Starchild

I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.

Chapter Seven: Rocks and Hard Questions

Limestone. Sandstone. Shale. Schist. A knob of ancient granite from the era before life. Eirika jotted these findings down in her field notebook as she trudged down Hamill Canyon in the company of the other female pilots. Lyn sang a snatch of some Elibean song as she worked, Cellica spent an hour sketching a band of fossil shells embedded in one limestone ribbon, and Micaiah coped with a small yellow bird that wanted very much to ride upon her shoulder. Around them, the other pilots worked in groups of two and three as they tried to unravel the mysteries of Terran geology.

Shortly after the Dawn mission, a certain... tension... worked its way through the Human Spaceflight Programme. Eirika expected to be sent abroad again for public relations once she realized there were no new missions on the timetable. Instead, she experienced an abrupt gear-shift in the training program as the entire pilot corps- all thirteen of them- entered a phase of intensive simulations and academic lessons. They flew helicopters to better master the lunar lander, that strange spindle-legged craft unlike anything designed to fly in Terra's atmosphere. They spent many hours "working" under water to prepare for the experience of lunar gravity. They were immersed in astronomy, geology, chemistry and engineering. And, more than ever before, they did these things together- living, eating, flying, studying. General Duessel sent them on hunting and fishing trips to bolster group solidarity. Their field outings sometimes had the feeling of a camping excursion; together, like a parade of jumpsuited goslings, they trooped down to the great university at Grado City, where a lugubrious young professor let them into his planetarium to study the stars. Together, they went to Hamill Canyon to peer into the geological mysteries of Terra's layered crust.

That was the idea, anyway. As Eirika glanced down the hill, she saw her brother in the company of Pilots 008 and 010. They were tossing rocks at one another.

-x-

After the breakneck pace of the previous three years, this long pause in the flight schedule made them all a little uncomfortable. Still, Eirika believed it was likely for the best that no one was being rushed into flight. Just as the failure of the Gemstone computer showed the automated controls were fallible, the Dawn mission uncovered a number of problems with the lunar lander, issues that never made it into the rosy press releases that issued from the Programme office. Eirika sensed the apprehension that ran through the Programme from the highest levels to the lowest, from the generals to the ground technicians. The equipment wasn't ready. The pilots might not be ready. And, it was said, the Loptos Empire had begun test flights of a truly massive rocket, one as large as the Ashera. One capable of sending a crew to Luna. A very non-human crew.

Eirika tried to imagine a spacecraft packed with dragons or lions or wolves wearing spacesuits. What sort of boots, of gloves, would they use? How did they fit pointed ears inside helmets... and where did their tails go? She knew some of the Tellian laguz had wings; surely there was no way to send them into space safely. Unless the Empire did possess truly astounding technology...

Not that there was much time for silly speculation about what the Lopts were doing. The pilots had their own crew assignments to worry about. General Mycen had the final say on crew selections (unless the Premier overruled him), and Mycen kept them guessing. He gave his pilots the impression that any and all of them were contenders for the first lunar-landing mission, and that all of them must be ready for that mission if called to it. This uncertainty as to their futures led to soul-searching amongst the individual pilots... and no small amount of collective tension. Only one of them, after all, would be the first moonwalker. Some might never get there at all.

So, even as they catalogued the rocks of Hamill Canyon, Eirika's companions spent a great deal of time eyeing the male pilots- not out of simple desire (except perhaps in the case of Cellica and her husband Alm), but to gauge each young man's chances of setting foot upon Luna. There was poor Leaf, gamely sorting through his samples despite the taint of space-sickness on his record. Alongside him was Pilot 005; Celice was known for his flamboyant long hair and for turning in the better performance on the Meteor/Valkyrie mission. Nearby worked the oddly compatible pair of Pilots 002 and 013. Alm and Ike had strong piloting skills and excellent stamina, which might set them in good stead for long-duration missions that involved work on the lunar surface. But was it enough to make either of them the first?

