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Chapter Four: Points of Authority

When I didn't hear an impromptu firing squad shoot me, I dared to re-open my eyes, and I saw, indeed, a squad of troopers appear among the crewmen. They were all talking to themselves.

"She's with ZAFT."

"A Coordinator? Here?"

"Damn it, she's gonna lead the ZAFT right to us."

The whispering finally got on my nerves so much, and their faces, so stoic and serious and afraid, that finally I snapped somewhere inside. I wanted to show them that I was a human, not some genetic freak they had to terminate like in a movie.

"Boo," I said, and made a face at them.

That got all of the troopers pointing their guns at me. Not exactly the reaction I had been hoping for.

Kira stepped in front of me. "I am the Prince of Orb, and she is one of my citizens! Lower your weapons."

"We are not Orb soldiers," said one of the troopers. "We don't gotta follow your orders."

"But you have to follow mine," Murrue said. She stepped forward in front of Kira. "Lower the guns. That's a direct order from your superior officer."

The troopers stared, and, one by one, they reluctantly lowered their weapons.

"Now," Murrue said, "Do something more beneficial with your time. Like making sure no one sabotages the Strike."

"Uh, yes ma'am." The armed troopers immediately ran off, leaving me surrounded by nervous noncoms and the three naval officers.

Lieutenant La Flaga clapped his hands. "There we go."

"What?" Murrue snapped.

"Testing you. I'm the superior officer onboard this ship unless I give up the responsibility. I had to make sure you were up to it, Lieutenant Ramius."

Murrue leered at him. "That was a dirty trick."

"If it means anything, I wouldn't have let anything happen to her," Mu said.

Kira's face turned pale. "God, I thought I was gonna die there."

"Why'd you do it, then?" I asked him.

He gave me a shaky smile. "I'm the son of the Lion of Orb. Gotta show a backbone somewhere."

Natarle sighed. "Who are you, girl? Why are you here, and not with the ZAFT? Are you a draft dodger or something?"

"No," I said. "I stayed in the Orb at the request of my parents, and I didn't want to leave my Orb friends behind. I had already left one set of friends behind at the ZAFT to move to Orb. I didn't want to do that again."

"So you've lived in Orb for a few years," Natarle said.

"Yes. In fact, I am an Orb citizen. I was adopted by my parents as a baby. I am a first-generation Coordinator."

Natarle's face fell. "Oh."

I immediately knew what they were thinking. Natural parents wanted a Coordinator child but freaked out upon having one and abandoned her. It was not uncommon for Natural parents to change their minds, much too late, about having a Coordinator child. Thus, a common decision was putting them up for adoption. There were a lot of first-generation Coordinators living in foster care or in orphanages, I was one of the lucky ones to get a family, permanently.

Murrue said "We shouldn't discuss this outside. We need to come up with a plan, especially as we're sitting ducks."

'Yes," Natarle said, her face returning to her normal stoic, severe expression. "The self-perpetuating spin is is slowing down on Heliopolis and there are multiple air leaks. This colony is on its last legs, ma'am, and there's no guarantee that there'll be any type of gravity for much longer."

"Can I attend the meeting?" Kira asked.

Murrue smiled at him. "I see no reason to refuse the prince of Orb."

"Can Cagalli attend as well?" Kira asked, which stunned me.

Murrue nodded. "Considering she saved our lives, I feel it is right. She's been exposed to too many military secrets anyway."

"Are you sure about this?" Natarle asked.

"Dead sure," Murrue said. "Come on, all of you. To the bridge."


An hour later, Mu La Flaga and Murrue Ramius were in their white Earth Alliance officer clothing.

They both looked a lot better and healthier cleaned-up and in new clothes, but both of their faces paled when Natarle opened the conversation with a bombshell.

"Lieutenant Ramius, you do know why Lieutenant La Flaga had to cede authority to you," Natarle said.

Murrue looked like she was going to be sick. "Y-Yes . . ."

"All of the highest-ranking officers are dead. Until you and Lieutenant La Flaga arrived, I was the ranking officer on this ship. We have a skeleton crew as well. The majority of our personnel was caught in the port when it was attacked. Those who weren't killed immediately were sucked into space to a man."

Murrue's face got even paler. "O-Okay . . . so . . . so I'm really in command."

"Since I ceded authority, yes, you are," Mu replied. "I am a pilot anyway, I'm not cut out for commanding an entire ship. Problem is, my Moebius Zero got shot down."

