Chapter 4: Welcome To the Machine
"Hmpf, to think that Ikari could make the U.N hesitate for even a second." The English was sickly Russian.
"Correct father Zukhov, Ikari could never attempt to tarnish our perfect reputations. Huh, he though that could create a world of his own making…" replied a voice with a French twist.
Father Pollock sat twiddling his thumbs as he sat at his designated place. The court of seven had been meeting rather often these days…not out of friendship of course, by all means not…the court's plans had fallen on somewhat…hard times.
"Enough!"
Heads turned in unison as Father Fiorenzo's voice cut through all the senseless talk about their solitary victory over Gendo Ikari.
"Enough of this…pompous glory marching."
His voice was lined with pure disgust.
"But father, the U.N's sub office in Asia officially rejected Gendo's claims against us, it was obvious from the time he lodged them two weeks ago…but to hear it from the papers just gives it new life."
"Fair enough father Zukhov, but such trivial conquests are all eclipsed by last weeks debacle."
Heads drooped as the words left Father Fiorenzo's lips.
"That embarrassment has cost us…who knows how it has hampered our plans. Even this little victory of yours has cost us dearly."
Father Pollock began massaging his temples; he'd been through this discussion with the Italian bishop already.
"Don't you see, Gendo Ikari was raised on a mighty pedestal by our own hands…"
Several heads turned towards Father Pollock.
"Well we have father-"
"I shall not stand for any more finger pointing" Father Pollock exploded like the calm of the storm before the bishop from china.
"If you wish to accuse me of some crime the by all means I shall seek my judgment before god. Otherwise make peace with what has happened and look to solutions to our many trials."
The court was silent…after a safe period of silence father Fiorenzo spoke.
"You might see Gendo's words being turned down as our victory…but it has wounded us more than you can know."
An inquisitive silence followed his words. But it was to be a mere pause as the bishop continued.
"Gendo carries a lot of political weight, the world sees him as a savior. When he speaks…people listen. Even if the U.N turned him down, it does not mean that they didn't pay attention to what he said. I am sure we have been under scrutiny ever since…and the incident seven days ago will not go unnoticed. We need to try and get back on track."
"The error lies in the puppet master system."
Some of the Bishops almost fell of their seats. Father Pollock's head snapped up as he saw the holographic image of Mr. Smith take shape.
"Y-you, last weeks mockery was your fault!!" the American Bishop sounded.
"Please, here me out, there were a few bugs in the last system…some conceptual flaws. We are currently testing our third version of our new liquid puppet master system, it will be retrofitted in all subsequent Mecha deliveries." The head of Phoenix Corp. quickly replied.
"How are we sure that this…program of yours wont glitch again?"
Father Pollock pressed the exec for answers; such mistakes could not be made twice.
"Please father, I know my credibility is fairly weak, but you must have…oh how would you put it…faith."
"You have gone public with this technology?"
Father Fiorenzo sounded slightly irritated.
"Now father please, don't get me wrong. No one out there can touch this stuff. It is way ahead of its time. Even those brains at NERV couldn't dream of creating anything close to our stuff. Anyway, I feel that the publicity will leave people with a little hope that all is not lost."
There were murmurs of agreement all around; even Father Fiorenzo seemed pleased.
"Mr. Smith."
"Yes father Pollock"
"How are you paying for all this?"
Though none of them could see, all the bishops were sure there was a wide sheepish grin across Mr. Smith's face. Rubbing his gloved hands together, it was clear that Mr. Smith had been waiting for this.
"Well, actually this project is extremely expensive. And if you don't make some of your other front organizations give us some rather large donations…well Phoenix will report major losses for this quarter, that won't do well for share prices and all that."
Father Fiorenzo nodded.
"We shall se what we can do. We shall await the new Mechas with eager anticipation."
Mr. Smith politely bowed his head and promptly left the conversation. This time father Pollock didn't wait for the others. With a similar nod he withdrew himself from the conversation.
Back in his office, the bishop stared at the folders on his desk…
They were going to save the world after all…
…seven days earlier…
…Panama…
"…Eva signals transmitting…pilot bio stats online…Eva activation sequence complete…Evas operational…"
"All right, you guys know the plan, just don't try anything funny today…that last stunt was completely out of line."
The major spoke to a large screen with all the pilots' video uplinks.
"Oh come on Misato, it was just a little fun."
