AN: For Rinny and all: Marcus Delmare is my own character; however Count Delmare was in the original series, pretty minor Romafeller part though. Just to not confuse you.

"Manifestations"
By Isis
Chapter 12

"Lady Dorothy?" Rasid had his hands clasped behind his back as he stood in front of the green curtained bunk. There was a rustle and then a sleepy mumble before a hand slipped out from under the curtain, raising it just far enough for her head to poke out.

"Sorry," she stated, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "Was I snoring?"

The reference was well timed as a loud snore was heard from the bunk below her; Abdul seemed happily oblivious to their conversation. Rasid shook his head instead, "I'd like you see something."

She nodded and then tucked her head back into the bunk. Rasid paced back to the controls to wait. He was surprised to find her by his side only seconds later, still rubbing at her eyes. She was clad in a white tank top and a pair of baggy pants, her feet bare on the metal decking. Idly she combed her hair out with her fingers, a lone ponytail held it together at the center of her back.

He blinked at her a moment before he specifically turned back to the monitors. "It seems we are making much better time than the larger supply ship from Mars command."

"Does that mean that we'll catch up to them?"

"It means we will pass them and probably arrive three to four hours ahead."

She blinked up at him. "What about a ship to ship communication?"

He nodded. "That is exactly what I was thinking. We'll have about a four-hour window as we go past to send and receive messages. The trouble is who to contact."

Dorothy paused, staring blankly at the monitors as she thought. Her eyes were tired looking and a bit red. None of them had rested much since they started and she was no exception. By now, she was worn down.

"If we try to talk to Miss Relena, they will think we're a bunch of die-hard reporters."

"But we don't know who else we can trust on the ship," he countered.

She sighed. "Yes, we have no way of knowing if anyone is working with Marcus on this little venture. However," she closed her eyes with a smirk, "where there's a queen, there's a court."

"Huh?"

"And where there's Miss Relena, there are Preventers… and Heero Yuy." She stepped over and took a seat at the empty scanning consol, raising a hand to rest her chin on. "Can we encode a message?"

"Yes," he answered, watching her mind casually work at the problem.

She slowly drummed the nails of her free hand against the metal. "I don't suppose you know of anything that the Gundam pilots used during the war?"

Rasid shook his head. "I don't think they actually had anything in common."

She sighed. "We may have to take the chance that the operator will take the message directly to Miss Relena without reading it first."

"Does it matter if he's seen it before?" Manul asked, bored but keeping an eye on his piloting instruments. "What code can't he break?"

Rasid exchanged a glance with Dorothy who slowly gave him wicked smirk. "You're absolutely right." Standing she returned to his side. "How long until we can make real-time contact?"

"A little under an hour."

"Perfect," she cooed. "Please put together a message and encode it in whatever you happen to know. We're far enough out still that the infamous Yuy will have it solved well before they arrive."

"But how do we ensure that he gets it?" Rasid turned to watch her glide back to her bunk.

"You leave that to me," she smiled.

He turned to find Manul giving him a dubious look, and he shrugged, setting to work on the message. Encoding it was the easy part, and Rasid specifically used a harder numeric combination. If Miss Dorothy could really get it in his hands, then there was no need to worry.

A little later she was back in the control section, properly dressed and doing her hair with an actual brush. The lady was more than resilient. She masked her restlessness easily, her presence commanding even as she stood behind him. Perhaps he was beginning to understand Master Quatre's desire to look after such a woman.

"We should be in range now," Manul reported.

"What's up?" Abdul yawned, his hair tousled.

"Just discussing your somnoplasty," she muttered.

He gave her an odd look and then added his usual sunglasses. "How did you know about that?"

She turned fully to look at him curiously.

"We should be ready in a few minutes," Rasid interrupted before Abdul had the chance to retell that story.

"Very well. Let's get started. With a little luck, we might even get an answer before we run past them."

"Past who?" Abdul looked confused.

Dorothy shook her head and then walked over and took his elbow. Leading him over, she sat him down at the empty helm station. "Be a good boy and stay quiet," she cooed, patting him on the head. He shrugged at her and then made a pillow out of his arms and slumped over the consol.

