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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"
Mars Colony Base Dome Date: 1st March AC 198 Time: 18:26 MST [Mars Standard Time] Zechs He had expected his shoulder to protest the stress of climbing the metal rungs and then the climb into the scaffolding. He had hoped the pain would be controlled both by the application of the spray he had used, and by the release of endorphin's into his blood stream, caused by the adrenaline surge responding to pure fear. Fear. Fear that he moved too slow. Fear that he was too long in plain view and someone, an enemy, could not help but see him. Fear that he took too long in dealing with this matter and that more and more people died while he floundered climbing a ladder he should have been able to scale in a matter of a minute or so. Fear that while he struggled to reach the transmitter, Lucrezia would die. He did not want her death on his conscience any more than he wanted the deaths of the terra formers to haunt him. It was his fault that all of this happened. Had he not listened to the protests of Noin and Sally Po that day on Earth and escaped to become a wanderer, unwelcome everywhere, then this day would never have come. They did not deserve this. Lucrezia did not deserve this. His children did not deserve to be the innocents cast into hell because of the blood they shared. //Get a life, Marquise. God. Your pathetic. Put more effort into climbing and less into wallowing in your stupidity.// It was pure fear that drove him up this ladder faster than was comfortable, because some intangible something he had always called a soldiers instinct, said that he was, indeed, being watched. Someone was near. The higher up the ladder he climbed, the more certain he was that he was being observed. He could feel the eyes on him. Studying him. Scrutinizing his every move, no doubt noting how he favored his left side. They would see the weakness that he had there. It was a telling weakness. If it came down to a melee then he was automatically at a disadvantage. Any opponent he faced could enjoy a considerable advantage in reach, nimbleness and strength. He was exhausted by the trials already faced and the day was far from over. Not knowing where his watcher lurked, was having a detrimental effect on his concentration. He had known it was not likely that there would be no others in the dome, but he had hoped to avoid notice. The only thing left to him was to continue to climb and pray that it was not a Sleeper agent who lurked amid the pipes and scaffolding. The Lurker was up there, in that maze, he was certain. With a sigh of relief and gasping air into starved lungs, he pulled himself the last half dozen rungs and rolled over the side of the ladder, onto the scaffolding. Immediately he heaved himself up and over the top of the water pipes, desperate to gain some cover. He crawled on his belly under an adjacent set and rolled across the distance between the next, praying that he had moved far enough and quickly enough for the Lurker to have lost him, even if only for a few minutes. He needed to regain his breath. Each of the individual water pipes measured the diameter of his waist and they were grouped in clusters of ten. The sheer size of the clustered pipes offered him some protection, as he crouched behind a knot in the maze, trying to get a baring on the eyes that had so steadily watched him. A major problem for him was that the scaffolding was far from quite, creaking and groaning at his every move, but that was somewhat countered by the fact that the pipes constantly carried water. The shifting of the water would shift the pipes which would draw a groan from the scaffolding. There was also the low rumble of the circulating water in the system, a sound that often was felt more than heard. The creaking of the support structure reacting to the weight of the entire network and the machinery mounted at strategic monitoring places produced background noise. The addition of the low hum of the machinery used in the monitoring of the water flow and electrical current for the lighting system, would make it difficult for any lurker to pin point him by sound alone. Above all of that noise he could hear no sounds of movement that sounded out of place, but that was far from a surprise. Who ever had been watching would not advertise their presence any more than he intended to. He scanned the mesh of pipes and support structure as he rested his shoulder and nursed his burned hand close to his chest. It was the hand that had given him the most trouble during the climb and he wondered briefly if he dared to use the spray he had taken from Sharnice, but after considering the idea he shook his head in denial. That spray on an open wound would likely do more harm than good. He would just have to ignore the pain of hand and shoulder equally, while compensating for his weakened state. The scaffolding could give him away if he made too much noise. The more noise he made, the easier it would be for him to be located. Was the lurker a friend, terrified and desperately seeking to go unnoticed? Or were they more sinister, a ESUN Sleeper or one of the paramilitary new to the dome? //Can't delay forever. I have to get to that cache and send off the emergency transmission. I can't allow these people to kill everyone to cover their tracks. The one who watched me climb the ladder can't have been a Sleeper. I was an open target coming up that ladder. A clear shot. Out of ammunition? I don't... I don't know. There could be friends in this dome. They may not have killed everyone yet.