Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam.

Thanks again to LW for beta reading. This episode took a while and is 50% longer than expected.


Gundam Gemini

Episode Four

Wonderland Dreamers

Part A

.

Narick Ambion's time had finally come.

Truth be told, his impending fame should have arrived much earlier. Born of the superior Lux stock that was House Ambion, which was second to no other house in terms of nobility with the exception of the imperial bloodline they served, Narick had been gifted with intelligence, good looks and technopathic talent. Brimming with everything that could be expected of an exceptional Ambion, his parents, friends and servants agreed the world was at the young Narick's fingertips. He would usher the empire into a new and glorious age, catching the emperor's eye with his military achievements, before leading the nobility to their senses and putting the masses in their place, earning the love and devotion of all for history to record.

At least, that was what should have happened… until she ruined everything.

"Vega Aurelia…"

Narick's lips contorted just saying her name, marring his perfect features. Ever since the daughter of House Aurelia had made her existence known to him in their youth, it had been one humiliation after another. From test scores to sports he was made to suffer second place to her first, in riding and hunting he was trounced by her natural skill, and when it came to the attentions of their peers – especially girls – the scion of House Ambion was cast aside in favour of the prodigy on everyone's lips, Vega Aurelia. Worst still, Narick had been forced to endure her constant presence in Lux's prestigious Royal Military Academy for Officers and from there his humiliation continued even into adulthood.

Now, Vega was LIRA's undisputed ace pilot and the favourite daughter of the empire, charming the nation as she climbed the steps to the emperor's inner circle while wearing her stupid mask. The impudence! The injustice! It should have been him on the podium accepting those medals, those praises and adulations, as his father so frequently reminded him with bitter disappointment. For two decades, the constant comparisons to Vega Aurelia had consumed Narick Ambion's every waking moment and his pride was at breaking point…

…Until news of the Scarlet Wolf's recent failures had made their way to his jubilant ears.

Oh, how the table had turned! Not once, but twice Vega had lost valuable relics to the RDF relic hunters and her precious Fenrir had almost been destroyed in the process. Command had been so angered they had removed Vega and the Blue Crow from the relic hunt, allowing Narick and the Tybalt to take the lead. Finally, the world would know the genius and beauty of Narick Ambion!

If Narick could kiss the one they called the White Hellhound, he would – before shooting them down himself. Not just for the recognition of killing the RDF's new ace, but to deny Vega her retribution forever. He always knew his Ambion blood was superior and that his inferior rival would stumble eventually – how dangerous could an old mobile suit really be?

Point proven and pride restored, Narick admired his dashing features in front of the monitor of his Warg's cockpit, brushing his blonde hair back with a gel-infused comb. They had called him a fool for piloting without a helmet, but there was no need for the Great Narick Ambion who had yet to be shot down even once. Besides, he thought, as he inspected his pearly white teeth, how could he allow anything to conceal the handsome Adonis before him?

"It would be a crime," he laughed to his own smug reflection, before the screen cut to the darkness of outer space.

"Master Narick…" a beady-eyed man began, appearing on-screen from the cockpit of another Warg.

"Cecil! Do you have my relic yet?!" Narick barked, wagging his giant chin with impatience.

"Master Narick, I regret to inform you…" the man started again, speaking like a servant rather than a subordinate. "…But there is no relic. The satellite was empty."

"Nonsense! The star map said it would be here!" Narick stubbornly dismissed the report and took to his controls, boosting his Warg off into the direction of the satellite. "Do I have to do everything myself? Out of my way!"

The other members of Team Ambion, who were crowded around the ancient Lemurian satellite in their Wargs, cleared a path for their vain leader as he barged his way through. Grabbing the object with both hands of his mobile suit, Narick inspected its interior, comically putting his head unit inside the large satellite's open hatch. After a moment, when the relic detection instrument remained silent, the nobleman's hands shook and his blue eyes bulged with mounting anger.

"No… no, no, no!" Narick cried, pounding on his chair, and his handsome face twisted with escalating rage. "This wasn't meant to happen! I was finally going to outshine that damned Aurelia – I can't do that with nothing! Where is my achievement?! Where is my relic?!"

