it otherwise - the end of the hall flattened into a glass-plated window meeting cheek-to-cheek with space. The glass was layered and several feet thick but none of this obscurred the clarity of the view. Such a perfectly uncluttered visual drop into the cosmos shocked the gentle passerbyer - it was too unexpected. A handlebar, made of glass as well to better meld into this seemingly 'perfect' view, offered a place to hold onto. Heero set his hands on it but it took a moment for Relena to feel comfortable laying her grasp on the bar; chiding herself for this fear she stepped up to it, finding that she could see almost past her feet and below the colony.
Eyes widening, she forced herself to adjust as quickly as the other. Only a section of the moon was visible, and then only in her peripheral vision: glowing light and hazy distances reminded her of the expanse of what she was seeing. The actuality, the raw reality, of space never hit a person as they expected - it was too immense to properly register in one's mind. A group of stars to the right were nonexistent - the light they had once given off transcended the years they had been dead until they reached the few that could attach importance to them. Without consciously trying she saw the end of the galaxy, though all she thought she saw was an incalculable distance, a muzzy black wall. The far-off haze she could focus on in some places might well have been separate universes - who and how many might be looking in her direction from there?....
Just don't look down.
You looked down.
I'm going to fall!
"Mother always preferred Earth to..to Space." Relena began; her eyes remained wide but she felt more at ease talking. "Shuttle rides are so cramped if you're not used to them. She always got sick - they never serve food and she never ate before a flight, so she always had a stomach ache. And usually, we left home because of my father's business, so it never felt entirely like the vacation she wanted. Not that I remember her coming along too often, either - I didn't go all the time, too, of course..but...." She took a breath, glancing down again. "The war we witnessed seems so insignificant here. All this - we nearly tore up our own race, but out here, who cares? This - is a constant war." She remained quiet for a moment, thoughtful. "I couldn't ever be surprised that man forced its way into being out here. It was meant to be, if you belief in fate." With a sideways glance at Heero, she smiled, shakily, adding, "I prefer faith, myself." Hooded eyes caught up with her own and she thought he agreed.
Relena felt a sudden impulse come on and she twitched at the mentioning of it. Glancing away and back at Heero she raised her left foot - all the while being extremely conscious of the results of this impulse, and her foot - and, setting it down closer to where Heero stood, reached out with a hand to take one of his. Her fingers curled around it, passing over the skin of his knuckles to his palm. She could feel old callouses dissolving on his skin there. Eyes drifting up towards his face again, she felt the weight of his stare before she met it.
Two spirits watching a great, massively colliding war - one Dorothy spotted before she ever left Earth's atmosphere - watched reservedly and with their own doubts. In the end, the war continued, but their eyes turned from it to each other. Power might challenge and win over, but could never compete with compassionate, impassioned understanding, regardless of the way both molded the outcome of a history.
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The Inn was pleasantly headed by Juan Certimo, whose duties ranged from cooking and cleaning to managing the hotel. In the days they stayed there Relena never once saw a maid - rather, she saw Juan perform all necessary chores. In the mornings, he wore an apron (kitchen duty) over rubber boots (plumbing service) - in the afternoon, he usually wore an old jogging suit while washing sheets. Unless a shuttle was destined to land that day he never changed his routine - or attire.
Juan informed them that their luggage had already been brought to their apartments; then he gave them a small menu containing meal choices and times (no room service). Keys in hand Relena and Heero trouped up to their separate rooms - at either end of a hall. Smiling, Relena nodded, spoke a farewell and trod into her small suite. Not quite a suite, admittedly - a tiny bathroom and a separate room with a bed and set of drawers in it. Without a desk to tempt her Relena had no reason to bring out the little work she had brought along. Other than a radio there were no appliances, either - a phone was kept downstairs for calls. At approaching the bed Relena could smell the detergent that had been used (certainly not an unpleasant odor - something along the lines of "Mountain freshness", perhaps). The sheets were tightly stretched across the mattress, so much so that she could have played with jacks on its surface.
There was nothing there that would befit the needs of a relaxing vacation, other than the company. No greenery, as gardens were exceptionally hard to grow even on moonfarms, and other than the bathhouse and the training center no place to visit. The only restaurant in the area sat below her, in Juan's cafeteria. There was little visual appeal about the half-colony as much of its glory came from its history rather than its concrete-and-iron-wrought being. Yet Relena never felt more surprised than when she looked out the window at the back of the Inn to see the stars.
