"Damn," Jr. hissed through his teeth, his face humiliated and burning red with hurt. "That's from when we fought the U-TIC Organization! Those bastards were recording it!" His fists clenched and unclenched. Gaignun, beside him, almost chuckled. This caught my attention more than Jr.'s outburst had. Gaignun put his hand to his chin in thought.
"I see," he said in his insipid voice, "That would explain how the absolute coordinates match. I guess that's their indisputable proof. Even I'm starting to think we did it." At this remark, I turned to the Director of the Foundation, surprised at the tone in his voice.
"Considering the situation, you don't sound very worried," I told him. It wasn't so much a statement on my part as it was some sort of challenge. His mysterious eyes looked to me, one of his eyebrows raising in incredulity. I stared him down, then he turned back to the screen. Possibly feeling the tension, Shelley broke the awkward silence.
"In any event, this is confirmation that the remnants of the U-TIC Organization have infiltrated both the Federation government and the military." The second-in-command stated dryly. I heard Jr. take a sharp breath of air.
"Which means," he said, quieter than he had been since we'd arrived on the bridge, "their next target is..." His unusually blue eyes glanced over to MOMO, who met his gaze. Shion's voice, irritated, broke their stares.
"This is such a blatant lie it's ludicrous," she muttered, seemingly to herself. She looked to Gaignun, "As survivors, if we testify..." She was trying to find a loophole... Any loophole. Gaignun shook his head sadly.
"They'll just claim that you survived because you were in on the conspiracy," the director said quietly. MOMO jumped by my side, making me miss whatever it was that Allen said next. Her golden eyes looked like they had when she had linked directly with the controls on the ship we had used to escape the U-TIC. She was staring out past me into space, then she whirled around to face the elevator.
"Someone's coming," she whispered, although I could hardly hear her. It was true. I could make out the sound of the elevator's gears grinding almost noiselessly. As the Durandal supposedly destroyed the Woglinde on the screen behind me, I moved MOMO around to my back, putting myself between her and whatever was approaching in the elevator. It arrived without a sound. A regal-looking woman surrounded by what must have been near 10 soldiers stepped off the elevator, her commanding voice catching the attention of everyone on the bridge.
"I am Captain Lapis Roman of the Galaxy Federation's Special Ops Command Headquarters, intelligence Bureau," she looked directly at Gaignun Kukai, "I hereby place this ship under custody of the Galaxy Federation." She motioned for the soldiers to go forth, and the spread among the crewmembers like snakes among mice. Quickly, I knelt next to MOMO, squeezing her shoulder gently.
"Stay here," I told her quietly. She nodded solemnly, and hid silently behind a chair. I moved back amongst Shion and the others once more. Before I could say anything to her, I felt one of the soldiers come up behind me and lock my hands together tightly. My instinct told me to fight back, but the pleading of Shion's eyes told me to just go with it. Defeated, I felt the tension in my body subside. We were defeated. Just like that. It was over. I felt despair as Jr., Shion, Allen and chaos were forced to put their hands on their heads. Standard procedure, I thought bitterly to myself. Captain Lapis Roman turned to Shion and Allen.
"I understand you're from the Woglinde." Both of the Vector employees nodded, their faces ashen. Lapis Roman dignified their silent response. "I'll take you in as witnesses. All Vector property will be temporarily confiscated as evidence." Shion's eyes suddenly gained a sad and far-off light.
"KOS-MOS..." she said in an undertone. My ears suddenly picked up the sound of a struggle. I turned, along with Jr., to the source of the noises, and my eyes contracted in fear. MOMO...
A soldier had grabbed her roughly by her right elbow, dragging her forcefully toward Lapis Roman while she struggled against his grip.
"Here's the 100-Series Realian under warrant!" he called, trying to pull her with him. I stepped forward, trying to break toward her, but the soldier behind me grabbed my arm forcefully before I could move too far. It was Jr. who broke loose of his captor's grip and dashed toward MOMO, his voice full of rage.