// To a slow count of sixty he could detect no movement or sound that seemed out of place and with a sigh he began to move along the scaffold, careful with his footing. He could always climb to the walkway above him, but that was bound to be watched. He classed it as a risk he just was not willing to make to expose himself during the climb by spending any time on the walkway. With a little bit of care the scaffold and super structure of the dome and its network of plumbing and lighting would see him safely across the danger area. It was better than the too easy to observe walkway. Someone was out there, in the dome. Someone may have escaped the slaughter. He could not forget the condition of the maintenance shed. From the condition of the storage facility someone had put up a good fight. In the end, who had fallen victim to deaths hand? The sleeper or the worker who had been surprised in the shed? It would have been a noisy fight, possibly drawing attention, so maybe whoever had survived had had help? Still, it hardly mattered to him at this time. He had no idea if it had been a ESUN Agent or Terra Former who had walked away from the scuffle, but by the law of averages, some of those Sleeper agents had to fail in their murderous slaughter. At a rough count there should be some three to four hundred people actually in the Base Dome on this particular day. In or near the Base Dome, he corrected himself, recalling that there was a team running maintenance on equipment on the west side of the dome. They built on a massive scale on Mars, needing to ensure that they always had sufficient power to supply the needs of the colony. When your nearest source of maintenance parts was months away, you had to ensure that your equipment worked faultlessly. To that end they regularly mass serviced the solar collectors and wind generators that powered the Base Dome. Today had been one such day. There would be at least four hundred working outside the dome, he mused, clad only in the personal enviro suits. There would be another fifteen people in the big mechanical enviro suits who provided spare oxygen and portable toileting bays for the engineers and workers. There was also the three pilots in mobile suits providing backup and a means of handling heavy equipment assisting the workers. Unless they returned to the dome those beyond the base were safe for the time being, but there was only enough air for them stored in the personal suit tanks to stay outside some six hours. The big enviro suits would replenish the oxygen for the workers in the personal enviro suits as they ran low. Enough oxygen was stored in the big suits to renew everyone's tanks once and an emergency supply that was used to top up to a safe level the tanks for those people whose metabolism required that they use more oxygen. Unless a mechanical problem developed in a mobile suit or the enviro suits then no one returned to the dome during the long Martian work day. They worked the full shift unless there was a life threatening incident. There would only be two or three hours of that time left for the current shift working out there. The bulk of the population of Terra Formers now lived and worked in the Alpha Dome, preparing it for the occupancy of the first official colonists. If all had gone well, they should be asleep, drugged by the Preventers, along with the new shuttles arrivals and in particular the ESUN agents. He recalled that there was a team due to work on the solar collectors on the plateau on the far side of the Alpha Dome today. They would be due to return to the big dome within a few hours as well. One way or another he had to bring this matter to a completion before more people could be drawn into the mess. It would be so easy to kill those outside the domes. He had seen that amid the possibilities that haunted him. It was a pressing need to get this message sent and turn his attention to helping them survive what was to come. He was uncertain as to which of the options he had gleaned would best serve those people. Which ever option he chose there, people were going to die. If he did manage to take down the domes infiltrators what then? He had not known before that they would be so brutal as to summon the Wellington to wipe everyone out to cover their tracks, and to bring the ire of the entire Earth Sphere down on the Raiders. He had hoped to take down the infiltrating agents and to gain some time to think. Time to figure a way to get Noin and the children, if not himself, off the colony and into space, as he had suggested to her before. The cost to the colony had never been estimated at peoples lives beyond, maybe, a dozen in all the visions he had previewed, before that devastating vision. He had reviewed the visions he had seen and recalled, and in the end he had chosen to follow the options he had thought would lead them to the colony giving Noin and the children a shuttle. In the vision of possibility they had arranged for her to meet up with the Winner Ore Carrier, Fatima. In vision he had witnessed Quatre welcoming her and the children to Earth and providing them with a safe haven. For himself there would have been the escape across Mars to the secondary site that so few knew existed, to await rescue by Une's Preventers in a few months time. He had stocked the site, ensured everything was working and ready for occupancy. His personal preferred option of having Noin take the children and a shuttle to rendezvous with a mining ship before the shuttle had arrived, had failed. She had not cooperated with him. His second preferred option, to have Noin take the children and lie low in a secured area while he and the Preventers secured the agents, had also fallen through. Again because Noin would not cooperate, insisting instead on taking out the opposition herself. If she survived this ordeal he had no doubt that she would not like the end results. He had had enough. He