Declaimers: Gundam Seed does not belong to me.
Gundam World
Author's notes: A little fun and relaxation for the kids before hell breaks loose again.
Phase 3. Episode 3
In anyone's life, there always is a time when, when no matter how successful they are at everything else in life, they feel helpless. Well, this is the very predicament that Kira Yamato is going through as he walked out of the newly established Earth Alliance Ptolemaeus II base and onto a suspended shuttle that would take him, and the group of teenagers beside him, straight to Gion. The group consisted of Flay, a boy named Sai, whom Flay explained to be her fiancée. There was also one named Kazui, who had a strange hairstyle split down the center of his scalp and was mostly quiet. And then there was the couple, the boy's name was Tolle, a tall, blonde boy who talked and smiled and was very energetic. His girlfriend was named Miriallia, she had short, orange brown hair that curled outwards just above her shoulders and would pass as an above-average girlfriend. Normally relationships between the genders were prohibited on a battleship, how they got together was a whole other mystery to Kira.
Kira had been worried that it might just be him and Flay on somewhat of a 'date'. But now, with the appearance of her "fiancée" and the introduction of a group of eccentric teenagers, he relaxed and tried to enjoy his time. The shuttle doors snapped shut behind them and a low humming noise propelled them slowly forward on the suspended steel track.
"Hold on tight!" Tolle said as he wound one arm around Miriallia's waist while the other held onto the handlebar tightly to steady both of them. Sai did something similar with Flay; only he was a little clumsier. The loud speakers in the shuttle suddenly flared and from it came the voice of the driver. Kira tensed, thinking it was a call to battle stations but relaxed after he heard that it was a warning for the passengers to hold on tight. Kazui looked at him weirdly. Then suddenly the shuttle accelerated and shot out of the Ptolemaeus II base, all the passengers, either sitting or stranding, were shot back from the intense rate of acceleration.
Kira took a slight step back to steady himself and turned his head to survey his surroundings. He tipped his head up and spied the speed counter on the ceiling of the blast shuttle; it read "678 mph", almost supersonic. All the seats had already been taken up, leaving his group standing; most of the people on the shuttle were military personnel from the Earth Alliance, taking time off during their week long vacation. They laughed and joked among themselves; most of them were teenagers just like him, Kira wondered the reason for so many youngsters to be involved in what already proved to be a terrible war.
"Wow!" Flay's somewhat high pitched voice made Kira turn his head, he followed her gaze and looked out the large glass windows of their train and saw that they were suspended about 100 meters from the moon's surface and the barren landscape of the Earth-satellite spread out below them. The surface was an endless grayish color with eroded craters marking the landscape; clouds of dusts were swirling everywhere. In the distance, the massive city of Gion could already be seen, stretching larger and larger as their shuttle drew closer and closer to it.
Ever since humans began inhabiting the Moon and deployed the artificial atmosphere around moon, meteors that used to have hit the moon head on were disintegrated in the atmosphere, letting the scarred face of the moon to slowly heal, and now there were strong winds accompanying the atmosphere, making the once uninhabitable moon the first terrestrial planet to be livable.
Kira filtered out the chatter around him and focused on the landscape outside, he could see the receding shape of the Ptolemaeus base behind their shuttle. From this distance, he could see the damage that the Earth Alliance had done clearly; the military base was an ugly sight to behold.
"Welcome to Gion, the lunar metropolis." the loud speakers rang throughout their shuttle car as they approached the city. Its skyline took up most of their view; they would soon be gliding over it. "The city of Gion is a tourist city, filled with endless possibilities. Come and see our fantastic mix of cultures and high-end technology; or visit our biosphere for an outta-this-world experience on nature! We have the best and largest shopping malls and mall complexes in the entire human society, flowing a staggering 2 billion space dollars a day. If you like shopping, be sure to visit the East Gion Minamiza mall and the West Gion mall complex, all of which are easily accessed with the trans-Gion shuttle system." Flay squealed in anticipation.
