A New Ally (1) Ch. 5: New Acquaintances and More Mysteries
Aly was sitting on the edge of her bunk, just about to fall back and fall asleep when the door opened. Two people entered the room laughing and chattering. Aly looked up curiously. She couldn't make out anything other than the people's silhouettes, which were outlined by the dim light of the hallway. They half floated, half walked all the way in the door. The second one, the shorter one of the two, gently closed the door. Aly could see them completely now. She recognized the taller one as Noin and figured the other girl was the technician that Quatre had mentioned. Noin halted her laughter suddenly when she noticed Aly.
"Aly? What are you doing here?" Noin asked, looking surprised to see her. Aly smiled slightly.
"Came to help out the other pilots with the upcoming battle." Aly answered. Noin nodded.
"Oh, I see...Hey wait a minute, so that means you're the pilot of the other gundam Skye and I saw in the cargo hold...?" Noin said as she pieced things together. Aly nodded.
"Well this is great! I guess we get to be bunkmates for a while; which means I get the chance to get to know you better." Noin said enthusiastically. Aly simply nodded again. She glanced towards the other girl in the room who was now leaning against the door with her arms folded across her chest. Aly looked her over carefully. She had short blonde hair and hazel-green eyes. She looked about Aly's age and was about an inch or two shorter than Aly was. Aly slid off her bed and drifted over to her. She held out her hand in a polite gesture.
"Hi. I'm Aly; I don't believe we've met before..." Aly said slowly, not sure if this girl was the type of person who would want to get to know her. The girl quickly stood up straight and smiled broadly.
"Nice to meetcha Aly. My name's Skye. I'm one of the Mobile Suit technicians here on the PeaceMillion." The girl said in a bubbly and friendly tone as she shook Aly's hand. Skye looked happy that Aly had made the effort to talk to her. She had been feeling somewhat left out when Noin had been talking with Aly.
"Nice to meet you as well Skye." Aly answered.
"Well, now that we're all aquatinted...can we go to sleep?" Skye asked with a yawn. Noin and Aly laughed lightly.
"Sounds good to me." Aly said. Noin nodded.
"I agree." Noin added as she drifted over to the bunk Aly had been sitting on and pulled herself up onto the top bunk. Skye climbed onto the top bunk of the one opposite of Aly and Noin's and slid under the covers. Aly switched off the light and floated over to her bed. She pulled back the sheets and laid down. She pulled the sheets up under her arms and closed her eyes. Skye leaned over the side of her bunk and peered down at Aly.
"Hey Aly!" Skye whispered. Aly opened her eyes slowly and glanced up at Skye's figure outlined in shadows. She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on one elbow.
"Yeah?" Aly asked.
"Don't take it the wrong way that I wanted to go to sleep. I'm just really tired. I didn't mean to sound rude or anything." Skye whispered. Aly shrugged slightly.
"I wasn't offended. It's completely understandable that you might be tired." Aly whispered back.
"Ok, just checking." Skye said. "G'night."
"Good night." Aly said as she lay back down. Skye settled back onto her bunk and closed her eyes. Aly could tell by Skye's heavy breathing that she was already fast asleep. She could also hear Noin's rhythmic breathing and knew that she was asleep as well.
Aly lay for a while with her eyes closed and thought. In her mind she replayed the scene of when she had first been introduced to the rest of the gundam pilots. She figured she'd get along with all of them well enough; well, maybe not Wufei. But then again, first impressions weren't always the best ones to go by. Aly decided she would have more time to think about those things in the morning. She rolled onto her side and fell into a light sleep.
Aly awoke and glanced at the neon numbered clock on the desk that was against the wall in front of her. It was about four-ten in the morning. Aly had been waking up off and on for the past few hours. She kept trying to sleep so she would be well rested for the upcoming battle, but sleep kept evading her. Aly finally gave up on trying to get back to sleep and pushed back the sheets. She swung her legs over the side of the bunk and sat up slowly.
After she had listened to make sure Noin and Skye were still asleep before she stood up and drifted towards the door. She opened the door and slipped out without a sound. The hallway was dimly lit with red night-lights so that there would be enough light to see, but not enough to hurt people's eyes. Aly grabbed a tow bar and was pulled down the hallway. She headed for the room Quatre had mentioned everyone hung out in when they had any free time; the "Gundam Pilot Commons" as he had called it.