Retracing her steps, she came to stand behind Rasid at the communications consol, placing herself in the camera view. He nodded to her as he flipped the transmitter on.

"Mars command supply ship, please come in."

There was a moment of silence and then she repeated the call.

A face finally appeared in the screen and she smiled down at the viewer. "This is supply ship M13."

"This is a Winner Mining scout ship. We are approaching your position and will soon overtake your ship. Our destination is also the Mars fleet."

The man in the viewer nodded. "What can we do for you Miss?"

She tugged a piece of her hair behind her ear as it hung down from her bent position over the helm. "We are a separate part of the Winner resource ship already ahead of us. We left late from our colony with other needed information. Along with that, we have a message for the Vice Foreign Minister, Relena Darlian. She was the first to contact us with the need for equipment. Is there any way that we could speak with her?"

The man's face visually hardened. "I'm afraid not. If you have a message I can attempt to get it to her."

She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. "I was afraid of that." The man on the screen blinked at her. "Well, I suppose that it will have to be enough." She looked up and then leaned in closer to the camera. "Can I count on you to deliver this message to her?"

The man faltered momentarily. "I will do my best, Ma'am."

She blinked and backed away a bit. "It's just that this is of a… personal nature for Miss Relena, and we need to be able to get it to her before they connect with the crews on Mars. Can you understand that?"

The helmsman blinked at her again. "Personal nature?"

Dorothy closed her eyes sadly. "I'm afraid that I can not go into the details, but please, I need your word that she will receive this message while she is still… out of the public eye."

The man visually started. "Is it serious?"

She looked up, directly at the man. "Yes, I am sorry to report that it is." Her voice betrayed a hint of sadness, and the expression that she turned to the camera betrayed more than a little worry.

The man on screen recomposed himself and nodded sharply. "You may be assured that I will personally get your message to the Vice Foreign Minister."

The Lady broke a grateful smile. "Thank you. I dearly appreciate your efforts in this matter."

He smiled back to her, a small puff of pride coming to his shoulders.

"We will transmit the message momentarily."

He nodded. "Very well, thank you scout ship."

"No," she smiled, "thank you."

The connection cut and she straightened to turn a triumphant smirk to the other three. Rasid looked up at her, a bit shocked. Manul shook his head in her direction, and Abdul itched his nose as he dozed on the consol.

"Never underestimate coattails… especially those of a young lady," she smirked, placing her hand on her hip.

"That was fantastic," Manul stated chuckling.

Rasid nodded, wondering exactly what this woman was truly capable of. Maybe that was the other reason Master Quatre kept watch on her….

Entering the mess hall, Heero easily picked out Relena at a table near the back of the room next to the observation windows. Across the table was a Major conversing with her. Glancing around he found his team watching from a couple tables away. With the amount of papers laid out in front of her, he guessed they were giving her some space.

He nodded to the others, and got the same for acknowledgement. Sliding up to the table, he stood at her side, giving the Major a customary look over. Same one, well he was persistent.

Relena looked up with a smile at his approach, using the excuse to ignore the other officer. The Major stood from his seat. "Agent," he smiled politely. Heero didn't return it, and the man lost a bit of his composure. "Well," he turned back to her, "I will leave you to your work. Good evening."

The man smiled at her, gave Heero a nervous glance, and slipped away; both of them watching him go.

With a sigh, Relena leaned back in her chair. "How many psychologists did they send on this ship?"

So she'd figured it out. "Four."

"Ah, on to round two then," she mumbled, rubbing at the center of her forehead.

Taking the seat to her left he glanced at the paperwork. "News?"

"No," she shook her head. "We haven't gotten the line of sight to work yet. These are just some of the old reports and personnel records. I'd like to know who I get to talk to."

He listened to her voice more than to what she said. Aside from sounding tired, she seemed all right. He wasn't exactly sure why he felt it was important to see how she was doing. He knew how she was doing. She had a friend and a brother, albeit Zechs Marquise, on the list of crewmembers for the destroyed ship. She had her most prized project about to fall apart, and she had four psychologists to talk to about it.

