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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 ShenLong for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options" Chapter 197 Mars Colony Base Dome 2nd March AC 198 Time: 04:55 [approx Sanc time 02:46] [Time has been adjusted] Polnar Had he at some time entertained the thought that it would be easy to get the children to their father? He had, he knew he had. More fool he! His estimation had taken into account a certain amount of time to reach the children, hustle their nurses into action and make their way back to the medical centre. He had even allowed for the extra time required to make the return with the nurses and children slowing their pace to what would seem like a painful crawl. All in all an easy mission provided they did not run afoul of the agent's intent on killing everyone in sight. Grab the nurses and children, hustle them to the Medical Centre, display them to Marquise so he would quiet down and rest, then tuck the children safely away with the other youngsters on the base. A little time consuming, but over all an easy snatch and grab style mission. Right! Just went to show how blindly ignorant he was to the harsh realities of life. He had had no real concept of what it took to move a baby from point A to point B… or so it appeared. The woman was a fiend. To begin with it had not been an easy feat to convince her to open the door to them, even after he had slipped the note Marquise had written through the tiniest of cracks she had condescended to open to permit him to prove Marquise had sent them. After he had finally convinced her of the validity of their claims the woman had dug in her heels and refused to leave her quarters without a few `necessities' . How much time had they wasted? The clock was ticking and how much equipment did that scrawny, pale haired little piece of life need? They had already delayed too long, much longer than he had allowed for, and still she was packing odds and ends into a bag. "Look, we really don't have time for this. All the equipment you will need to care for the infant is in the Medical Centre. We have to move as we still have to collect the other child." The glare he was subjected to was worthy of Raydon at his best. She would have a demon's temper, he guessed and she was not accustomed to being hurried along by low life mecha pilots. "Do you have children, Mr. Polnar? No? I am not at all surprised, so it would behove you to listen to one who knows about them and stop delaying me with your constant pestering to be gone. When it comes to infants one does not do anything `by the seat of one's pants'! I require certain items with us in the event something should go wrong and we are forced to delay for any appreciable length of time. Should such an event occur I will need to attend to the child's needs. These needs are not like adults, you know, and they can not fend for themselves." He refused to look at Carter who was snickering even as he hung out of the door to question Mighty Joe if the hallway was still clear. They were wasting precious time but he supposed the woman had a point… although if they could get on their way there was less chance of them being waylaid and forced into a delay they certainly could do without. "I know Marquise put in the note that time was of the essence…" "If you will shut up I will get done much faster than if I have to stand here arguing with you! Men! Where do you think this equipment came from? We practically stripped the nursery of spare equipment when we initially took the children! Now be so kind as to make yourself useful and tie this for me. A firm knot, if you please, we can't afford for it to work loose." He looked at the material dubiously as she turned her back to him but did as instructed, tying the lower two ends around her waist firmly. She stood silently and patiently for him and ignored his grumble about the awkwardness of trying to tie the thick folds of material in a decent knot. When done the nurse, Sharnice, picked up the infant, cradled him to her breast with one hand and flipped the remaining material over the child and up around her neck. "Now tie this off securely and it will enable me to carry him and still handle the gear, leaving you and these other gentlemen free to keep us safe." Polnar blinked, studied the arrangement and silently admitted that maybe the woman knew what she was talking about. He gathered the ends, careful not to catch her hair in the knot and trying not to strangle her before he moved around to inspect the result. The infant was nowhere to be seen, hidden beneath the white material of a ripped up sheet. "Will he be able to breathe in there?" Sharnice herself was considering the arrangement and was not happy. A few modifications were in order before she would consider it safe. Shaking her head slightly she motioning to the bed in front of her where the infant had been lying with an assortment of items she had been packing. "Get the scissors and cut out a section here… down along here… and over to here. I