Screaming, the furious pilot ripped the satellite apart before blasting the two halves with holes using his beam rifle. Around him, the members of Team Ambion backed away from the maelstrom but were hardly surprised by their leader's fit of anger. Narick only stopped when the rifle's magazine ran out and he panted heavily until his mind returned to reason.

"…Master Narick," Cecil, well-versed in the ways of his master, chose this opportune moment to interrupt. "I believe Colonel Dorian has been trying to reach you for some time."

Checking his comm, Narick did indeed find it blinking with a red glow and after taking one final breath, he pushed the button.

"…Yes, captain?"

"Major," Colonel Dorian, captain of the Crow-class Tybalt in the distance, showed no sign of admonishing his lead pilot and spoke calmly. "Just thought you'd like to know, but we've had reports of junkers in this quadrant and the relic is most likely in their possession. We'll pursue them as soon as Team Ambion returns to the ship… so can you calm the hell down?"

Captain Dorian signed off, but if anything, Narick was even more upset.

"Junkers?!" he snarled, and a vein threatened to burst on his forehead. "Those vile scavengers have my relic?! They'll rue the day they crossed Narick of House Ambion!"

"Since they are not here, I believe the RDF relic hunters are already looking for the junkers," Cecil concluded, and caught his master's attention. "And the White Hellhound with them."

At the mention of Vega's foe, Narick flashed his set of perfect white teeth with a crocodilian smile. Thanks to his father's contacts in the Intelligence Division, he knew all about the Orthrus' gold form – and its weaknesses.

"Excellent… then it will be two birds with one stone," he grinned, and thrusted back to the Tybalt with Team Ambion in tow. "The relic and the Scarlet Wolf's prey will belong to me!"

.


.

The inside of the Lionheart's mobile suit hangar bay was a curious place for those who happened to have business there over the last week. They would have found the maintenance unit and pilots wearing UV-protective sunglasses and goggles, despite the bright artificial lighting within the battlecruiser's interior, and the reason soon became obviously apparent. The Orthrus Gundam was illuminating a brilliant gold glow, like the hangar bay's own blinding sun, and those present could not look away.

"Ok, you can shut it down, Laura!"

At Junko's command into the mic of her headset, the light of the golden Orthrus began to dim before it changed back to its natural white armour and shut down, returning the hangar bay to its usual grey tones. The maw of the cockpit opened and Laura flew out with her short blonde hair tossing behind her as she floated down to Junko's station. Since leaving the asteroid facility they had been testing the Gundam's Mode Change abilities non-stop and the Gundam pilot breathed a sigh of relief knowing this was the last one.

"Damn, it gets warm in there!" Laura exclaimed, and her amethyst necklace popped out as she depressurised her flight suit and rolled it below her waist.

"When you're out in the sub-temperatures of space, you'll be glad it's warm," Junko responded, tapping away at her laptop which was hooked up to various instruments attached to the Orthrus through a mess of cables. "Ok, unhook everything! Great work, everyone!"

While the maintenance unit went about detaching the instruments and wires from the Gundam, Laura met up with Junko on the overhang walkway and the mechanic lifted her goggles to her forehead so she could greet the Gundam pilot with her big brown eyes.

"So, before I give this to Superintendent Moses, let's go over what we know," Junko began, uncharacteristically all business-like, but Laura knew the raven-haired woman tempered her excitement when she had something important to say and steeled herself for a long talk. "When the Orthrus came into contact with the solar relic, which contained research on solar power, absorption and resistance, it downloaded all the information from the latter into what we will call the Orthrus' relic core…"

"The thing under my seat we couldn't figure out," Laura finished for her and Junko nodded.

"Its core is probably something like one of the purple cube relics, which store data, but it can also absorb and process that data," she continued, showing Laura the graphs and reports on the laptop screen. "After processing the solar research, the core figured out the best method to implement it by – and we're saying this tentatively – interfacing with and altering the properties of the Gundanium, leading to a Mode Change."

"The Gundanium actually changed?" the blonde remarked, and glanced at the Orthrus' white armour, open-mouthed.