"I love shopping!" She groped tightly onto the now stiff right arm of Sai and looked into his eyes with a puppy-dog expression. Sai looked away, a terrified expression entering his gaze. His expression was a mix between a last thread of self-control and full-blown panic. It contained that of desperation and Sai looked to Kira as if asking him to help him out of this mess. As Kira would later find out, Flay, when unleashed in any place with the word 'buy' over it, would almost always overspend her so-called budget and burn a hole through Sai's pocket, god bless the poor boy.
"Also come and enjoy our local entertainment districts!" the loud speaker went on, oblivious to the financial damage it had already dealt to Sai. "Geishas, trained in the classical art of dance and singing, will bring you back to the past with their beautiful arts. Also enjoy the world-famous Gion walkway, composed of over ten kilometers of none-motorized passage, tourists can walk over the beautifully laid cobblestones along its whole length and enjoy the fantastic glamour of the metropolis around them. The Gion walkway is separated into four zones, each zone containing one artificially created season, including my personal favorite, the winter zone, where snow falls around the clock all year!" People on the train visibly excited and listened more carefully than before, hoping to catch something else that would impress them. "If you are interested in the wide variety of services in our city that I have no time to describe now, there are brochures available when you unload the shuttle that provides you with a full list of things that you could do while enjoying Gion. Have a nice stay, this is your driver, and it's been good transporting you."
The transmission ended just as the shuttle began to slow down, and gradually stopped silently. Blaring lights streamed in from outside and Kira noticed that they were no longer suspended up in the air but parked in a huge train stations where many more shuttles with tracks leading in all directions were unloading. People bustled everywhere, laughing and joking around as they walked by, very much oblivious to the deadly battle that went on not even a week ago so close to them.
"Okay guys, we better stick together unless we want to get separated." Tolle spoke above the loud chattering around them and the group huddled closer together. They moved with the flow and gradually made their way up a huge set of stairs carved out in marble. Kira looked around, amazed at the huge telescreens that hung on the marble walls that advertised about unheard-of products.
"Oh look Sai!" Flay pointed towards one of the large telescreens, a picture of a Barbie filled its display and its outfit was changing from an apricot colored dress to a blue and elegant Kimono. Sai sighed exasperatedly.
"Flay, aren't you just a little old for that ancient toy?" Kazui said, amused at Sai's predicament. Flay laughed.
"Just kidding."
The group soon emerged from the underground train station to a crowded and bustling street. Kira gasped, he looked up and saw, to his absolute awe, buildings that stretched so far into the sky that its top was almost not visible and the whole structure seemed to bend towards him, looking like they were ready to tip over any second. He had learned some of this in physics class. Because of the moon's reduced gravity, humans could build towers almost twice as tall as is possible on Earth. But now that he stood beneath one in real life, Kira could only watch and drool.
"Wow, magnificent," Kira whispered loud enough for people around them to hear.
"Yeah, it's so … tall!" Miriallia said with the same degree of amazement, finding no better adjectives than 'tall'.
"Ugh, that is scary!" Kazui said loudly, "imagine living at the top of one of these, I would piss my pants just opening the window!" The group laughed at his little joke and then continued on.
On their trek through the busy streets of Gion, Flay was the most eccentric, she pointed from one thing to another, always amazed, her energy inspired and scared Kira, reminding him of his friend Misao back on Earth, who was still in Carpentaria base.
What are they doing now?
They had stopped over a dozen times on their way to, in lack of better words, stare at something that amazed them. Huge telescreens hung on the first and second floors of every mighty building and televised eccentric advertisements with beautiful actors or clips of popular T.V. shows. Or anything else that is qualified for public television. The city was a wild blur of all colors of the spectrum and more mixed together, even in the daytime, lights blared from above their heads and lit up the city in beautiful neon colors, Gion was truly a city that never slept. People were dressed in every way imaginable, they had come across men wearing classical European battle armors; or women wearing beautiful silk Kimonos; Or people wearing classical Chinese robes and sometimes even carrying authentic swords, in fact, people in T-shirts and slacks like themselves were a rarity. The thing that amazed Kira and the rest of the gang is that these people weren't even wearing the outfits to show off but it was really their day-to-day outfit. Apparently, the different cultures of the world had been enhanced and encouraged in Gion so much that people literally lived in the pinnacle of the modern world of Gion but at the same time embraced the good aspects of the old ways and created a harmony that amazed any tourist that came through. All sidewalks were covered in luxurious, black marble that reflected light beautifully, some streets even had conveyer belts implanted into the ground that the people could stand on while they were moved through the city without walking. The road was paved in multicolored cobblestones. 'Cars' floated through the streets silently, their fuels were a renewable gas that produced water as their drove by, producing very little amount of pollution if any at all.