She was stronger than that.

But he just wanted to make sure.

Seeing her emotions aboard the satellite had been enough to make him worry. And that was enough to draw him back to her side even when he didn't really need to be there.

It may have been just a small breakdown, fatigue driven he assumed. But she had responded to him, had been confident enough in him to show her fears. Her breathing had gone rapid, and he had forced himself to figure out something to do for her.

She had responded to his question, and had let her breathing ease when he asked if she was all right. More than her words, that had told him her emotions changed. She had unconsciously strengthened her grip around him and he had done the same, wanting to comfort her if he could.

He didn't understand it. Had nothing to compare it to. But she needed him, he could feel that… and he wanted her close. He had admonished himself later for abandoning his better reason for desiring her touch like that, but he had apparently done something right.

Her smile was all he needed to see to know that. A genuine smile, just for being there for her…. For allowing himself the feel of her.

Pushing back the memory yet again, he glanced out the window and silently waited to see if she had anything else on her mind. He didn't have to wait long before she shuffled her papers and shook her head. "What does the color blue have to do with anything?"

He brought his attention back to her, her expression annoyed.

"I've been asked twice what I think of blue."

Her incredulous look forced his expression to soften. "It's your favorite color."

Her expression softened too as she nodded absently to his response, and then blinked, her eyes turning confused. She didn't get the chance to ask how he knew that before a communications office approached them and bowed to her. "Vice Foreign Minister."

"Yes?"

He handed her a data pad, his smile a bit nervous. "We received this about an hour ago from the Winner scout ship. They said that it was important to get you this message."

She nodded, taking the pad. "The scout ship?"

"Yes, Ma'am. They are alongside now. With their faster speed they should arrive at the fleet ahead of us."

"Thank you," she said, giving the pad a glance.

"You're welcome, Ma'am." The man stood there a second too long and then remembered to excuse himself.

Heero watched the man move back across the room before he turned back to her as she brought the screen up. "Winner?"

She nodded absently. "Yes, I contacted Quatre for help with the replacement equipment and parts. I got a message from the person who worked with him that they were sending a crew on a carrier ahead of us." She looked up at him, "But their resource ship left hours before us."

"That was the Maguanacs," he confirmed, filing the information.

She shook her head, turning back to the pad. "I don't know what made them send a scout ship after us, but I don't think this is to me."

Handing it over, he took it from her. The screen was up with a header reading 'privacy encoded, authorization required.'

"Something you and Quatre worked out?" she asked.

Scanning the encrypted information he shook his head. "No. But he must have known that I'd be here."

"So they sent a message that only you can open?"

He looked up to meet her eyes, the suspicion showing easily in her as well. "Stay close to the others," he demanded, rising and taking the pad with him.

Heero stood in the observation room across the hall from the one Relena shared with Sally and Alli. The room was perpetually dim so that the stars could be seen through the windows. The ship was down to a skeleton crew, and it was near silent. It would probably be the last chance to rest before they docked.

But he didn't figure he'd be getting much sleep.

The door opened and Sally walked in behind him. "Well isn't this a cozy little spot."

He didn't reply to the small talk as he turned and placed his back against the windows.

"Well, aside from her taste in men, Relena has a clean bill of psychological health. However, I've had a few inquiries as to your last check up." She seated herself sideways in one of the chairs, hanging her legs over the arm. "What have we got?"

"We received a message from Rasid Kurama of the Maguanac Corp. Apparently Quatre and Duo are both on the carrier ahead of us with part of the equipment."

"How'd those two get in on this?"

"Relena called for help from Quatre with the replacement list. It must have gone from there."

"OK, so we get a Gundam reunion out of the deal. Wufei's going to be jealous," she smiled.

Heero closed his eyes and shook his head. "Rasid and a group went out after them because they have information on the remaining crew commander."

"Delmare?"

He nodded. "Son of Count Delmare of the Romafeller Foundation. I've been able to dig up that the Count died about a year ago, natural causes. But his entire fortune was in the war effort, especially with the mobile doll project. When it died, so did he."

"And so his son's inheritance went out the window, and he moved to Mars."