Asuka's voice was barely audible over Shinji and Touji's laughter…
"There were no casualties, and we were able to finish the Miraflores lock ahead of schedule." Rei added blandly.
"Look I agree it was creative…but you guys weren't the one's having to fill out paperwork all of last night."
"Grmmm"
The sound of someone clearing his throat cut through Misato's nagging. Seconds later Edwards image appeared with the others on the videoconference, stacks of files were littered around him and piles of junk and rags towered behind him.
"Tell me, Misato…what was this, work that you keep going on about." Ritsuko prodded.
"Hey, I've been handling this project of over five days now, cut me some slack…" Misato grumbled sheepishly.
"Hey Edward."
"Sup Shinji"
"Uh where are you?"
Now everyone's attention turned to the longhaired man. Edwards's eyes darted around his surroundings…almost fearfully.
"Um…well, all these files proved to be to heavy for me so I had to go to the junkyard to finish them off."
Ritsuko's eyebrows shot up.
"You're at the junkyard, I didn't know panama had such a serious garbage problem."
"They don't, I meant I was in Misato's hotel room, I was getting too lazy carrying these things to my room so I sat up all night and am doing them here."
"You were in Misato's room all night!!!" Asuka screeched.
"Don't worry Asuka, my room got a little to crowded for me so I switched with Edward." Misato smiled, as Edwards frown became a slightly more bitter.
"More like you junked this place so bad and now you can't find the beers anymore."
"N-that's not true…I just ran out of them that's all."
Edward smiled broadly as he pulled a fresh can from somewhere beneath him and waved it annoyingly in front of the camera amongst the others laughter.
Misato, Ritsuko and the three technicians were communicating out of a large eighteen-wheeler truck that had opened out as a mobile command center covered by a massive tent. They were on day five of the expansion of the Panama Canal.
The new had been drawn up by the UN un an attempt to increase sea trade between Europe and the east. The plan had consisted of widening the canal by an additional fifty meters on either side to allow the new breed of 'titan' class cargo vessels to pass through the canal. A sub project to the main one was the laying of a series of fourteen bridges to allow for road transport across the canal.
The previous days incident that caused so much…thrill…was relating to the Miraflores locks.
The locks were placed at either end of the 13.2-kilometer canal. These locks were used to raise the water level to that of the central Gatun Lake and then lower the ships back down to sea level.
The Evas had been installing the gates that the ships would use to enter and exit the locks.
The gates were massive titanium alloy blocks that swing on fat hinges. The weight of the slabs forced the pilots to slowly pass the blocks from one to the other till they reached their destination.
Feeling slightly bored the pilots, egged on mainly by Asuka decided to speed things up.
The pilots began to throw the massive slab from one to another in attempts to install the six gates as soon as possible; this resulted in several panama officials to pass out and a minor earthquake.
By today (the fifth day) the large walls used to widen the canal were in place and the initial on ramps to the bridge. All that was left was to place the three more gates in the other lock system, The Gatun Lock system at the other end of the canal and the twelve bridges.
"All right" Misato cut through the sniggers.
"You guys know the plan, Touji and Shinji you two are spotters, make sure the bridges are aligned. Rei and Asuka, you two set them…we clear."
"yes!" The four of them chanted.
Touji and Shinji got into place at either side of the canal as Asuka and Rei brought the strip of bridge towards them.
Shinji looked around at his surroundings. Green hills rose and fell all around the canal. In the distance Shinji saw the early signs of industrial encroachment into the area.
Looking to his left within the cockpit he saw Rei's image on the video link. Looking to his right, he saw Asuka's face under Touji's. They were both concentrating on their task…they were still carrying the bridge here. He stared at the both of them or a long time…a whirlwind of emotions churning his insides. Touji continued to daydream as the massive strip of concrete and iron came their way.
Shinji looked at the others on his link, Edward was looking down away from the camera, his brow furrowed as his eyes moved slowly from right to left as he filled out report over report. Misato was absentmindedly chatting away with Ritsuko and the other technicians. Their job here was as basic, if not more, as a synch test.
Shinji's mind wandered to the images of the three women that were so permanently in his life…he was sixteen…there was no doubt as to what kind of images were running through his mind…mmmmm running…running in slow motion…
"SHINJI!!!"
"Uh wha…what is it."
"Baka!!! The bridge is off, rectify it."
"Uh Y-yes Asuka." Shinji hesitantly went back to his job of aligning the bridges.
