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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 82 1st March leading into 2nd March AC 198 Dark Side S 43861 A Time: 23:50 [L2 time] [Approx Sanc time 22:25] Damian Edwards "Mayday! Mayday! Help us. This is Mars Base Dome. The Raiders .. oh, God … The Raiders are here! They're killing everybody. Help us …” He ran a finger lightly over the seam of the chair's arm, finger nail tracing the stitching at the edge of the arm, unconscious of even moving, eyes focused on the screen where the redhead bled and cried. He was aware of the silence on the bridge and the fact that he had no memory of the room ever being that quiet before this moment. His bridge had never been quiet, always a hum of activity, the low murmur of voices or the soft chuckle in response to an equally sotto voiced joke. Not even during the One Year War when they had watched the armies of the White Fang and Earth gather above the blue world had the bridge settled to this deathly silence. There had been a hush, certainly when the Libra had fired on the Earth and again when the section of the great ship had threatened to fall on the planet only to be blown away by the efforts of that Gundam Pilot, but it had not been the same as this silence that chilled the blood. “oh, God … The Raiders are here! They're killing everybody. Help us …” He watched every move she made, staring at the face that might have earned her a place on the cover of magazines for her beauty. He noted every smudge on her uniform and the stains that could only be blood and with every replay of the mayday he remembered another message. *~/ Dark Side. Don't believe it was us. Has not even happened yet. Satellite Communications System Dakkar III compromised by ESUN. Established existence of delay and block confirmed. Keep Dark Side clear of Mars vicinity. Believe ESUN Wellington involved in cover up. Raydon./~* //Alright, Raydon, what the hell is going on? You have some explaining to do.// “Ms Carver, confirm source of mayday signal.” The Communications Officer attended to her console, fingers flying over her keyboard and touch screens producing a series of beeps before glancing up and half turning to face the captain in his command chair. “Signal has been relayed through the Dakkar III communications system. Source of origin has been confirmed as Mars, Sir.” //Authenticated then, but when taken into account with the warning Raydon sent hours ago, it only produces more questions. Very well then, there is no denying that something dirty is going on in the region of Mars. Something very dirty indeed and I want to know what it is.// “Any communications with the Miss Conception?” “The Miss Conception is sending a general alert to us at this time, Captain. Captain Bryce suggests that we slow the speed of the Dark Side and allow them to investigate.” “Acknowledge that communication and inform Captain Bryce that I will take her suggestion into consideration.” he had fully expected that that would be the first comment from Bryce, but by no means would it be the last. It was standard procedure where a Family Ship was concerned to keep the vessel clear of suspected trouble spots. He had delayed the decision to reduce the speed of the ship thus far, wanting to further investigate the communications from Raydon and determining that he was still a considerable distance from the potential problem. A safe distance. No family ship was without an escort vessel within a day's flight and he had planned on keeping the Dark Side back from any potential conflicts, but he needed to speak with the Captain of his escort and determine acceptable distances. “Captain, I have completed the test sequence aimed at the Dakkar system. All relay satellites are out of order. No signals are responding to our hails from any in the relay.” //So, the satellites are down and a mayday is blasting over the airways and we are fortunate enough to be bloody close to what ever is going to be happening. I have such a bad feeling about this.// “Mayday! Mayday! Help us. This is Mars Base Dome. The Raiders …” “Kindly shut that noise off, Carver.” Edwards sighed softly, pushing himself to his feet. It was time to make decisions and he was not one to delay when it was obvious that they did have a problem. “Request a conference call with Captain Bryce in fifteen minutes. Helm Control maintain course and speed. Arnold, in my ready room, please.” He considered the implications of what he might well be running into with a heavy heart. There were thousands of people on Mars and if they needed evacuation very few ships in the area could accommodate that many people at short notice. The Dark Side might in fact be the only ship in the area for days, perhaps weeks, that might fill the need. Certainly his ship had the room to spare, but there were so many questions that needed answering. He had the room to take more people than he was sure were currently on Mars and he had emergency medical facilities that likely would be urgently required if the colony had indeed been attacked. He was obligated both by his sense of honor and as a Captain who plied the space ways to respond to that Mayday with all speed and with all of the facilities that he could muster. “I can not see Raydon allowing such a raid.” Matthews, his First Officer commented as the door to the ready room closed behind them. “No. No, if this raid is perpetrated by Raiders then it is not any group of Raiders who are associated with the Stations. The man has too much honor to be involved in such an atrocity.” Edwards settled into his chair, motioning to the second placed before his desk and began to absently swing his chair in short shallow arcs. His fingers beat a fast pace, soft tattoo on the arms of the chair as he watched his long time friend settle and he tipped back his head, considering the ceiling as though he had never