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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"
Preventer Patrol Cruiser E106 Bounty Date 1st March AC 198 Time: 22:45 [Bounty Time] Duo //Well, I have to admit that they are better company than I expected they would be. I'm pleasantly surprised, really, at the reception I was given. Still, on a long range ship you have to have people who can work together with a minimum of tension. The command crew have to be able to deal with people from all walks of life.// Captain Brian Tracey had succeeded in making a favorable impression on him, he reflected as he allowed the automated unit to whisk him through the hallways of the ship. The captain was a slender man with salt and pepper hair
and a scar on his right cheek that lent him a rakish air. He had been
an amusing and safely neutral dinner companion. As the guest at the
captains table Duo had been seated beside the man himself and within
a few minutes had found himself judging the man as trustworthy. It
was a surprising judgment, as he rarely found that much favor with
anyone so quickly. Living on the streets of L2 ensured that you never
judged quickly, but you did develop good instincts about people. His
instinct said the man was safe. On reflection, he mused, he supposed
he should have expected that. One did not become the captain of a
vessel such as the Bounty without earning the trust and //I was even pleasantly surprised by the menu. Real food, not that packet tube stuff you usually get in space. Not for much longer, though, from what was said. Certainly not on a regular basis.// The mess hall of the Bounty had been under the effect of a light gravity field generated while the gravity system had been undergoing final testing for the flight. That had allowed the crew to enjoy natural food and a gravity approximating one third of the Earth's. Duo understood that the gravity would be in operation at regular intervals, though only for a few days at a time, as determined by the medical staff of the ship. The physical and mental health of the crew was constantly watched, and the medical section controlled the gravity generator. Should the staff determine that the physical condition of the staff was in doubt, the generators would go online and gravity would be restored to the ship. This occurred at least twice a month, he had been told by the Captain, for up to three days at a time, allowing the crews bodies to recall just what gravity felt like. It was necessary to physical as well as mental health that they be reminded of the natural condition of the human body and its needs. During the course of the evening Captain Tracey had proven to be an excellent conversationalist who had, surprisingly enough, known a considerable amount about L2. To Duo's surprise the man revealed himself to have be born on L2, though he had been in his teens when his family had moved to Earth. Born into the middle class society of L2, his family had found adapting to a planet to be disconcerting at first. It had not taken them long to realize the benefits on offer, however, and they had quickly taken advantage of the offered fields of study that were suddenly open to them. He had one sister who was a scientist investigating the genetic structure of plants, another who was a medical practitioner now stationed on L2, working with some of the newly established missions there. A brother who was an engineer worked in the asteroid belt, intending to make his fortune quickly and the captain himself had initially joined the Alliance military and specialized in space programs that involved exploration of the asteroid belt. He had missed the bulk of the One Year War as he had been on assignment to the asteroids and returned only in the last month of the war. Seeing the chaos that had gripped the Earth Sphere he had chosen to make himself scarce and wait out the final confusing weeks. He had chosen to apply to the newly forming Preventers Organization when the war had concluded. Duo found it a novelty that the man had not questioned him on the part he had played in that battle. // The man should have been a diplomat. He's better than half the diplomats I met at the palace.// Over the course of the meal Duo had admitted that, yes, rumor was correct and he had indeed be a Gundam Pilot. Yes, he had taken part in the final battle against the Libra and yes, all of the Gundam pilots had fought in that battle. No, he and his companions had not fought under the command of Treize Kushrenada, though they had fought along side his men. Why had they fought for the leader of Oz when they had opposed that organization all along? Simply because in the end they had considered Kushrenada to be only marginally less of a threat than the White Fang. He refrained from pointing out that it had been a Gundam pilot who had killed Kushrenada, not certain as yet who on board the ship had followed which factions in the war. He was very much aware that he was out of place on this ship, in their closed community by order of Preventer Earth and only for a limited time. What were his views on how the war had ended and what would he have done had Kushrenada survived and White Fang been defeated? This was hardly