will thank you not to cut him or me in the process. I think… maybe if we take out two smaller sections here and here, where his legs are. That should put him in a firm carrying position, secure and unable to move without much need of me supporting him as we move." The impromptu baby harness took a precious few minutes to cut to the woman's satisfaction, but finally she deemed it serviceable and the infant appeared happy enough, snuggled up to her breast and snuffling softly. He was recently fed, Sharnice informed Polnar and happy enough for the moment. A few last minute items were tossed into the well stuffed carry bag and the nurse deemed them ready to depart. Polnar could not have been happier to get them on their way, hustling the nurse along as quickly as he dared, as quickly as she would permit given the child she carried and the delicacy of his position. The nurse moved well enough to satisfy him, her free hand raised to cradle the infant's head and give him extra support as they hurried through the hallways. Carter moved out acting as point some two metres ahead whilst Mighty Joe Lee positioned himself at their rear, allowing a touch more than a metre between the nurse and himself. Having someone he did not know at his back was not Polnar's preferred option, but he was not willing to allow either of the men near enough to the nurse to possibly snatch the baby. They needed to spread themselves out a little in the interests of the child's safety and he would simply have to keep glancing behind him to check on how near the other man was and to make sure no weapon was pointed in their direction. ————————————— Time: 04:57 [approx Sanc time 02:48] What he wanted to do was swear, long, loud and profusely and not explain any of the truth concerning the origins of Giles and Polnar to a snarling Prevetners agent. Barker had looked royally pissed and demanded answers to his questions, but they had been graced with a few minutes respite when the man had been distracted by shouts from the hallway. With a glare he had assured them he would be back and he would want answers. They had a few minutes in which to pool their suggestions and come up with a plausible explanation, something that would be believable and not too out there. To Giles' horror Zechs informed him, in no uncertain terms, to let him do the bulk of the talking. "Look, I can try influencing him using my talent. I'm what they term a Suggestor after all, I can `encourage' him to believe what we say. It could make life a whole lot easier than telling him Raydon's the King of a Raider faction and we are his henchmen. We come up with a plausible explanation and I'll `lean' on him a little." The offer was made but Zechs was no fool and he had long been trained to command men. He knew how to read the people who worked with him and he had not missed the tell tale signs that told him Giles was in as much pain, and was just as exhausted, as he. He knew Barker's background, something of the man himself, and after weighing up the possibilities decided it would be better not to try influencing the man and fail, potentially alerting Barker to their attempt. While it would prove the existence of a psychic talent, unless the man was a total block head and Une did not employ the ignorant minded, it would also be guaranteed to piss the man off when they needed his cooperation. Setting Barker against them was the very last thing Zechs needed. He was exhausted, his talent was constantly pushing at him, nibbling around the edges of his resolve not to give in to it even though he knew he had to resist. He had learned something of his ability over the years since Epyon had opened the floodgates in his mind, and he knew how dangerous it could be to resist that summons. Its call was growing more insistent, demanding his attention, but he had the distinct impression Haydon Giles was petrified he would use his ability. Zechs was worried. He knew enough of the man who had survived the night with him to know he did not scare easily. Other than to say he should not again use his `Gift', as he insisted on calling the curse, Giles had been suspiciously quiet on the subject. Quiet vocally that was, but the man's eyes spoke volumes when he thought he was not being watched and Zechs could not miss the tension in him. Haydon Giles was, quite frankly, afraid he would use his ability. Why? It disturbed Zechs that he was getting to rely on those glimpses of possible futures. Giles' behaviour, more than anything he actually said, had convinced him it would be a mistake to give in to the growing urge and dip into the multitude of options that would come from this confrontation with Barker. Not might come, but `would' come; whether he looked at the possibilities or not. Like it or not, like everyone else on Mars he was going to have to negotiate his way through the events head blind to the potential for good or ill in the immediate future. What came from it would have an effect on the future beyond this immediate time when survival was all one cared-dared- to think about…surviving was