"To keep it simple, it strengthened heat-resistant properties within the Gundanium while also transforming the mobile suit into a giant solar panel to also convert that heat into energy, effectively making it beam-resistant and gold. So instead of plasma melting a hole in the Orthrus' armour, it's absorbed and converted into energy on contact. Some of that energy is routed back into the Orthrus' battery, recharging it, but the majority is absorbed and dispersed throughout the armour which now acts like a giant, glowing heatsink," Junko breathlessly explained with a rub of her forehead. "We knew Gundanium was a unique metal, but to think it could pull off something like this using the relic core, which is basically a computer… it's like some kind of intelligent metal that reacts when prompted with data, not just physical stimuli…"

"Uh, right… so the core tells the Gundanium to turn gold, giving us Solar Mode?" Laura simplified even further, the explanation having gone over her head at some point. "Also, Solar Armour, Solar Beams, Solar Flare... pretty nifty."

"Hold your horses, cowgirl, it's not all Solar Beams and rainbows," the mechanic held up her hand and swiped the laptop screen to show more graphs and pictures. "First of all, the properties that make Solar Armour so good at absorbing and resisting heat aren't suited for physical impacts and the high temperatures don't help. So, don't crash or get into a melee brawl in Solar Mode – and definitely don't get shot by conventional weaponry, especially missiles. Solar Armour can't take consecutive beams in the same spot either, the plasma will eventually punch through and a ship's beam cannon will definitely vaporise you, so remember it's not invincible."

"So I wasn't imagining it…" Laura sucked in her teeth and grimaced, recalling when the Wargs, the Fenrir, and Freya had shot at her – the latter having occurred during testing, which the Pink Diva appeared to enjoy a little too much. "Solar Amour is physically brittle and has its limits, got it. What else?"

"Well, because the Solar Armour is building up with all this heat when you're getting shot, this leads me to my second point – energy release," Junko flipped to another graph with a worrying, jagged red line climbing up. "Solar Mode needs to release all this built up energy, because if it doesn't it risks compromising the suit's structural integrity and mechanical operations and could even lead to catastrophic consequences… such as exploding."

"E-Exploding?" Laura folded her arms over her quivering chest and stuttered. "Are you serious? But the purple Solar Beams – Solar Flare! I'm discharging energy!"

"As far as I can tell, the Solar Beams are just an unintended side effect of Solar Mode and they don't discharge enough energy. Solar Flare, yes, but as you demonstrated it drained the battery completely and almost cut the Lionheart in half," Junko rubbed the bridge of her nose and Laura mouthed a quiet apology. "Whether you discharge it through a Solar Flare or not, either option is pretty dangerous – I don't want to even imagine you exploding or firing that chest cannon in a city – but with the calibrations we've done, Solar Flare should be less powerful and won't leave you running on empty. Assuming you're soaking up plasma from a full squadron of Wargs and still have a full battery, you'll get two shots, maybe three."

"Good to know, I suppose… although the more I hear, the less I want to get shot," the Gundam pilot sighed. "What about the thrusters? Are they working again?"

"Technically, they are, but you saw how much power the Orthrus redirects just to maintain Solar Mode – changing the Gundanium's properties uses a lot of juice, as expected," the mechanic shook her head. "This leads me to my third and final point: while in Solar Mode the Orthrus will still be as slow as an overweight bulldog."

"I guess we can't have everything…" Laura sighed again, before screwing up her face. "Orthrus is not overweight! He just has an appetite!"

Junko rolled her eyes, but the shorter woman agreed.

"Even though its battery engine is already quite advanced, it can't keep up with Mode Change, but if we had something like a small reactor…" Junko's inner mobile suit fanatic started theorising and her eyes began to sparkle. "By the way, the chest cannon was almost made for Solar Mode and I can't believe it slipped by our initial inspection. It's almost as if the Mode Change made the finishing touches when it altered the Gundanium… oh! If you had Gundanium equipment, you could absorb the beams with a shield instead and fire them back with a specially designed rifle that could unleash the full power of the Solar Beams!"

Laura smiled at the mechanic's enthusiasm and went along with it.

"That does sound pretty awesome… maybe R&D can cook something up?"

"I'll put a request in the report. I already asked for some Vulcans for the Orthrus…"

"For point-defence? Where are you even going to install them?"

Junko gestured to the sides of her head and Laura's expression reeled with horror.

"Don't you dare!"

"But it will be cool!"

They would have argued over the Orthrus like two parents, but a cough interrupted them and they saw Milos approaching on the walkway.