He nodded. "There is someone who doesn't believe that the other command ship's destruction was an accident."

"Who?"

He opened his eyes to look at her. "Dorothy Catalonia… his forth cousin."

"And she factors into this because…?"

So Sally had never had the pleasure of meeting the Lady. "Some of us are acquainted with her. She's now Quatre's business partner, and she apparently has a financial interest in the crew that just lost a ship."

Sally blinked and then moved a hand to rub her head. "So she's stating that she thinks her long-lost cousin sabotaged her command ship. Sounds like a bad family rivalry to me. Especially with Romafeller involved."

Turning, he gazed out the window beside him. "I don't think she would do that."

"You know her personally?"

That fencing battle was certainly personal…. "No. But with Quatre's team ahead of them, I'd say she's reliable."

"Ah, that sounds like history," she smirked.

Glancing back to her, he wondered if she ever got tired of that. "She would at least want to protect a partner."

Sally sighed. "Alright. So we believe the information. Where does that leave us? Half of our mission is to assess the cause of the explosion anyway. Even if it was purposeful, the evidence is surely gone by now, the crime scene could have been picked over a hundred times. And I doubt that there would be a clean fingerprint of who was responsible even if not."

"We need to look into Delmare himself."

She started. "How are we going to justify that?"

He closed his eyes again, "We'll have to stumble onto something."

"Mars crews, please come in. This is Winner resource ship Star Grazer, on supply mission from Mars command. Please respond."

"Star Grazer." A young woman's face appeared on the screen in front of the crew, her blond hair pulled back into a short ponytail, a brown sleeveless top fitted close to her, and her hazel eyes smiled from the screen. "This is crew command ship, Fuga.…You're early."

Quatre watched over the bridge as they docked up against the unfinished Mars colony. A crew from the Fuga was manually connecting docking clamps on the outside of the ship. A few of his own crew, along with Duo, were already suited up and ready to help move the equipment and supplies into the colony section.

He had agreed to wait for the representative from the command vessel to come abroad. The ship rocked gently just before they received the confirmation that the locks were in place. But there was something nagging at him uneasily as the bridge all but cleared out as the men went to work moving and arranging the parts they had brought.

It was a feeling in his heart that he hadn't felt for months now.

He took a long look at the outside monitors that showed the bulk of the foreign red planet. He eased over to the communications helm and pulled up the messages recorded from Rasid on their way here. He paused just a moment and then cleared them out of the log, carefully erasing the backup copies as well. Something just made him think he should….

The door behind him opened and he found Ahmed ushering in the same woman he had talked with. Carrying her helmet she unzipped her suit to her waist and shook her hair out, the ponytail gone. "So, I am to assume that you are the one they refer to as 'Master Quatre,'" she stated, pulling off her glove and extending her hand.

He nodded, giving her a smile. "Quatre Raberba Winner," he stated, shaking her hand and finding her grip a bit stronger than necessary. "Please just call me Quatre."

She nodded. "I am, now, the chief foreman here. Please call me Ferra."

"We arrived as soon as possible. I'm afraid that some of the larger equipment is still on the way though." He tried to shake off the reference to "now."

She placed her gloves in her helmet and lounged the items against one jutted hip. "Yes, we have the packing slips," she smiled. "The rest will be along with the Vice Foreign Minister's ship. We estimate her arrival in thirteen hours. Plenty of time to get started."

"Vice Foreign Minister?" he started.

She cocked an eyebrow and nodded. "You must have left before she announced she was coming along."

"We must have," he smiled apologetically. If Miss Relena was on the supply ship, then so was Heero. One of them obviously felt it was necessary to come here as well. Maybe that was the message that Rasid was trying to send. But it didn't matter now, and he chose to keep a strict yes and no policy on relating to anyone here that he was personally connected to either of them.

"It's very nice of her," she murmured. "Perhaps it will help moral. We appreciate your help with this as well, and on behalf of all of us, we dearly thank you for your efforts," she bowed.

"It was all we could do," he stated, waving off the thanks. "Myself and my crew are ready to assist in any way that we can."