what was important. That was what he had been trying to do for months now, simply keep these people alive. Everything he had managed to prepare since the dreams had begun again would have to stand them in good stead, because he would not again be dipping into the future soon. There were his twins who would need him to be considered; if not he to care for them then he must find someone he could trust to take them. Zechs drew a soft, sharp breath. When had he decided that? But he had to be a realist, despite the fantasy of his situation and acknowledge there was no help for it. If he failed here the best he could do for the children would be to request Giles see them safely to Raydon. On the Stations they might have a chance at a decent future, free from the bloody method of politics some still employed within the Earth Sphere… free from being blamed for their father's sins. The pressure on his mind surged and he gritted his teeth, forcing himself to dismiss those thoughts. He would fail miserably to contain himself to the here and now if he continued to think along that line. Anything to do with his children was pretty much guaranteed to send him into a round of vision. The best he could do was survive for now. He had worked blind for years before exposure to the Epyon stirred this curse into awakening, and now he shuddered at the thought of not knowing how and where to guide future events. It was rather ironic really. He cursed the ability as much as he blessed the knowledge it gave him, but even should his head not be aching fit to burst there would be no time to sort through the myriad of possibility to shape one solid outcome...or even a few possible choices. The ability was a blessing when things worked as he foresaw they would and a curse when people insisted on going their own way. When they did that it usually equated to them taking the most difficult course that far from guaranteed the rosiest of options for the future. Noin and this debacle on Mars was a case in point. Why could she not have listened to him? He had tried to explain, tried hard to get her to understand, but she had not understood at all. Was he so incredibly inept and pathetic at explaining what it was he could do? If she had believed him, if she had just done as he had asked, none of this would have been necessary. Was he simply incapable of explaining how he saw the world and everyone and every living thing in it, and the multi levels of interaction that made up their lives? The world? How parochial. No, not just the world, not just the Earth. What he saw affected not just the planet but the colonies that orbited Earth, the space stations hidden in the asteroid belt, Mars and the mining colonies and the explorer ships… that light in the darkness of space… No. No, better not to go there…. not yet. There had been only that one glimpse of a faint light in the darkness before vision swerved, bypassing that option. Darkness haunted that offshoot, a darkness he could not penetrate and he had assumed it to be his death. It was the darkness that Epyon had chosen when he could not choose a fate for himself to come from the course he had followed leading from the confrontation on board the Libra. No, not true… at least, not entirely. Epyon had shown him the darkness, the dark shrouded option that caused so much fear within him, suggesting it was a future path leading to... something. He had assumed the darkness to be death, but the Epyon had implied otherwise and therefore he had feared it, wanting an ending. The machine intelligence, he had decided, confused issues of life and death and had not understood what he sought, choosing for him and where, at the time he had welcomed the thought of that ending, it had actually thrust him into a beginning. Of something… He had not died. Something lay within the shadow that might, at some point, impact on events he had never managed to see clearly. Might? No, not might, but `must' since Epyon had thrust him down that shadowed path at the very end. When it came to that point, and he had the feeling it was near and coming closer with every action taken on Mars, he would follow it and hopefully gain an understanding of why Epyon had chosen that course at the last moment. Provided, of course, Haydon Giles was not around to glare him into submission. Well, it was really more of a guarded look, than a glare at the moment. It was the kind of look that spoke volumes about hiding vital knowledge it was better not to pursue if one was not ready for it. Giles knew something he did not, something important. Something dangerous, that was what that look meant. In simple words, `don't do it', `don't go there'. Giles knew nothing of the Libra or the multitude of shadowy offshoots of possibility that might, or not, be a factor depending on other factors which might, or not, spark a ripple that might, or not…. Enough! Enough. Giles had some training under people who professed to know something of the psychic aspect… dare he call it a science? He knew more than Zechs at any rate and from his reactions as the