Eleven: Rei, Beyond the Heart.
Fourteenth Ward, Tokyo-3 Special Administrative District, Japan.
July 24th, 2015.
"I have two names. Neither of them are mine."
The second Ayanami Rei lifted a book off a block of tofu wrapped in cheesecloth. The tape recorder whirred from where it was propped against an empty can of beans. She pulled a long knife from the chipped wooden block, slicing the pressed tofu neatly into flat slabs.
"You will be the third girl with my name. You will be me."
Into a bowl went cornstarch, five spice powder, a dash of brown sugar, garlic powder, white pepper, and salt.
"The capital of Nauru is Yaren. If the Evangelion catches mid-movement, ease the throttle down until the joint clicks and then push slowly through the bind. When cooking rice, the waterline should come up to the first joint of the index finger."
Rei dredged the tofu in the spiced mixture, coating both sides. The oil began to smoke just as she dropped in the tofu. They sizzled happily as she swirled the wok.
"The line integral around a closed path in a conservative vector field is zero. Entry Plugs contain a self-destruct mechanism accessible solely to the pilot. The battle of Waterloo took place on June 18th, 1815. The first nine people to enter an Evangelion went violently insane—six committed suicide, two were euthanized, and one was absorbed. Cyan is the complementary color of red. The tenth pilot was strangled after one test. The eleventh bears the same name."
She fished the tofu out of the wok, and in went garlic, ginger, and bell peppers. She stirred the sizzling vegetables, reaching behind her for the cup of sauce. In it went, along with a heap of chopped bok choy. A delicious smell filled the decrepit concrete apartment.
"Mirin can substitute for Shaoxing wine, provided the amount of sugar is decreased. The fifth pilot killed four thousand people in Mongolia. The first domesticated crop was einkorn wheat. The fifth pilot manifested a hundred kilometer Anti AT-Field. Sourdough starters may live for decades. The fifth pilot's recovered plug contained only an empty plugsuit, organic residue, and a high concentration of cortisol."
Rei dropped the tofu back into the pan, turning off the heat. She tossed to coat the pieces, sprinkled sesame seeds and cilantro to garnish, and drizzled in some sesame oil. Out of the rice cooker came a steaming pot of rice. Rei scooped the rice onto a plate, piled some of the stir fry over the top, and set the wok back on the range.
"The First Child is not a human being."
Rei retrieved the recorder and perched it on the dusty second plate, besides a pair of cracked, wire-rimmed glasses. She portioned out a bowl of rice and set it on the empty second placemat.
"The Commander instructed me to record any information that may be useful to my future incarnation."
She stuck a pair of chopsticks upright into the bowl, pressed her palms together, and picked up her own chopsticks.
"He is dead now. This is the end of tape twenty-nine."
Rei reached out and switched the recorder off.
The Geofront, Tokyo-3 Special Administrative District, Japan.
July 24th, 2015.
The MRI machine shuddered to life as the imaging table slid into the coils. Rei closed her eyes as the scan began, a sound like ten sledgehammers against a brick wall. The contrast agent left a bitter taste in her mouth; Rei resisted the urge to scratch at the injection site.
The technician's intercom hissed on. "Pilot, please hold your breath."
Rei obediently held her breath for about five seconds, the machine's noise getting louder and deeper.
"Okay, you can breathe now. Almost done."
She stared up at the smooth plastic wall. The cold, recirculated hospital air raised goosebumps on her arms, the hospital gown providing no warmth. The banging stopped, and with a jolt the table began to slide out of the machine. Rei sat up.
The door swung open and Akagi Ritsuko walked in.
"Hello, Dr. Akagi," Rei said.
Ritsuko's eye twitched slightly. "Hello, Pilot. Your blood work is back from the lab…all within normal range."
Rei nodded. "Do you have my orders—"
"None." Ritsuko lowered herself to eye level, speaking slowly and deliberately. "Without Unit-00, giving you orders is pointless. Stop bothering me."
"Why are you angry, Doctor?"
Akagi cocked her head to the side. "I'm not angry, Rei. Maybe we should raise your dosage again."
She deposited a stack of papers on the couch. "Here's your results. Get the forms signed and returned to the desk."
Rei picked up the papers. "The Commander is dead."
Akagi's expression darkened. "What about it?"
"Who's going to sign my forms now?"
"You're a clever girl, figure it out. If you're done…" Ritsuko gestured to the door. Rei hopped off the table and left the scanning room.
Examination Room 354 of the Geofront General Hospital was furnished in the same dull white as the rest of the complex. White scuffed walls, white tile floor, white beds with white paper covers, and stark white lights in a white drop ceiling. The only color in the room was the crimson NERV logo, splashed everywhere a logo would fit and a good few places where it did not. Rei slid the door shut and retrieved her clothes from the bed. She quickly got dressed, neatly folding the hospital gown and placing it at the foot of the bed. After a few minutes, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The door opened and a nurse entered the exam room. He held out a clipboard. "Please fill this out." Rei took the survey, quickly filled it out, and handed the form back. She went to leave…
"You forgot your prescription, Ayanami-san."
Rei turned back, took the slip of paper. "Thank you."
The black car idled in front of the hospital, the heavily tinted windows glinting in the bright afternoon sun. The locks clicked; Rei reached out and pulled the door open, getting into the backseat. The agent adjusted the rearview mirror and put the car in gear—Rei rested her cheek against the window and watched the dim shadows of the outside world sprint away.