When Aly reached the door, she pushed the button and the door slid back. She drifted in and looked about the dim, red-lit room as the door slid shut behind her. She noticed Heero sitting at the table, typing on his laptop. He looked up when he heard the door open and close. He had an irritated look on his face as he noticed Aly.
"Oh. Sorry. I didn't think anyone else would be up." Aly said. "I didn't mean to bother you... I'll leave." Aly started to turn around and drift out the door when Heero spoke up.
"No it's ok; I was just aggravated with my computer." Heero said monotonously.
"Oh." Aly said simply. She felt somewhat uncomfortable and tried to cover it up by starting a conversation.
"So what're you working on?" Aly asked. Heero hesitated before telling her. At first he wasn't sure if he should tell Aly. After some thought, Heero realized that if they were going to be allies, he shouldn't keep something from her that he would tell his other fellow gundam pilots.
"I'm trying to hack into the OZ headquarters main system and get more information on the mobile dolls we fought in the last battle in case we go up against them again."
"I see. Any luck?" Aly asked casually.
"That's what I was frustrated about; I can't figure out one of these damn codes they have." Heero hated feeling like he couldn't do something. He was always successful and he couldn't stand the fact that a computer of all things was beating him. Heero felt like an idiot after he'd said that. He never admitted when he couldn't do something.
"Maybe I can help." Aly said as she drifted over.
"You know anything about hacking?" Heero asked. Aly stood next to him and peered at the screen.
"A thing or two." Aly said with a shrug. "May I?" She asked as she pointed at the laptop.
"You can try." Heero never let anyone touch his laptop, yet he figured there wasn't a lot of harm Aly could do. And who knew, maybe she could help him out. Aly leaned over Heero to reach the keyboard and typed swiftly. The computer beeped and the screen showed a progress bar that said the information from the OZ database was being downloaded. Aly stood up straight.
"There you go." Aly said as she made a 'have at it' gesture towards the laptop. Heero had watched her type in the codes and wondered why he hadn't thought of the same thing.
"How'd you figure out what sequence to use?" Heero asked as he watched the progress bar. It flashed that it would take five minutes for the rest of the information to download. Aly shrugged.
"Well, thanks." Heero said awkwardly. He wasn't really used to thanking people and thanking Aly felt alien to him.
'Hrm, so he does have the ability to be grateful...' Aly thought as she remembered how Heero hadn't even thanked her for saving his life the previous morning.
"No problem." Aly said as she drifted over to the built in-the-wall mini-refrigerator and got herself a bottle of water. She floated back over to the table and sat down across from Heero.
"So what're you doing up so late?" Aly asked as she took a drink of her water. She wasn't really into talking to strangers, but the silence was even more discomforting. Heero wasn't really into being conversational either, but he didn't really seem to mind talking to Aly. Heero pondered over this momentarily before answering. He finally concluded that the awkward silence must have been getting to him as well.
"I just haven't been able to get much sleep lately." Heero said. Aly nodded understandingly.
"What about you? Why are you up late?" Heero asked.
"I dunno, I guess I'm nervous that I have to stay here and work with all these people I've just met." Aly admitted. It was Heero's turn to nod.
"It must make you feel uncomfortable." Heero said. Aly nodded again.
"Yeah, I think that Wufei guy really doesn't like me." Aly said slowly.
"Wufei doesn't like anyone." Heero said simply. He had a half smirk, half smile as he said that. Aly figured he must have found it amusing somehow. It was the first time she had seen any real expression on Heero's face. She smiled slightly; glad to see he wasn't really as emotionless as she had originally thought him to be.
"You find it amusing that he doesn't get along with anyone?" Aly asked.
"I just find it amusing that there's someone who's more arrogant and stubborn than I am." Heero said with the same half smirk, half smile as before. There was a gap of silence between Aly and Heero. Aly tilted her head slightly at Heero in curiosity.
"So why are you talking to me? I mean no offense, but you kinda struck me as the non-conversational type." Aly said carefully, trying not to be offensive. Heero didn't answer. Aly figured she must have said the wrong thing.
"Sorry. I didn't mean sound rude or make false assumptions." Aly said. Heero shook his head quickly.
"No, you weren't being rude at all. What you said is true I'm not really one for having conversations." Heero said.