night had progressed Zechs was convinced Giles was afraid he would access his abilities again. He would give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume Giles had good cause to fear there was a potentially serious problem with his… ability. He really could not think of this curse as a Gift. "Let me lead the talking. No use of psi unless there is no choice." He would drive himself insane if he didn't shift his attention away from the idiocy of possibility to the harshness of reality. And reality strode through the door in the form of Barker closing the door firmly behind him and moving to stand at the foot of the bed, arms crossed over his chest. The expression on his face could only be described as carefully blank; a sign the man would hear them out. His record spoke of a fair but hard man, practical; one who had no qualms about rolling up his sleeves and getting the job done. The man would undoubtedly go into this conversation intending to hear them out, but Zechs wondered how long it would be before he had to interrupt, and at what point in the conversation Barker would call him a fool for believing in fairytales. But he was not actually intending to tell Barker the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. A little evasion in just the right place, a touch of misdirection before they hit a sticky point, a little dancing around in circles… With luck they might yet get away without revealing too much of value that would later endanger the safety of the Stations. Now here he was, marching through the door, having dealt with whatever problem had required sorting. He looked, to Zechs' relief, somewhat calmer, perhaps calm enough to actually listen. "Alright, it's time we talked. I have everybody working to my satisfaction and the clock is ticking." Barker flicked his gaze between the two injured men, eyes narrowed. "There will be a medic in here in fifteen minutes to check you over, and I have the feeling you don't want any more people to hear what you have to say than is absolutely necessary. I suggest one of you start explaining." Fifteen minutes? He could work with that, try to drag things out and hopefully they could get away without revealing anything that would have Une's ears flapping, and politicians hell bent on searching the asteroid belt. "What do you want to know?" He would see what Barker considered to be the greatest priority and start from there. Let Barker ask the questions and they might be fortunate enough to steer him away from the more delicate subjects. Zechs lightly touched Giles' hand, a reminder to hold his peace, and focused his attention on Barker. "Who is Raydon?" Straight to the point and a major question, as he had expected. He might just be able to weasel their way out of going too in depth into just who, and what, Raydon was. Zechs set his mind on forgetting the existence of Raiders and rebel space stations and brought to mind the legitimate equivalent. With a glib tongue and a judicious use of imagination he should be able to convert those Raiders who had joined the Stations into something entirely different. Treize had instructed him a long time ago in how to hedge the truth, to stand in a room of Romefeller elites and smile and simper and talk for hours on end, saying absolutely nothing of worth. Treize had also taught him how to disguise in commonality the extraordinarily dangerous. "Raydon is nobody. He does not exist. Raydon is a code name for the individual who employs my… bodyguard." Zechs quirked an eyebrow at Giles and grinned. "Regardless of the fact I did not think I needed one." Giles shrugged broad shoulders, winced at the pain that resulted and sighed. "Sucks to be wrong, eh?" Barker's gaze flicked between the two, judging their interaction with careful neutrality, sizing them up. "So who is this person who employs you?" "We receive our instruction over a transceiver, no visuals." Giles rubbed at his shoulder, meeting Barker's gaze and catching on to how Zechs was hoping to avoid telling the truth. "Such a unit is less bulky, easier to carry around unobtrusively and requires less power to run." "Given my past there are an unfortunate amount of people who concern themselves with my activities. More than one group has determined I be observed… for reasons of public safety." Zechs shifted uncomfortably in the bed, wincing at the assorted aches and pains. "There are a number of people on Mars employed as agents with instructions to keep an eye on me. They range from private concerns to Preventers, and the ESUN Council of Representatives. " Barker's eyes narrowed and he speared Giles with a cold glare. "So which one is it?" Every man and his dog wanted to know what the Terror of Earth was up to in his carefully monitored prison. Barker had to know that for the truth it was, he did his own reporting back to Preventer Earth. Zechs had been only too aware of the eyes observing him and he had gone to great pains to avoid giving any of his watchdogs an eye full of his activities. Only his unique sensibilities had permitted him to know what he