A view of the moon took up much of her immediate attention, goring her eyes with its startling, pockmarked appearance. (She would never become accustomed to the brilliant, pale white and gray of its skin, she knew that already - it seemed like some blind man's warped vision of mother of pearl). Once she could rip her eyes from it her gaze wandered below - and into a well-kept, orderly patch of green, maybe 14 by 20 feet in size. Real grass, thick and long, and small, ornamental - but real! - trees. Dainty shrubbery and various kinds of flowers - a hammock held up between two posts.
She was so quickly, suddenly reminded of her home - and that of her biological parents' - that it stung. Though she abstained from working in it her mother always enjoyed the garden, and her father used to walk on the footpaths at night with Relena as a child before leaving for a business meeting outside of the state. Everyone has memories of a garden, somewhere, and it takes very little to bring them out. In this case, with the moon just a few miles from where she stood above Juan's garden, Relena's thoughts jumbled about in their discovery, one so profound she could not remove herself from the window for ten minutes. So much was reminding her of her parents on this trip and it had only been a day.
She meant to bring about the topic of the garden the next morning, at breakfast. Perhaps he would explain its origins. Glancing around, she remembered that the closest moonfarm was ten miles away; the efforts of bringing about plant life in a place devoid of the necessary resources was astounding and difficult - that the few that existed did so well was mind-rattling. Here was one man's effort in a corner of their expanding universe and he had managed to do what battalions of farmers sometimes could not.
The night passed quickly, trees and hoes and butterflies flittering behind Relena's eyelids. She woke up thinking much the same that she had when she fell asleep. Not bothering to change first she climbed out of her bed and went to the window. It was still there.
In her haste she failed to catch sight of the (relatively small) warning on the shower curtains - "15 minute showers at most to conserve limited water supply!". As a result she spent five minutes at the sink, scrubbing suds from her body and hair with relish - oh, oh, cold water, oh - in a mostly-naked state. She felt regret at the water on the floor and mirror but raced from the bathroom to change. With the radio turned on she dried her hair and dressed; at finding the news station was undergoing technical difficulties, she gladly switched to the classical station (perhaps she would get away with having heard next to nothing of what was happening in the week of her absence).
The smell of coffee was pungent once she got herself downstairs. Heero sat a table for three, drinking his second cup. A small buffet was set out and after she chose her breakfast she joined him, a happy grin tugging at her mouth.
"Good morning." Heero stared at her as though diagnosing the expression on her face. She poured a second packet of sugar into her coffee. "Did you happen to see what was outside?" He nodded and she picked up a slab of coffee cake to dunk. "It's so beautiful." She eyed him, munching on the moistened coffee cake. "Heero, are you going to the training center today?" He nodded again and she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "I might ask Mr. Certimo about his garden later, in a free moment." She laughed lightly, quietly. "I'm not sure what to do. The only time I've been on a vacation was with my family."
"You could go to the bathhouse." She cocked her head to the other side.
"I guess I could." Heero stared at her before getting himself another cup of coffee. Relena went on to say, "I..brought a book along, too." She trailed off, turning her wandering mind to her unfinished breakfast. Heero took his time with his coffee, seeming to finish up only when she set her plate on a tray of dirtied dishes. Turning, she gave him a bright, agreeable smile. "Have - a good day, Heero."
"Yeah." He sat for a moment in strangled silence before muttering a goodbye and leaving. Once he was on his way she glanced around expectantly, wondering where she would be able to catch Juan. By chance he graced the doorway to the kitchen and she rushed to catch his attention. Already, he had doffed gardening gloves along with his apron and rubber boots. Smiling indulgently he greeted her, shrugging at not being able to shake hands.
"I saw your garden, Mr. Certimo, from the window in my room." His eyes brightened at her interest.
"Do you like it?"
"It's wonderful - I haven't seen anything like it here."