had seen only the one vision when she walked unharmed from this mess she would not walk away from. Only the one glimpse of her survival in the many options he had studied. Too many visions of her death was not promising. Yet, still, he had to try. For her and for the children. Now, even if he could get the agreement of the colonists for her to take a shuttle up into space with the children, it would not stop what was to come. Noin and the children escaping would not save the colonists. The Wellington would wipe them all out, regardless of the presence of the children they sought. The secured site on Mars, for so long known only to a select few, was no solution either. It was not large enough to take any more than thirty to forty people for any length of time, and conditions would be far from healthy in that scenario. Even selecting that many and taking them there was a danger. Dust storms could wipe them out before they reached that dubious safety. There was also the very unsatisfactory knowledge that that would leave nearly two thousand people to be slaughtered by the ESUN. However he looked at the options he had viewed in the past and the more recent versions, in light of the knowledge he now had, the best he could do now was hope that Raydon could and would offer assistance. If he had ships in the area they might be able to get the people off Mars before the ESUN Wellington turned up to take care of the witness problem. If he had more than one ship in the area capable of taking that many people. Perhaps if he had enough ships in the region they could deter the Wellington from coming in to Mars Orbit. Perhaps broadcast messages to the Earth Sphere disclaiming the Raiders responsibility... Enter the Generation Wars. Exactly what he hoped to avoid. Somehow he needed to resolve this without destroying peoples faith in their government. Peace was the important thing here. Peace. He would not sacrifice another two thousand people to peace if he could possibly avoid it. It would appear that his best hope of salvaging the situation was to get the terra formers off Mars. It seemed his best hope of salvaging something from the entire sordid mess. Yet it might be impossible to achieve. He still needed to try to work on alternate plans, even though the options seemed non existent. What would happen after the matter was resolved, one way or the other? He had no idea. He dared not even try to look at that question now. There were already too many variables pushing on him, pressuring him. Tempting him to take just a little peek at the crowding options. He slipped behind another cluster of intersecting pipes, crouching, glancing quickly around. Someone was watching him. Someone had found him. For the last couple of minutes he was sure that someone was following him and being damn quiet about it too. No attempt to shoot at him or take him down with knives. That suggested that there were other people alive in the dome, if they were intent on stealth. He had not spotted them, no hint of a shape or form. Just the awareness of someone nearby who was shadowing him. He had to take a break, rest his shoulder against the cool pipe and look around, see if he could change his course and either throw the person off his tail or take him down. It was not even so far to the other side of the dome really, when he considered it. At least moving in the superstructure of the dome allowed him to circumvent the need to go around the beds below. Cutting through the crops never even crossed his mind as an option. The close growing grain would have hampered his movement and the view of his surroundings would be practically non existent. Weaving between the beds would have been necessary if he had chosen to cross the dome at ground level. The colony was supposed to be self sufficient now and no supplies of food had been ordered from the Earth. This harvest was vital for the colony and he still might be able to reach that transmitter and avert disaster. Someone would eventually inhabit Mars, and he hoped to leave them a food supply at the very least. He supposed it was a stupid idea, but it helped give him an assurance he could make this work. He needed to feel that he could turn this around, from wholesale slaughter and destruction, to a hope of saving lives and giving those lives a secure future. Blue eyes scanned the stretch of pipes and scaffold ahead, a frown appeared and he slipped around a cluster of pipes, scrambled over more and eased down, behind an intersection of water pipes. Something... Something was not quite right. No sound he had not expected to hear and no sign of anyone moving near him, yet... He half turned, considering the way he had come. Pipes, large and small. Nothing more. It looked safe. A glance to left and right and he still was uninformed about what had set his hackles up. It just did not feel right. He was not alone here. Someone was out there, but he had the disturbing feeling that he had now picked up more than the one tail. Feeling much like a child playing follow the leader he slipped onto the western scaffold, stretching out arms and legs to make the crossing. Aware that he had to be visible to whoever was in his vicinity as he did so. He was exposed, but he had chosen this action for a reason. He knew that unless the person was at least the same height or taller, they would not be able to make the crossing without making a jump that might well pitch them out of the scaffolding and give them a nice long fall to the grain fields below. He would even give them a helping hand to ensure they fell. Wincing at the thought he shook his head, refusing to do it. He was not the same as them. If it was a terra former following him and trying to get the courage up to approach him, he would be no better than the Sleepers to take them out. If it was a Sleeper after him, well, he was forewarned and he would not be taken by surprise. For now he would give his tail, both of them, the benefit of the doubt. Both of them. //I'm sure there are two. Something just insists it is more than one. To the left? Was that movement?