My apologies for the name change in here for the "new" character Aoi Nanase—from this point on, Aoi Saijyou. She, and her two Nerv operator friends who'll appear soon in the story, are taken from one of the Japan-only Evangelion Games, "The Shinji Raising Project." Not having the ability to read Japanese, I tried researching Aoi's last name, and came up with Nanase, but one of my bosses—and editor at Anime Insider magazine, pointed out that it was really Saijyou. So, from now on, she's Aoi Saijyou! I'll try to change her name in the last couple of posts, but since I'm really lazy and probably won't get to it for a while, I'll add this disclaimer here. -Miguel
"Are we ready for this?"
Aoi Saijyou stared out into the growing mass of people assembling before her. News of electricity starting up had spread like wildfire, and it seemed as if everyone had wanted to be present for the moment. Multitudes of chemical sticks dotted the throng and filled the room with their soft luminescent green glow. Even in the massive hall of the Terminal Dogma control center, the air was thick with the stench and heavy breath of nearly all of the Nerv survivors, wounded and able-bodied alike. No one, however, was mentioning the fact that the number of Nerv's personnel was exponentially larger, prior to the Third Impact. No one mentioned the dead, or missing.
"Can we really do this," she asked no one in particular, though she gave a quick glance to Makoto. Even so high above them, the throng and their din were intimidating. Just a half hour ago, Aoi's faith in her abilities as a technician and a scientist was unshakable, but with so many surivivors before her, she realized that mankind's fate hinged upon this moment, upon her and her team's efforts.
The higher-ranked technician beside her smiled and nodded, then glanced at Shinji, whose thoughts were obviously elsewhere. On Asuka and her operation, Makoto guessed.
"We must. There's no other way to survive in this world. Do you want to give the signal?"
Aoi nodded, and raised her hand in the air for attention. The room quickly fell into a hush at her signal. Technicians, already at work, stopped and fell into small teams clustered around the exposed circuitry and hardware of the three supercomputers before the operators' stations.
Although designed and built over a decade ago by the first leader of the science department of Project-E, the supercomputers--called the Magi--ran trillions of calculations per second, dedicated to tactical scenarios against Angel attacks and running the day-to-day operations of not only Nerv's headquarters, but all of Japan as well. Seeing them at rest made Aoi feel nervous. Vulnerable, almost.
"We've got a job," she began. Her voice wavered, but as she stared at the hope in all of their eyes, her resolve quickened. "We don't know what's going on yet, not really, in the outside world. But we're scientists and engineers, almost all of us, and we've still got a job to do. Let's restore power to the headquarters, first, and then we'll take things from there."
A deafening roar errupted from the assembly, as chem sticks flashed and rattled in the darkness as fists pumped into the air. Aoi opened her mouth to speak, but Makoto placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Let them have this moment, he seemed to say. She turned back to the crowd, waited for them to quiet themselves.
"The Third Impact-- which is what Sub-Commander Fuyutski was calling it, while it was happening-- shut down everything," she began again, "including the generators. Which we now have online. All we have to do now is turn the circuit breakers back on, reboot MAGI who'll then start up the rest of the system on its own, and we should be back in business."
Another explosion of cheers arose as the various teams dispersed to the three MAGI compounds, and Aoi stepped back to allow them to do their duties. Each easily the size of a small room, the MAGI terminals of Balthasar, Gaspar and Melchior were mazes of encased wires, coolant pipes and circuit boards protected under de-ionized plating. It had taken a full two hours to raise them from the ground manually, and now that they were this close, it felt like everyone collectively held their breath in anticipation.
"Pumping the primers!" called one of the technicians. Shinji watched as two of them struggled to raise and lower large, flat and gray handles on each of the MAGI compounds. A loud click was heard for each of them as the technicians called out again, "Primers charged!"
"Closing contacts!" came another round of announcements, as buttons were pressed. Instantly, red lights switched on deep within the three computers, and large whirring noises began to fill the room; slowly, at first, and then the noise rose to a constant and steady thumping heard within the Terminal Dogma.
"Initiating O/S start-up!
"Protocols accepted!
"Generators being brought online!"
Aoi watched with bright, wide eyes as MAGI came back to life slowly before her. Since it was first brought online, no one had ever shut MAGI down; not completely, anyway. All diagnostic checks were routinely run, true, but usually it was MAGI itself that monitored MAGI.
Lights suddenly turned on in the Terminal Dogma, blinding nearly all of the NERV personnel who'd stayed underground for the better part of the last week since the Third Impact. Another large cheer arose as scientists and engineers hugged each other, but still the technician crews continued their work, observing the MAGI supercomputers. Above them, holographic grids came on-line.
"Searching sub protocols," another engineer shouted.
"Restoring oxygen and water filtrations and circulation. Searching protocols 2505 through 9107. Wait....," said another technician.
"Auto-running subroutine 108! Something's not right here..."
"Disengaging 'Black Egg' locks 44 through 665! What is this..!"
"'Beginning Gaf's Room purge'!... where are these readings coming from?!"
Makoto and Aoi looked at each other, then turned to man the NERV operator stations immediately. Something was not right. Shinji stared up at the holographic screens above, as they went on-line and displayed the NERV logo of the figleaf and semicircle, and then fade to black.
"Father, what did you do now?" Shinji exhaled breathlessly.
And then the words began appearing in the air.