"This is true prosperity." Sai muttered under his breath as they strolled along the beautiful avenues, "I would never have thought anything like this was possible," the group looked to Sai as he gushed, "here were are, in the middle of thousands of cars and people and possibly the most advanced city ever, yet the streets are as clean as fresh fallen snow, and the air that I'm breathing is fresher than anything I've ever breathed!" Kira nodded in agreement.
"If only my friends left on the Carpentaria base could see me now." All of them laughed joyfully and continued padding along. Tolle spoke.
"I want to check out that Gion walkway thing! It sounds awesome, let's find a shuttle and go there!" His request was followed with agreement from everyone, and they marched off, with Kira reading the map and in charge of getting them to the closest train terminal.
"We turn left here." Kira muttered to the group and after rounding a corner, their mouths dropped open not for the first time that day. In front of them stood a gigantic dome erected from the lunar soil, its entire outer surface is painted in a type of elegant white paint that reflected the light of the setting sun perfectly, giving it an orange, warm glow. Transportation shuttles hissed like snakes into and out of its docking stations constantly from the tracks overhead, carrying thousands of people. People of all ages and sizes strolled to and from the white dome. Kira lifted a finger and pointed towards the Train station, "we're here. The East Gion millennium station."
After going underground and purchasing tickets once more, Kira's group of teens boarded a shuttle headed for "Grand Gion walkway."
"What time is it?" Kazui asked as they each found seats and sat down. Tolle rolled up his sleeve and read from his civilian watch.
"It's 7:00 PM." A knot formed between the boy's brows. "What's '7:00 PM'?" He asked, trying to remember the meaning of these times. Kira spoke up.
"It is 1900 hours, AM is time in the morning and stretches from 12 AM, midnight, to 12 PM, noon, and after that everything is in PM until 12 AM." Tolle put a hand to his forehead.
"Ah, what a confusing time, why can't they just keep it in military calendar? It's a hundred times easier!" they went on like this until the train began to move. Flay gasped, her seat had moved up all by itself. Sai snapped to attention and grabbed her hand.
"What's wrong Flay?"
"My, my seat just moved up, it startled me." Everyone's seats had, indeed floated after the train had begun moving.
"Oh, no need to worry, it's just the air ride system in these new shuttles, or so I've heard," Miriallia laughed and held onto Flay's hand, "no need to be scared." Kira and Kazui laughed and sat back to watch the sights of Gion as they flashed by outside the large windows. Only in a shuttle suspended high up in the air could one truly appreciate the vastness and magnificence of Gion; the city was literally covered by advanced civilization within every square inch of its boundaries. They could see countless buildings zoom past as they raced through the city, the beautiful sky scrapers occasionally gave way for a park, usually covered in old-growth trees that reached as far as their train tracks and accompanied by artificial lakes glittering in the fast-setting sun to the West. Sai spoke up.
"The sun is going to set soon!" He fished a screen that looked like a palm pad from his shirt pocket and a 3-D holographic figure of a Samurai appeared from the screen. Kira raised one eyebrow and looked at the palm pad closely, wondering what Sai was up to.
"May I help you Sai-san?" The Samurai said in its computer generated low voice while it unsheathed its fake sword.
"Yes, can you pull up the countdown timer for the Earth to Appear over Gion?" Sai asked the A.I.
"Searching…" the A.I. said and numbers raced through its body. After a tenth of a second, it replied. "The Earth will be visible to Gion in exactly two hours and 57 minutes."
"Oh good, then that leaves us with some time to tour around before watching." Sai said and closed the palm pad. The Samurai disappeared and he stuffed the pad back into his shirt pocket.