knew, and to find the exact right moment when he could act on what he needed to go unobserved. It had taken time to assemble those caches of equipment he had hidden and access the base computer systems. It was all done to benefit him in his attempt to help lead them out of this hell hole. "I have no idea," Giles sighed. "I work for a private security firm and Mars was my assignment. I go where I am sent and do what I am employed to do." "Which is?" "To make sure he stays alive." Barker's eyes narrowed and he considered the men carefully; clearly unhappy with the answer but what he had been told was entirely plausible. "So where is Station One and exactly what is it?" Zechs tilted his head slightly, forestalling Giles from commenting with that action. He wanted to answer that one, giving Giles the lead to stay out of it and plead ignorance if at all possible. "The information on Station One is classified, but given our situation at the moment… and the matter of trust…" Zechs carefully measured the weighty pause. "Station One is an experimental space station." Barker frowned, considering the obviously careful wording. "You mean a colony?" "No. I mean it is a space station. It is not a colony in that it has no hollowed interior containing a number of select, controlled habitat spheres or quarters. Station One is purely and simply, a functional space habitat designed specifically for the survival in space of a working crew. It is a working habitat, designed with no attempt to fabricate Earth's conditions." Barker considered that information carefully before shaking his head slightly. "That's a very fine line of distinction between the two." Giles looked interested, watching him with as much interest as Barker, and Zechs was hopeful he would not slip up and reveal his close links with the station. He had Barker's interest and he was hoping to keep it until the medics arrived and save them from further questioning. "Some might think so, but consider this. Can you move a colony from its La Grange point? The stresses involved in the move would rip a colony apart, or potentially plunge it into the Earth or the Moon. A space station has its own means of propulsion and is specifically constructed to move under its own power, enabling it to be moved through the asteroid belt to any area to be investigated and mined. It provides every need its workers might require, from comfortable living quarters to mining facilities, without the need to construct such facilities every time a new resource asteroid is chosen for mining. If the experiment works, full processing and refining of the ores recovered could take place in space, and processed materials instead of the raw mined ore will be sent back to the Earth Sphere." Zechs knew of a few such briefings sitting on the desks of influential people in the ESUN. Treize had had his own flirtation with constructing space stations, and he was not concerned Barker could call him out on this subject. "So who is experimenting with this space station?" "That information is classified at this time and certain people with their hands in some very big pies, flavoured with a healthy dose of political spice and big business filling, would be unhappy you know this much." Zechs dismissed the question out of hand. Barker was not happy about that! Zechs noted Giles watching the man's reaction and, afraid he might try to `lean' on Barker with his talent, he shifted in the bed drawing Giles eye and faintly shook his head. Now was not the time to try what he had to consider their last resort. "Alright, classified information. I'll accept that for the moment. What about this message you were talking about?" Good. For the moment Barker was accepting the explanation on Station One, even the possibility Giles had his fingers in that pie as well as guarding Zechs. He was willing to move on. To be honest the story Zechs had spun him was pretty much the truth; he had simply not enlarged on who it was who was constructing such an expensive habitat, or exactly where it was being constructed. The important thing was that it was entirely plausible. "We managed to send a brief alert message on a one way signal and unfortunately on a select band. If Raydon's people are listening, and they should be, we may have help on the way out to us. Before you ask, no, we can't change the frequency on the device, it is a fixed unit and we would have to pull it apart to even try. I would have to go back up into the dome to locate the device before we could do that much, and there is no guarantee anyone would be listening to any other band we tried. Even the one we used we can not guarantee." "But a signal has gone out?" "The ability to send a message on the unit was severely limited so it was a general alarm. Help needed and watch your back if you come." Zechs rolled his head, stretching a muscle in his neck and wincing for the effort. "We did the best with what we had at the time." Barker was clearly not overly happy, but there was really nothing that could be done about it. The techs they now had access to, who