They forgot me.
Oracle, North Dakota, United States.
July 25th, 2015.
Laura Wilson clambered over a rusty barbed wire fence, tossing her coat over the top wire. "Scared of a little wire, Lee? Come on, hop over."
Lee gingerly approached the fence, eying the NO TRESPASSING sign with trepidation.
"I don't want to catch tetanus," he muttered. "Or a charge."
He set a foot on the bottom wire; the fence bent as he climbed up onto the middle wire—his face paled. "You know what, why don't we stay on this side? Not a bad place for a picnic—"
"Nope, get over here." She seized his wrist and pulled. Lee flailed for a second at the top, before falling headlong over the fence. Laura tried to catch him, lost her balance, and the two went tumbling into a ditch. His chin collided painfully with her forehead and Laura saw stars. After a long moment, they burst into laughter. Lee rolled off her and lay on his back in the rough grass. Scattered clouds drifted through the blue steel sky, the bright morning sun struggling mightily against the frigid North Dakota wind. Laura pushed herself up, brushing the grass from her shirt, and retrieved her jacket from the ruined fence. "Next time I'll bring wire cutters."
Lee groaned. "Can we go on at least one date without breaking Federal law?"
Laura smirked. "Where's the fun in that? Besides, we'd only get in trouble with the Feds if we snuck onto the Test Range, or Signal Hill. Tobias Knoll is private property."
"Right, of course. Silly me, nothing to worry about here. No angry farmers or guard dogs, that's for sure."
"Better than Signal Hill." Laura glanced around exaggeratedly, leaning in close. "I've heard the guards have flamethrowers," she whispered conspiratorially. "Anyone who breaks into the lab is cremated twice on the spot, then the ashes dissolved in superacid and fired into orbit."
Lee snorted, sidestepping a large boulder. "And they're breeding aliens in there, of course. The cafeteria serves ET nuggets."
"I'm just saying, babe, there's no way that's chicken. It's green… "
"Moldy nuggets and chunky milk, what a combo. We need to bring the principal up on war crime charges."
"Too bad, he has sovereign immunity." They pushed through a thicket and emerged onto the broad, flat top of the hill. Lee started to spread out a picnic blanket in the grass beside a small cluster of stones.
Laura gazed out contemplatively towards the south. "Nice view, isn't it?" The Dakota Proving Grounds stretched to the horizon below the hill's tumbled foot, a gargantuan fence marking the edge of the closed military zone. Norman Air Force Base buzzed in the far distance, light glinting from the airframes sitting on the tarmac. None of the planes are in the air; good, that means it's about to start. Her eyes drifted to the east, towards the testing site. Rows of craters marked where Tav had tested everything from the Davy Crockett II launcher to the first pure-H bomb. That one blew out windows clear to Fargo. To the west, two tall crags rose from clusters of dense windowless buildings; the foremost crowned with a huge radio tower.
Lee joined her at the overlook. "Okay, we're here. What's the surprise?"
Laura dug through her backpack, pulling out a notebook and two pairs of welding goggles. "I've been keeping track of the tests, looking for patterns. There's been a lot more movement on the range last week, and now they've moved everyone out of the area."
"And that means?"
"There's a test today. A big one—" As if on cue, the air raid sirens began to wail. She grinned. Perfect. She shoved a pair of welding glasses at Lee. "Here, put these on and enjoy the show." Laura sat down on a flat stone—Lee scooted next to her, draping an arm over her shoulder. With a muffled thud, a row of tracer rockets shot into the sky, leaving lines of white smoke floating in the sky. She pulled on her goggles.
Any moment now—
The light of a hundred thousand suns burst into the southern sky; even through the heavy tint it left purple spots in Laura's vision. She felt a wave of tremendous heat singe the hairs on her arms, crisping the grass. That's way bigger than the last one .
"Um, Laura?" She glanced over at Lee, who was taking off his goggles—she took off hers as well. His eyes were fixed on the colossal pillar of flame rising over the base. "Is it supposed to be that bright?"
She scooted back from the edge. "No," she murmured. "This isn't a fusion bomb." A wall of heat raced across the prairie, ripping through grass and splintering trees. "Duck!" She flung him to the ground just as the blast struck. A roar like a hundred freight trains tore through the air, carried on a burning gale. Laura felt the temperature jump sixty degrees in a second, the shockwave half-burying her in dirt. The Earth trembled like an anvil struck by the hammer of God. After a moment, she rose to her knees, coughing up dust. A gargantuan mushroom cloud towered far into the stratosphere, glowing an eerie violet. A great pillar of light beamed up from Ground Zero, a spotlight up to the firmament.
Laura wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth; the Geiger counter in her backpack was going mad. Forks of lightning flickered beneath the belly of the vast plume, its great canopy blotting out the sun; the darkened land was lit in stuttering, ghostly purple.
"What the hell are they building in there?"
Notes:
PREVIEW:
Yo, Kaji here with your preview. The Third Child faces the consequences of his defiance. The First Child returns to duty. Captain Katsuragi tries to draw Shinji out from behind his barricade. Next time on Herz und Seele, Chapter Twelve: The Dungeon and the Tower. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of fanservice.