"Milos!" Laura cried.

Sensing she was intruding between the father and daughter, Junko made her exit.

"Well, I better get this to the Chief. I'll see you later, Laura."

With a wave, Junko floated off and made herself scarce, leaving the two Hartmanns on the walkway. The maintenance unit had long since left after completing their duties, so it was only Laura and Milos in the hangar bay and they stared at the Orthrus together.

"Finished with testing?" Milos asked and gripped the railing beside his daughter.

"Yeah, and calibrations too," Laura nodded, admiring her personal mobile suit with a lopsided grin. "The Orthrus was already a headache to maintain before Mode Change, but he's good to go again."

"Like any good dog, he knows a lot of tricks," her father quipped, before his expression set with seriousness. "I just sent my report to the president. It will take some time to hear back from the QEC relay, but I doubt we can keep the Orthrus from R&D after this latest discovery."

QEC, or Quantum Entanglement Communications, was a technology derived from a relic and allowed faster than light communications due to the unique state of paired particles interacting with each other no matter the distance. The technology was still in its early stages but allowed the Lionheart to contact Rem through a series a relays, provided the Gate to Rem was open, with the Gates being the means of travel between galaxies the Lemurians had left behind. It was theorised the giant ring-like Gates, made of Gundanium alloy and large enough to fit several battleships abreast, used wormholes but research was still pending.

"Will I have to give the Orthrus up?" Laura asked, like a girl who had found an abandoned puppy.

"I doubt it, they'll just want to examine it asap," Milos assured her. "You've already proven its value in combat, not to mention being the only technopath who can pilot it, so you probably have nothing to worry about. But if push does come to shove with R&D… you could always give President Winters a call."

"Ugh, I don't know how to handle that woman…" the blonde threw her head back and groaned.

"You and me both," her father replied, unconsciously adjusting his captain's cap. "But she seems to really like you and it's not a bad thing to have friends in high places – just don't let her talk you into campaigning for her."

"You don't have to tell me…" Laura shivered at the thought. "So, is that all you came to tell me?"

As expected of his daughter, adopted or not, she knew when he was beating around the bush, so Milos just went out and said it.

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't getting overconfident," he told her straight and cast his dark eyes towards the Orthrus. "This Gundam is probably the most powerful mobile suit known to man and together with you, the most talented technopath I've ever met, it makes for one hell of a combination. I don't blame you for feeling unstoppable when you get in the pilot's seat – I know you're going to wreck a lot of Wargs and save a lot of butts, including mine – but I want you to remember everyone on the Lionheart has your back. Any feelings of responsibility this power burdens you with, we're here to carry it with you, so don't… remember you're not fighting alone, Laura."

Most daughters might bristle at getting a lecture from a parent, but Laura listened and gave her father a wry smile. It was true the Orthrus had made her overconfident and revenge had clouded her judgement at times, but it was thanks to her friends that Laura had yet to succumb to her worst emotions. Milos too, who had also known Tully and how close they were, had helped keep her in check with his presence – not that his daughter would ever admit it.

"I know, Milos!" she whined with mock offence and grinned. "Don't worry, it's what everyone keeps reminding me. Junko, Freya and Alice aren't letting me get bigheaded – Commander Gabriel too."

"Good, because I asked her to."

"I knew it!"

As the ensign pretended to strike her captain, Milos received a call from the bridge. It was Sofia herself, telling them the Lionheart had found the junker fleet and were ready to make contact.

.


.

Communications soon revealed one of the junker ships did indeed have the missing relic, having taken it just before the Lionheart's arrival at the star map's location. As per RDF protocols, they would negotiate for the relic in exchange for Rem dollars, of which a sizable amount was stored in the captain's safe for such a situation. Sofia was chosen to handle the negotiations in person and took a security team with her, which somehow included Junko since Team Orthrus would be acting as escort for the transport shuttle.

All except for one member of the team.

"This is so not fair!" Freya shouted from the inside of her cockpit, where she was on standby, having been left behind on the Lionheart.

"Unfortunately, someone has to stay and guard the Lionheart," Alice told the raging diva, not that it helped.