"Then why are you talking to me?" Aly asked with a quirked eyebrow. For the first time since Heero could remember, he was at a loss for words. Why was he talking to some girl he didn't know? He had just met her, yet there he was, joking with her. Heero never joked with anyone. He noticed that Aly was waiting for an answer so he thought of a reply.
"I don't know. But you don't seem like the conversational type either." Heero said slowly. Aly tilted her head back to its normal vertical position and lowered her eyebrow.
"You're right. I'm not. I usually don't like being a conversationalist unless I'm talking to someone I know well." Aly replied with a shrug. Heero nodded.
"I think it's better to be talking to you then to be hated." Aly said with the hint of a smile. Heero nodded.
"Yeah." Heero said it as though he were pondering the same thing. There was another long pause of silence between Aly and Heero then. Neither of them could think of anything to say. Heero's laptop beeped again, signaling that it was done downloading the information from the OZ database. Heero and Aly were both secretly relieved because it meant they wouldn't have to worry about the awkward silence anymore. Heero started scrolling through the information. Aly floated around the table again and stood behind Heero to see the screen.
"Hn." Heero murmured thoughtfully.
"'Hn.' What?" Aly asked.
"Well those mobile dolls we fought the other day, they're nothing like the OZ mobile dolls." Hero said slowly.
"What do you mean?" Aly asked. Heero pointed at one corner of the screen where there was a picture of a mobile doll.
"This is a picture of one of the mobile dolls from the last battle. I got it from the camera on the Wing Zero." Heero began.
"Yeah...?" Aly said, urging him to continue.
"Well none of OZ's mobile dolls look anything like it." Heero said. He pushed the "enter" button on his keyboard and an OZ mobile doll popped up. He pushed the "enter" button several more times and several more mobile doll designs came up on screen.
"You're right. The beam riffles are completely different. The tops of these mobile dolls are a lot rounder. And the whole shape of the mobile suit itself is different. The mobile doll from the last battle looks more like a Leo mixed with a Cancer than a Taurus..." Aly observed. Heero nodded.
"Exactly. What I don't understand is if they're not from OZ, then who sent them out? I've already checked White Fang's databases and the mobile dolls don't match any of theirs either..." Heero said. "Do you know of any large organizations besides White Fang and OZ who could have made mobile dolls like these?"
"No...I'm as clueless as you are." Aly answered. Aly's watch beeped. She glanced at it and read the time.
"Well whatever it is, we're gonna have to figure it out later. It's already four-thirty. We've gotta head out in about fifteen minutes." Aly said. Heero nodded.
"The others will be getting up soon. We should head to the cargo hold, they're meeting us there." Heero said. Aly nodded. Heero shut off his laptop and picked it up off the table. He and Aly drifted out the door. Aly grabbed the tow bar and held out a hand to Heero so he could be pulled as well. Heero held his laptop to his chest with one hand and grabbed onto Aly's hand with the other. The tow bar pulled the two of them towards the cargo hold.
When Aly and Heero reached the cargo hold, they found the other pilots were already there, waiting for them. The six pilots all headed to the platforms of their individual gundams. Aly drifted down a platform and climbed into the cockpit of the Ice Angel. She immediately switched the system on. The door of the cockpit shut with a hiss. Aly's center screen was lit up with images of all the other pilots.
"Everybody ready?" Trowa asked. Everyone said "yes" and Trowa opened the door of the cargo hold. He flared the thrusters of his gundam and zoomed out the hatch. The others zoomed out after him. Once all the gundams were out side of the PeaceMillion, Heero spoke.
"Right now we're about ten miles from L9. We're going to go the rest of the way and wait about half a mile off the north side of the colony. We'll have a view of the whole colony from that angle. Everyone got it?" Heero asked. Once everyone was ready, the gundams all zoomed off towards L9.
Something was very wrong. The gundam pilots knew that. They had reached L9 three hours earlier and there had been no sign of any enemy mobile suits or mobile suit carriers. Aly's center screen lit up with an image of Duo.
"Well there hasn't been anything on the news. No sign of attacks anywhere." Duo said. The Gundam pilots had all been watching international, Earth and Colony news for the past few hours to see if there were attacks anywhere else. Quatre came onto Aly's right screen.
"Aly, you said your father was the one who told you there was going to be an attack on L9 right?" Quatre asked. Aly nodded.
"Yeah. He didn't tell me where he got the lead from though." Aly replied.
