Neon Senshi Evangelion
Seven
Naoko Akagi looked up at her creation, at Jet Alone, and it was good.
The robot had started out as a humanoid with a barrel shaped body and a stubby head, but Naoko had quickly changed that. Bargaining with her advanced computer designs and cache of stolen NERV data she forced a redesign. Now it stood tall, nearly human in shape, with human designed limbs and a head that resembled a triangular wedge. Of course the body was supported by gantries and piping as they worked on the final stages, but it was nearly done.
"Doctor Akagi," Shingo Tsukino nodded as the brown haired man walked up beside her, the younger man dressed in simple black pants and a white shirt.
"Mister Tsukino," Naoko nodded frostily. The young man had been something of a bane to her, pushing for safety considerations and backups to their backups. She looked back at Jet Alone as she reluctantly said, "Thank you for the Ramiel sample."
"Any luck with the crystal?" Shingo asked curiously, seemingly not bothered by her obvious cold shoulder.
"It has some remarkable qualities," Naoko conceded, "some of my science teams think it might even be a room temperature superconductor." She shrugged slightly, "But at this point it's not terribly useful for our projects."
"Fair enough," Shingo agreed as he looked up at the giant robot. "It's... remarkable, really, how far we've come with this."
Naoko gave him a faintly surprised look, "Yes, it is." She hesitated then asked, "Are you still opposing our having a human pilot?"
Shingo promptly answered, "Yes." He looked at her as he said, "This creation of ours could free humans from ever fighting and dying in war again."
"But we need a pilot to generate a AT Field," Naoko growled out, suddenly frustrated over how dense the boy was, "as it is, I don't even know if our jury-rigged system will work!"
"You think NERV can't be trusted to fight the Angels?" Shingo asked curiously.
"They answer to no one but the UN," Naoko evaded the question as she added, "Japan needs it's own defense."
"And you don't trust the Ikaris," Shingo noted insight-fully.
Just the mention of the name made Naoko's lips pull back in a growl. She kept her temper under control though, her eyes narrowed in irritation. Naoko hated how this boy liked pushing her buttons, bringing up her betrayers, the man she had loved and the wench who had stolen him away.
"No I don't," Naoko said flatly, "this kind of power shouldn't be in one person's hands."
Shingo looked back at the Jet Alone, his own expression rather troubled. "Well, the Japanese government agrees with you, but they want a test run first," he sighed. "How soon can we be ready to go?" he asked.
Naoko was jerked out of her anger by a practical problem, her thoughts quickly racing. "We're nearly ready," she noted, "we just need to double check the computer systems and attach the armor."
"I can check with the sponsors if you need extra staff," Shingo offered.
"No, let's not bother Mr. Johnson," Naoko decided, "besides, it's usually easier to work through his assistant Caroline."
"Heh, true," Shingo agreed.
"Mr. Tsukino," a woman's voice called, and they both turned to see Kodama Horaki hurrying down the catwalk, carrying her personal computer as usual. "Doctor Akagi," she smiled at the older woman in a friendly way.
Naoko felt a moment of jealousy at how young and attractive the woman was, then sat on the feeling mercilessly. It wasn't Kodama's fault she triggered her issues, and to be honest she liked the younger woman. "Miss Horaki," she nodded politely.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Kodama said meekly, "but we need Shingo for a finance meeting. The investors are nervous over how far we are from launch, and need reassurance."
"I hate this part of the job," Shingo growled, looking disgusted. While not a engineer himself he was head of the engineering division, which meant attending a lot of meetings.
Naoko smirked, "But you're so good at it."
Kodama chuckled, "She's right, you know."
"Yeah, yeah," Shingo sighed. He turned and headed down the walkway with Kodama as he called back, "Do what you can to kick the engineering teams into gear, Doc. We're on a deadline."
"Will do," Naoko nodded slightly.
AS the two left Naoko turned back to her masterpiece, Jet Alone. The greatest computer driven machine ever, only compromised by the need to have a human pilot aboard for the AT Field. And someday, she was certain, she would beat that problem too. And then the Ikari family, root and branch, would pay for everything they had done to her...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Yui Ikari, for no reason she could determine, suddenly sneezed. "Excuse me," she said as the light brown haired woman grabbed a Kleenex off her desk.
"You okay mom?" Rei Ikari asked, the young woman standing in front of the desk, dressed in the standard uniform NERV gave it's techs. The slim young woman looked good in the jacket and pants, though she had grease on the side of her face.
"I'm fine," Yui smiled, the head of sciences at NERV looking her daughter over. "And what happened to you?" she asked, using a fresh napkin to wipe the girl's face.