should be working at regaining control of the base computers, might be able to do something more with the device but Zechs did not feel the need to offer it up to them. They would, hopefully, soon have the bases communications systems back up and running, if they could nail this virus infesting the computers. That was the more important thing to do, eradicate the virus. If it should infect their environmental controls and life support… No, the techs were needed to work on that little problem, not trying to fiddle frequencies in a device that was never meant to be a full blown communications device. "Alright, I'll go with that for the moment. What are these `Gifted' of which, given what I over heard, you appear to be one?" So much for the slender hope he might be distracted to other matters and away from that particular subject matter. Zechs sighed and dropped his head back against the pillow for a moment, eyes closed and taking the time to take a measured breath. This was so not good. It had the potential to blow up in their faces and break apart the working relationship they now tentatively enjoyed. "I warn you, it reads like a Science Fiction novel." Giles muttered, glaring at Barker, filled with his own memories of the disbelief he had endured before he had become one of the Gifted. "This whole fucked up situation reads like a Sci-Fi novel!" Barker glared back. "I'm stuck in the middle of it, just like you." After a moment of mutual glaring Giles snorted softly, shrugging and met the man's eyes with stubborn neutrality. There were rare occasions when people actually asked intelligent questions after they learned this for the first time. " `Gifted' is a quaint terminology for psychically aware individuals who are employed by the security firm I work for." The silence stretched. Zechs could almost see the wheels turning in Barker's mind and he only hoped Barker had not overheard much of his previous conversation with Giles. Too many awkward questions could be asked and this was certainly not the time for it. "And you are one?" Barker turned his attention to the blonde, face carefully neutral. "It would appear to be the reason Giles was assigned to be my bodyguard. I have been extended an invitation to join others with varying talents and degrees of talent... Gifts, as they prefer to call it." Again that long stretch of silence when Barker considered them each in turn, turning over what he had been told, sorting out what next to ask. He was not one to ask questions that would gain him little in the way of information. "This has something to do Libra and the Epyon, doesn't it?" Zechs fought the urge to react down to a minute flinch he had no doubt Barker would catch. He needed to be cool and calm and not give himself away. Barker had obviously heard more than he had hoped, and he had to wonder just what he and Giles had talked about before Barker had come through the door. Had they mentioned the Raiders? Had they mentioned Raydon being on Station One? He didn't think so, but it was possible that they had. He had to play the cards he had already dealt and hope for the best. At worst he could turn Giles loose with his questionable talent and try to influence Barker who was tired too. That exhaustion would do something to even out the odds of success, but he still did not want to try. The idea of controlling what another man thought was abhorrent to him. Barker knew he did not like speaking of that time on the Libra. He did not know why and this would certainly not tell him why, but it was still sailing close to information he did not want Preventers to have. "Epyon. Yes." He breathed the name of the machine, not meeting anyone's eyes, not caring to see what he might find there. Some subjects he was just not ready to talk about and all things Epyon were in that category. Barker grunted softly, eyes narrowed as he watched the two. Haydon Giles was watching Marquise with open concern and both of them looked far from well. Glancing at his watch he decided the medics would be arriving any minute and he wanted to gather as much information as he could. Their discomfort with the subject was simply an inconvenience and they would need to get over it. Now or later he would have answers. "I've heard a few things about that machine that make me wonder. I have learned that very little in the war was what it appeared to be…" A sharp knock on the door interrupted him and it opened for a medic to shuffle quickly into the room, a male nurse on his heels. The men paused in the doorway, looked between the three and then exchanged glances. "Is this a bad time?" The atmosphere was intense, Zechs supposed, something to be expected given their discussion, but hopefully Barker would back off and they might get something done about the pain they were both in. "No." Barker spun on his heel and motioned the two into the room. "Perfect timing. I have a couple of things to do and we will take this up later, gentlemen. I'll leave you in the medic's capable hands for now." t.b.c.
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