seen it before this day. “What do you intend to do?” “The one thing that I can not do is to chance the Dark Side and the people on her. The preservation of the ship and the safety of the families on her are paramount. However” he shook his head and sighed very much aware that certain members of the Sweeper Council would be screaming about his incompetence and the arrogance he had never learned to curb when they learned of his next move. “I can not abandon the people on Mars totally. My preferred course of action would be to keep the Dark Side back until the Miss Conception has investigated exactly what is going on there. We have closed the distance with Bryce somewhat since Raydon first contacted us as a safety measure for the Dark Side. I believe that we should maintain our speed and allow the Miss Conception to increase her speed somewhat, enough to allow Bryce to reach Mars up to a full day ahead of us. For us to reduce speed to allow any more distance than that would mean that we would miss the swing around the planet we had planned for. We were not actually planning on visiting Mars, but I believe that we may need to do more than just visit by exchanging chit chat on the approach and departure vectors, as we were planning to do. Whatever is going on at that base should be over by the time we arrived, as far as any direct physical danger to the Dark Side would be concerned. We can, however, be of aid to any survivors the Miss Conception can locate.” “And the Wellington?” Edwards sighed softly, the merest breath of air between parted lips. // Yes, the Wellington indeed. Just what about that ship? I can not afford to have my ship near her if I even suspect her of hostile intentions.// He reached out to activate the com. “Carver, get me the last reported position of the ESUN Wellington.” There were so many elements involved in this mess that seemed to revolve around Mars. The biggest concern to him was the fact that the satellite system had been compromised. The Dakkar III system was supposed to be the most secure communications system in the entire ESUN. That Station One had managed to acquire a direct feed into the relay system was a well hidden matter, but one that Raydon had revealed to the Sweepers within months of the system becoming operational. Even with that direct feed Raydon's people had not discovered that a programmed delay had been inserted into the core program of the satellite system. It could have been in the system and buried for hours or for days, even months before it was detected. It had probably been date and time activated if it had eluded Raydon's monitoring, a major feat in itself, considering the resources available to Raydon's people. “I had expected to have heard from Raydon by now.” Matthews commented, rubbing his hands together, almost as though his fingers were chilled. Psychological reaction, Edwards thought, much like his relapse into his little boy habit of swinging in his chair. The slow swing stopped for all of thirty seconds before starting up again as he considered the options open to the Commander of the distant Station One. With the raid blamed on the Raiders there was next to no chance of Station One and its sister stations being recognized as independent settlements, clear of the Earth Sphere's rule. In his personal view space was just too vast to be ruled effectively from one source with the current political system now used within the Earth Sphere. Now was the prime time to establish independent borders and stamp a claim on territory, while space was so huge and before the Earth Sphere had the required people and technology in place to police so large an area. With the technological advances that were already being produced would come a shrinking of distances. Advancing technology had ensured that the Earth, once considered to be a huge world, was later looked upon in its proper perspective, as being a small ball of rock floating in a vast sea of stars. The Earth was tiny compared to other planets, yet it was the only planet that had produced viable and intelligent life in this solar system. Within a hundred years he fully expected Earth to be sending exploration ships if not colony ships out beyond Pluto, seeking other star systems and suitable habitable worlds for colonization. Mars was now a colony, habitable albeit an enviro dome was required to bring the miracle of life to the barren world. With the advances in terra forming technology that were being made now it was entirely feasible that within two hundred years the planet could be given an atmosphere and become a living world. Almost two hundred years ago mankind had perfected the technology required to created the colonies, habitable space stations of massive size capable of housing millions of people and producing artificial gravity and even seasonal effects, though such effects were rarely used. It was too expensive to have four seasons on a colony when a nice even temperature was economical to maintain. Temperatures on the colonies varied depending on the ethnic origins of the colony builders and the wealth of the individual colonies. Access to resource satellites and the ability to haggle decent trade contracts determined the colony prosperity and there fore living conditions. The colonies were now considered independent worlds under the umbrella of protection for all that the ESUN was supposed to signify. That being the case the colonies would have a large say in the recognition of any independent space station or stations that lay within the asteroid belt. The colonies mined those asteroids and transported ore rich examples to the vicinity of the colonies as resource satellites, to make mining costs cheaper in many cases. //It is a certainty that companies like Patrice and the Winner corporations will protest the emergence of independent Stations not allied to the Earth Sphere in any way. They will be too afraid of losing the resources and having to pay additional taxes or a toll of some kind to mine in territory claimed by another government. Raydon will not have it easy when they finally declare themselves. The Earth Sphere government will not sit quietly and allow what they would consider to be a threat to develop to the current stability of the Earth Sphere. Still, in this Raydon's biggest advantage is the distance involved. It will take time for the ESUN to consider what action is best taken and should they try to force the issue then it would take an even longer period to gather forces to contest any claims of independence made out there. The costs would be astronomical to send out military forces to the asteroid belt.