"Thanks. I'm glad you enjoy it." He chewed at his inner cheek for a moment before adding, "Would you like to see it?" She nodded. He took her through the back of the Inn until the stepped out onto the grounds. The grass started a few feet from the backdoor; in daylight, the garden seemed smaller. Trees bordered much of it but some sapplings were scattered nearer the center; flowers had been seeded in no particular order, adding color to otherwise continuous values of green.
Juan took her in - he stepped softly on the grass, and, feeling hushed by the caution he exhibited so fondly toward his work, so did she - and began by telling of her the first sappling they encountered. He related the manner in which he had aquired the trees - he hadn't grown any from seed, but managed to persuade pilots to bring him baby plants from Earth - ending the tour with the flowers. Though not a gardener by profession or hobby Relena listened - she asked whether he let the soldier's families visit and whether the temperature and conditions were enough to nurture the plants. They finally stopped in the meager shade of one of the larger trees, silent for a moment.
"How long have you - ah, been growing this?"
"Five years."
"Oh." Juan waved a hand around, tempering his pride with reserve.
"It keeps me busy when I get tired of delegating at the Inn." He glanced up at the young canopy above their heads with a thoughtful, near-wistful sigh. "Too bad there isn't anything else here. Birds, all that. It wouldn't be fair to keep 'em trapped here, though."
"What animal life could the garden harbor, though?" Relena asked, doubtful as to whether such little greenery could be much of a home for anything.
"Nothing - but if I could, I'd have hummingbirds here."
"That'd be nice."
"Yeah." He gave a start, peeked at his wristwatch and promptly turned back towards the Inn. "I have some things to do, Ms. Dorlian - you can stay here if you want to." Relena smiled widely at his retreating form.
"Thank you very much, Mr.Certimo!" She called after him. Grinning to herself, she looked to her left at the hammock - and ran towards the Inn for her book and some sunscreen.
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All he had to hold onto the hooks by was his mouth. On all fours, saliva dripping down his shoulder, teeth digging into the metal neck of a medium-sized hook, Heero shouldered his way through the simple venting system below the training center. No one had bothered updating the vents since the colony had been built: updating required money that was already going into training programs and planning none of the board wanted to burden themselves with.
Updating venting systems and the like involved constructing separate vents - sometimes even entire systems separate from the existing one - that wove through the standing vents. It made a working vent system a maze with several dead ends and more looped chutes than a standard rollercoaster, consequently becoming an impractical nuisance to anyone involved though the practice of building them was common.
Heero found himself in what he guessed to be one of the last vent systems never to have been fiddled with. The plans he had with him - a map of the vents presently hooked to a leg underneath his trousers - were wonderfully precise. He didn't miss having to second-guess a good vent system map and groping his way through what would hopefully lead to where he needed to go. Actually, he was even enjoying himself a little. No deadline, no time frame in which to operate, no confusion - though some of these vents had less-than-satisfactory work done on them when they were first installed, what the hell was this doing with a rip, melded metal never gaped when done properly...
The vent bent upwards and Heero, wanting to lick his dry lips but instead clamping further down on the hook with spittle-wettened teeth, dug his elbows and knees into the side of the walls around him to heft his weight up. Grimacing at the weight he carried - extra rope, kevlar vest, headphones connected to a battery and recorder at his hip, a satchel with his regular clothing packed in it, some tools wrapped and strapped to his other hip, and a gun - he cautiously made his way past the third basement - the second - the first - a bend in the vent gave him some relief before continuing up to the ground floor -
Truthfully, he had expected this trip to feel familiar. Perhaps one previous time was not enough to goad him into nostalgia, though the one previous time had been a memorable one.
After all, while the other half to the colony had been blown apart during a meteor shower, it was not due to that meteor shower. The meteor shower was an accomplice, and a very sneaky one - it cloaked the true reason for the explosions that occurred. Naturally, Heero knew - as did his mentor of old days past - that someone, several someones, were aware of what had happened, and why (which was the core of the event). What they were ignorant of was the perpetrator of the act - and Dr. J never intended for them to find out.
Heero felt that, while Dr. J was fond of his hide and willing to committ to almost anything, he had his own sense of honour in that his and Heero's identities had been better than hid - according to the record showing the date of that meteor shower neither a boy of early teen years nor an elderly man with a crippled arm existed on the colony. Now, panting quietly, Heero, the other third of that offending party guilty for the extermination of the other half of the colony, clambered his way back to the scene of the crime. Contrary to what a visitor - or any student of the training center - might see guards were posted with specific orders in more secretive parts of the building.