"Hey Rei, just a little to the left…yyyyyyyyyyea that should do it. Hey Shinji man come on stop lazing around…shit I cant believe I Just said that…I know what you were thinking…you can't fool me."
"Hu-what! What are you saying!! That's not true!!" Shinji screamed as he went a bright red.
"You boys are such perverts." Rei said matter-o-factly as Asuka nodded her head in a conceited manner.
Without even breaking their conversation the four moved on to the second bridge.
"You know that Shinji, he worries me sometimes."
Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at Misato's remark.
"But you told me he has plenty of friends in school."
"Ah its not friends that's the problem…" Misato trailed of.
"Oh." Ritsuko's eyebrows rose.
Even the other three technicians looked curiously.
"Yeah, I mean the others keep getting calls form various people of the opposite sex if you know what I mean. I mean Asuka's already made her way through about four boys."
"Five actually, and I think she's eyeing her sixth." Edward cut in without looking away from his work.
"Wow." Aoba exclaimed "Major Katsuragi…you're raising a real man eater."
"Huh, a real chip of the block."
Edward and the others literally burst out laughing at Hyuga's jibe…and Misato's face.
"Yeah…really funny, but the main thing is…well I've never heard of Shinji talking to a girl."
There was a long awkward silence; Edward seemed to be having trouble preventing his laughter from escaping. One look at the captain and Ritsuko knew he knew what she was thinking the same thing.
"Hey Misato, you don't think he's…"
"Oh no Rit-chan, he's perfectly fine…as far as I know."
Misato stopped to press the button on the video link console allowing the four pilots to hear their conversation.
"I've frequently caught Shinji staring at Rei and Asuka while at home, why he even checks me out from time to time don't you Shinji." Misato teased.
Shinji's face immediately went the deepest crimson. Rei's face was unchanged save for the slight smirk and raised eyebrows. Asuka stared in what seemed to be a mix of disgust and astonishment.
"Hey, n-no, that's not true." Shinji stammered as they placed the fourth bridge.
"Ye…yes it is." Touji got out between laughing. "E-even…Edward's seen it."
Edward smiled lightly in agreement. For some reason, he didn't find the conversation as humorous as the others did. But even as he was about to say something he looked up and his eyes went wide. His scream was cut short when a massive pile of laundry collapsed and fell atop him.
"Um Major…"
A young soldier with auburn hair and a buzz cut stood at the entrance of the enclosure, unsure of what to do. Misato had to take a few seconds to catch her breath while Aoba and Hyuga picked themselves of the floor as the other two slowly recovered from their fits of laughter.
"Yes…what is it?" Misato inquired after composing herself.
"Corporal Nieto reporting. There is someone here to see you Major…they are waiting at the Canal Zone main gate."
"Take me to them corporal."
Straightening up, Misato reached for her NERV jacket and followed the young soldier to a diesel jeep parked outside, leaving Ritsuko and Edward in charge of the Eva operation.
Sitting in the back seat of the jeep, Misato took some time to marvel at the scenery around her. Trees flanked the asphalt road and bathed it in shade, every now and then Misato caught glimpses of the sky and the clouds beyond. Something within her stirred…yearned…but as always…she ignored it. When one was alone, when the mind did wander, it was then that dark thoughts crawled out of dark places and made one's mind their home…well she probably jus needed a drink.
Feeling the jeep slowing, Misato raised her head in time to sea two figures standing on the far side of the gate. Beside the two men was a massive truck…much like NERV's.
Stepping of the Jeep, Misato moved briskly towards the slowly opening iron gate that marked the boundary of the official Panama Canal Zone.
Both the men were dressed in black cassocks and looked fairly grim. The taller man had short white hair and a clean shaven face, while his compatriot had a great golden beard and sported large spectacles.
As Misato approached the older man stuck his hand out and shook Misato's as she walked up to him.
"Greetings Major, I am father Moeketsi Pollock, this is father Hagos, we are here on behalf of the Aether Manus." The man spoke in a slick South African English accent.
Misato nodded politely, she'd heard enough about these guys.
"Greetings father, what may I do for you?" She replied in perfect English as well.
"We are here to help complete the panama project."
"Uh what!!" Misato was slightly taken aback as she watched the large truck pass the gate, a picture of the Virgin Mary within a wreath of thorns on its side. Underneath the insignia was a motto: Beatus es qui operor deus operis. Behind it followed a host of jeeps and cars.