"Hey!" he shouted, "Don't hurt her!!" I could see it before it happened. He was too rash... I turned away so I didn't have to see it. But I could hear it. The dull sound of the butt of a gun connecting with Jr.'s skull sounded across the bridge, and I winced as he thudded to the floor. I turned again just as the same gun was pointed at his head. MOMO's eyes, fear glittering in their shimmering pools, stared at Jr.'s prostrate body. She glanced up to me, as if begging me to do something... Anything. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything to stop what was happening. My eyes must have betrayed my thoughts, because MOMO's face fell even more.
I hated it. I hated seeing her face so distraught. I hated not being able to rush to her rescue. I hated the feeling her sad eyes gave me in the pit of my gut. I heard Captain Lapis Roman's shoes click sharply as she approached Jr.'s form. Without looking up from his still body, she issued orders.
"Detain them in a single room, and watch them carefully," she told her subordinates. The soldier holding MOMO gave her an odd look.
"All of them?" he asked. As Lapis Roman looked up, she glanced, ever so briefly, in my direction. I could swear I saw the faintest gleam in her eye. Before I could tell exactly what it supposed to mean, she turned to the soldier.
"Splitting them up will only serve to underman our guardposts. Investigate as much of the ship as possible before we rendezvous with the others." she told him. The soldier paused for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, ma'am."
As the soldiers rounded us up, two soldiers dragging Jr., I could hear Captain Lapis Roman speaking with Gaignun.
"Gaignun Kukai, you are hereby under arrest for suspicion of treason against the Galaxy Federation. Come with me," she said in her dark tone. I heard no fear in Gaignun's voice as he responded.
"As you wish."
The elevator descended, with us on it, and I could hear no more. Captain Lapis Roman... That gleam in her eyes... What did that woman have planned? As we neared the end of the elevator ride, I could feel someone behind me. I turned my head slightly to see MOMO, clearly still frightened, scooting closer to me. She seemed not to have noticed that I had seen her. Her eyes were on the verge of tears. Slowly, carefully, she slipped her tiny hand into mine, which were still locked behind my back. I felt a shock go through my heart, and I felt feelings I hadn't felt since that day. Without a word, I closed my human hand around hers.
-----
The two soldiers that had brought us to the room stood outside the door, telling us to stay put until Captain Lapis Roman arrived. Jr. had recovered from the blow to the head, and was now sitting with Shion, MOMO and chaos . Allen sat on one of the seats on the perimeter of the room, while I leaned against the wall adjacent to the one Allen sat next to. I had been mulling today's events over and over in my mind in the growing silence. No one spoke. Finally, after the silence had lasted for too long, I raised my head and looked at those who sat around the table in the center of the room.
"It's all orchestrated too well," I muttered softly. Shion looked up, her glasses almost sliding from her nose.
"Huh?" she asked. I knew she had heard what I had said. That wasn't the question she was asking. She wanted to know why I thought the way I did.
"The fleet deployment came too quickly," I said a bit louder, "They must have been prepared to ensure that MOMO would return to them regardless of what happened... Or," I paused in my thoughts, delving a little deeper into the subject, "perhaps ensnaring Second Miltia was part of their plan from the very beginning." A silence lay thick on the room again for a moment, then Jr. chanced a comment.
"As a neutral territory, Second Miltia was invested with a whole bunch of rights and legal privileges after the Miltian Conflict. There are a whole lot of folks who still have problems with that, even outside of the U-TIC Organization," he said, looking up at me as he ended his statement. I nodded in agreement.
"The asteroid where MOMO was imprisoned... I wondered where the information about that place came from," I interjected, now looking at MOMO, who seemed to have calmed down, "Now it seems like it was all part of the plan from the very beginning." MOMO's response was quick.
"Do you mean from when Mommy sent you to rescue me?" she asked. I nodded again, silent. It was then that chaos, who had been silent for a long span of time, decided to speak once more.
"You don't think there are U-TIC members within the Subcommittee itself...?" he asked, his teal eyes darting from person to person for an answer, while earlier it was he who seemed to have all the answers. Surprisingly, it was Allen who spoke up, his head hung low in defeat.
"It's not inconceivable. Perhaps it was the very person who arranged for MOMO's rescue, Dr. Juli Mizrahi herself," Allen pondered. I doubted the notion very much, and MOMO must have felt the same way, for she cried out.