For while Dr. J had honour he had secrets. He had recently contacted Heero and told him that the object of their former mission - thought to be completed at the time - had sprung up again and that he had to get in and haul it back to oblivion. Though he was not under any contract at present time Heero agreed to do as told as any failure that could be mended was a blemish on his character.
He reached for his leg, wrestled with the material of his trousers for a moment and brought up the vent system map - faintly triumphant at the direct route he was to take he tied the plan to his calf again before continuing. Heero tapped the mouth piece to his headset, jaw tightening.
"Phase two completed - beginning phase three."
"Very good, very good. And Heero?" Dr. J paused. "No rush."
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I would love and cherish all commentary -not only is it great encouragement, but that would tell me that others think this story is at least plausible. I'm having a ball writing this. How's the reading department doing? -Becca-W
7nth chapter already! *sniff* Hope you enjoy it.
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Rachael had argued with her the morning after the conference, just as Relena was finished packing what little she needed for a week-long vacation. Once out of the suite, though, she quieted in contemplation of where she would go, seeing as Relena had every intention on going through with this vacation (which she had to grudgingly admit to). The entire team, having had no real warning beforehand, was thrown off balance by their employer's quick departure and felt yet undecided as to what they would be doing in the time left to them. Meanwhile, the other party, with some grumbling, began churning out the ideas necessary to polish off the project of restoring and rebuilding the older colonies through the second plan.
Their shuttle left early, before the media caught wind of the Vice Foreign Minister Darlian's vacationing abroad, so nothing but the ride to the airport was rushed. Heero, yet reluctant, was silent much of the way but Relena didn't mind. She entertained herself with old memories of the training center, which she really was looking forward to. She wondered if Heero had made any memories there as well, whether he might share or keep to himself. The shuttle ride was generally quiet but for the hum of working machinery and the few passengers on board - a minimum of ten passengers were required to be on a spacecraft as small as this in order to take off, otherwise, the shuttle was too light in its travels to and from destinations.
The training center was located on a well-planned orbit around the moon, sturdy for its age but in danger of experiencing meteor showers. It had once been larger but a section used for storage had been torn off in one such meteor shower, leaving the center to continue alone. That section was never rebuilt and it was decided to balance the center with weighty objects to cement it in its course - at that point, they began training pilots and space GI's in heavy machinery with as-heavy ammunition on top of the equipment they had been using for the past century.
A small inn crowded a corner of the once-planned colony - now barely worth the title, and few called it that nowadays - and it was there Heero sent their luggage. He gave Relena the choice of coming with him or going with the luggage to the Inn: leaving their bags in the hands of a professional errand boy they headed for the training center. The flight had been quick and she was not as tired as she would have felt fresh off a shuttle flight between earth and space, but the strange tension that had sprung up shortly before their flight continued to subdue the conversation.
Being on such small ground lent the place the air of being inside a fish bowl - so obviously tiny in a place very big. On a larger colony, space surrounded a person entirely but there was a horizon to separate the colony from the void: in this case, the edges of the colony were steeply, unevenly rounded, and space pressed in on the glass-plate shell protecting their atmosphere with silent, but consistent ferocity. If one turned in the other direction, one's eye was partially, if not filled with a numbing, sobering view of the moon. It was close enough to see its many eye sockets and the pale, tight, pocked and dipping surface; the Beauty of Earth and the Hag of Space was gone, replaced by something as shockingly ugly as it was startling and poetic.
The layout of the tiny half-colony was this: one large, wide lane in which shuttles rested before or after take-off and a few streets leading from it to form, first of all, a residential area of three buildings - the lodgings of several military families. Next came a small, two-lane street that led to the court of a small Inn, then a couple of storage buildings and a bath house that lay, completely severed from the Inn, on the right. Lastly, another vein of the main street wandered off to sit at the back of the colony, the only way to the training center itself. The area that had been torn off during a meteor shower a decade ago could easily be spotted: a twisted shred of metal, wires and beams extended, like a withered limb, from the side of the half-colony into space.