// He nimbly hitched himself over a cluster of pipes and descended two levels quickly, gaining as much distance as he could. Trying to be silent and still move quickly was not easy and he was nowhere near as quiet as he had hoped he might be, but he could not have everything and he was a realist. That thought drew a smirk from him. A realist? Him? How much of a realist could he call himself if he saw possibilities in everything he said or did? How real did that make the world around him? It seemed to him that nothing was real. He had learned that a sneeze or a cough could change the course of history. He frowned. Change the course of history? No. No, not change it, but direct it, yes. No vital decision should be a cough, for gods sake. Before Epyon had opened this new vision up to his mind he had thought that careful planning and consideration of certain factors wrote history. He was learning instead that anything could give it direction. //A cough. A sneeze. Someone tripping on a flight of stairs and breaking their leg, stopping them from attending to some small, seemingly insignificant thing. Anything can change what we consider to be history, after it has happened. Before it happens. God. I confuse myself.// He hunkered down behind a pump station, taking a breather and considered his position. Anything to get the confusion of paradox out of his head. He really needed to get back to the other scaffold, but he could afford to move on this one for a time and work his way toward that point. The door to the maintenance and storage shed that was his destination was on the far side of the dome, further to his right and he had drifted well off course having to climb through the pipes. It was certainly not the fastest or the most straight forward approach to the building, but he had already covered half the dome and had come across no one. "Your Highness." He spun around at the whisper, a hiss in the rumble of the water pipes. At first glance he could see no one, and he sucked in a steadying breath. He could feel someone out there. What fool was calling him? What idiot was trying to attract his attention? Admittedly it would be a deadly mistake to sneak up on him and most of the people at the dome would know that. Yet making noise could attract the wrong sort of attention. They were not alone in the dome, and certainly not in the scaffolding. "Your Highness. Don't attack me. I'm a friend." He glared at the man who slipped around a knot of pipes and regulators. Both of his hands were raised in plain sight and he made no move to approach any closer. Instead he knelt down, below the level of the rumbling pipes, making himself less likely to be seen by anyone other than Zechs. "I'm here to help." It was incredibly hard to resist the urge to take the mans head off his shoulders. His reflexes screamed to hurl the intruder to the floor far below. Tension tightened his muscles, his mind screamed enemy and the visions threatening his sanity seemed to want to burst. He had a throwing knife in his hand and he had no memory of actually drawing the thing. "Friend! I'm a friend!" the man looked panicked, hands well extended before him, palms facing Zechs to show he had no weapon. "I'm a Raider. For gods sake, don't throw that thing. I was sent here by Raydon." He felt the release of tension as a physical pain, the instant relaxing of muscles threatening to send him into the pipes at his side, unable to support his own weight without leaning on them for support. There was no way that anyone at the Mars Colony could have known of Raydon and his dealings with the man. Nor could anyone who worked for the ESUN know of his association with the Raiders. If they had he would never have made it to Mars, despite their wanting to use him to control Relena. "Okay if I come closer?" a quick glance around at the rigging and he looked back to the blonde who still held the throwing knife, blade pinched between thumb and finger, but who had seemed to relax, and whose eyes now held curiosity, not just death. The man looked as though he would by far prefer to bolt in the opposite direction, putting as much distance between himself and Zechs as possible. When no threatening move was made he edged a short step closer, only to freeze when the knife came up again, poised, ready. "Name?" he barked that question, neither giving nor denying permission for the man to move. "Giles. Haydan Giles." a quick and quiet response accompanied by a hasty glance around at their immediate area. "You wear the uniform of a worker here." A diffident shrug of broad shoulders responded. "Hey, I've been here around six months, mainly down in the Alpha Dome. Came in on a shuttle with a group of grunts." at the look darkening those crystal blue eyes he thought he had better explain that a little more clearly. "I came to the colony under orders direct from Raydon." He was shaking with reaction. If this was true... Did he not need to reach the transmitter now? Yes, he could well believe Raydon would send in an advance agent to investigate future trade potential. He knew that the man had intended to do just that, in preparation for the Raiders becoming legitimate traders. If this was true... Was it already under way, the rescue of the colony? No Raider went anywhere without a means by which to contact his own kind. Especially the agents chosen by Raydon. Surely Raydon would not allow this to happen? The man had too much honor to allow the