"No! Mommy would never do something like that!" she yelled. Shion was on her side of the argument.
"Allen!" Shion scolded. Allen cringed.
"I... uh... sorry," he murmured. Despite myself, I felt the corners of my lips pull into a smirk. For Shion to scold Allen like that, it was almost as if nothing had happened. I snapped back to reality, however, when the door slid open to reveal Captain Lapis Roman and one other soldier. She walked into the room, which was once again bathed in silence. She surveyed the room quickly.
"The preliminary inquiry shall now begin," she told us. The door closed after her and the soldier, and she sat at the table amongst Shion and MOMO. She was silent, but I saw now that her dark eyes were sparkling, as if they had some tremendous secret to divulge. I suddenly realized that this was true. "I am an agent working for Representative Helmer of the Second Miltian Parliament."
I felt my eyebrows rise in shock. I would never have expected a woman of such rigid respect for the rules would ever deviate from the rules of engagement. Shion was taken by surprise as well, for she gasped. MOMO's face, which had been gloomy, now shone with a new light. Shion's bright eyes moved to the soldier that had come in with Lapis Roman.
"He's also with us," Captain Roman said, reading Shion's eyes. Though she had revealed herself to us, her formality and stiff voice seemed unchanged. "We can go into detail later, but for now I'll just debrief you on the current situation." We all nodded. A tiny glimmer of hope was shining within everyone, and its name was Lapis Roman. "You are presently under the custody of the Federation government and the military," she paused, a softness coming to her face, "I'll be honest with you. The way things are now, within a few hours, she'll be turned over to anti-Miltian forces," she nodded her head to indicate MOMO, then her fierce eyes turned to me, "Specifically the U-TIC Organization. Soon after, the Second Miltian government will be stripped of all its authority. At this moment, Representative Helmer is working with the leaders of the Miltian Parliament to buy us additional time. However, our opponents' skillful manipulation requires us to find concrete proof of your innocence."
"But..." Shion said, nervously wringing her hands, "...how?"
"That's the question," Lapis Roman muttered, "We need something that would give conclusive evidence of your innocence."
"Conclusive evidence..." Shion thought out loud, the spoke to Lapis Roman, "What about the Woglinde's black box?"
"We've already recovered that. Unfortunately, sometime after the final gate-out, it was modified to be exactly the same as the video recording, down to the time axis," Roman refuted. Jr.'s face flushed again, and he hid his face in his hands.
"Not to mention, I shot up the database on that U-TIC battleship..." he growled, angry more at himself than anything else. I then saw chaos trying to help.
"What about the Durandal's database? A record of the battle against the U-TIC should still be there. Can't we use that to prove our innocence?" chaos asked. Hope moved back into Lapis Roman's face.
"Is that a standard database?" she asked.
"Yeah," Jr. replied.
Another silence fell on us like a lead weight. I felt the pressure of the oppressing silence, and I shifted my weight onto my other foot. The sound I caused may have provoked chaos into speaking.
"Is that a problem?" he asked. Lapis Roman sighed.
"Yes...Standard databases are too easily modified. I'm not certain how reliable they would be as evidence. If we had something that even the owner couldn't change, say, a system with an AAA class encryption, then maybe..." she trailed off. This caused Jr. to jump to his feet.
"Wha...? Triple A?!" his temper flared up, and I nearly flinched at the sudden increase in volume, "You don't find systems with that kind of protection just lying around! For something like that, you'd need the Federation government's motherframe, or the U.M.N. operating system!" Shion blinked several times in succession, as if a thought had suddenly flung itself to the front of her mind. She looked around the room, making eye contact with me last, then back to Captain Lapis Roman.
"We..." she started fleetingly, as if trying to remember what she had been thinking. Jr. looked to her.
"What?"
"We have one!" she nearly shouted, her mouth turning up into a smile. She looked at Allen, as if expecting him to remember as well. He stared, then nearly jumped at the realization.
"Oh!" he cried, "KOS-MOS!"
