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"Alternative Directions: Options "Written By: Karina Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the lovely
boys and their girls in the series. Wish I did. Please don't sue me.
I haven't even got a brass razoo to give you. Rating: Deffinately PG in Australia, at the moment,
but probably safer to say R for later chapters. Not sure about international
ratings Warnings: It will be 6x2, even though it does
not start out that way. After all, Zechs and Duo never met in Gundam
Wing and only spoke briefly over a com line in Endless Waltz. I've
tried to keep them in character as I saw them in the series. A bit
of language creeping in under stressful conditions. Pairings: eventual 6x2, past 2xH, 2+H,6x9, 1+R
Summary: Directions is set post Endless Waltz
and roughly 2 years have passed. Zechs and Noin are on Mars and Duo,
after spending some time with Hilde in a relationship leaves L2 to
join Preventers. Hilde was not happy about his decision. I guess enough
said. Here t'is, and I hope you like it. This is also AU for the standard
setting, as well as the series and Endless Waltz. Spoilers: Gundam Wing Series and Endless Waltz Many thanks to Dulin for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options"
Chapter 103 Mars Colony Base Dome 2nd March AC 198 Time: 00: 10 [approx Sanc time 22:00] Barker “Right, gentlemen. Listen up.” Barker reached out to draw the waiting men closer, pressing their helmets tightly to his own wanting to ensure that his instructions were clearly heard. “The voice that you heard was that of Zechs Merquise, Preventer Agent Wind. Yes, he is a Preventer Agent and to all effects and purposes during this situation he is my commanding officer. I have explicit instructions from Preventer Earth, the head of the organization that should trouble develop on Mars I am to take my orders from him. I trust that there will not be a problem with that? Good. Polnar, you are certain that you can get us into the base using the waste plant?” The man inclined his head within the helmet, seemingly not phased in the slightest that the notorious Milliardo Peacecraft was revealed to be a Preventer Agent and superior to Barker in rank. He asked no questions concerning the supposed prisoner's legal status or standing, a fact that greatly surprised Barker who had expected him to question why a man who had been introduced to the entire Mars base personal as a prisoner on his arrival now seemed to have the power to run the show. “It seems feasible. Certainly everything else has been tried to enter the dome and failed.” // I would have thought that he would have asked questions. I am certain that I would have, but … I suppose he was a Specials Pilot and he may even have served with Merquise during the war, still, I am disturbed by that acceptance. It seems too easy. I think I need to watch this one. // “We now have around eighty five minutes to enter the dome and make our way to the shuttle bay. We are to rendezvous with Merquise there and make our plans to finish this using the intelligence he will have gathered to better plan our assault on the remaining ESUN agents. While we have approximately eighty five minutes to get there I would like to make it there in less time if possible.” Polnar shrugged his shoulders within the bulky enviro suit. “I am not sure about the time it will take but we should be able to make that time limit, all going well. We will exit the pipes in the dome after all. That has to save us some time.” Barker nodded by way of agreement but added a caution. “We can not remove our enviro suits until we are assured of a secure atmosphere. Wind has issued a warning that there is a buildup of toxic fumes within the dome itself. What it is that is causing this buildup I have no idea at this time, but I would say that they have not been having a quiet day. There may have been a fire or other damage that has affected the oxygen cycling station or perhaps the vents have been damaged which seems unlikely but must remain a possibility. I think that we had best assume that the casualty count will have been high.” “Well, bad air is not good but if the ventilation
ducts are in doubt we may have a problem entering the shuttle bay
undetected. Short of using the elevators I don't think there is another
way to reach the shuttle bay and the enviro suits are just too bulky
to allow us to use them in the vents.” the Leo pilot scowled
trying to work an alternate route to solve this dilemma. Daniel Carter huffed a breath, his scowl deepening as he considered the conversation. He was a Taurus suit pilot and worked almost exclusively outside the habitat domes of the Mars colony. The functions of the Hydroponics Domes was something of a mystery to him and he certainly had no idea how entering one of them would offer a means to enter the sub base. “Why specifically HD Three? Why that dome and not either of the other two older domes? I take it that the elevators have been disabled.” he surmised. “Perhaps the power has been cut to ensure that it is not so easy to move around the dome.” “If they have not been disabled then the elevators are at the very least to be considered extremely dangerous. It is most likely that they have been trapped more than disabled by power cuts but either option makes them too dangerous for us to risk at this time. I have no idea what has been going on in there, but it would not have been pretty and it is still to be considered potentially lethal. We have to make every move with extreme care.” “The water pipe.” Polnar glanced up within the confines of his helmet to meet the shadowed eyes of Barker. He had stood quietly while Barker and Carter had spoken, silently considering the dynamics of