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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 Base Dome Time: 22:10 [Approx 20:00 Sanc time] Gerry Parker //Why do I think that this was a stupid idea? I have to do this though. I have to know what is going on and I have to report.// As much as it distressed him to be at odds with his lover, the simple truth was that he had a job to do and before he could quit his assignment he had to complete it. It was his responsibility to get word out to his people of the trouble on Mars and he would not shirk his obligations. He was employed by Patrice Mining to watch and report on the doings of the one Zechs Merquise, a.k.a. Milliardo Peacecraft, the man who had not the grace to stay dead after threatening billions of lives on Earth. No one could deny that that man needed to be watched, but he could wish that he had not been the one to be given the assignment. //It is not what I would prefer to be doing at this time, but I do not see that I actually have a choice in this. Whether what they have said about Raiders and the ESUN is true or not, I have a duty to report. Patrice will need to know what is happening on Mars and can judge for themselves if it is the ESUN Security Agency or not. It can't be, though. Somehow it has to be Merquise who is running this show. He certainly seems to be, for all he was quiet. I don't trust him. How can anyone trust him after what he has pulled in the past?// It had disturbed him that Merquise had been running around the base for months, seemingly unrestrained. He had been careful to watch the man, but he could not say for certain that Merquise had acted in a suspicious manner, but he had been unable to watch him every minute of every day. That he was cunning was not in question, it was what Merquise got up to when no one was watching him that had Gerry Parker worried. Primarily it had concerned him that Merquise was running around the base as though he owned the place and that he could not confirm that the man did so under observation. As a prison the Mars Terra Forming Colony had been a failure. //God, it's quiet. // It was a major concern that he had seen no sign of anyone moving about in the dome since leaving the maintenance building, but that was not the worst thing about the eerily silent dome. The utter absence of people had been bad enough but what had made his skin crawl was when he had ducked into the main control tower to speak to the security guard on duty and alert him to the trouble. He had thought the man would gather a few of his companions and help him reach the radio and perhaps if the opportunity presented itself, to contain Merquise as well. He had found mayhem and murder. //Was it Merquise? Did he commit that atrocity?// The overwhelming impression he had received had been blood. It seemed to him that the room had been littered with bodies, blood on the floors and sprayed over the walls, blood on the few furnishings the room had claimed and in flaring panic he had fled the building. He still fought to keep his heart beat under control and to quiet the churning in his gut. He had touched nothing and no one, staring in horror at the carnage and he had run. He had taken to his heels, running for all he was worth out of the main control building and toward the shuttle control tower. Why he had chosen to run for this tower in his panic he did not know, because now that he was here, facing the tower, he wished fervently that he was in the safety of the enviro suit storage. Only Kristy knew that he had left on this vital errand and she had called him a fool for doing what was necessary. //She was right. I should have stayed there. I am not cut out for this. Ah, why did I agree to come to Mars? I'm a lousy spy. What the hell do I think I am doing out here? I … I never considered myself a coward before, but then I never considered myself to be brave either. I'm just a man. Just a man caught up in events that are beyond me. I don't understand. Why would the government want to kill us? It has to be Merquise. He has to be involved in this, probably running the entire show and intending to take over the colony. He must have called in the Raiders and wants all of this blamed on the ESUN. It was not enough that he wanted to destroy an entire planet, now he wants to … to... Jesus. I don't know what he could gain from doing this. There are dead people in the main control tower. There are dead people in the elevators … or what is left of them. I don't know what to do. I don't know who to trust.// He was no hero. He had never pretended to be a hero or even imagined himself in a heroic role. The truth was that he was just a man who did his job quietly and efficiently. His basic nature liked order. Chaos disturbed him and you could not get more chaotic than this day had been in the last few hours. He had thought nothing of his position here on Mars before he had actually arrived here. It was a simple watch and report duty, nothing that was beyond his capabilities. He had not given it a thought that by accepting the position he was to serve two masters, Patrice Mining and the Terra Forming Team. He had become a part of the team, working here as one of the team, initially not giving much thought to betraying confidences and people to provide Patrice with a detailed evaluation of future prospects until he had met his lover. //I was a fool to accept this assignment. I am no hero, but I never thought it would come to this. No one suggested that something of this nature could happen.