Despite how small the half-colony was they took a bus to the 'center. It was an unusual ride in which Heero continued to speak monosyllabically, much to the more-gregarious driver's chagrin. Relena watched the edge of the half-colony dip into space with reserve, not impressed by its position in the less-populated regions of the universe. Unwillingly letting her gaze return again and again to the moon Relena joined Heero in his silence, her fingers cramping in her lap as she laced them together. She couldn't remember this from her childhood - she felt back through all those years without reliving the feeling of being in danger of falling off the colony onto the moon, nothing. Apparently, the last visit had left her with fewer memories than she realized, even though it had been one of the few trips she had taken with both her parents.
The bus ride was short; the few buildings acting as apartments for military families came and went; Relena thought she had seen a few lawnchairs around the compound as well as a small playground. The Inn was bare of decoration, settled in the midst of a large lot. Ahead, the center crouched against the wall of the half-colony, a moving van parked out front into which boxes were piled as they approached.
For the next week the training center was open to visitors; students of the center had left earlier as the equipment was packed. Following behind Heero Relena let old memories color the otherwise drab and unmarked surroundings; uneven patches of white on the walls proved the former existence of pictures having once been hung there - plaques and templates, now removed, left behind an outline of where they had previously sat. Though small in outward appearance the training center felt larger once one was inside; space had been oddly wrangled to achieve the largest training rooms possible, creating the smallest of restrooms and broom closets. They passed through one such training room with a dome-shaped ceiling; impressions and markings on the floor vouched for a specific use having been practiced before the dismantling of the colony.
Relena pointed the markings out and asked Heero about them.
"Aries Simulation room. Used to train pilots operating an Aries," He glanced at the ceiling, "Before they were let into battle."
"They had training machines meant specifically for Aries?" She remarked incredulously. "Did they have the same for Leos? And - other dolls?"
"Yeah..somewhere. They served other functions as well - general distress simulations, emergency operation in combat, zero-gravity simulations..." He turned around, glancing over his shoulder as he spoke. "Some undergraduates came here with little experience of being in a spacecraft without gravity control. Under supervision they would practice being in those surroundings." He spoke quietly, his voice never making it past Relena's ears. She nodded.
"My father and I were given a tour of the more touristic views, I suppose. I never saw these rooms. How many students were allowed in a given year?"
"That depended on their type of training."
"Ah." They exited the room through a different door than they had entered - it did not resemble a tourist-friendly hall but Heero seemed to know his way. Staying close to his side Relena caught peeks at things that had not yet been packed - including a memorial statue of an early astronaut, the importance of which eluded her for the time.
She glanced at Heero's face but the expression on it meant little. He seemed intent on walking down the corridor; the only other topic of discussion she felt available was inappropriate, as it referred to what he did before the war, or perhaps, during it. Though her own discomfort would have been slight, had the subject arisen, she felt Heero had long refused preparations for facing it, which would cause him to resent both her and his self at the resurfacing of these unpleasant memories in conversation. Swinging her arms at her sides Relena silently gazed around herself, interested in any scrap of detail the scarce halls contained.
Only a minute later they met with the end of that hall - and came upon a yet untapped view the half-colony offered. Obviously meant to be seen only by the staff - they were too far into the bowels of the training center to have it otherwise - the end of the hall flattened into a glass-plated window meeting cheek-to-cheek with space. The glass was layered and several feet thick but none of this obscurred the clarity of the view. Such a perfectly uncluttered visual drop into the cosmos shocked the gentle passerbyer - it was too unexpected. A handlebar, made of glass as well to better meld into this seemingly 'perfect' view, offered a place to hold onto. Heero set his hands on it but it took a moment for Relena to feel comfortable laying her grasp on the bar; chiding herself for this fear she stepped up to it, finding that she could see almost past her feet and below the colony.
Eyes widening, she forced herself to adjust as quickly as the other. Only a section of the moon was visible, and then only in her peripheral vision: glowing light and hazy distances reminded her of the expanse of what she was seeing. The actuality, the raw reality, of space never hit a person as they expected - it was too immense to properly register in one's mind. A group of stars to the right were nonexistent - the light they had once given off transcended the years they had been dead until they reached the few that could attach importance to them. Without consciously trying she saw the end of the galaxy, though all she thought she saw was an incalculable distance, a muzzy black wall. The far-off haze she could focus on in some places might well have been separate universes - who and how many might be looking in her direction from there?....