the Hydroponics Domes of the Base Dome. Unlike Daniel Carter he had been used within the Base Dome and the Alpha Dome quite extensively and there was very little of the domes that he had not had occasion to enter. Being one of the newer arrivals of the teams and having the qualifications that he had arrived with he had been snapped up by the maintenance section of the Colony who had made good use of every one of his talents. He had known little in the way of idleness since arriving on Mars but the varied duties he had been required to perform meant that he had gained an extensive knowledge of the domes systems. “He must mean the water pipes that connect the hydro domes to the reservoirs in the sub base. Admittedly it would be a long and slippery climb down the pipe to the sub base. We would need to find an outlet for a drained pipe, preferably one that has been drained for routine cleaning. I really don't fancy trusting enviro suits to the pressures involved in a dive of that depth and anyway we would be unable to exit a pipe that was full. No, there would have to be a pipe already empty. It is just a matter of finding the right maintenance shaft to enter the service outlet. There would have to be one drained in HD Three and ready to use, that must be what he was referring to. If it is not that then I honestly don't think that there is another way down into the sub base other than the elevators or the air vent system.” Barker considered the man in silence, wondering how it was that the Leo Pilot had gained such extensive knowledge of the Base Dome but he nodded after a moments thought, acknowledging that it sounded reasonable. He really was going to have to keep and eye on this man. “Alright, it sounds viable. We go to HD three and we check for service outlets first. Right then, time is wasting. Have you both recharged your suits and eaten?” “No. Mobile suit pilots were slated to go last because of the greater resources the suits give us.” Carter responded. “You now have priority. We have a set time to accomplish this so get yourselves ready as quickly as you can. By this time the last of the maintenance crews should have been taken care of and there would be at least one of the big re supply suits available for you to use. Help each other and meet me back here in no more than five minutes. Polnar, is your mobile suit ready for this? Would the Taurus not be better since we now have a time limit? Faster.” “The Leo is ready for use and yes, the Taurus would undoubtedly be faster getting us to the dome, but I really would prefer that we take the Leo.” //Why? You've been the answer man so far, why do you want to take the slower Leo when time is of the essence just now? // “Reasons?” Polnar hesitated and then offered a diffident shrug. “No real reason except that I suppose I was hoping to hear word from my partner. He is in the dome and he would use a frequency we had designated if he can reach a radio. He would not be easy to kill.” Barkers eyes narrowed, considering the man. Why would Polnar and his friend set designated frequencies to contact each other? Carter was watching him too, he noted and the man in question shrugged, not offering further comment. He was acutely conscious of the time and the limits now imposed on them, but he was aware of a few anomalies about this man that might just be too dangerous to ignore. Still, he was warned and he was not alone as he had Carter whom he was certain that he could trust. For now he was going to have to trust the man, but that did not mean that he was needlessly going to turn his back to Polnar and present an easy target for any betrayal that might come his way. “We don't have the time to argue this. We take the Taurus. Get ready.” It would be approximately a five minute flight to the Base Dome now that the Taurus suit was to be used and they would no longer have to be concerned with the massive weight of the survival supplies as opposed to nearly a half hour walk should they take the Leo. He admitted to himself that he was not thrilled with the idea of clinging to the Taurus while flying in the dark Martian night however he was all in favor of a short hairy flight instead of a longer haul. Speed mattered. What worried him now was dare he trust Christian Polnar? Why would the man prefer to take the slower Leo and not take the speedy Taurus? Time was of the essence here and now that he knew that Zechs was alive and that they needed to join forces he was not inclined to wait around. Speed was vital in the activities of the night and he was not inclined to dally unnecessarily. No, the Taurus, dangerous as it was to cling to that suit while it was flying, was the optimum mode of transport that they had available to them. Why was the man so set against using the flying suit? He was uncertain just how far he could trust the pilot and he would need to keep Polnar in sight as all times. Polnar had leapt back to the open hatch of the Leo and now the machine's hand was smoothly lowering Barker and Carter to the ground where they stepped off the hand and watched as the pilot locked down the suit. In moments Polnar was in the hatch again but instead of reaching for the lift mechanism the suit pilots used to descend he instead knelt in the open hatch and worked at a side control. It took only a minute to open the hatch, rummage within it and then close the opening and grab the lift hand hold and then he was standing beside Barker. Polnar leaned forward to rest his helmet against Barkers helmet. “Hold onto these. If we have to go flying on that thing I don't intend to fall off. The straps will help keep us secure for the flight.” Barker nodded and the Leo pilot waved a salute and loped into the cave interior with Carter to attend to the business of recharging their enviro suits survival systems, leaving Barker to study the assortment of straps in his hand. With a slight shrug of broad shoulders he acknowledged that he would feel considerably safer with the strapping and he supposed that it was reasonable for the Leo pilot to prefer his own suit. He knew other pilots who professed no trust in the abilities of other pilots and their suits, so he supposed that could explain the man's reluctance. //Still, I will be keeping a close watch on that man. He is not what he seems I think and if he is ESUN I will not give him the opportunity to take me down.