// He was employed by the Patrice Mining Corporation to survey the prospects on Mars for future exploitation in an effort to get a jump on their competitors. That had been his primary briefing, the source of his acceptance here. He knew his business, after all, he was good at assessing future potential and Patrice had made some very good investments on his advice and avoided loss when he had correctly determined that the prospects were not as rosy as initial reports had suggested. He was also instructed to keep tabs on the blonde menace who had threatened the Earth and while those instructions had disturbed him when he had been briefed, he had never actually thought that he would be in danger from Merquise. Chiefly he had been afraid that the people who employed him, who knew only their expensive suits and comfortable offices, would expect him to take physical action against the man if the need ever arose. //As if I could hold a hope in hell of taking him down. Not to worry, they had said, I was only to observe and report, no other action would be needed. Just watch and report. // He served the interests of Patrice Mining, but he also served the terra forming team and to his surprise he had enjoyed the work. It was physical labor and he had never thought of himself as a physical sort, but he had found the work refreshingly different and the people remarkable. Especially one of them. It had disturbed him that he had needed to lie to Brian when their friendship had begun to develop and he had started to look at living on Mars with a more permanent view in mind. Yes it had bothered him and just three nights ago he had made up his mind that he would quit Patrice when his contract was due for renewal and settle down here with his lover. The contract was due for renewal in six months and when he refused to renew it he would be free to devote his attention to the terra forming of the planet and to the man he had come to love. //If I now get the chance. Whoever is at fault, people are getting killed and I have to do what I can to help. I can send a warning to Patrice, explain what is happening and they can get help for us.// The tower reared before him bathed in a bloody glow that sent shivers up his spine and the elevators smoldered quietly nearby. The automatic systems had sprayed foam over the burning wreckage and had now extinguished the blaze. The pile of rubble was now a dark and brooding pile of wreckage that weighed on his soul, a very visible reminder of what was going on here. He had put the Main Control Tower and what he had found within it behind him, but that had been easy to do, unlike the lesson provided by the elevators. He had been able to get close enough to the burning elevators to realize that there were bodies in the wreckage and that part of the smell that filled the air with a foul odor he could not quite describe, was that of roasted flesh. It had sickened him and he had emptied the contents of his gut very quickly, something that even the carnage in the Main Control Tower had not quite been able to cause him to do. It had taken him too long to recover, long minutes spent retching his guts up and he had lived in terror as he had crouched there, exposed to all eyes and certain that he was about to die. //No one around. I wonder where they all are and what they are doing. Merquise and that Giles were out to hunt them down and I really do not want to become a part of it. God, I was never cut out for this sneaking around. I just want to get to that radio transmitter and send a call for help to Patrice.// No one had come while he had retched and no one had come while he had crossed the open ground between the elevators and the Shuttle Control Tower. The dome had remained eerily silent, so unlike its usual hustle and bustle, no one joked or cursed or … He had to get past his fears and with shaking fingers he reached for the keypad and typed in the access code. The red bar above the small keypad did not falter, not so much as a flicker responded to his entering of the access code. He stared at the door in surprise, mentally reviewing the code he had input and then decided that he was certain that he had gotten it right. Perhaps though, he had pressed a wrong key and had not realized? After a moment he tried a second time, taking particular care to hit each key precisely and in the correct sequence. “Incorrect code entered. Please be advised that the emergency lock down of the tower is now in operation. Input correct access code to disengage lock down.” He stepped back from the door in surprise, his jaw sagging. What was going on in the tower for the emergency lock down to take effect? He had to ask himself did he really need to go in there at this time and unfortunately the answer came back as a reminder that he needed to notify Patrice Mining of the situation. His hands were already reaching for the tool pouch he wore and the hardware he would need to jack into the computer system and remove the lock down without the correct code. It would be a matter of a few minutes work, but his fingers froze when he had to ask himself why the computer was asking for emergency codes when there was nothing visibly threatening the integrity of the enviro dome. //No, scratch that. Someone must have manually activated the lock out procedure. Someone who is probably still in there and do I want to meet them?// If it chanced to be Haydon Giles in there and he had the misfortune to came face to face with the man, then he was likely to be on the receiving end of a severe bruising, if not be dealt with on a more permanent basis. It had been patently obvious that the man had not trusted him and wanted him nowhere near Merquise. Were they in the tower? // Shit. I do not believe that I am doing this. If I had a half a brain then I would turn tail and head back to the one building that I know is safe. Jesus. I do not want to meet Giles. Or Merquise. I wonder where they went? Hunting, they said, but they could be doing their hunting anywhere. Who did kill those people in the main control tower? Was it Marquise? He'd be ruthless enough to do it.