"Can you contact your father from here?" Duo asked.
"Yeah, I think I can get a connection with his office phone." Aly said.
"Do it then. Ask him what he knows. I'm gonna try to get a hold of Noin back on the Peacemillion. She was the one who told us about this mission right before you showed up." Duo said. Aly nodded again and hit a few buttons.
Heero, Wufei, and Trowa, whom had been listening from the same connection, all sat in silence and waited for Aly to contact her father. Aly drummed her fingers on her knee as she waited for the satellites to connect her to L7. There was a hissing sound like a modem connecting to the internet. A voice came on the line.
"Hello?" The Foreign Minister's voice asked. Aly cut the link between her gundam and the others', wanting to have a private conversation with her father. The images of Duo and Quatre disappeared from her screens.
"It's me." Aly said simply. Her father came up on her center screen.
"Aly?" The Foreign Minister said with disbelief. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes something is very wrong. Is anyone else in the room with you?" Aly asked.
"No, no one's in the office but me." Foreign Minister Tayeari replied. "What's wrong?"
"We're at L9. We've been here three hours and no sign of any disturbances anywhere..." Aly said.
"That's strange...the lead I had was a very reliable source. I don't understand how I could have received inaccurate information like that." Tayeari said slowly.
"Who was your source?" Aly asked. The Foreign Minister started to answer but he was cut off by static. The image grew fuzzy and flickered.
"Father? I'm losing you..." Aly switched frequencies. "Are you still there?" Her only reply was the hissing static. Trowa connected a line with the other gundam pilots.
"Uh guys. We've got a problem. Check the 658 news...a satellite over by L7 was just blown up!" Trowa said quickly. Aly hit a few keys on the key pad and the news came on her center screen. She stared in utter shock at the image before her. A satellite was engulfed in flames and pieces of charred scrap metal were scattered about.
Aly saw something flicker past the camera and swore under her breath. A Mobile Doll came on camera. It was pointing a beam riffle at another satellite. There was a bright flash as the second satellite exploded.
"We're at the wrong damned colony!" Duo exclaimed.
"We've gotta get to L7! Let's go now!" Aly said urgently. She flared the Ice Angel's thrusters and sped off in the direction of L7. The others were not far behind. The mobile doll turned and faced the news camera. It pointed its beam riffle and fired. The screen went fuzzy. Aly turned on the sound and listened to the reporter speak.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, our news satellite has just been destroyed. We are trying to connect to our other satellites, but are having technical difficulties at this time. For those of you just now watching, the satellites around L7 are being destroyed by an unidentified mobile suit. We are trying to connect to the L7 Colony at this time to see if we can speak to their officials. One of our news satellites has just been destroyed as well." The reporter said urgently. Aly muted the news. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She hoped that they would make it in time.
By the time the gundam pilots had reached L7, all the mobile dolls were gone. The pilots were relieved to see that L7 was still there. The only damage done was to the satellites around the colony. They had been completely destroyed. Bits and pieces of charred metal were scattered all around the colony. The debris was pulled in the colony's orbit, making a ring around it similar to the rings around the planet Saturn. Only, the rings around the colony weren't the pretty yellow color Saturn's rings were. The rings around the colony were black and silver from charred metal.
Some worker mobile suits had gathered up some of the debris and loaded it on to a transport shuttle, but the work had been slow going and not much had been accomplished. The gundam pilots were a ways off from the colony so that they were not spotted by any of the people cleaning up the debris.
"What now? The mobile dolls are long gone." Aly said as she connected a line with the other pilots. Heero came on the line.
"I think we should head back to the Peacemillion." Heero said. The others all agreed. They checked one last time for any signs of mobile dolls before they turned around and headed for the Peacemillion.
When the gundam pilots returned to the Peacemillion late that evening, they were tired, they were hungry, and their gundams needed refueling. Before any of these things were taken care of, the gundam pilots went to find Noin and find out what she knew.
The following day, Aly and the other pilots were sat together in the "Gundam Pilot Commons" and conversed.
When the gundam pilots had returned to the Peacemillion from L7, they had sought out Noin and asked her if she had any ideas why they had been sent to the wrong place. Noin had been just as clueless as they had. She had gotten her information from an old OZ contact that, similar to the Foreign Minister's contact, had never given out false information before.