Just don't look down.
You looked down.
I'm going to fall!
"Mother always preferred Earth to..to Space." Relena began; her eyes remained wide but she felt more at ease talking. "Shuttle rides are so cramped if you're not used to them. She always got sick - they never serve food and she never ate before a flight, so she always had a stomach ache. And usually, we left home because of my father's business, so it never felt entirely like the vacation she wanted. Not that I remember her coming along too often, either - I didn't go all the time, too, of course..but...." She took a breath, glancing down again. "The war we witnessed seems so insignificant here. All this - we nearly tore up our own race, but out here, who cares? This - is a constant war." She remained quiet for a moment, thoughtful. "I couldn't ever be surprised that man forced its way into being out here. It was meant to be, if you belief in fate." With a sideways glance at Heero, she smiled, shakily, adding, "I prefer faith, myself." Hooded eyes caught up with her own and she thought he agreed.
Relena felt a sudden impulse come on and she twitched at the mentioning of it. Glancing away and back at Heero she raised her left foot - all the while being extremely conscious of the results of this impulse, and her foot - and, setting it down closer to where Heero stood, reached out with a hand to take one of his. Her fingers curled around it, passing over the skin of his knuckles to his palm. She could feel old callouses dissolving on his skin there. Eyes drifting up towards his face again, she felt the weight of his stare before she met it.
Two spirits watching a great, massively colliding war - one Dorothy spotted before she ever left Earth's atmosphere - watched reservedly and with their own doubts. In the end, the war continued, but their eyes turned from it to each other. Power might challenge and win over, but could never compete with compassionate, impassioned understanding, regardless of the way both molded the outcome of a history.
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The Inn was pleasantly headed by Juan Certimo, whose duties ranged from cooking and cleaning to managing the hotel. In the days they stayed there Relena never once saw a maid - rather, she saw Juan perform all necessary chores. In the mornings, he wore an apron (kitchen duty) over rubber boots (plumbing service) - in the afternoon, he usually wore an old jogging suit while washing sheets. Unless a shuttle was destined to land that day he never changed his routine - or attire.
Juan informed them that their luggage had already been brought to their apartments; then he gave them a small menu containing meal choices and times (no room service). Keys in hand Relena and Heero trouped up to their separate rooms - at either end of a hall. Smiling, Relena nodded, spoke a farewell and trod into her small suite. Not quite a suite, admittedly - a tiny bathroom and a separate room with a bed and set of drawers in it. Without a desk to tempt her Relena had no reason to bring out the little work she had brought along. Other than a radio there were no appliances, either - a phone was kept downstairs for calls. At approaching the bed Relena could smell the detergent that had been used (certainly not an unpleasant odor - something along the lines of "Mountain freshness", perhaps). The sheets were tightly stretched across the mattress, so much so that she could have played with jacks on its surface.
There was nothing there that would befit the needs of a relaxing vacation, other than the company. No greenery, as gardens were exceptionally hard to grow even on moonfarms, and other than the bathhouse and the training center no place to visit. The only restaurant in the area sat below her, in Juan's cafeteria. There was little visual appeal about the half-colony as much of its glory came from its history rather than its concrete-and-iron-wrought being. Yet Relena never felt more surprised than when she looked out the window at the back of the Inn to see the stars.
A view of the moon took up much of her immediate attention, goring her eyes with its startling, pockmarked appearance. (She would never become accustomed to the brilliant, pale white and gray of its skin, she knew that already - it seemed like some blind man's warped vision of mother of pearl). Once she could rip her eyes from it her gaze wandered below - and into a well-kept, orderly patch of green, maybe 14 by 20 feet in size. Real grass, thick and long, and small, ornamental - but real! - trees. Dainty shrubbery and various kinds of flowers - a hammock held up between two posts.