the time or place for distinctions of that type to be made, he had responded, aware of the need to tread very carefully. No, thank you, he really preferred to avoid talking about that time and was there likely to be a problem with any of the crew reacting badly to the knowledge that he was a Gundam pilot? Duo was no fool. Since the war he had come across just about every possible reaction to a Gundam Pilot being in the known vicinity. The most dangerous of those reactions was one he had encountered all too often. He knew only too well that many people saw the Gundam pilots as nothing more than blood thirsty terrorists, and were angry that they had not been arrested and prosecuted for war crimes. In his time as the pilot of Deathscythe he had killed so many people that he had long ago lost count, and likely wounded and maimed more than had actually died. If he was going to have any trouble with the crew of this ship then he needed to know in advance, so that he could prepare for the confrontations. He had encountered the surviving kin of the dead before, and some had been known to try to take revenge for the loss of their loved ones. Duo really preferred not to deal with such scenes, if at all possible, especially as he had a mission to fulfill and he would, if the need demanded it, kill to successfully complete it. He would certainly defend himself and would not likely pull any punches out of sorrow or pity for anyone unwilling to deal with the cold realities of life. For the sake of everyone on board that would have to be understood. Yes, he had been a Gundam Pilot. Yes, he had killed in that role. Yes, he did experience regret and sorrow over the lives lost at his hands and at the lives lost over the war in general. Yes, he had had sessions with a Shrink to deal with his own personal stress after the war, and yes, the Preventer psychologists had cleared him for his working role in the organization as a field agent. Yes, if he felt the need was there, he was quite willing to kill again and yes, he was licensed by the Preventers to do so. With the bulk of the officers concerns aired, Duo had no hesitation in voicing the question that was of paramount importance to himself. Was the captain concerned that any of his crew might take exception to his presence on the ship, because if that was so, could the person be assigned well away from any area Duo was likely going to need to frequent. By the time dinner concluded he had been assured by
the Captain and his Executive Officers that the crew were professionals
and had needed to deal with these hostilities in the past. The crew
of the Bounty was a mix of Oz, Alliance, Treize Faction soldiers and
White Fang rebels. He was assured that each member of the crew had
learned early in the days after the war to put the past behind them.
The war was over, and any contention that might spring up over long
ago factions had to be handled off the ship when they returned from
their missions. The crews of the long haul ships had to guard their
//Still, I think I will not be relaxing my guard soon. Not until I have met everyone on this crew and made my own judgments. A year is a long time to be away from Earth or the Colonies and tensions must get out of hand on board. Until I see how they handle those situations, I'll not be turning my back on anyone.// All in all, dinner had been enjoyable. More so than he had expected, in actual fact. A street kid from L2 he had come a long way, when he thought about it. From eating out of garbage cans to eating at the Captain's table today and a few days ago, eating at the Sanc Palace. He scrunched his nose at that type of thought, unwilling to go there. He believed you could change any circumstances if you simply put enough effort into it. If he had not thumbed his nose at the odds repeatedly, then Duo Maxwell would not have survived to become the pilot of Deathscythe. He had been warned prior to leaving the mess hall that the gravity test would conclude before he could reach his assigned quarters and to beware the change. It had not taken him by surprise when it had come, and he wondered when someone would realize that he was no stranger to space. In his short life he had traveled extensively, both on planet and in space and he had had little difficulty in adapting to the respective environments. He left the travel belt, his magnetic soled boots firmly anchoring him to the deck and strolled in the direction of his quarters. He was very much aware of the ensign who walked at his side and who had been assigned to be his guide for the next few days, until he became familiar with the design of the ship. A quiet, almost shy young man who was almost his own age, only a few months older. Peter Kerr was a chatty boy when you got past that initial shyness, Duo had discovered and he rather liked the man, finding him easy to deal with. Kerr had not been in the military and witnessed the cruelties of war. Graduating after the wars had been concluded he was one of the first batch of young officers trained in peace time to enter Preventers. He had proven to be surprisingly understanding of the needs of the crew around him, the Captain had informed Duo in an aside during dinner. For all that