"Was that you in the sky, right before the Archangel appeared?" I asked.

Mu nodded, and smiled. "That's right. That was me. Not my greatest showing, but Rau Le Creuset is the toughest opponent I've ever faced. I've never been able to get the best of him."

"Rau Le Creuset?" I asked.

"He commands his own special-forces unit. I wouldn't be surprised if he masterminded this Heliopolis operation from the beginning," Mu replied. "And right now, they are outside, waiting for us. It may not look like it but we're under siege."

"It's be one thing if they were regular forces . . ." Natarle trailed off.

Mu said "My Zero is being repaired, it's out of commission."

"Then that means we have to use the Strike GUNDAM," Natarle replied.

Mu looked at me. "And that's why I'm grateful the prince decided to bring the civilian in here. I think I speak for everyone when I say I want you to pilot the Strike, Cagalli Yamato."

My heart felt like it was going to explode inside me. One fight had been bad enough. But at the same time, there was an aura of inevitability about it. I knew that no matter what I said, at the end of the day I was going to wind up inside the Strike GUNDAM cockpit and fighting for my life.

Natarle exploded. "You're kidding! We can't let a civilian, much less a Coordinator child, behind the controls of the last GUNDAM we have!"

"I can't use it," Mu said. "I took a look at the O.S. No ordinary human can fly that thing!"

Murrue nodded. "She is the only one who can handle the Strike."

Kira spoke up. "I helped her reprogram it. I can help her switch it back so Mu can fly it."

Mu raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Kira looked embarrassed. "I have a talent with code and computers. I helped design the GUNDAM O.S., actually, though I don't think it's my finest work. All I did was order Cagalli to change the settings to suit a Coordinator."

Mu looked tempted, but he finally shook his head. "Not happening."

"Why not?" Natarle asked.

"Like I said outside, the test pilots for the GUNDAMs had trouble just moving them. I wouldn't do much better in the Strike than they did."

Murrue said "If the Archangel and Strike are destroyed, there won't be anything left to protect. Like it or not, Natarle, but we're gonna have to put Cagalli in the Strike GUNDAM."

"Don't I have a say in this?" I grumbled.

Murrue turned to me. "Of course. You are a civilian, you're not obliged to follow our orders. But I also get the feeling that you're practical. You know you hold our survival in your hands."

"Gee, no pressure," I replied sarcastically.

I just shook my head. I knew what had to be done. I just had to hope that when the fighting did start, it would be over with really fast. I had relied a bit too much on luck and guesswork the previous time I had fought a GINN. And I had an advantage because it seemed the pilot was trying to take the Strike intact. I had doubts that was going to happen again.

"Fine," I said. "I'll do it. But I'm not a soldier, got it? The moment Prince Kira heads back to Orb, I'm going with him."

Murrue nodded. "That's fair." She stuck out her hand. "Handshake agreement."

"Yeah, sure." I gripped her hand for a few seconds and then let go.

Murrue smiled at me sympathetically. "I'll make sure everyone onboard this ship knows you can be trusted."

Kira looked at me. "You sure about this, Cagalli? You don't need to. I ordered you to make the O.S. that way. I'm sure I can change it back."

"No," I said. "I'm going to take responsibility. That Strike GUNDAM is something else, and the best pilot for it should fly it. I may not be trained, but if I'm the only one who can operate the O.S. . . ."

A thought occurred to me. "How can you design an O.S. you can't use?"

A sheepish grin crossed Kira's face. "The same way video game creators suck at their own creations. Also, the design isn't entirely my own, I had help from an engineer named Erica Simmons, and the O.S. is based off a ZAFT design. We're basically trying to dumb down a ZAFT O.S."

He paused, and looked at the other Naturals in the room. "Uh, no offense to everyone here, but . . . um, you know what I mean."

"None taken," Mu said, and that relaxed the room.

"Ah, whatever," I said.

Kira looked at me firmly. "Cagalli, we should get to the hangar as soon as possible. I'll help you streamline the O.S. to make it easier for you to use. If there's any weapons available, I'll launch compatibility checks and installations. I have a feeling that the Strike is going to need more than knives and machine-guns."

Natarle wore a small grin. "We have three different types of weapon packs on board. Try 'em all."

Kira looked uncomfortable looking at Natarle. I had a feeling Natarle freaked Kira out, big time. "Uh, okay, thanks."