She nodded, a bit surprised. "Thank you, but I have the man-power, just not the parts. What is your area of experience?"

Quatre tried to not take offense to the quick look-over. "Resource mining and colony fabrication."

"Well," she stood taken aback, "maybe there is a nice place for you." Turning to look at the monitors still showing the red planet, she sighed. "My mentor was on the Romulus when it happened. This position use to be his…."

"I see," he stated quietly. The sheer number of those who died in this orbit was bound to affect everyone very personally. "Have you determined the cause yet?"

She shrugged. "I haven't heard. I have been very preoccupied with getting us running again. Personally, I don't care. Whatever happened is done now. Nothing's going to change that."

The statement was bitter, and he couldn't help but think that she had a number of un-resolved problems. "I'm terribly sorry for your losses."

She nodded, taking the gloves back out of her helmet and started to put them back on. "Thank you, but I had best be out directing traffic."

"Of course. What area can I assist with?"

"The most important, and the most lacking system, is the air circulation equipment. I realize that the purification portion is still coming, but I believe we can have the rest assembled and waiting by the time it arrives."

He nodded sharply. "With your permission, we'll get started right away."

She chuckled low as she turned towards the door. "By all means, Mr. Winner. We can deal with the personnel issues a bit later, right now I need all of the crews I can call out, and the injured I don't want to move."

"Agreed."

She smiled again, zipping her suit back up. "I will introduce you to the Commander when we get the chance, I'm sure he will want to thank you as well."

"You should have expected her."

He wasn't in the mood for the sing-song in her voice. As he leaned over the hacked consol, Zechs Marquise closed his eyes on the report. "Thirteen hours."

"How do you intend to get to her?" Noin stood with her arms crossed and back against the wall, the helmet of her suit making her voice fuzzy.

"We can't take the chance of them holding her hostage."

"Marcus doesn't do hostages, he does accidents," she reminded him.

Straightening he turned his visor towards her. "We can't take the chance of being caught now."

"She's worried," came the same tone. "That means she'll start looking."

"The Preventers aren't that stupid."

"She's on a ship to Mars. Face it," she sighed, "they've gone down hill since we left."

The mild chuckle didn't settle his stomach any. "We can't let them know we're alive until we reach her ship."

"What about the crew that just docked?"

"No information on them yet, but I doubt they will be able to help us. We must not get anyone else involved."

"So we sit and wait."

He nodded, the decision gnawing at him. What idiot would let Relena get onboard a ship to this miserable place?

"You should have expected her." That was going to get annoying.

"Wow, you don't get a view of this very often." Duo floated alongside the Star Grazer's hull, enjoying the view of the sun skirting around the edge of the red planet. "I got'a bring Hilde back here."

One of Mars' moons was highlighted against the skyline, its cratered surface looking rather familiar. Yeah, the colony here was too close to the planet, revealing too much of the surface as a lifeless wasteland. That's too bad.

"Alright, alright, back to work," he mumbled to himself, giving just a puff of his fuel pack to get him back to the opening of the cargo hold. Getting one hand on the bottom of the opening, he used his momentum to swing himself up and over, doing a zero G flip into the nearly empty hold. Meeting the floor again with one knee he glanced around at the room, his smile staying in place.

A bunch of people may have died out here, but that wasn't any reason for him to not have a little fun. Standing up he pushed himself off towards the next crate in line and began working at its bindings.

It started as static in his close range earpiece, and then voices. He looked up over the crate to see three Mars workers enter the hold, their blue suits in contrast to the grays he and the Maguanacs had.

"All of them, all at once?"

"They can't be all connected."

"All I know is that they're too quiet for me."

"'Hoy! How about a hand?" he waved them over. The three changed direction towards him, ending their conversation. "If it's too quiet, just let me know. My group's been trying to shut me up through the whole trip."

Bracing himself against the crate behind him, he used his leg to gently push their box off its pad and forcing it to float free.

"Don't mind us. We're all just a little shook up," one stated, helping him to stow the tie-down straps.

"Hey, I'm sure you are," he sympathized as the other two worked the crate out of the ship and towards the colony access hatch. "Any ideas yet on what happened?"

