Rebuild of Third Genesis

Thirteen

"I really wish you had decided on promoting Maya earlier or later," Ritsuko Akagi complained as the dyed blond sat in Misato's office in the Pyramid, the two catching up after a long day with the new arrivals and the UN Inspector.

"Why, will your finally sleeping with her mess it up?" Misato asked archly, the purple black haired woman drinking some coffee.

Ritsuko nearly choked on her own cup, but recovered quickly. "How did you...?" she asked, blushing slightly.

"You're wearing yesterday's clothes," Misato shrugged, "besides, Maya isn't the most subtle girl. She was nearly hissing when Mari tried chatting you up."

Ritsuko snickered softly at that. "Mari's a little young for me, thank goodness," she noted. She hesitated, "Uhm, I'm aware that Maya and I might be violating regulations..."

Misato snorted. "Oh come on," she shook her head as she asked, "do you think I even give a shit about that?"

"Well, no, but I thought I should bring it up," Ritsuko admitted.

"Hell, under the terms of your release you're probably more a subordinate to Maya," Misato noted thoughtfully. She smirked, "Do you feel taken advantage of, Miss Akagi?"

"Don't joke," Ritsuko sighed. A bit more seriously she asked, "Have you figured out how the staff are going to play out?"

"I'm putting Maya in charge of Project E, more or less," Misato admitted, "with you and the Evangelion repair staff under her."

"Makes sense," Ritsuko nodded agreeably.

"Satsuki Aoi is getting my old job, though to be honest I wish I could do it and be Commander," Misato admittted.

Ritsuko shook her head, "No way you'd be able to keep up the paperwork for both jobs."

"Damn right, I'm nearly swamped as it is," Misato admitted with some frustration.

"Get a secretary," Ritsuko suggested gently, "I doubt Gendo slept most nights, and there's no way you want to run the place like he did."

"Hmm," Misato shrugged. "Aoi Mogami has also agreed to join bridge staff, and I'm thinking of offering Mana Kirishima the other slot. She works well with Satsuki and Aoi, and she's fully qualified for the job."

"The medical division up and running?" Ritsuko asked curiously.

"What there is of it," Misato admitted wryly, "so far all we have is Dr. Suema Kazuko and a nurse or two. And her 'nurses' are just staff with first aid qualifications."

"How busy is she?" Ritsuko asked curiously.

"She's handling the medical reviews for all the new staff coming in," Misato shook her head, "she's probably more swamped than I am."

"I can maybe lend her some staff," Ritsuko offered tentatively, "my people have salvaged everything we can from Unit-02 and put it in cold storage. Rebuilding is going to just take time."

"Makes sense," Misato admitted, "but keep some of your staff working on a estimate on repair costs. I need something to show Satoko, even if it's just a WAG."

"Wag?" Ritsuko blinked.

"Something I picked up working with the engineers working on Tokyo-3," Misato snickered, "Wild Ass Guess."

Ritsuko chuckled too. "I'll try to avoid too many of them, but honestly we've never rebuilt a Evangelion from this degree of damage. It may end up having to be redesigned, based on what we can do," she told her.

"We can't get more material from Lilith," Misato got where she was going, "and I assume you can't just... culture material from the Evangelion itself?"

"Not at this point," Ritsuko shrugged, "maybe in the future, but it's beyond what I can do now. So we may have to use mechanical systems, or some other technology."

"I other words, let you work on it," Misato laughed. She looked off into the distance, "How do you like working with Kuki?"

"Cookie and I get along well," Ritsuko shrugged, "and Maya seems to have gotten over her instant adversarial reaction."

"She's cute and Maya knows she's going to be working closely with you," Misato shrugged. "We need to get Kuki safely married or something."

Ritsuko shook her head, "Well, either way she's sharp, bright and tops in her field. I wish I had her before things went to hell."

"Hmm," Misato agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Satoko Shinden paused in the door to the new medical wing, or more accurately the old offices that had been converted to a medical wing. Connecting walls had been knocked down between the rooms to create a larger chamber, and curtained cubicles had been made to house patients. They weren't terribly well equipped yet, but a computer station had been rolled in, along with some diagnostic equipment and a examining table.

The doctor was turned away from the doorway, checking something in front of her. "Please step behind the curtain and undress, then we can start the check up," she said tiredly, her long black hair reaching her waist.