That was when I had the uncomfortable realization that I was floating out of my seat.

Murrue noticed that immediately. "I guess we've made it into the center of the colony, gravity doesn't have much meaning anymore."

"No duh," I said, as I had the sickening feeling of my stomach rising up to my heart.

"Are you okay?" Mu asked. "You don't look so good."

"I . . . I get spacesick," I said, as my heart and stomach seemed to travel from my chest to my head, and my intestines were coiling around where my stomach should be.

"Wonderful," Natarle said. "Our last hope gets spacesick."

"I get over it in . . . in . . . in like an hour," I said. I didn't want to talk anymore as I wound up floating upside down, I could already feel vomit rising in the back of my throat.

Kira floated up to me. "I think Cagalli needs some personal space until she feels better. Do any of you know where a zero-g . . . you know . . ."

"I'll lead," Natarle said with a sigh. "Come on. The sooner you get over this, the better off we'll be."

As sick as I felt, I wondered if it would be better if I stayed sick forever.

After all, the moment I recovered, I would be sent out into war.


An hour later, I was well enough to make it into the Strike cockpit to help Kira. I still felt a little dizzy and felt like I had the remnants of stomach flu, but this discomfort was close to meaningless compared to how I had felt when I originally went weightless. I had also downed a few cups of water along with a couple of anti-spacesickness pills to try to get the recovery to work faster.

Kira smiled at me. "How're you feeling?"

"Better," I said.

"That's good. This will go a lot faster with your help." Kira sighed. "No one besides me knows how to reprogram this thing properly. But you type faster than anyone I've ever seen."

"Most Coordinators type really fast," I said. "One of the genetic improvements is improved dexterity."

"That makes sense," Kira said. "All right, sit down. I streamlined the O.S. for you, and I'm almost done installing the Sword Pack."

"Sword Pack?" I asked.

"I watched the way you fight. I think you'd work best with melee weapons. Basically, the Sword Pack gives the Strike a massive beam sword to fight with and places emphasis on quick, rapid bursts of speed to propel yourself at enemies."

"All I had were machine-guns and knives," I said. "That's not a good indicator."

Kira smiled. "It is. Once you took over, you never tried to fire the machine-guns. You just stayed with the knives."

I realized he was right. "Oh."

"Just follow my instructions. You're not as bad with tech as you think," Kira said.

"Okay."

It took about ten minutes for the Sword Pack to be installed. Suddenly, it was removed. "Why did you remove it?" I asked.

"As long as this Creuset Team is sitting on their hands, I'm going to give you as many options as possible," Kira replied. "We're going to install the Aile Pack. It's meant for medium-range combat, and emphasizes mobility over speed."

"What kind of name is 'Aile'?" I asked.

Kira shrugged. "I dunno the symbolism of it. Symbolism doesn't interest me. I've always been interested in tech, not names of the past."

"What made you so interested in technology?" I asked.

Kira's eyes shimmered for a second. He sighed finally. "I . . . I've always had a deep interest in technology. Operating systems, computers, machines, you name it. And I had a talent for it. I put a virus into the government computers at nine."

"What did your father do to you?" I asked.

"My father recognized my talent and made me tutor under Erica Simmons when I entered high school."

"That's a punishment?" I asked in disbelief.

"You've never met Erica. She puts on a kind face, but she's the toughest teacher I've ever had. She's the education equilvalent of a drill sergeant. But she made get better with tech . . . and also made me more responsible. I never tried to pull a prank like that virus again."

"There's that name again. Erica Simmons," I said.

Kira smiled. "I owe her a lot. She says she doesn't deserve as much credit as I give her, but whatever."

"What kinda prank did you pull?" I asked.

Kira's smile became a wide grin. "A cartoon lion with my voice saying something stupid and then doing a crappy imitation of a lion's roar, and it was put in an endless loop. It didn't infect the government that deeply, just the public portals."

I suddenly remembered what he was talking about. "That was you?"

"Yeah. God, I don't even know what I said anymore," Kira said. "That's something to ask my father. Now c'mon, before we run out of time."

Kira made me adjust a few more systems, and I tried my best to memorize how he did it. There would come a time when I wouldn't have him around to help me. He was the Prince of Orb. Eventually, he was going to be taken out of the battle zone. I had to know how to do this myself.