// Barker adjusted the radio frequency of his suit. “Cherry. Can I see you outside?” “On my way.” It took only a minute before a figure anonymous and sexless in the enviro suit emerged from the cave and paused, no doubt looking around to locate him and then made its way to him. He drew her helmeted head to touch his own, signaling for her to turn off her radio as he did so. With an arched eyebrow Cherry did as requested and then offered a glare at the man who had called her away from overseeing the settling in of the workers in the cave. “What is going on?” “I will be taking two of the mobile suit pilots with me to the Base Dome. We will attempt to get into the dome and open it up for your teams before the temperatures fall below the point where you will have no option other than to remain in K23 until the air warms up with dawn. I know that that will not give us long but we can only try. I'll establish radio contact with you when we succeed and if we do succeed and the weather is passable then I want you to have everyone check their oxygen supply before they begin to walk back to the dome. If it is too late and the temperature drops below the safety margin then you will have to be ready to move out about dawn. By morning I hope that Mako will have a shuttle up and running and he can come up and take the team back to Alpha Dome in relays if you have not heard from us before then. Keep everyone in the caves and use the supplies sparingly. There is no guarantee that we will be able to open the dome for you before the temperature drops too far. No one is to be on their own and they must regularly check the oxygen readings on their neighbours suits especially if their neighbour is asleep. We have lost twenty-two people already and I would prefer not to lose any more.” Within her helmet she nodded slightly, not enough to have the helmet move but enough for him to notice the movement. “What do you think your chances are of getting into the dome?” “Don't hold your breath waiting for my call. At this time I would suggest that you rely on Mako coming in with a shuttle after dawn.” “Alright. You will be returning to K23 if you can't get into the dome in good time? You only have sufficient oxygen for around four hours so you will have to return before then, or will you take extra oxygen and transport it in the mobile suit?” “We will be taking a Taurus, so we can leave it almost to the last minute to retreat back to the caves, but there is the chance that we might get in and run into trouble trying to open the way for you. No, we will not be taking extra oxygen. Your team here will need all the supplies they have. Don't panic if we do not return. We may have gotten into the dome but it might take us a while to ensure that we can get your people in safely. We need to keep off the radios unless it is a dire emergency or we succeed and issue the go ahead for you to return to the dome. It may be a very long night.” “It already is a long night.” a sigh came clearly through the touching head gear. “I won't panic if I don't hear from you by dawn, but I hope you won't object to me saying a few prayers.” “We could do with all the help possible.” he grinned. “Go on back inside and keep them under control. You have a better chance of surviving if they keep calm.” “We will be just fine. They are all professionals and survivors or they would not have remained so long on this ball of rock. All of the idiots who come here die within a month, you should know that by now. You do what you can to get us back into the dome and we will hold things together here.” They touched hands briefly by way of farewell and he watched her vanish into the cave before he had made his own way to the feet of the Taurus. He propped himself against the massive foot of the machine and watched the cave mouth, noting the movement at the mouth of the cave where a figure emerged and turned towards him. Carter was beside him in seconds, launching himself from the cave mouth and into a loping bounce that passed for a run in the bulky suits in the lighter gravity of Mars. “Polnar?” Barker queried as Carter leaned to rest his helmet against his own. “Where is he?” “He's coming. I think the man's got an unhealthy fear of flying, you know? He never actually said anything but I think that may be the problem. I'll lower one hand of the suit and you can strap yourself to a finger. He's right about the straps being a necessary precaution.” Barker caught at Carter's suit sleeve to stop him from pulling away. “He pilots a Leo and he's afraid of heights?” Barker blinked at Carter in disbelief. “No, not heights, just of flying when he's not the one doing the flying. It's not so unusual in Mobile Suit pilots as you might think. To be honest it is a personal power thing. I have to admit that I don't like flying with anyone else in control of a suit myself. I'm not saying that that is definitely the problem, but it might be. I've seen it before.” Barker stood back from the Taurus and Carter reached for the lift as Polnar joined the Preventer agent. He stood silently beside Barker, making no attempt to speak to the