A light seemed to come on in everyone's head. MOMO's bright face turned to me, and I could feel the warmth of the joy coming from deep inside her. KOS-MOS, I thought. She was our only chance now. I returned MOMO's gaze.
KOS-MOS was her only hope now.
"I see," he said in his insipid voice, "That would explain how the absolute coordinates match. I guess that's their indisputable proof. Even I'm starting to think we did it." At this remark, I turned to the Director of the Foundation, surprised at the tone in his voice.
"Considering the situation, you don't sound very worried," I told him. It wasn't so much a statement on my part as it was some sort of challenge. His mysterious eyes looked to me, one of his eyebrows raising in incredulity. I stared him down, then he turned back to the screen. Possibly feeling the tension, Shelley broke the awkward silence.
"In any event, this is confirmation that the remnants of the U-TIC Organization have infiltrated both the Federation government and the military." The second-in-command stated dryly. I heard Jr. take a sharp breath of air.
"Which means," he said, quieter than he had been since we'd arrived on the bridge, "their next target is..." His unusually blue eyes glanced over to MOMO, who met his gaze. Shion's voice, irritated, broke their stares.
"This is such a blatant lie it's ludicrous," she muttered, seemingly to herself. She looked to Gaignun, "As survivors, if we testify..." She was trying to find a loophole... Any loophole. Gaignun shook his head sadly.
"They'll just claim that you survived because you were in on the conspiracy," the director said quietly. MOMO jumped by my side, making me miss whatever it was that Allen said next. Her golden eyes looked like they had when she had linked directly with the controls on the ship we had used to escape the U-TIC. She was staring out past me into space, then she whirled around to face the elevator.
"Someone's coming," she whispered, although I could hardly hear her. It was true. I could make out the sound of the elevator's gears grinding almost noiselessly. As the Durandal supposedly destroyed the Woglinde on the screen behind me, I moved MOMO around to my back, putting myself between her and whatever was approaching in the elevator. It arrived without a sound. A regal-looking woman surrounded by what must have been near 10 soldiers stepped off the elevator, her commanding voice catching the attention of everyone on the bridge.
"I am Captain Lapis Roman of the Galaxy Federation's Special Ops Command Headquarters, intelligence Bureau," she looked directly at Gaignun Kukai, "I hereby place this ship under custody of the Galaxy Federation." She motioned for the soldiers to go forth, and the spread among the crewmembers like snakes among mice. Quickly, I knelt next to MOMO, squeezing her shoulder gently.
"Stay here," I told her quietly. She nodded solemnly, and hid silently behind a chair. I moved back amongst Shion and the others once more. Before I could say anything to her, I felt one of the soldiers come up behind me and lock my hands together tightly. My instinct told me to fight back, but the pleading of Shion's eyes told me to just go with it. Defeated, I felt the tension in my body subside. We were defeated. Just like that. It was over. I felt despair as Jr., Shion, Allen and chaos were forced to put their hands on their heads. Standard procedure, I thought bitterly to myself. Captain Lapis Roman turned to Shion and Allen.
"I understand you're from the Woglinde." Both of the Vector employees nodded, their faces ashen. Lapis Roman dignified their silent response. "I'll take you in as witnesses. All Vector property will be temporarily confiscated as evidence." Shion's eyes suddenly gained a sad and far-off light.
"KOS-MOS..." she said in an undertone. My ears suddenly picked up the sound of a struggle. I turned, along with Jr., to the source of the noises, and my eyes contracted in fear. MOMO...
A soldier had grabbed her roughly by her right elbow, dragging her forcefully toward Lapis Roman while she struggled against his grip.
"Here's the 100-Series Realian under warrant!" he called, trying to pull her with him. I stepped forward, trying to break toward her, but the soldier behind me grabbed my arm forcefully before I could move too far. It was Jr. who broke loose of his captor's grip and dashed toward MOMO, his voice full of rage.
"Hey!" he shouted, "Don't hurt her!!" I could see it before it happened. He was too rash... I turned away so I didn't have to see it. But I could hear it. The dull sound of the butt of a gun connecting with Jr.'s skull sounded across the bridge, and I winced as he thudded to the floor. I turned again just as the same gun was pointed at his head. MOMO's eyes, fear glittering in their shimmering pools, stared at Jr.'s prostrate body. She glanced up to me, as if begging me to do something... Anything. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything to stop what was happening. My eyes must have betrayed my thoughts, because MOMO's face fell even more.