Another "matched" pair of pilots sat beyond them- 001 and 007, their heads bent over their rock piles in similar attitudes of diligence. Both, Eirika thought, were question marks. That Marth was participating in the training at all suggested that, perhaps, he wasn't grounded for "reasons of state," but his total time in space still amounted to four-plus hours in a capsule he'd never actually flown. As for Roy, he had the reputation for being most psychologically stable of the pilots, a reputation he'd earned by spending two weeks alone on the Hope mission without going insane, but he was the youngest of the corps and didn't appear to have reached his full potential yet. He could, perhaps, stand to wait a few years for his chance at Luna.

The trio of 008, 010, and 011 completed the number of male pilots, and they were busy with their mock rock fight. One stray rock landed near the pile belonging to Pilot 013, who glanced at the intrusion briefly, then ignored it with an expression that could fairly be called stonelike.

"Oh, Ike," Lyn said under her breath. "What did the psychologists say when they got done with him? 'Nobody's that uncomplicated!'"

Cellica and Eirika both laughed softly with Lyn. Micaiah just smiled a little.

Eirika wondered about her own peers. Cellica, she thought, would never receive a lunar assignment, not with the possibility that some mishap would leave her little daughter without a mother. Cellica's contribution was to be the first female in space, and that was that. Lyn was also questionable; she'd done well on the Aureole mission, but she'd received more than a few reprimands for gaffes at public events. As for Micaiah...

Eirika surreptitiously studied the pilot from Tellius. Micaiah, like Eirika, had been dubbed "Moon Maiden" by the world's press after her mission, and she looked the part with her silvery-fair hair. Her pale beauty was coupled with an air of remoteness... of secrecy. Eirika could not say they were friends, as she always had the sense that Micaiah was holding something back. But she was a skilled pilot, and already had a degree in chemistry when she entered the Programme, and Micaiah had turned in a solid performance on the Dawn mission. Yes, of the three, Micaiah was the most likely to reach the moon.

Eirika pictured a lunar crew consisting of- just for fancy's sake- her brother, Micaiah, and one other. Eliwood, she though, was another strong contender. Pilot 008 was not the most skilled flier among them, but he was a steady one, and he would lend a balancing presence to a crew. He'd managed to keep his more colorful subordinates in line as Aureole's commander, after all. Yes, thought Eirika, it would make a solid team. Ephraim, Eliwood, Micaiah.

-x-

Geology lessons made a refreshing break from the paperwork that awaited Eirika back in her office at Star City. Said paperwork had increased exponentially since her Gemstone flight, and while her secretary Neimi handled a great deal of it, certain letters and requests did demand Eirika's personal attention. One such letter, bearing a postmark from the capital in Rausten, carried a cryptic return address, the name of a government ministry that Eirika was certain did not exist. Neimi must not have realized it, Eirika thought. "Ministry of Truth" sounded official enough.

There were two photographs in the envelope, but as Eirika looked them over she realized that these were not photos to send back inscribed with an autograph. As she stared at the photo on top, Eirika recognized the setting, a garden terrace at the seaside resort at Bethroen reserved for use by those in the Programme. General Mycen sat in the center of the posed portrait, surrounded by Pilots 005, 006, and 007. The second photograph was nearly identical to the first- same subjects, same pose, but one crucial difference. Whereas the first picture had a pair of rosebushes encroaching on the general and his pilots, the the second showed only a patterned brick wall behind the group.

One photo had been altered, but to what purpose?

As Eirika looked at the curiously spaced bushes, at the equally curious gaps in the arrangement of heads, she realized that neither photo was a true record of that afternoon in Bethroen.

To Be Continued...

Author's note: "Ministry of Truth" and doctored photographs, eh? In case you thought this was a straight-up adventure story, the real plotline kicks in here. And yes, I realize that Roy and Eliwood existing simultaneously at the same approximate age poses a problem, even if I play the AU card. :)

Props to anyone who finds the source of "Nobody's that uncomplicated!"