"Yeah, it doesn't make sense for us all to go," Laura added, and she struggled to keep a straight face at the sight of the pouting pink pilot on her monitor. "Look at it this way, they picked you because you're the best pilot for the job! And it's just a junker ship, it's nothing to get excited about…"

The other members of Team Orthrus were already flying side-by-side with the small shuttle as they approached the junker fleet and the Lionheart trailed behind. As well as providing an escort with their Garms, the orphans' technopathic abilities would be useful to ascertain the authenticity and value of the relic once on board.

"Nice try, Laura, but that doesn't change the fact I'm on the bench while you get to go out and hog the glory – again!" Freya burned her rival's ears and it sounded like she was just getting warmed up. "Yes, it's just a junker ship, but that's not the point! Why do I get left behind?! Shouldn't it be the Orthrus?! This is discrimination – no, favouritism! Admit it, Laura, you used your sweet puppy-eyes on Milos and he dropped like a sack of–"

"Pipe down, Valstein!" Sofia suddenly interrupted the comm, shouting over the frozen diva and silencing her. "If you must know, I asked the captain to bench you – but if you're not happy with it, I could always bench you in the simulator instead for some one-on-one marathon training sessions when I come back…"

"N-No, thank you, ma'am! I'm the happiest benchwarmer there ever was!"

"Good answer. Now just sit tight, this shouldn't take long."

The demon commander signed off and Freya breathed a sigh of relief, before noticing another caller on a different comm channel and pushed the button.

"Don't worry, Freya… I've linked my comm to your Garm on a private channel, so you can at least listen in…" Junko whispered, obviously taking pains so Commander Gabriel wouldn't hear her in the shuttle.

"Oh, nice one, Junko!" Freya perked up and grinned. "I owe you one!"

The shuttle and its Garm escort neared their destination, the pale red ship on the edge of the junker fleet, which was half-a-dozen strong. Unlike the other ships, which were large and blocky freighter models painted dull browns and greys, the vessel with the relic was smaller and had an immaculate paint job. On its side, inscribed with giant white lettering, was the name 'Persephone'.

"Persephone, this is Commander Sofia Gabriel of the Lionheart, arriving as agreed," Sofia hailed the junker with the shuttle's comm, but rather than answer back the Persephone's immense bay doors opened, inviting them in. With a nod from their XO, the shuttle and Team Orthrus entered through the belly of the ship and the way closed behind them.

Inside, they found a spacious grey hangar bay, large enough to house a small ship if the junkers managed to scavenge such a prize out in space. There were also shipping containers and wide nets organised along the walls, where they stored their smaller cargo, and the shuttle landed in the middle with the Garms touching down behind it.

"Stay in your Garms and don't come out until I give you the all-clear," Sofia ordered Laura and Alice, while they waited for the hangar to repressurise, and the pilots nodded.

Once their instruments showed safe levels of oxygen and temperature had been reached, the shuttle doors opened and Sofia exited first. She and the four-man security squad filed out into the hangar bay, all armed with holstered pistols, and Junko came last. Even without sound, Laura could tell the mechanic was squealing with delight at the all the knickknacks she was finding and smiled.

"It's a junk treasure trove!" the starry-eyed technophile cried, breathing in the air with alarming gasps. "Look, they have Lux parts! That's a Warg actuator! And these must be the instruments from a Warg cockpit! Oh my god, do you see this Freya? It's a Warg engine and it's still intact!"

"No, I can't see, and stop yelling…" the diva begged, wincing with every vocalised discovery. "Why are you so surprised? They're junkers, they probably scavenge the battlefields of the Lemurian Conflict and sell what they find back to the RDF and LIRA. Vultures…"

"Wow, an original Argos mobile suit!"

Lost in her own world, Junko waltzed up to her latest find which towered over her. It was a small mobile suit, shorter than a Garm and with less armour, and was more of a mobile suit frame painted blue and white. Unlike the machines of war she maintained, it was obviously meant for non-combat purposes within the junkers' line of work.

"It's an old model suit, but they're reliable if you maintain them right. It looks like this one has been especially well-taken care of…"

Junko reached out to touch the Argos, but a loud angry voice froze the mechanic in place.

"Don't touch it!"