"Usually if someone wants me to undress I get a meal first," Satoko noted mildly, smiling.

The woman turned, blinking, then smiled faintly as she realized the woman wasn't in the usual NERV uniform. "I'm Doctor Suema Kazuko, and you are?" she asked curiously.

"Satoko Shinden," she introduced herself, "I'm the UN Special Inspector for NERV. Pleased to meet you."

Suema shook her hand firmly, but not so hard as to crush her hand. "And pleased to meet you too," she said with a impish smile, "are you the one I need to butter up to get more equipment for my medical wing?"

"Not exactly," Satoko laughed softly. "I send reports to the UN, where decisions on funding are made. Hopefully my reports will have weight with what they decide," she shrugged.

"Fair enough," Suema acknowledged. "Now, did you need a medical exam?"

"Oh no, thanks you," Satoko quickly waved her hands as she stepped away. "Totally clean bill of health, I'll have my records forwarded to you."

"Chicken," Suema teased as Satoko hurried away.

Satoko bit back a laugh as she headed to the elevators. She was touring the NERV pyramid on her second day here, trying to get a sense where NERV was at right now. The damage the military assault had done to NERV was all over, with armored doors blasted open and walls scorched or splattered with long dried blood. The facility was so big they hadn't had the opportunity to get to all the sections that had been hit.

Reaching the elevators Satoko swiped her card in the key slot, then went in. Her new pass card seemed to give her access to wherever she wanted, just as Misato had promised. She trusted Misato, mostly, but she was still faintly surprised at the areas she could go to. On impulse she pressed the button for the deepest sub basement, where once the greatest secrets of NERV resided.

The elevator descended for long seconds, then came to a stop in a dim hallway. Satoko's key card opened the armored doors, then she continued on into a open, natural cavern connected to the base. Light came in from powerful flood lights, shining off the lake of LCL and illuminating the remains of failed Evangelions and the cross where Lilith had been nailed to.

"Whoa," Satoko breathed out, walking forward on the metal platform just above the LCL. It smelled pungent and earthy, like rust or blood.

This place was the heart of the attack of the angels, the war that nearly devestated the economies of the planet. This was what SEELE had wanted to manipulate to transform the world, and what many thought Yui Ikari had turned against them.

Part of Satoko wanted to revere this place, almost like a historic site. Another part wanted her to burn it all away, to destroy what almost felt unholy and unclean. In the end she made herself turn around and leave, not trusting her own reactions. She took the elevator back up, leaning against the wall and feeling a odd chill in her bones.

As the elevator reached ground level the doors opened, and Satoko was mildly surprised to see Misato there. "You all right?" she asked suddenly, "Terminal Dogma can be a bit overwhelming..."

"How...," Satoko blinked.

"The card," Misato shrugged as she stepped in and pressed the level her office was on, "our computers register when they're used."

Satoko opened her mouth to say something cross about being spied on, then shut it again. There was no reason for her to assume the Magi computers weren't watching her, and it had been dumb to assume she wasn't unmonitored.

"And you're not being spied on," Misato added evenly, "even I didn't know Gendo had a alarm in his office set to go off if anyone entered Dogma." Crossly she added, "Scared the shit out of me when it went off."

Satoko bit back a chuckle at that mental image, even as they reached the upper levels of the Pyramid. "Well, thank you for being concerned," she admitted, "that place was pretty eerie."

Misato lead her to her brightly lit office, then both women sat on the couch. "It gave me the shivers the first time I was down there too," she agreed, the sun making the sky a rose shade as it began to set behind the 'hill' created by blasting open the geofront.

"Do you know why Gendo...," Satoko trailed off, not sure how to ask the question. Hell, she wasn't even sure what she wanted to ask!

"I'm working on cracking into Gendo's journals," Misato admitted with a sigh, the other woman smiling tiredly, "but he heavily encrypted them. I have the Magi working on cracking it, but it's going to take time."

"You think there might be answers in his diaries?" Satoko asked curiously.

"Damn if I know," Misato shrugged, "but I can hope, right? I mean, we assume Gendo did what he did to try to save his wife, but we really don't know."

Satoko sighed, sitting back on the couch. Looking down she noted, "I see you added a carpet."

Misato shrugged, "There's only so long you can stand to look at mystical inscriptions before you have to cover them up." She paused, "Besides, the floor got cold."

Satoko had to laugh at that...

To be continued!