// “Please enter the correct access code to disengage lock down sequence.”· “Oh, shut up. I'm trying to deal with it.” his fingers were busy on the keyboard and with nervous glances around at the open ground surrounding him he worked quickly to effect the bridge, cursing at the time it was taking. He seemed to have three times the amount of fingers that he normally possessed and all of them wanted to get in the way of his usual efficiency. Of course he should have expected that it would not be an easy code to crack but he could be patient. After all, it was not as though there might be someone lurking out there with guns or knives-Giles had gone on about knives- and God only knew what else to kill him a dozen times over. “Open, damn you. Open.” //Panicking will do you no good. Just take your time and...Yes!// The change from red to green on the key pad bar was quick and silent and accompanied by a soft click that never the less resounded like a clarion call to him. With a sigh of relief and another quick glance around him to ensure that he was alone, he slipped into the tower foyer. “Emergency lock down sequence has been disengaged. System damage sustained during emergency has resulted in partial lock down of the main control room. Please list the system for immediate repairs. Thank you.” “Oh shut the hell up.” //God, what is wrong with me? I'm snapping at a computer for the love of God. Grow up man. You're a man, not a wimp.// “But I think I prefer being a wimp.” His survey of the foyer was interrupted by a soft noise from somewhere beyond the foyer and he froze, staring at the door opposite the main entry from the dome. He crouched near the door, hiding beside a desk that in no way offered him any substantial protection beyond psychological comfort. Had he heard a door shut out there somewhere or was he imagining hearing doors close? A door, he corrected himself when the tower offered up only an oppressive silence. //Shit. What the hell is wrong with me? I spook at anything.// his eyes flicked from the door he had entered by to the three doors opening off the foyer, uncertain where he should go. // I should check the rooms, I suppose. I don't want Giles and Merquise to find me and if they should be right, then I certainly don't want the agents finding me either. I have to send that message and get help.// With shaking hands he slipped to the nearest of the two side doors and pressed his ear to the door panel, wincing a little at the chill of the metal against his warm flesh. Only silence greeted him, strain though he did to hear anything through the partition and with a sigh he cracked the door open. Darkness greeted the eye he pressed to the crack and he silently cursed the efficiency of computers that channeled energy into emergency systems and blacked out rooms not in use. That thought widened his eyes and he chuckled. Of course, the computer registered the room as having no occupants so it automatically deactivated the lights. They were not on Mars to waste energy after all. The foyer lights were on at all times, but offices and store room lights worked off of a sensor system. Something somewhere in the tower shifted, a metallic sound, faint but noticeable and he froze then flung himself through the door and crouched on the far side, pressed tight to the chill metal as the lights flicked on behind him. He pressed his ear to the door, straining every fiber of his being to hear any footstep that would tell him that someone was in the foyer. If someone should enter the foyer he would just have to pray that they did not enter the office, but there would have to be a closet or a supply cupboard at the very least where he could hide himself. With that option in mind he turned from the door when he heard no noise, intending to locate a hiding place if it should be needed and his intention to search out a hiding place vanished from his mind like smoke on the wind. He clamped his hands over his mouth to muffle the scream that threatened to rip from his throat. Bodies piled neatly against the far wall, blood on the walls and floor and sprayed over the desks and … He had not even realized that he had moved until he felt the cool metal of the door pressed to his cheek. He was on his knees, sobbing into his hands which were clamped over his mouth once again and he was shaking like a leaf in a strong wind. Dazed, terrified he looked around him, uncertain how he had left the room. He did not recall bolting, though he knew he must have and he sobbed in relief to find the foyer empty, aware of sliding down the door and hugging his knees, seeking comfort in that move. Comfort that was short lived as fear spiked again, a vision of the bloodied bodies springing to mind and he crept to the desk in the centre of the room, crawling under its bulk-despite some remote sense recognizing that it was totally inadequate to hide him. He rocked slowly, back and forth stifling sobs, trying to block the sight of that carnage from his mind. His traitorous mind refused to work for him and seemed to want only to remember that vision of massacre that he desperately sought to forget. //I did not see that. I did not see that// the litany was silent and continuous and did nothing to block the memory. // There are not bodies in that room. I did not see that. I did not see. I did not see. I … I … Help me. Someone, help me. I don't want to die. Brian. Where are you? Oh God, Brian, I'm sorry. So sorry. I lied to you all this time and … and … I did not see.