She was so quickly, suddenly reminded of her home - and that of her biological parents' - that it stung. Though she abstained from working in it her mother always enjoyed the garden, and her father used to walk on the footpaths at night with Relena as a child before leaving for a business meeting outside of the state. Everyone has memories of a garden, somewhere, and it takes very little to bring them out. In this case, with the moon just a few miles from where she stood above Juan's garden, Relena's thoughts jumbled about in their discovery, one so profound she could not remove herself from the window for ten minutes. So much was reminding her of her parents on this trip and it had only been a day.
She meant to bring about the topic of the garden the next morning, at breakfast. Perhaps he would explain its origins. Glancing around, she remembered that the closest moonfarm was ten miles away; the efforts of bringing about plant life in a place devoid of the necessary resources was astounding and difficult - that the few that existed did so well was mind-rattling. Here was one man's effort in a corner of their expanding universe and he had managed to do what battalions of farmers sometimes could not.
The night passed quickly, trees and hoes and butterflies flittering behind Relena's eyelids. She woke up thinking much the same that she had when she fell asleep. Not bothering to change first she climbed out of her bed and went to the window. It was still there.
In her haste she failed to catch sight of the (relatively small) warning on the shower curtains - "15 minute showers at most to conserve limited water supply!". As a result she spent five minutes at the sink, scrubbing suds from her body and hair with relish - oh, oh, cold water, oh - in a mostly-naked state. She felt regret at the water on the floor and mirror but raced from the bathroom to change. With the radio turned on she dried her hair and dressed; at finding the news station was undergoing technical difficulties, she gladly switched to the classical station (perhaps she would get away with having heard next to nothing of what was happening in the week of her absence).
The smell of coffee was pungent once she got herself downstairs. Heero sat a table for three, drinking his second cup. A small buffet was set out and after she chose her breakfast she joined him, a happy grin tugging at her mouth.
"Good morning." Heero stared at her as though diagnosing the expression on her face. She poured a second packet of sugar into her coffee. "Did you happen to see what was outside?" He nodded and she picked up a slab of coffee cake to dunk. "It's so beautiful." She eyed him, munching on the moistened coffee cake. "Heero, are you going to the training center today?" He nodded again and she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "I might ask Mr. Certimo about his garden later, in a free moment." She laughed lightly, quietly. "I'm not sure what to do. The only time I've been on a vacation was with my family."
"You could go to the bathhouse." She cocked her head to the other side.
"I guess I could." Heero stared at her before getting himself another cup of coffee. Relena went on to say, "I..brought a book along, too." She trailed off, turning her wandering mind to her unfinished breakfast. Heero took his time with his coffee, seeming to finish up only when she set her plate on a tray of dirtied dishes. Turning, she gave him a bright, agreeable smile. "Have - a good day, Heero."
"Yeah." He sat for a moment in strangled silence before muttering a goodbye and leaving. Once he was on his way she glanced around expectantly, wondering where she would be able to catch Juan. By chance he graced the doorway to the kitchen and she rushed to catch his attention. Already, he had doffed gardening gloves along with his apron and rubber boots. Smiling indulgently he greeted her, shrugging at not being able to shake hands.
"I saw your garden, Mr. Certimo, from the window in my room." His eyes brightened at her interest.
"Do you like it?"
"It's wonderful - I haven't seen anything like it here."
"Thanks. I'm glad you enjoy it." He chewed at his inner cheek for a moment before adding, "Would you like to see it?" She nodded. He took her through the back of the Inn until the stepped out onto the grounds. The grass started a few feet from the backdoor; in daylight, the garden seemed smaller. Trees bordered much of it but some sapplings were scattered nearer the center; flowers had been seeded in no particular order, adding color to otherwise continuous values of green.
Juan took her in - he stepped softly on the grass, and, feeling hushed by the caution he exhibited so fondly toward his work, so did she - and began by telling of her the first sappling they encountered. He related the manner in which he had aquired the trees - he hadn't grown any from seed, but managed to persuade pilots to bring him baby plants from Earth - ending the tour with the flowers. Though not a gardener by profession or hobby Relena listened - she asked whether he let the soldier's families visit and whether the temperature and conditions were enough to nurture the plants. They finally stopped in the meager shade of one of the larger trees, silent for a moment.
"How long have you - ah, been growing this?"
"Five years."
"Oh." Juan waved a hand around, tempering his pride with reserve.