From her Garm, Laura zoomed in on the Persephone's crew that had just arrived through an airlock hatch in the wall and identified a pair, a boy and a girl. The boy who had shouted at Junko was a dark-haired youth wearing blue coveralls and an intimidating gaze. The girl was a redhead of the same age with a friendly smile, who reminded the pilot of Freya with her pink overalls.

"Hello, Commander Gabriel? Welcome aboard the Persephone," the girl greeted the party, but paused when her companion rushed ahead and went after him with a sigh. "My father the captain will be right down, so please wait here!"

Satisfied they weren't in any danger due to their hosts' young ages and the fact the junker appeared to be a family-run business, Sofia gave Team Orthrus the all-clear. On her command, Laura and Alice simultaneously leapt out of their cockpits and floated straight for Junko, ready to defend her from the angry youth should it come to that. But the pilots soon found their fears were unwarranted.

"Is this your Argos? Do you maintain it yourself? I noticed some modifications, how did you get them all to fit? Did you craft them yourself?"

Junko's Mecha-Geek Mode was in full flight and she bamboozled the boy with a flurry of questions, enough to make him forget any initial antagonism towards the outsiders.

"Y-Yeah, I'm the pilot," he stammered, before boasting. "It was pretty beat up when I found it, but I managed to fix it by finding and reworking old parts from here and there."

"I knew it! It looks great, I love the blue and white finish!"

"Right? There's nothing like flying around in your own mobile suit!"

"…And they're already getting on like a house on fire," Laura remarked to Alice, and they landed just as the new buddies were discussing everything from mobile suits to plastic models.

"Trust Junko's bright personality to save the day," Alice said, a hint of envy in her amber eyes.

"Hey, stop bothering our guests!" the redhead swooped in and smacked the boy across the side of the head, before smiling for the orphans. "Sorry about that. I'm Jill Ryder and this is my brother, Jack."

"Jack and Jill?" Alice cocked her head.

"Your brother?" Laura squinted, but failed to see the resemblance.

"I'm adopted," Jack snapped at her, taking umbrage at the attention. "Just get your relic and get out of here. RDF, LIRA, you're all nothing but trouble…"

"Jack!" Jill smacked her brother again, much to the amusement of their spectators. "You're way too suspicious of people!"

"I can't see what's happening, but I like this girl…" Freya whispered from Junko's front pocket and shocked the Ryder siblings with her disembodied voice.

"That's Freya," Laura laughed. "I'm Laura, and this is Alice and Junko."

"It's so nice to meet you!" Jill's eyes sparkled and she suddenly took Laura by the hands. "I never thought I'd get to meet girls my own age out here. Are you all Garm pilots? That's so cool!"

"Hey, I'm a pilot too!" Freya hollered.

"Freya's guarding the ship, but yes, Alice and I are pilots. Junko is our resident mobile suit expert and maintainer," Laura explained. "We all grew up together on Rem."

"Wow, and now you serve together? I'm so jealous!" Jill squeezed her fists and sighed. "The Persephone comes to the Lemurian system every now and again for work, but we never take the time to visit Rem! I'd love to go there some day."

"Why bother? There's nothing in the Rem system for us to scavenge and sell," Jack pointed out, snorting, and flinched when his sister raised her palm.

"Do you come from the Zodiac Union?" Alice asked, dazzling the sibling with her beauty.

"Yep, that's where we're usually based. We live on the Persephone and travel everywhere looking for scrap to sell – oh, our father is the captain, by the way," Jill answered, and the orphans listened with interest.

"Nice, now I think I'm jealous!" Junko exclaimed, and finally tore her eyes away from the treasure trove. "You must go to all sorts of places, searching for parts and tech!"

"Something like that," the junker smiled at her enthusiasm, before running a hand through her red locks. "But sometimes I just want the luxury of the big city, you know?"

"I know! There's nothing like going out to a café or window shopping!" Freya responded, excited. "Or a hot bath and a real bed!"

"Right?!" Jill shouted into the comm, thrilled to discover a human being that finally understood and startled Junko in the process.

"I think you would really get along with Freya," Laura grinned.

"You have the same tastes," Alice observed.

"But personality-wise, Freya's more like Jack…" Junko smirked.

"What?!" the pink diva barked. "I'm not even remotely similar to this flyboy-in-the-making!"