"W-wait, you can't enter without clearance."
"Don't worry Major, we have all the clearance you need." Father Pollock's bespectacled partner handed her a sheet of paper with the UN letterhead upon it.
"Come now Major, we shall complete he gate installation at the Gatun locks."
"How do you plan to do that?" Misato challenged.
"Oh, have some faith Major." Father Pollock smiled as he eyed Misato's pendant.
Misato was about to say something when her jaw dropped. Towering above the trees far behind the truck came three massive…well there was no other word for it…massive robots.
"Let me introduce you to our Mecha system." Father Pollock smiled.
The Mechas were but slightly smaller than the Evas. They looked shockingly familiar to Misato, but she didn't know why. The Mechas exuded an overtly mechanical feeling, they were large dull and a dark gray in color, they seemed to have no heads, only stumps for necks, apart from that they looked fairly effective. Slowly, they lumbered past the entrance and towards the Gatun gates.
"Well Major, we shall meet again once this operation is over. I am confident that we shall encounter each other on various other operations."
With that father Pollock left a speechless Misato to gawk at the towering forms of the Mechas.
"What the hell are those?" Asuka demanded, screaming to no one in particular.
The Eva pilots had stopped midway through placing their eighth bridge as three towering robots passed them by.
"They appear to be replicas of the Eva series." Rei stated.
"They look so weird." Touji remarked on noticing the fact that the Mechas didn't appear to have any heads, there were just stumps in their place.
"Ha, I bet its some lame attempt by NERV to try and replace us. Huh, you guys better up your games or who knows, I might be the only pilot left."
"Yeah, keep telling your self that Asuka."
"Oh shut up, what are you gonna do Shinji." Asuka was almost smiling at the challenge.
"uh, sorry" Asuka groaned at his response.
"Listen up guys" it was Misato, "just ignore those things, they're just posers. Just concentrate on you're work."
"Who are these people." Rei inquired.
"They're some religious organization known as Aether Manus. I don't know what they're up to."
Misato watched as the four Eva pilots hesitantly got back to work.
Ritsuko walked outside to see what all the commotion was all about. There she saw the Aether truck open out and various technicians and workers jump out of the parked jeeps and begin setting up the command station…much like NERV's.
"That really doesn't look like a religious organization." Ritsuko re-entered the large tent.
"They're actually a charity organization, though they do have a very strong religious base." Maya filled in.
"Yeah but these Mecha's seem so…well so far from religion, I mean don't the two contradict?"
"There are only so many ways to god's work with these mortal hands." Father Pollock nearly made Hyuga jump as he entered the command center.
Misato immediately came to block his path.
"Father, you are not allowed I-"
"Enough Major Katsuragi" The bishop cut in in perfect Japanese. "This is a UN operation, and we have full access to all UN operations. Thus I have all right to be here."
Misato deflated slightly as Aoba, Maya and Hyuga all gave the father looks of pure death from the back of their heads. Ritsuko was the only one who kept her manners about her.
"Father, let me introduce you, I am head scientist Doctor Ritsuko-"
"Akagi, yes I am well aware, and those three fine lieutenants must be Makoto Hyuga, Maya Ibuki and E-no this is lieutenant Shigeru Aoba, I am father Moeketsi Pollock of the Aether Manus."
Father Pollock gave the room a conceited smile as Dr.Akagi shifted uncomfortably.
"Uh yes, father Pollock. And this is sub-operations commander Captain Valcos."
"Huh w-what." A voice echoed from the video system as a longhaired man emerged from a pile of clothes. Prying a bra of his head he finally focused on the screen.
"Ahh so this is Edward Valcos, so the famous NERV operations team is complete eh." Father Pollock commented with an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Father Pollock huh." Edward Replied "Aether Manus…you're the guys who just hopped onto the Re-birth program."
Father Pollock chuckled as he nodded in agreement. Putting up his hand to silence the others the bishop pulled out a vibrating slick black cell phone and put it on loudspeaker…something's just needed to be rubbed in their faces.
"Status report." He barked.
"Mechas running at sixty percent…alpha Mecha at sixty seven percent efficiency…its an all time high." The speaker blurted out with crystal clear sound.
Ritsuko mechanically contained her surprise. Even the Eva's struggled to reach such high efficiency levels.
Father Pollock's smile broadened.