man and they watched as the Taurus began to power up then Carter set the suit to kneel before them and a hand lowered, palm facing up and coming to rest on the ground before them. Polnar took the straps from Barker and separated one set, passing it to Barker and showing him how to use them effectively and still be able to release himself from their hold in seconds should they need a quick release. “Lift two fingers!” Polnar instructed the Taurus suit pilot over the radio before switching off the radio and leaning to place his helmet into contact with Barker. “If we sit on the palm with our backs to a finger and strap ourselves to the finger we should be safe enough.” Barker, once he was seated in the giant hand and had secured himself to a digit began to consider the worth of this mad flight in the Martian night. If not for the hope he still entertained of getting those people in the caves into the dome before the temperature dropped below the tolerance level of the enviro suits he might have reconsidered the means of reaching the Base Dome. Calling himself an idiot he gripped the straps that secured him to his seat tightly and closed his eyes as the hand began to rise. It was a short flight from the K23 cave system to the Base Dome and it was a flight accompanied in silence from Barker and Polnar, the latter showing a tight lipped silence and painfully tight grip on the straps that demonstrated his lack of trust in anyone else's piloting skills other than his own. Barker wondered if it was Carter's flying Polnar objected to or if Polnar had another more obscure problem with flying in the dark without lights. One thing Barker did notice was that it was a glorious cloud free Martian night. The atmosphere of the planet as always had a wealth of dust circulating but this night the dust clouds seemed much reduced from the norm and he gained a magnificent view of the Martian night sky. //So long as that is not a precursor to a bloody dust storm. The weather stations at Alpha did not suggest a storm though, so we should not have to deal with that problem.// He watched the stars for a time and then felt the alteration in the suit's speed, and knew that they neared the dome. Carter guided his suit around the bulk of the dome, skirting the structure and giving his passengers a good view of the great dome of glass and metal. He refrained from passing over the dome on the odd chance that the running lights installed on the Taurus that he would need to operate for the landing sequence might be seen and alert anyone in the dome to their presence. It was a chance of discovery that was miniscule but the pilot was not about to take the chance that something should go wrong so soon into their bid to enter the dome and he settled the Taurus near the waste treatment plant beyond the dome, lowering the suit to one knee and dropping the hand containing his passengers to the ground. A quick tug on the line had the straps loosened and Barker shook them off quickly, leaping to the ground and trying not to think about the flight in darkness that had seemed to last far longer than the estimated five minutes. He noted that Polnar was off the hand and standing beside him with sufficient speed to suggest that he had disliked the flight far more than the Preventer agent. Barker might have found it amusing if the situation was not so serious and the pair waited for Carter to lock down the Taurus and join them. Carter released the lift after riding the wire down from the cockpit of the suit and joined the two men, pressing his head to their helmets. “There we go gents.” He was grinning cheerfully. Barker nodded his approval of a job well done and then turned his mind to business. They had a long way to go before the night was over. “From here on in we keep radio contact down to a bare minimum. Basically we use the radio only if there is no other options. Polnar, you know your way in?” A brief nod responded and the Leo pilot motioned to the bulk of the building to their left. “I did a two week stint here on arriving. That is the waste treatment plant over there.” “You take the lead then. Go.” There was going to be little time to waste if they were to maintain their schedule and meet Zechs in the shuttle bay on time and Barker knew that despite all of his plans so many things could go wrong and he could miss this rendezvous with Merquise. He only hoped that they did not run into unforeseen circumstances that would do more than delay them a few minutes. Foreseen circumstances included encounters with Sleepers and the infiltration agents from the ESUN Security Agency. What else could go wrong was something he really did not want to consider. He needed to meet Marquise and the idea of crawling through sewerage pipes certainly did not appeal to him, but he was not going to be a prima donna about the distastefulness of the situation. It was a way into the dome and he wanted in badly enough to take it. Situations which could produce delays that ran into more than a few minutes were definitely to be avoided. Polnar was moving with an assured confidence through the darkness and Barker hustled to keep up with him, afraid of losing him in the darkness of the night. While he had been to the waste plant before he was not familiar enough with the system to trust himself to find his way around the building without wasting time by taking the wrong path. Carter bounded along beside him, their suit helmet lights shedding just enough light for them to see where they placed their feet and he seemed to be confident in their leader, at least for now. By Martian standards it was a glorious night. The Base Dome shed a red glow that offered surprisingly little in the way of light pollution to dull the magnificent