"What was that thing Sai?" Kira asked curiously.
"Oh, it's just one of the new A.I.s that they developed in the Earth military, this type is made for civilians and I got one after bribing the storage keeper." Sai explained matter-of-factly while a devious smirk crawled into his face.
"Pfft, No wonder I haven't heard about these things." Tolle said while Miriallia listened carefully beside him. He moved in his seat and was behind Sai. "Sai buddy, you have to get me one, you know, for friend's sake." Sai sweat dropped visibly.
"We have now arrived at the Grand Gion walkway station, all passengers wishing to visit please exit the Shuttle by the back doors after it has come to a complete stop, watch your step please." The COM in the shuttle blared and saved Sai from the hook, bribing the storage keeper ONCE was dangerous enough, if they got caught, both him AND the storage keeper would be sentenced to 2 weeks of washroom cleaning duty and Sai would have hell to face from the storage keeper afterwards. They got up and prepared to get off as the shuttle came to a stop.
oxoxoxoxox
For two and half hours, the group simply walked and admired the Gion walkway. They had hastily stopped at a traditional Chinese restaurant and ate with chopsticks while they admired the beautifully furnished interior. Huge parks surrounded some parts of the walkway's length and some were towered over by menacing skyscrapers. They stopped when they entered an area and flakes of snow began to fall.
"What the?" Tolle jumped, "it is SNOWING!"
"Yes!" Miriallia and Flay squealed in delight. Soon, the snow came down in flakes as large as a fingertip and covered the walkways and rooftops in a matter of minutes, transforming the beautiful, but otherwise ordinary houses in the area into a brilliant white vista.
Kira, Tolle, Miriallia, Sai, Flay and Kazui found of set of benches beside the walkway backing onto a lovely traditional dojo and facing a large artificial lake, which had been frozen, and sat down after brushing the centimeter of snow already gathered on its surface.
"Ah, I haven't felt this relaxed ever since I joined the military!" Kazui sat back and voiced his apparent pleasure while his gaze trailed to the cityscape beyond the frozen lake where kids and adults were skating joyously.
"I agree, my body's been tense, not knowing when there might be a drill or what kind of cruel exercises we're going to be put through in the next day by the squad leader from hell." Sai's remark was meant as a joke, but everyone just sat back and smiled at their gentle surrounding instead of laughing out loud; merging into their environment rather than breaking its harmony. The snow now fell around them silently, and its soft flakes landed gently. The daylight faded as the last peeks of the sun disappeared behind the horizon and orange streetlights turned on, the shops and restaurants along the walkway also turned on their brightly colored neon lights and illuminated the streets in a festive mood. Flay suddenly gasped.
"Oh my god." She said silently, one hand over her mouth in awe while her eyes grew large and looked to the now dark sky. Everyone looked, and to his or her awe, there was mother Earth, in her full green and blue majesty, rising slowly over the horizon.
"Wow."
Earth was huge, it occupied a quarter of the sky as it slowly glided from the horizon and stood over their heads. The many people on the streets also stopped and looked up. The Earth was beautiful; it was a serene globe of white, blue and green of countless shades. Its surface was that of a beautiful painting and it slowly rotated, revealing one continent after the next. The stray sun light from behind moon bounced off of the Earth's surface and reflected back to Gion, where it its majesty stopped many in their tracks.
It was strange that people would be staring up in awe when Gion revealed itself to the Earth at night when the Earth would look so much better. And the funny thing is, Kira thought, is that there were probably people staring up at them right this moment. Suddenly he felt an extreme sense of vertigo, not knowing which way is up or down, Kira grabbed onto the edges of his seat a little tighter, afraid of suddenly falling towards the Earth in its vastness.
As soon as it had began, the Earth was gone from their view, it was barely five minutes that the Earth was visible, but it had left a vision in each of the teenagers' minds that night which they will never forget.
end of phase
Author's notes: Hope you liked that, having a little fun and a practice in creative writing, please tell me what you think about it and what I should change in the writing structure or grammar mistakes. Constructive criticism is strongly encouraged!