"Get your eyes checked, there's no way I'm some girl!" Jack shot back, only to falter when the others threw him dirty looks, and his eyes quickly wandered to the Orthrus. "W-What's the deal with this Garm? Is it a new model? I've never seen anything like it…"

The boy drifted over, mesmerised by the sight of the white Gundam and Laura couldn't help but puff out her chest.

"It's a beauty, isn't it?" she smirked. "And it just happens to be my own personal mobile suit, the Orthrus Gun–"

"Uh-uh, Laura," Alice interjected and threw cold water over the pilot. "No revealing state secrets."

"Too bad, Laura," Junko cupped her mouth and chortled.

While Laura cursed to their snickering, Jill noticed her father had already arrived. A well-built and dark-skinned man, he looked more like a pirate than a junker with his hairless head, gold earring and sleeveless yellow shirt that showed off his toned arms. He exchanged a few words with Sofia, who then turned and waved to the mechanic and pilots.

"I think your commander wants you?'

"Oh, right – well, time to get to work," said Junko, pushing off through the hangar together with the pilots, and her words brought Jill to a shocking realisation.

"Wait… you're all technopaths?" The redhead's eyes and mouth widened with amazement, and she hurried after them.

"You have to be, to be as good as us," Freya smugly informed her, adding, "I'm almost better than Laura though!"

While the security team stayed behind with the Garms and shuttle, the captain, Otto Ryder, led them through the ship until they reached what appeared to be a workshop. Here, the junkers dismantled, combined, repaired, reforged or reassembled any parts they found for their own use or so they could be sold. It would have otherwise been an area of great interest to the orphans, if not for the white elephant in the room which stopped the RDF party in their tracks.

"I warned them not to mess with it," Otto growled, making his exasperation clear. "But then what do they go and do? Idiots!"

The relic, a purple box of roughly one metre dimensions in the middle of the room, had half-a-dozen cables leading out from it and on each end were black visor-like devices. Hooked up to four of these visors, the sight of whom had shocked them on arrival, were members of the Persephone's crew. Their limp bodies had been tied down for their own safety and appeared to be unresponsive, as if they were asleep.

"Are they… dead?" Laura asked, and a choking sound escaped from Junko' comm, which she quickly masked.

"They're still alive, but we can't wake them up," Jack crossed his arms and explained.

"It would have been nice to have been informed of this beforehand, Captain Ryder," Sofia reproached Otto and narrowed her red eyes at the muscled man, who was easily twice her size and he appeared to flinch.

"I had to make sure you came aboard first," he explained, running a sweaty hand over his shaved head. "They're morons, but they're still my crew. Please, help them."

"Yes, please, commander," Jill pleaded and grabbed hold of her father's thick arm.

Sighing, Sofia nodded to the technopaths and they went over to give the relic a close-up inspection. It appeared all the visors and cables had come from a hidden draw in the relic, which glowed with purple lights every so often, like it was breathing. Another cable plugged into the wall socket of the workshop was supplying it with power, rejigged by the hands of its victims, and Laura shook her head at their recklessness.

"Psst, Junko… what's going on?" Freya whispered over the comm.

"Some of the Persephone's crew hooked themselves up to the relic and now they're comatose or something," Junko explained, fiddling with one the victim's visors, which refused to come off.

"What? Were they crazy?!" the diva shouted, forgoing all pretence of secrecy.

"They didn't know it was a relic," Jack defended his crewmates. "They probably thought it was some kind of game console…"

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Laura flexed her fingers and put her palm on top of the relic. "Initiating technopathic connection."

The relic flickered with more purple light and the others watched with bated breath as it seemed to react to Laura's touch. She had her eyes closed in concentration as her mind felt its way through a sea of data, trying to ascertain its purpose.

"What do you see, ensign?" Sofia asked.

"It's running a program…" Laura described, keeping her eyes closed. "I think the relic is transmitting the crew some kind of virtual reality…"

"A VR relic?!" Junko exclaimed, before one look from Sofia silenced her.

"So, they're just fooling around in there?" Jill sighed with relief. "We can just unplug the relic, right?"

"No, don't do that…" the blonde warned, and her brow furrowed. "The amount of code and data flowing back and forth is staggering… the VR is so real, I don't think your crew even realises it's fake. If you unplug the relic or forcefully remove the visors, the shock may actually harm them."