I hated it. I hated seeing her face so distraught. I hated not being able to rush to her rescue. I hated the feeling her sad eyes gave me in the pit of my gut. I heard Captain Lapis Roman's shoes click sharply as she approached Jr.'s form. Without looking up from his still body, she issued orders.
"Detain them in a single room, and watch them carefully," she told her subordinates. The soldier holding MOMO gave her an odd look.
"All of them?" he asked. As Lapis Roman looked up, she glanced, ever so briefly, in my direction. I could swear I saw the faintest gleam in her eye. Before I could tell exactly what it supposed to mean, she turned to the soldier.
"Splitting them up will only serve to underman our guardposts. Investigate as much of the ship as possible before we rendezvous with the others." she told him. The soldier paused for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, ma'am."
As the soldiers rounded us up, two soldiers dragging Jr., I could hear Captain Lapis Roman speaking with Gaignun.
"Gaignun Kukai, you are hereby under arrest for suspicion of treason against the Galaxy Federation. Come with me," she said in her dark tone. I heard no fear in Gaignun's voice as he responded.
"As you wish."
The elevator descended, with us on it, and I could hear no more. Captain Lapis Roman... That gleam in her eyes... What did that woman have planned? As we neared the end of the elevator ride, I could feel someone behind me. I turned my head slightly to see MOMO, clearly still frightened, scooting closer to me. She seemed not to have noticed that I had seen her. Her eyes were on the verge of tears. Slowly, carefully, she slipped her tiny hand into mine, which were still locked behind my back. I felt a shock go through my heart, and I felt feelings I hadn't felt since that day. Without a word, I closed my human hand around hers.
-----
The two soldiers that had brought us to the room stood outside the door, telling us to stay put until Captain Lapis Roman arrived. Jr. had recovered from the blow to the head, and was now sitting with Shion, MOMO and chaos . Allen sat on one of the seats on the perimeter of the room, while I leaned against the wall adjacent to the one Allen sat next to. I had been mulling today's events over and over in my mind in the growing silence. No one spoke. Finally, after the silence had lasted for too long, I raised my head and looked at those who sat around the table in the center of the room.
"It's all orchestrated too well," I muttered softly. Shion looked up, her glasses almost sliding from her nose.
"Huh?" she asked. I knew she had heard what I had said. That wasn't the question she was asking. She wanted to know why I thought the way I did.
"The fleet deployment came too quickly," I said a bit louder, "They must have been prepared to ensure that MOMO would return to them regardless of what happened... Or," I paused in my thoughts, delving a little deeper into the subject, "perhaps ensnaring Second Miltia was part of their plan from the very beginning." A silence lay thick on the room again for a moment, then Jr. chanced a comment.
"As a neutral territory, Second Miltia was invested with a whole bunch of rights and legal privileges after the Miltian Conflict. There are a whole lot of folks who still have problems with that, even outside of the U-TIC Organization," he said, looking up at me as he ended his statement. I nodded in agreement.
"The asteroid where MOMO was imprisoned... I wondered where the information about that place came from," I interjected, now looking at MOMO, who seemed to have calmed down, "Now it seems like it was all part of the plan from the very beginning." MOMO's response was quick.
"Do you mean from when Mommy sent you to rescue me?" she asked. I nodded again, silent. It was then that chaos, who had been silent for a long span of time, decided to speak once more.
"You don't think there are U-TIC members within the Subcommittee itself...?" he asked, his teal eyes darting from person to person for an answer, while earlier it was he who seemed to have all the answers. Surprisingly, it was Allen who spoke up, his head hung low in defeat.
"It's not inconceivable. Perhaps it was the very person who arranged for MOMO's rescue, Dr. Juli Mizrahi herself," Allen pondered. I doubted the notion very much, and MOMO must have felt the same way, for she cried out.
"No! Mommy would never do something like that!" she yelled. Shion was on her side of the argument.