star field that spread above them. Barker scanned the area for any sign that they might not be alone out here and his eyes inevitably found their way to the starscape above. High overhead the small moon Phobos shed a soft glow, tinted pinkish by the dust in the atmosphere. There was always dust on Mars. Dust got into everything and if you did not allow yourself to become accustomed to it and to accept it you very quickly found yourself in front of one of the bases psychologists. Something as simple as dust could drive a person insane on Mars. It was odd how the small things, like little grains of gritty sand could annoy you the most. Barker dragged his attention away from the night sky and the evidence of the ever present dust and back to the matter at hand as Polnar stopped just ahead of him. The dark shape of the main building was still a distance to their fore and he glared suspiciously at the Leo pilot who was looking at a small construction set off to one side. Carter and Barker exchanged glances as Polnar motioned to them to follow and himself angled toward the small building, pausing at the doors to peer at the lock. He waited for the two men to join him and pressed his helmet to theirs, waving a hand at the small structure behind him. “I think this might be the best way for us to enter the pipes. The main building is closely monitored by computers in the Base Dome and our entry is more than likely to be noted by an alarm if we enter. These are maintenance access huts and they are not linked to the main alarm system as far as I know. Whenever I have been in these they were unlocked, but it is possible that they may be monitored by computer. I can't say for sure.” “We have to take some chances. Get us into the dome as fast as you can.” Barker returned. Polnar acknowledged that instruction by returning his attention to the maintenance shack and entered the access code he had been given the last time he had been assigned to the team working on the waste pipes. To his immense relief the code had not been changed and he found himself staring into the small room as the door slid aside. Across from the door a deeper darkness denoted the access to the waste pipes below and a line of metal rungs disappeared into the hole on the far side. Lights brightened into life as he entered the shack and when Barker and Carter entered he was quick to close the door and cut off the light from anyone who might have been lurking outside. While it was unlikely anyone from the dome would see the light he was feeling nicely paranoid at this time and he was not inclined to take chances. With the door securely closed and some semblance of security attained he led the way over to the access shaft and peered down into its depths. At regular intervals low wattage lights were placed and while the lighting was low it was adequate to show the steel rungs imbedded in the walls. All maintenance teams to enter the shaft did so in full enviro suits and provided their own light using the helmet beams, but the wall lights were not only functional they were also reassuring in their very existence. Most maintenance duties in these pipes were odorous, tedious and just plain depressing. The presence of steady lighting was a welcome sight to weary workers finishing their shifts. Again he motioned for the two men to come close and pressed his helmet against theirs. “This shaft goes down for approximately seventy feet before it hits the waste pipes. We need to enter the pipes and then we can follow them to the first of the access bays. There are three maintenance bays that service the dome's pipes. The closest of these will bring us up into the base dome near warehouse D. The second bay would bring us up in the dome between the airlock control room and warehouse B and the third access point into the dome would place us between the compost storage located in warehouse H and the geological station in building G.” “That one is right behind HD Two.” Barker breathed, pleased. “Very close to HD Three.” “Yes, it is the closest point to HD Three. You have your choice of which outlets to take but it may prove to be faster to exit through the first of the outlets. Slogging through a mile or two of these pipes is hard and slow work. We are going to be in the treated effluent pipe, by the way and that is thicker than the raw sewerage. It is usually piped under pressure twice a day into the compost storage vats in building H for later use. That is an automatic procedure and it is slated to start in one hour, give or take a few minutes. Do we really want to chance being inside these pipes when that starts?” Barker gritted his teeth for a moment as he considered the constraints of time, safety and efficiency. They had a set time limit to cater to and would it not be more efficient to leave the access ways for the upper dome where movement would be easier and faster? It would also be safer to leave the effluent pipes in that it was possible that they might get sucked into the moving mass of composted waste. Both ways had their dangers and it was up to him to determine which was the better option for them to take. These men had to trust that he would choose the better option. If they remained in the pipe too long and became caught up in the automated pumping of the pipes it could have lethal results when the pipes narrowed to feed the compost bins in the dome, yet if they left the pipes at the first access way and entered the dome they ran the chance of running into the agents. He hated dark places where there was the chance he could join the compost. If he was going to die it would be under the dome and fighting for his life. “Take the first access way up.” t.b.c.
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