"It keeps me busy when I get tired of delegating at the Inn." He glanced up at the young canopy above their heads with a thoughtful, near-wistful sigh. "Too bad there isn't anything else here. Birds, all that. It wouldn't be fair to keep 'em trapped here, though."
"What animal life could the garden harbor, though?" Relena asked, doubtful as to whether such little greenery could be much of a home for anything.
"Nothing - but if I could, I'd have hummingbirds here."
"That'd be nice."
"Yeah." He gave a start, peeked at his wristwatch and promptly turned back towards the Inn. "I have some things to do, Ms. Dorlian - you can stay here if you want to." Relena smiled widely at his retreating form.
"Thank you very much, Mr.Certimo!" She called after him. Grinning to herself, she looked to her left at the hammock - and ran towards the Inn for her book and some sunscreen.
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All he had to hold onto the hooks by was his mouth. On all fours, saliva dripping down his shoulder, teeth digging into the metal neck of a medium-sized hook, Heero shouldered his way through the simple venting system below the training center. No one had bothered updating the vents since the colony had been built: updating required money that was already going into training programs and planning none of the board wanted to burden themselves with.
Updating venting systems and the like involved constructing separate vents - sometimes even entire systems separate from the existing one - that wove through the standing vents. It made a working vent system a maze with several dead ends and more looped chutes than a standard rollercoaster, consequently becoming an impractical nuisance to anyone involved though the practice of building them was common.
Heero found himself in what he guessed to be one of the last vent systems never to have been fiddled with. The plans he had with him - a map of the vents presently hooked to a leg underneath his trousers - were wonderfully precise. He didn't miss having to second-guess a good vent system map and groping his way through what would hopefully lead to where he needed to go. Actually, he was even enjoying himself a little. No deadline, no time frame in which to operate, no confusion - though some of these vents had less-than-satisfactory work done on them when they were first installed, what the hell was this doing with a rip, melded metal never gaped when done properly...
The vent bent upwards and Heero, wanting to lick his dry lips but instead clamping further down on the hook with spittle-wettened teeth, dug his elbows and knees into the side of the walls around him to heft his weight up. Grimacing at the weight he carried - extra rope, kevlar vest, headphones connected to a battery and recorder at his hip, a satchel with his regular clothing packed in it, some tools wrapped and strapped to his other hip, and a gun - he cautiously made his way past the third basement - the second - the first - a bend in the vent gave him some relief before continuing up to the ground floor -
Truthfully, he had expected this trip to feel familiar. Perhaps one previous time was not enough to goad him into nostalgia, though the one previous time had been a memorable one.
After all, while the other half to the colony had been blown apart during a meteor shower, it was not due to that meteor shower. The meteor shower was an accomplice, and a very sneaky one - it cloaked the true reason for the explosions that occurred. Naturally, Heero knew - as did his mentor of old days past - that someone, several someones, were aware of what had happened, and why (which was the core of the event). What they were ignorant of was the perpetrator of the act - and Dr. J never intended for them to find out.
Heero felt that, while Dr. J was fond of his hide and willing to committ to almost anything, he had his own sense of honour in that his and Heero's identities had been better than hid - according to the record showing the date of that meteor shower neither a boy of early teen years nor an elderly man with a crippled arm existed on the colony. Now, panting quietly, Heero, the other third of that offending party guilty for the extermination of the other half of the colony, clambered his way back to the scene of the crime. Contrary to what a visitor - or any student of the training center - might see guards were posted with specific orders in more secretive parts of the building.
For while Dr. J had honour he had secrets. He had recently contacted Heero and told him that the object of their former mission - thought to be completed at the time - had sprung up again and that he had to get in and haul it back to oblivion. Though he was not under any contract at present time Heero agreed to do as told as any failure that could be mended was a blemish on his character.
He reached for his leg, wrestled with the material of his trousers for a moment and brought up the vent system map - faintly triumphant at the direct route he was to take he tied the plan to his calf again before continuing. Heero tapped the mouth piece to his headset, jaw tightening.
"Phase two completed - beginning phase three."
"Very good, very good. And Heero?" Dr. J paused. "No rush."
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I would love and cherish all commentary -not only is it great encouragement, but that would tell me that others think this story is at least plausible. I'm having a ball writing this. How's the reading department doing? -Becca-W