After that, the pilots had all decided to eat and discuss what their next plan of action would be. The gundam pilots had decided to wait for another sign of disturbance in the colonies before they went out into action again. They were all very anxious to go out and do something. The long calm was becoming nerve-wracking. There had not been that long of a calm between attacks in ages. They knew it was simply the quiet before the storm. The gundam pilots could only wait and expect the worst.
The gundam pilots' conversation that day had been nothing more than a rehashing of their conversation from the previous evening. Everyone decided unanimously that the meeting was over and parted ways. Quatre, Trowa, and Duo decided to stay in the commons and play cards. Heero had left without telling anyone where he was going; no one had bothered to ask him either. Aly decided against playing cards and instead went back to her room to spend some alone, thinking time.
Once Aly was in her room, she sat on her bed, slipped off her shoes, then pulled her legs up onto the bed so that she was sitting "indian style". She placed her elbows on her knees and balanced her chin on her open palms. She had not been thinking long when Skye entered the room.
"Hey Aly. How'd the meeting go?" Skye asked with her characteristic grin lighting up her face. Aly had told Skye everything that had happened the previous night after she and Noin had returned to the dorm. Skye also had known that Aly and the other gundam pilots had planned to meet that afternoon to discuss the situation some more. Aly sat up straight and smiled back at Skye.
"All right. We just repeated most of our conversation from last night. Nothing new. We're still waiting for a disturbance." Aly replied. "How did mechanics go?"
"Fine. I installed that upgraded communications system in your gundam for you."
"Thanks. I was going to install it later tonight. I guess I have some extra free time now."
"No problem. I was bored anyway." Skye said with a shrug. They both looked at the closed door after they heard someone knocking loudly. Skye, who had still been standing, opened the door.
Duo stood in the doorway. Skye stepped aside so he could walk in. He stood in front of Aly's bed. Skye walked over to join them. Duo watched her. When she was closer to him, he eyed her curiously.
"You must be Aly's roomie...Skye right?" Duo asked, grinning at Skye. She smiled back at him.
"Yeah. And you're Duo right?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.
"The one and only." Duo grinned wider. He looked away from Skye and turned to Aly.
"I just wanted to stop by and let you know that dinner's going to be ready soon in the cafeteria." Duo said. Aly nodded. Duo then turned to Skye.
"You want to sit with us?" Duo asked. Skye thought about it briefly. She didn't really have specific people she sat with during meals. She didn't really know anyone there all that well. She had joined the Peacemillion MS tech. crew about three days before the gundam pilots had shown up.
"Sure." Skye said.
"Cool. I'll see you two in the cafeteria in about 15 minutes then." Duo said. Aly and Skye nodded. Duo let himself out and closed the door behind himself.
After he had exited, Skye and Aly shared a look. They both burst into laughter.
"It appears as though he likes you." Aly said after she stopped laughing. She felt great. She had not laughed that much in a very long time.
"Yes, it would appear that way." Skye agreed. She and Aly shared a smile. She and Skye had only known each other for about two days, but they both realized in that moment that they would be great friends one day.
Aly turned back to the topic now tweaking the edge of her mind.
"So, what do you think of him?" Aly asked.
"Well, I think he's cute and all, but I really don't know him. I guess I need more time to form an opinion of him." Skye said thoughtfully. "Although, he gave me a pretty good first impression...and my first impressions are usual pretty accurate..." Skye shrugged. Aly smiled at Skye's out loud, mental rationalization.
"We'll find out later. For now, let's go to the cafeteria." Aly said, standing up. Skye beamed.
"Great I'm starving!" Skye said enthusiastically.
"That's what you said at breakfast...and lunch." Aly said as she headed for the door. She glanced briefly at Skye. Skye seemed pretty well fit for always being hungry.
"I can't help it! Killer metabolisms run in my family. I'm always hungry." Skye said. Aly laughed.
"You and Duo do have something in common: you're both always hungry...and apparently you can both eat a ton and never gain any weight." Aly said as she and Skye walked out the door. Skye laughed.
"Ok." She said simply.
-End of Chapter 8-
Author's Notes: Kori, to answer your semi'question/thought...I'm not giving away any character pairings. They're going to go in a total loop. I like to set up stories. Which, I'm in the process of doing, but I'm not saying HY and AT are definately NOT together winks Any wayz, please review minna-san! It means soooooo much to me! Domo arigatou!
-Alyrain