"Allen!" Shion scolded. Allen cringed.
"I... uh... sorry," he murmured. Despite myself, I felt the corners of my lips pull into a smirk. For Shion to scold Allen like that, it was almost as if nothing had happened. I snapped back to reality, however, when the door slid open to reveal Captain Lapis Roman and one other soldier. She walked into the room, which was once again bathed in silence. She surveyed the room quickly.
"The preliminary inquiry shall now begin," she told us. The door closed after her and the soldier, and she sat at the table amongst Shion and MOMO. She was silent, but I saw now that her dark eyes were sparkling, as if they had some tremendous secret to divulge. I suddenly realized that this was true. "I am an agent working for Representative Helmer of the Second Miltian Parliament."
I felt my eyebrows rise in shock. I would never have expected a woman of such rigid respect for the rules would ever deviate from the rules of engagement. Shion was taken by surprise as well, for she gasped. MOMO's face, which had been gloomy, now shone with a new light. Shion's bright eyes moved to the soldier that had come in with Lapis Roman.
"He's also with us," Captain Roman said, reading Shion's eyes. Though she had revealed herself to us, her formality and stiff voice seemed unchanged. "We can go into detail later, but for now I'll just debrief you on the current situation." We all nodded. A tiny glimmer of hope was shining within everyone, and its name was Lapis Roman. "You are presently under the custody of the Federation government and the military," she paused, a softness coming to her face, "I'll be honest with you. The way things are now, within a few hours, she'll be turned over to anti-Miltian forces," she nodded her head to indicate MOMO, then her fierce eyes turned to me, "Specifically the U-TIC Organization. Soon after, the Second Miltian government will be stripped of all its authority. At this moment, Representative Helmer is working with the leaders of the Miltian Parliament to buy us additional time. However, our opponents' skillful manipulation requires us to find concrete proof of your innocence."
"But..." Shion said, nervously wringing her hands, "...how?"
"That's the question," Lapis Roman muttered, "We need something that would give conclusive evidence of your innocence."
"Conclusive evidence..." Shion thought out loud, the spoke to Lapis Roman, "What about the Woglinde's black box?"
"We've already recovered that. Unfortunately, sometime after the final gate-out, it was modified to be exactly the same as the video recording, down to the time axis," Roman refuted. Jr.'s face flushed again, and he hid his face in his hands.
"Not to mention, I shot up the database on that U-TIC battleship..." he growled, angry more at himself than anything else. I then saw chaos trying to help.
"What about the Durandal's database? A record of the battle against the U-TIC should still be there. Can't we use that to prove our innocence?" chaos asked. Hope moved back into Lapis Roman's face.
"Is that a standard database?" she asked.
"Yeah," Jr. replied.
Another silence fell on us like a lead weight. I felt the pressure of the oppressing silence, and I shifted my weight onto my other foot. The sound I caused may have provoked chaos into speaking.
"Is that a problem?" he asked. Lapis Roman sighed.
"Yes...Standard databases are too easily modified. I'm not certain how reliable they would be as evidence. If we had something that even the owner couldn't change, say, a system with an AAA class encryption, then maybe..." she trailed off. This caused Jr. to jump to his feet.
"Wha...? Triple A?!" his temper flared up, and I nearly flinched at the sudden increase in volume, "You don't find systems with that kind of protection just lying around! For something like that, you'd need the Federation government's motherframe, or the U.M.N. operating system!" Shion blinked several times in succession, as if a thought had suddenly flung itself to the front of her mind. She looked around the room, making eye contact with me last, then back to Captain Lapis Roman.
"We..." she started fleetingly, as if trying to remember what she had been thinking. Jr. looked to her.
"What?"
"We have one!" she nearly shouted, her mouth turning up into a smile. She looked at Allen, as if expecting him to remember as well. He stared, then nearly jumped at the realization.
"Oh!" he cried, "KOS-MOS!"
A light seemed to come on in everyone's head. MOMO's bright face turned to me, and I could feel the warmth of the joy coming from deep inside her. KOS-MOS, I thought. She was our only chance now. I returned MOMO's gaze.
KOS-MOS was her only hope now.