Finally, Kira asked "What do you do, Cagalli?"

"I, uh, am a double-major. Language and political science."

"How many languages?" Kira asked.

"Seven so far. English, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Latin, Chinese, and Korean."

Kira's eyes widened. "Holy crap."

"I was learning Arabic this semester too," I said. "I was aiming to become a translator, and translators need a lot of versatility these days. I mean, you gotta know how to speak every significant language under the sun, and provide a perfect analysis of the speaker's intentions, or they'll just use a robo-translator. You gotta make the extra expense of a live human worth it."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Kira said.

"I have a natural ability with language, it's not that hard for me," I said. "Though, the language we're using right now is the one I'm most comfortable with."

Kira laughed. "Why does that not surprise me? But that's why you're majoring in political science too, right? So you can offer versatility."

"You got it." I typed something in, and I sighed with relief. "All right, that's the Aile Pack down. What's left?"

"Uh, just the Launcher Pack. It's used for long-range artillery fire," Kira said. "I was saving that one for last because this isn't the proper time or place to use it. Any shot you take with the Launcher Pack will damage a colony wall, guaranteed."

"You wanna install it now?" I asked.

"Yeah," Kira said. "Might as well get it over with since we're on a roll. Now-"

Natarle's voice blared on the com. "There has been a explosion in the Tannenbaum district! Mobile Suits approaching breach in wall! Kids, I don't care what you haven't finished! Cagalli has to get out there!"

Kira looked at me. "Where's the Tannenbaum District?"

"The opposite end of the colony. But considering how fast Mobile Suits are . . ."

"Yeah," Kira said. "Not enough time to install the Launcher and then switch to something else. All right, you want the Sword or the Aile?"

I smiled at him. "The Sword."

Kira nodded knowingly. "Why am I not surprised? All right, you think you can handle this part or do you need my help?"

"Uh . . ." I tried to start the process myself, and much to my surprise it was easier than I expected. Kira's attempt to streamline the O.S. had succeeded, I felt like I could use it a lot more efficiently.

"I think I can do it," I said.

Kira gave me a thumbs up. "All right. Good luck out there."

"Just stay safe, Prince Kira," I said.

Kira's face flushed a bit. "Uh . . . at this point, I think you can just call me 'Kira'. Really," he said.

"Okay, Kira," I replied. "I'm going to head out there."

Kira nodded. "You be safe too. I'll see you later."

He left the cockpit, and suddenly, I wanted him to come back. I bit my lip though, and forced myself not to call out to him.

But I suddenly felt vulnerable. The first time I had fought, I had both Murrue and Kira in the cockpit with me. Even though I had been the one at the controls at the end, I felt safer with them there. Now, there was the realization I was going to go out and fight alone.

I installed the Sword Pack, and I heard a gruff voice on the com. I opened up the visual, and I saw a tall man in a mechanic's uniform, and he looked at like he had a three-day beard going. "You got it okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "I'm going to load this onto the catapult now."

"All right. Good luck. And just so you know, I respect your courage. I don't know what the other guys are saying, but you got a lot of guts to go out there and fight for us."

"Thank you, uh . . .:"

"Petty Officer Murdoch," he said. "Now kick some ass."

"I will," I said, as I guided the Mobile Suit into the catapult.

I heard Petty Officer Pal's voice as the Strike GUNDAM fit snugly into the launcher. I took a deep breath. Any second now, I was going to be literally thrown out into the battle.

I don't wanna die, I thought. I already felt ill, and it was not spacesickness this time. It's the time of ill that you get when you're about to do something incredibly dangerous. It fills you with adrenaline, but also raw terror. So I'm energetic and on the borderline of panic.

Please don't let me die, I asked whatever deity existed in this world. I don't want to blow up out there.

I heard Pal's voice. "Starting launch sequence."

I saw lights coming on inside the cockpit. Damn it, I'm so gonna die.

The moment the final light lit, I braced myself, but nothing happened.

I heard Pal. "You have to hit the Strike's engines! That'll trigger the launcher and send you out there!"

"Uh, right. This is Cagalli Yamato. Launching Strike GUNDAM!"

I hit the acceleration, and suddenly I was driven back into my seat hard by the G-Forces. The launcher worked faster than I had dreamed of, and suddenly I was hurled out of the Archangel, and heading straight for the ZAFT Mobile Suits.

I was about to start the first real battle of my war.

My war for survival.