"I was helping Rits calibrate the interface systems with the Evas," Rei said eagerly, "she even let me climb into the underside of the entry plug."
"Have fun?" Yui grinned, once more amused by her daughter's near rabid interest in technology. Even as a little girl she had taken apart calculators and killed Yui's laptop, and her interest had only grown as she got older.
"Oh yeah," Rei grinned back.
Yui gently shooed her daughter out of the office and got back to work, though in this case work was brooding over a press release. Sent out from Japan Heavy Chemical Industries they were announcing the planned launch of Jet Alone, a apparent rival to their Evangelions. Worse, they had included key staff in the document, including several familiar names.
Tokita was not really a concern, but major American backers were involved in the project. Say what you will about Cave Johnson's sanity, the man was a hell of a salesman. There were also hints that scientists from Nerv-01 in Massachusetts and Nerv-02 in Nevada were involved, if under the table.
'Which makes some sense,' Yui conceded. If they could create a mecha alternative to the Evangelion the costs would probably be less, since they would no longer have to work with the exotic life form samples the biologic Evangelions were based on. Of course as far as Yui knew a AT Field could not be created by a machine, so how they were going to beat that...
The official 'head' of NERV burst in, Gendo scowling even more than he might usually do. "Did you see this...?" he waved the Japan Heavy Chemical Industries press release.
"Yes," Yui sighed, "I guess we're not done with Naoko Akagi yet."
Gendo flopped down in the seat opposite her desk, crumpling the press release then throwing it in the paper recycling bin. "I still think we should have had Akagi arrested after she tried to murder you," he growled.
Yui shrugged, "We both know she wasn't in her right mind at the time. Besides, she lost almost everything when we fired her."
"Well, apparently not enough," Gendo noted, nodding towards the copy of the press release on the desk. "Do you think she leaked NERV tech?"
"Not NERV tech specifically," Yui mused, "but I can bet you she sold the MAGI technology, and probably anything she developed afterward."
Gendo nodded slightly, "Which could be quite a lot. She was a genius after all, even if she was slightly cracked."
"More than slightly," Yui snorted. She leaned back in her chair as she asked, "Do we want to do anything about this?"
"I could ask Ritsuko to hack them and make Jet Alone explode," Gendo suggested.
They both considered it a moment then Yui shook her head, "Nah."
"They're going to challenge how much money we spend and how effective we'll be," Gendo noted, "we'll need to have someone there."
"Misato?" Yui suggested thoughtfully, "she got along well with Naoko, at least as well as a traumatized mute could get along with anyone."
"True," Gendo nodded. "We can't really send Ritsuko, under the circumstances..."
"No," Yui agreed, well aware at how badly Ritsuko got on with her mother. "How about Maya Ibuki?" she suggested.
"She gets along well with everyone," Gendo agreed, "and she's well versed enough in our technology to see how well they're copying us."
"We could send one of the guys," Yui had to suggest to be polite.
"Matoko would be too busy drooling over Misato," Gendo noted with some amusement, "and Aoba would probably get distracted. No, let's stick with Maya."
"Good, good," Yui nodded. "Speaking of Maya, the pilot trainee she's watching over is doing quite well. Mana Kirishima could be up to actually being a official backup soon."
"We should probably pair her up with Rei," Gendo offered, a slight smile on his face.
"Ah, you read between the lines of Maya's report too?" Yui asked, looking amused at her husband's slight blush.
Gendo coughed slightly. "I wouldn't go that far," he said, "but it's clear Mana likes Rei, and vice versa. They could make a good team."
Yui fought back a chuckle, but nodded agreement. A bit more seriously she added, "I'm getting some pressure from Soryu, she wants her and her daughter in the field too."
"Kyoko?" Gendo sat up, "Is her mass production Evangelion ready to go?"
"SHE says it is," Yui put emphasis on the first word, "but I want the chance to go over it too. If something goes wrong with Unit-02, Asuka could be seriously hurt."
"Kyoko is still insisting on using her daughter as a pilot?" Gendo asked disapprovingly.
"Well, we're not really ones to talk," Yui pointed out, and Gendo had to nod.
"Why don't we begin arrangements to deploy Unit-02 here," Gendo offered, "it'll take weeks, not to mention getting it approved by the old men."
"Don't remind me," Yui made a face, "Keel is going to have a cow over Jet Alone." She looked at Gendo, "Can't you handle them?"
"You're the one who says she can sweet talk anyone," Gendo teased.
To be continued...
Notes: Yes, that's Cave Johnson from Portal. He's just a financier, though he's taken over somewhat by sheer force of will. I MAY have him talk later.