"Very good my son, continue with the operation. Lets try and finish this ahead of schedule."
"Yes father Pollock, the reports from the United States HQ has come in, donations and attendance is at a high as usual. We've begun plans for our Arctic and Alaskan charities."
"Very good" Father Pollock replied curtly and shut the phone.
"You have charities so far up north?"
"No major, we have charity organizations set up all over the world. We are only just drawing up plans to set such institutions up in the north. After that we plan on targeting the South Pole and Cana-"
But the sound of commotion outside and the vibration of his phone cut father Pollock short. When he and the others looked at the monitors they saw the impending disaster.
"Hey Touji, what about you huh, you ever going to ask Hikari out."
"Gah Shinji come on man you're on my si-"
"Ahhhh, oh hell no, there is no way you're going to get to Hikari. I'll save her from you, you watch."
The pilots had gone back to their earlier conversation and Shinji, in attempt to take the spotlight off himself…ended up burning Touji.
"You stay out of this devil child, this is between me and Hikari."
"So you do like her then."
"Hak!!! H-hey S-Shinji man…you really are brutal. I thought you were on my side."
"I-I am, just you know."
Shinji was about to be bombarded b Asuka for his frailties when Rei cut through the banter.
"Something's happening to the Mechas."
The four pilots had gone up to the tenth bridge and were now in sight of the Gatun Locks. As the four pilots looked on they saw that one of the Mecha's was indeed malfunctioning.
There were two Mechas holding the massive slab that would form the final gate of the lock. One of them seemed to be going berserk and the gate was teetering dangerously.
"Hey if that gate falls…it's going to destroy the power generators for the Lock's water pumping station."
Asuka wanted to stop the thing but her and Rei's Eva were tied up with the bridge.
"I'm on it."
Touji had both is hands free-figuratively speaking-and was on the right side of the canal. He took off at full tilt towards the bumbling machine. Somehow the other two Mechas seemed to be malfunctioning as well.
With a low thud the gate hit the ground. Both the Mechas struggled to keep the gate upright and away from the power station. Slowly the slab began tilting more and more.
Touji slammed into the slab and put all his Eva's weight into stopping the slab from falling. Seconds later Shinji's Eva slammed into the slab as well. Usually the Eva's were strong enough to lift the slabs themselves but being unable to reach under the slab made things difficult.
Slowly Touji pried the flailing robot of the slab as Shinji kept it propped up. Keeping the Eva's back against the slab Shinji grabbed the second Mecha and tore it right of the gate, ripping of one of its mechanical arms.
"Ahhh the dirt's giving away, Shinji, this thing aint gonna hold out much longer."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, hold on Touji."
But it wasn't working, slowly but surely the gate was going to fall…
Misato let out a sigh of relief as she saw the two Eva's of Rei and Asuka come and aid Shinji and Touji.
"Woooooooo, good job guys. That was a close one." She said over the others elated cheers.
Misato was about to bark out more orders when Father Pollock rushed into the room.
"You guys are going to have to pay for the damage you caused."
Misato stared at the monitor as she watched the four Evas successfully place the gate in its proper position.
"Sure father…we'll see."
Shinji stared at the scene before him. They'd been in their hotel for over a week now. His mind was on fire. Lights flashed all around him, tears fell before him. His mind reeled over his conversation just minutes earlier. His thoughts zoomed around him.
'Where's our son??'
Yui's words had been churning in his brain since the day they were uttered. For a year and a half he'd seen his mother alive, yet not once had he ever gone to live in his own home.
'Why don't I go back to them?''They abandoned me, they left me, …and all they'll do is leave me again.'
'What's the point in trying if it will only result in pain, they will all leave me?' 'The pain…they will all abandon me…"He saw the blood pooling on the floor. His eyes fell on a familiar face…on the rest of the body. Shinji felt someone grabbing his arm, it was Asuka…her eyes wide…
Far on the other side Rei and Touji were staring in utter shock. Both their eyes watery.
Shinji let his tears go free as a shaking Misato dropped the wrist she was holding amidst the mass of bodies. Her words silent and deadly chill through all of them.
"T-there's n-nothing, E-Edward's…D-dead…"
AN: Sorry for the delay, the main reason I got hung up was that I was researching the Panama freggin canal. Also I had to find a Latin translator for the Aether Manus stuff.
I know the last bit was rushed but what the heck.
PLEASE R&R