Jill gasped and Otto comforted his daughter in his arms, while swearing at his foolish crew.

"Do you know what they're doing inside the VR? Can we contact them?" Alice suggested, but Laura shook her head.

"They can't hear us. It's some kind of sleeping program… no, a dream program. It was set to run on activation and now it's put them to sleep," Laura opened her eyes, having gleaned as much as she could, and revealed the news they had been dreading. "They're trapped in their dreams."

"What…?" Junko's jaw hung open, scarcely believing it. "Did the relic, or whoever last used it, do that on purpose? How do you wake up?"

"A technopath should be able to control the relic while inside the VR and exit the program," Laura put a hand to her chin and hypothesised.

"A technopath should also be able to tell the dream world is not real, just a construct of code and data," Alice added, which begged the question.

"Are any of your crew technopaths?" Sofia asked the captain.

"No," said Otto, slapping his forehead. "None of the Persephone's crew are technopaths…"

"Well, there are two visors left," Laura hashed out the first plan that came to mind. "One us can go in and shut the VR down, freeing the crew without injury."

"Oh, oh, pick me!" Junko cried, putting her hand up.

"Not you," Sofia and Laura shut the candidate down together, and the hand of the pouting mechanic dropped along with her VR diving aspirations.

"It would probably be better if a more powerful technopath went in," Alice comforted her. "We're just worried you'll get sucked into the dream like the crew."

"What? So, Laura again?" Freya growled through the comm. "Why is it always Laura!?"

"No, not Laura either," said Sofia, ignoring the fact Freya was somehow listening in. "Ensign Carol will go."

"Alice?" Laura whispered, frowning when she suddenly had an ominous premonition. "Um, commander, maybe…"

"Don't bother, ensign," Sofia cut Laura off before she could get another word in and explained her decision. "I don't like this rescue idea, but if this is the only way I'm not going to risk our best technopath. We may need you if something goes wrong."

"Don't worry, Laura," Alice put her hand on the blonde's shoulder and squeezed. "This shouldn't take long at all."

Laura should have been reassured by those words, but the twinkle in Alice's amber gaze, usually so unreadable, left her far from confident. Not only that, she could have sworn the cool angel had been smiling.

"Oh no…"

The Gundam pilot could only watch as Junko and Jill prepared Alice for her VR dive and strapped her down to one of the work benches.

"Thank you for doing this," said Jill, just before Junko put the visor on.

"No, it's my pleasure," Alice replied, earning some odd stares, and soon she was asleep.

Sure enough, almost an hour later, Alice and the other victims had yet to wake up. In fact, the blond angel had an unsettling smile on her face as she dreamed.

"I knew it… she's off in wonderland!" Laura cried, knowing exactly what that creepy smile meant and resisted the urge give the dreamer a few good slaps.

"I don't understand… Ensign Carol struck me as a responsible officer," Sofia cupped her cheek and pondered.

"Actually, commander…" Junko leaned in and whispered into Sofia's ear.

"What…? Oh my god…!" the woman's eyes widened and looked upon Alice with astonishment.

"Don't underestimate her fantasies, commander," Freya added, shuddering. "She could be like this for days…"

"Is everything alright?" Jill interrupted, on behalf of the confused Ryder family. "What's going on?"

"Uh, Alice has a vivid imagination, you see," Junko tried to reassure them by laughing it off. "Don't worry, we'll rescue your crew. Right, Laura?"

"Give me the order, commander. I'll rescue the crew and drag this pervert back to reality," Laura requested, thumbing in the direction of sleeping beauty behind her.

"Very well, ensign…" Sofia rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Just make sure you come back… or I'll be disciplining two officers."

The orphans collectively gulped, before they strapped Laura in beside Alice.

"Junko, if I don't come back with the others in another hour, just pull the plug," Laura whispered, as she had her arms tied down with Velcro.

"I'm sure it won't come to that," the mechanic replied, only to pause and glanced at Alice's angelic visage. "Then again, what goes on in her head must be the stuff of nightmares… good luck, Laura."

The black visor wrapped itself around the Gundam pilot's eyes, encasing her in total darkness, and before Laura knew it she was asleep.

.

END OF PART A


On to Part B.