he was roughly the same age as Duo, the ex Gundam Pilot found him to be rather innocent. Years separated them, not in age, but in experience. The Bounty was Kerr's first assignment, and Duo determined to keep an eye on the ensign, well aware that the higher ranked officers of the ship were intending to do the same. Though they were essentially the same age Duo had seen more life and death in his short years than many men five times his age, and he rather liked the innocence he saw in the ensign. He did not think for an instant that this was a ship full of angels, who smiled at each other and kissed each others cheeks on a daily basis. Human nature just would not allow for that. His eyes were open to the goings on that would certainly not be angelic, and he would be wary, both for his own good, and for the good of the innocence he saw in Kerr's sea green eyes. “Your quarters, Sir. Is there anything else I can do for you this evening?” Duo smiled amiably, shaking his head as he keyed open his quarters and slipped inside. “No thanks. I'll be right for tonight.” “I respectfully remind you, Sir, of the scheduled acceleration burn at 00:30 hours, Sir. You will need to have all items secured and yourself strapped to your bunk. It is preferable if you are flat to the bed, too, Sir. Four g's can hurt if you are bent anywhere or have any items in hand. If you become nauseas try to turn your head to the side so as not to soil the bags. Some people do not deal well with the pressure and then switching back suddenly to zero g.” // He sounds like a hostess on an airliner.// Duo thought, amused. “I'll be sure to have everything secured. Thank you for your help, Ensign.” “Sir.” a snappy salute, a nod and the ensign turned smartly, allowed one hand to push himself off the wall and he floated off down the corridor on the inertia of the push. Duo smiled, shook his head slightly and thumbed the door closed, being sure to initiate the privacy lock down. He had a little time to sort himself out before he had to tie himself to that thing they called a bunk. He snagged the socks that floated randomly about the cabin, stuffing them into his tote bag and pulled out the laptop computer he had in the bag. After a few minutes he had the computer clamped down to the desk and recharging off the ships power, logged himself on line and accessed the ships satellite communications systems. He had time enough to check his email before he had to secure everything for the acceleration burn. He broke into a beaming smile at the email that was waiting for him listed as originating from L2. Hilde had sent him a scanned image of Aidan and he sighed softly as he lightly touched the screen, caressing the chubby cheek of the baby. A flashing moment of regret pierced through his carefully wrought defenses. He had not really been given a chance to know his son. He might very well be gone from the hub of the Earth Sphere for a whole year. A year in which he would know there was a little boy growing up who did not know his father's touch. It was not good, not good at all, but he had made his choice in what career he wanted when he had split with Hilde. He had reaffirmed that choice again when he had accepted the assignment to find Zechs Merquise on Mars and deal with whatever was, or had, happened there. If Hilde would continued to send him pictures and progress reports on Aidan's development, then at least he could watch his son grow in some fashion. He had to trust her to keep his boy safe. With a quite sigh he sent a response quickly to Hilde, thanking her and then sent the formal protocols as per Preventer instructions to say that he had arrived and was undertaking the mission he had been assigned to. That taken care of he slipped a small device onto the laptop, a device that Heero had taken great pains to produce in secret some months before. Heero ultimately intended to pass the device along to Lady Une, for the Preventers to use, but he felt it needed field testing, so he had passed it along to his fellow pilots for a trial period before he revealed it for general use. Duo had used it on a few previous occasions and was quite pleased with it. It enabled the pilots to generally have about the most secure conversation anyone was ever likely to have over open air waves. It isolated select air waves and set up interference that disrupted the fields. Only if you had another of these devices could you cancel out the interference and see, hear or read the exchanged messages. It was not just a jamming device, but was far more sophisticated than that simple device, that had been used in varied forms for the last couple of centuries. Unless Heero had come up with an alternative means of secured communication between them, this device would be his secured link to the Sanc palace. Activating the unit he personally chose to call a 'disruptor' he glanced at the computer screen and smiled. Yes, there was an email there that had not appeared before. He settled before the desk, glanced at the clock, mentally telling it not to tract time so fast, and opened the email. //Let's see. Hmm, you don't sound too happy I took off
the way I did, Heero. Can't say I'm exactly thrilled about it myself,