// “Knowing that one, I believe that he would be cooking up something to give the ESUN pause.” Edwards murmured. “Considering the resources he has available to him and his disturbingly inventive imagination, I think it might be a good thing for us to keep as quiet as possible for the moment.” The First Officer shifted a little in his seat, considering the few encounters he had had with the enigmatic Commander of Station One. “He will not take this quietly if the Raiders do get the blame.” “That goes without saying, Arnold. Raydon is not one to act first and think later though and that is to everyone's benefit. He does not just think of what benefits his own people, but considers the larger picture. He sent us the warning hours ago that this would happen, though not the full details and he would not have been idle since then. He has varied resources, remember and he is not above using every means available to him to effect something productive out of utter chaos.” “The Gifted? Do you think that the rumors are true? That he has those kinds of resources available to him?” Edwards shrugged, considering some of the more wild rumors that he had had occasion to hear. “I think that the rumors have been exaggerated out of all proportion. No one would be more surprised than I to discover that he had an army of supermen at his disposal. No, he does not have supermen working for him, but I do know that what he does have is an army of displaced soldiers who were rejected by the current powers-that-be in the ESUN. If their new found security is threatened, then I believe that those people who found a home with Raydon will be only too happy to defend the stations. I have never knowingly met anyone that you would call Gifted, unless you mean Raydon himself. The man is definitely different to most men that I know. He has uncanny perception and a gift for intrigue that makes me shudder. I am very much afraid that no matter how peaceful Raydon wishes the independence of the Stations to be acknowledged by the ESUN that this entire matter may spark off another war. If it does, then I can tell you that it will make the last one look like a kiddy game.” Matthews winced. “Please, Damian, don't even think about that option. The Earth was almost destroyed in the last one. Things were way out of control and none of us can afford for things to shift again into a cycle of war. We need this peace.” Edwards smiled, grinning at his second in command and shook his head. “Out of control? You think things in the One Year War were out of control? I don't think so, Arnold. I think that matters were very well controlled indeed. Oh, don't get me wrong, I know full well what went on in that period of time. Don't just look at the big picture, my friend, you need to look more at the component parts of that time and you may just notice something odd about that entire mess we had the good fortune to live through.” The First Officer absently twirled one side of his moustache, considering his friend and Captain in silence for a few minutes, taking in the small smirk and the light in his eyes. He had known the man too long to miss the amusement. “Alright. I'll bite. What did I miss?” “Only the entire point of the war, my friend.” the smirk turned into a wide grin. “I'll tell you what. I will give you six months to do a little research. You study the events of the war and we will talk again about the One Year War and compare our observations. Use whatever resources you need that we can provide both on the Dark Side and through our information network. In your spare time, of course. We more than likely will be a little busy soon, but you should still have more than enough time to make your observations and formulate your own deductions.” “Why do I feel like I just got sent to school wearing a dunce's cap?” Edwards laughed and sighed when the intercom chimed, signaling the end of this chance to chat. It was back to business for them. “Yes?” “Sir, the Wellington is on a short arc direct course for Mars and has increased her speed by one third of her previous plotted rate of travel. I have Captain Bryce waiting on the line.” “Scramble the call, Carver. Stay, Arnold. I expect that Amelia will have Xavier with her for this call.” Captain Amelia Bryce was a striking woman of mature years with graying dark hair and large dark eyes. She had gained her captaincy more than a score of years before and had earned her own ship soon after, dubbing the vessel Miss Conception with a tongue in cheek grin and comment that the name suited her personality. She had known the Captain of the Dark Side since childhood, though she was older than Edwards and they had understood each other with very few clashes in personality or political views. “Damian.” He inclined his head slightly, acknowledging both the Captain and the presence of her First Officer, Xavier Varish. As he had expected the silent man was settled at his captains side with a carefully blank expression on his face. Varish had always been a man of few words and strong views and Edwards liked him well enough. You knew where you stood with the man as there was very little in the way of deception in his nature. “Good evening, Amelia. Xavier. I believe it is time for us to decide on a course of action.” “Yes. The mayday call is being transmitted over every channel we have scanned, which is not the usual method of such an alert, especially from a call transmitted by the Dakkar system.” Amelia waved a hand in the air. “It also came through on a high frequency beam meaning that at most it would have taken around a minute to reach as far as the Earth itself. Most unusual.” //Good. We understand each other then. There are too many anomalies about this mayday for this to be as straight forward as it seems.