ESUN to take out the colony just so that they could get their hands on two babies. Raydon would be deeply insulted at the ESUN's attempt to pass the blame to his people and would not allow the colonists to die like that. He would, at the very least, want the record set straight and disclaim responsibility on behalf of the Raiders. If word could be sent to him. "Why?" The man glanced around, seeking any possible watchers, any sign of danger. "I was initially sent here to check out the potential for a trade contract. Word was sent out to stay clear of Mars and don't even consider a raid while I investigated. He wanted to approach the colony. Raydon wants us to go legit." A surge against the dam he had built to hold back the onslaught of possibilities, threatened to break him and he gasped, fighting to remain in control. Trembling with the effort to resist the surge. He knew that Raydon had intended to get recognition for the outcasts who had joined him. The plan had been to set them up a as an independent Colony, free of the ESUN but loosely allied with them by trade agreements. That much was true. He had sat in on discussions between Raydon and his Captains and Council. "Initially?" "Yeah, well, we didn't know you were here. I couldn't believe it when I first saw you. I contacted him pronto." "And?" he prompted when the man seemed not inclined to continue, crystal blue eyes swept the immediate area. They... he... had to move from here. It was not safe to remain for long in one place. "Word came back. I was to check out the opportunities for trade, as previously ordered, and in addition I was to guard your back." "Guard my back? Against what?" "Not what. Who. I'd say those same bastards who are slaughtering everyone they can find now. I have no idea what this is all about, Sir, but I do know that I have found ten dead so far, just in this hydroponics dome. I don't have any idea what is going on." He ran a hand through his disheveled black hair, looking his distress for a moment, before clamping control of his emotions again. "After I found the first bodies I sent word to my backup, that was nearly two hours ago and I have received no instructions back. When no word came in by the time I expected it to, I thought it best if I came looking for you. Raydon would have me flayed alive if anything happened to you." "How did you contact him?" hopeful. It was surely possible that his transmitter was not the only way of contacting the King of Raiders. The man obviously had radio contact with his people, though why he had not received a response was worrying. "We have an independent radio array. Brought it in in pieces and assembled it here." a smug grin broke out on his amiable features. The knife went up a little higher and blue eyes glared. "We?" "Shit! Shit! Shit, don't throw. After I reported your presence to him he made some changes to the mission. On the last shuttle before the one that arrived today, Raydon sent in another agent. To back me up if I needed help keeping you secure. We are not the only one's here. I had already identified a couple of agents from the Patrice Mining Corporation. They would have been doing what we have been, investigating the marketable levels of minerals and ores. There are a few we suspected might be ESUN Security keeping a fairly close watch on you and... well, you know about Raydons... well... abilities and resources. He said there might be trouble. Assassins or something equally as nasty. I learned a while ago to trust his feelings." He had expected the companies and consortiums to start sending in agents to check out the potential of the new colony, sneaking them in before sending official delegations to deal with the Colony Council when it was formed. No doubt that was one of the reasons the ESUN considered this action now. When the colony was opened up they could not have the infamous Milliardo Peacecraft running around loose in front of the colonists. If he was honest he had expected them to make a move to move him months ago. That they had not he thought was due to the news that Noin had become pregnant. It seemed to earn him a reprieve. No doubt the reprieve was to allow them to make their plans so that they could make allowances for the children to be caught in their snare. "You have a radio transmitter and can contact Station One? Where is it?" Giles looked uncomfortable and shrugged. "Ahm, well, its sort of hidden in a maintenance suit. My partner is out with the maintenance team just now, in the suit. I came in to the dome and left him out there. Told the shift supervisor that I had problems with the suit I was using and I came to find you. Then I started finding the bodies." Zechs considered the man for a long moment, studying every tense line of him and then scanned the pipes around them before he slipped the knife into the sheath at his belt and rubbed his fingers along side his nose, pinching the bridge in despair. So much for that hope. If the radio was outside with the maintenance team then he was back to his plan. His emergency transmitter was still the only hope he had that was reachable at this time. He still needed to reach the first Hydroponics dome. "Come on. We are not alone up here so watch your back." The Raider agent made short work of joining him, hunkering down out of his personal space, careful to give him enough room to move quickly in any direction should the need arise. He was well trained in most combat situations and Raydon had made a point to warn him about the Lightning Count and keeping clear of his personal space. "Where are we going?" a hushed whisper. "Hydroponics Dome One. Hopefully to call in the Indians before the Cavalry arrives and massacres the settlers." "Huh?"
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