but hey, its my job. Okay, what do we have here, hmm? Trouble at the
garden party that involved… K5? As in the assassins, K5? Wu Fei
is in charge of the investigation. Well, I suppose that's Duo glanced quickly at the clock and grunted at the
passage of time it displayed. He had a little time yet. His eyes turned
back to the screen and he read the brief account of the garden party
and the assassination attempt on the L3 representative. Apparently
while he had been injured, he was not dead, so the Preventers were
on guard against a second attempt. All pretty standard, he reflected
and read on. He began to frown, however, when Heero informed him that
he was intending to confide in Quatre about the Romefeller //Ah, Heero. Are you sure? I'm not too sure that that, is a good idea, but you probably have already done it. God, I hope that's not a mistake. It's not that I don't trust Quatre, but… Damn. Just be careful, Heero. Something is very wrong in all of this. There's just something about it all that worries me. I'll need to get into those files I have with me as soon as possible and find out what they were aiming to produce, with all their controlled bloodlines and then genetic alterations. I'm missing so much information and it has to be in those files. I need to crack their code.// Another glance at the clock and he grunted, aware that he had pushed the time limits as much as he could. He packed up the computer, stowing it securely in one of those disappearing cupboards near his bed. Stripping to his boxers, he stuffed his clothing into another cupboard, carefully stowing his steel capped magnetic soled space boots securely, wanting those to be secured against heavy g forces. If they came loose and cannoned into anything, especially him, during the burn, he was likely to be hurt severely. Glancing around the cabin he was careful to make certain that he had missed nothing that could possibly move under pressure. Satisfied that everything was in its proper place he pushed off gently and floated into the bunk, which consisted of a horizontal area with webbing separating it from a storage cupboard below it. He stripped off the top layer of webbing, unrolling the sleeping bag like hammock and carefully fitted himself into its warmth. Wiggling carefully so as not to rocket himself into the air with the rebound forces of zero g, he pulled the safety webbing over the sleeping bag, spreading it carefully so that no single area was any tighter that another. He had no intention of being bruised or cut by webbing becoming a weapon under the forces of high acceleration. It brought back memories. This would not be his first experience with long distant flight and acceleration forces in space. When he had been on the Sweeper Family ship he had learned all about such forces, and while most of those ships now were installed with gravity generators for pretty much the entire Sweepers fleet, he had had bruises and bumps enough to know what not to do. Stretching out he considered the ceiling and determined he would have to do something to make it a little more interesting than it was. Staring at that would get boring during long nights on board ship. //Ah, well. Almost time. Damn, that ceiling has to be changed. I'll go loopy staring at what… six… seven… eight… ten rivets on a khaki colour scheme. Yuck. Ahh, what am I doing? Its so bloody far away and everything that has ever meant anything to me is here. // he sighed, closing his eyes against the sight of the drab ceiling. //Mars, here I come. I wonder what is happening up there? Or is it OUT there now? Heero never listed any news about what has happened since I left, but I'm not surprised about that. There would be no hurry to take the children into custody. They would have to wait for the shuttle to be checked thoroughly… Wait a minute. What was it I was told once? I remember when I was on the Family Ship. I was in the medical center and there were babies there. I remember I was asking all sorts of questions. Babies… babies… Something about… Yes! Babies were not allowed to be in zero g, they had to be in the medical center. Why? Something about not forming bones and muscles properly and mixing up organs and the like. No, that's not right. Anyway, I know it was not considered a good idea in general to have babies in space. They had to be on the few ships that were gravity capable. That means… that means the ESUN agents are not going to bring them to Earth on that shuttle. They have to come by a big ship. Damn. I wonder if Lady Une has thought of that?// “Attention. Attention. Acceleration burn in two minutes. Repeat. All hands secure for Acceleration burn in two minutes.// //Too late for me to do anything about it now. I will just have to send off a message to Heero later. Maybe run a check of all ships within a weeks flight of Mars, not that the ship has to be a registered vessel. The ESUN seem to have bent just about every rule in the book so far, so why not send up an unscheduled ship? Yeah, that's possible, but they can't have too many big ships it would be safe to put babies on. Big ships are rather noticeable. Ah, shit. Here we go. Times up. No going back now.// t.b.c.
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