// “Indeed. Great care has been taken to ensure that everybody with a radio receiver hears this mayday. Especially those who live within the hub of the Earth Sphere. We have confirmed the position of the ESUN Wellington and the course she is taking, as well as the speed of her. What I do not understand is why the ESUN would take this type of extreme action. Just what have they found on Mars that would warrant this level of action to cover up?” Arnold Matthews had wondered that too, spending a good few hours on sifting through what he knew of the fledgling Mars colony. He had discovered that there was not much to learn beyond the general information concerning the colony, such as who the backers for the project were, the basic statistics of equipment and personal required for such a project, the shuttle schedules and the like. Beyond such basic information he had discovered nothing to warrant this type of attention from the ESUN. On the screen Bryce and Varish exchanged glances, the latter shrugging ever so slightly, before the Captain again faced the camera. “We are making inquiries amid our sources and hope to have something more substantial within the next few hours. There has to be some reason for the extremity of the action they are taking to explain why they willfully slaughter an entire colony's population. What we learn may change our projected course of action or not. For now, what do you intend to do about the Dark Side?” “We will pull back enough that we will be twenty hours behind you, but any more than that and we will loose our projected rendezvous with Mars and be unable to sling shot around the planet if circumstances still allow us to keep to our projected course and schedule.” Bryce nodded, calculating her ships requirements for the flight time to Mars. “How long would you need to effect braking maneuvers should we need the Dark Side to establish an orbit around Mars?” “We could brake the ships speed sufficiently to make an emergency orbit safely provided we had word within twelve hours. It would not be a comfortable maneuver for our citizens, but it would be possible.” Edwards noted the faint nod from his First Officer, not that he needed to have his figures confirmed. He knew his ship and her capabilities too well to mistake his need. The ship would stand the strain of the maneuvers, thought the people on board her would not appreciate the forces that would be involved in order to effect what amounted to am emergency breaking maneuver. He would need to ensure that all of the infants and the younger children were safely secured in the medical centre well before any such action might be required. They were the delicate cargo that must be protected above all other considerations. “Twelve hours should be more than sufficient for
us to determine the rescue requirements. Very well, I will take point
and increase speed, adjusting our course as required. Ideally we should
arrive ten hours ahead of your twelve hour limit, determine the situation
and notify you of what is required of the Dark Side, if anything.
It may be that a burial detail is all that is required.” “I have never known the odds to bother that man before.” Bryce grinned, a wolfish smirk accompanied by a faint shake of her head. “True. He also has an admirable record for pulling off the impossible. It will be interesting to see what he has planned.” “I think he will have planned quite a lot, considering what this fiasco means to the chances of the Stations securing independent status. I have learned it does not do to piss him off, and someone in the Earth Sphere is walking a very thin line with him.” the chime of the intercom distracted him. “What is it, Carver?” “Apologies for the interruption, Captain. We have an incoming call from the Peacemission. The request from her Captain is permission for him to join the conference call with the Miss Conception.” Edwards saw Bryce sit up straighter in her chair, clearly surprised by the identity of the ship calling in. As surprised as he, in fact. The Peacemission was brand spanking new and on her shake down cruise. Her captain had notified all of the Sweeper ships of the status of the ship, if they were what he considered close to his course, but he had not revealed to anyone that Edwards knew the information of her exact location. The Peacemission was the only ship of the Sweeper fleet that was not required to log an established flight plan with all Sweeper craft along the intended course. The first of a fleet of five intended ships the rumored redesign of her specifications was the direct result of the One Year War and the determination of the Sweeper Council to ensure that their people were defended should the need arise again. “Patch the call through.” The view screen blanked for an instant, clearing to depict a split screen effect. On the left side of the screen Captain Bryce and her First Officer waited expectantly and on the right side the face of an elderly thin faced man with pointed goatee and heavy sunglasses shielding his eyes smiled brightly. He wore an orange short sleeved shirt with red and yellow tropical flowers, his trade mark eccentricity. “Howard.” Edwards greeted, smiling. “What can we do for you?” t.b.c.
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