The other man shook his helmet at him. "They haven't said a word. Some of us were there to help out the survivors, but even we don't know what would have blown like that."

"Major explosion, huh?" Duo took a look around himself. "There isn't a whole lot on most of these ships that can do that. They're pretty meticulous about non-combustibles when they make these things."

"Yeah. We know." The man turned towards him. "Mars has had a bad reputation since we got here. Some say he just doesn't want us staying."

"You mean there've been other problems?"

"We've been accident prone since we started." The man began working with the next tie-downs on one of the generators behind them. "And then… the crews are pretty bad off."

"'Bad off?' You mean overworked?"

"No." The other turned around the edge of the generator to look at him. "I mean we've been loosing members. A lot of little accidents, and after this…." He sighed, "We lost fourteen people to suicide."

"What?" Duo started. "Now, I know that you guys could probably be pretty close by now, but I'd say that's unreasonable."

The other nodded. "So do we."

He helped push the generator off the pad and then paused to look at the worker. "What exactly are you saying," he asked quietly.

The man shook his head. "I'm not saying anything at all." His helmet swiveled to look at him directly. "But if I were you, I'd get your friends away from this war god as soon as you can."

"Humph," Duo raised both hands in mock-surrender. "The god of war hasn't met his match until now, my friend."

The man just shook his head and steadied one side of the generator. "Funerals ain't pretty out here, kid."

Duo helped the other to work the oversized hunk of metal through the colony airlocks and into its new home. He excused himself as others set to work on bolting it down and connecting it. Taking off, he slowly crossed the first development section, stopping here and there to tinker with problems as they came. Finally he ended up in the building housing the air systems and found his way inside.

The team was working at running power for the equipment before the parts could be placed in permanently. After being directed around the building twice, he finally found Quatre crouched half under a power grid calling up readings to his group above.

Scaling down between the sensor banks and the wall, he came up behind him as they finished up. Bonking him on the back of his helmet a couple times he got him to turn around in the crapped space.

He shook his head, obviously trying to get the ring out. "Duo!" he grumbled.

He chuckled merrily to himself, holding a cross-legged pattern just off the floor beneath them. Now that he had his attention…. He reached up to change his helmet frequency to direct speech and waited for the blond to do the same.

For his part, Quatre braced himself from floating up with one hand against the wall, and changed his helmet over as well. "Duo, what's wrong?"

"I think there's a few more things going on around here then we thought there was."

Quatre took a quick survey of the surrounding area to make sure they were clear before he turned back to him. "What do you mean?"

"Apparently this isn't the first accident out here, it's just the biggest."

"What?"

"Yeah, seems they've been loosing people since they started. And since the ship went down, fourteen suicides."

Even through the helmet Duo could tell he shocked him. "That's terrible."

"Yeah, some of the guys out here aren't buying it. And I've got a funny feeling maybe they're right. I think something's up."

"There's not much we can do if there is."

He smiled. "Sure there is! We just need to take a peek in the right places."

"Duo, we're guests here."

He rolled his eyes. "Quatre, come on, something's up and I want to know what it is. And if it sunk a whole crew ship, we might want to figure it out before their 'bad luck' rubs off."

The other nodded. "I understand, but can you wait a little while?"

"Huh? Why?" He wasn't that in-dispensable.

"Heero and Miss Relena are on their way here."

"They're what!" His unthinking reaction was enough to toss him into the wall beside him and he fought to stop himself. "What is that guy thinking? Why are they coming?" He stopped, "How'd you know?"

"Ferra, the foreman here, told me. She said they were thirteen hours away when we docked."

Duo sighed. "Maybe they have a clue what's going on."

Quatre shook his head. "I don't know. I get the feeling that the message we missed from Rasid was important."

"Yeah, maybe they forgot to tell us to pack a change of ammo."

Quatre levered himself against the wall. "Let's get back to the ship. We'll call it a shift and see what we can do from there."

Duo nodded and followed after him. "If they pull the god of Death out of retirement, I'm going to take it personally."

"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends." - Japanese Proverb

Proofed by: Silver-Eyed. Thank you!