// He pressed his hands into his eyes, the heels of his hands held tight to his face as he sought to bring his shattered emotions back under control. He had never professed to be a brave man, merely a man who did his job and who recently had found something other that his work to live for. He had someone now. Someone whom he loved and wanted to spend his entire life with. Someone who was threatened by this massacre that bloodied the soil of Mars. They were all in danger and the danger would not simply go away for wishing that it would. If peace and safety was to be restored to Mars then they were going to have to act and stop the fighting. // I am not a soldier. Most of us here are not soldiers. We came to Mars to start a new life, to make a new world where there was no bloody history of war and murder to haunt us, and it has followed us here. Something has to be done, and we don't have the people here to end it. Who do we trust? I don't know who we can trust and because of that I think we need to bring in a third party. A third party that will not take sides and that will restore order. Patrice.// he was calming now, sorting himself out, swallowing the unreasoning terror and giving himself a plan of action. // I will go up to the control room and I will use the radio to send an emergency call to Patrice. They will know what to do and they have Security Ships patrolling the shipping lanes. I will call Patrice in and they can send help and then I will go back to the … to the … Oh, Jesus. What have I gotten myself into?// The tower was silent around him and he gradually brought himself under control. It took him a few minutes to convince himself that he was not likely to be shot or knifed if he crawled out from under the desk and he knew that he could not linger in the foyer indefinitely. He had no idea how long he had been huddled on the floor trying to make his mind function. He was not a soldier or a secret agent, merely a man who estimated mining and profit potential and informed his principle employer of the worth of future investments. He had never needed to be brave before, nor had he ever seen a body that had died from murder. He had seen dead people before, people who had died as the result of industrial accidents but never from deliberate cold blooded murder. Too many had died and he needed to do something since nobody else seemed to be doing anything about it. Running around killing more people would not solve the problem. Drawing a deep and steadying breath he crawled out from beneath the desk, looking about him with wide and fear filled eyes. It was time that he stood up and was counted. He had a task to complete for the good of all on Mars and once he had completed that task he would be free to find a safe refuge until help arrived. Kristy knew that he was out here and she would let him back in the building but there were other options too. He could hook up with that Preventer agent at the air locks if something happened to stop him from returning to Brian. //That is a plan. Yes, I can do that.// he nodded decisively, feeling a sense of order return. Chaos confused and terrified him and order soothed him. // I can do this. I will do this so that I can get back to Brian, where I belong and when it is over we can decide if we want to stay here or find another place to live. Mars has been turned into another Earth, a place of blood and death, where the law of the claw and fang rule. Mars was supposed to be a civilized place. A peaceful place, away from the wars and the blood and the hate that has marked the Earth's history for eons. Will it never change? Will man always be out for the blood of his fellows? I'm not a coward, but I am not a brave man either. I just want a place to live in peace and safety. // Having convinced himself to get on with the job he forced his feet to move toward the door that he knew entered deeper into the Control Tower. One hesitant step was followed by a second and then by a third and finally he was at the door, cracking it open and peering into the hallway beyond. The hallway was lined with doors, all of them closed that he could see with one notable exception. The elevator doors at the far end of the hall stood open, inviting entry and the door that lead to the stairwell beside it was closed. // I am so glad that that Giles person did not see me bolt out of that room as though my ass was on fire. // he blushed at the thought, ducking his head as he peered suspiciously about the hallway. //Is that something burning? Stinks. I suppose it could be the elevators outside burning, but I would have thought that would not penetrate into the tower. Can't see any smoke and I am not going to start running around like an idiot, spooking at shadows and no smoke alarms are going off. I've done that once already and I am glad that no one was around to witness it. I'd never hear the end of it if someone, especially that bastard Giles saw me. Not everyone can deal with that … that … with a pile of bodies. // he shuddered, but the unreasoning terror was gone, spent and he was in control of himself. //I bet he would turn tail and run if he came across that sight as I did. Macho bastard was showing off for Kristy is all.// He considered for a long moment on the best options that he could take for his chosen course of action to best be managed. His primary concern now was the means by which he would reach the control room. It was obvious that everyone in the tower was dead, thought there could still be killers running loose in here. With that in mind he was not happy with the thought of being trapped in a small elevator car with a killer possibly lurking on the levels above him. He shuddered at the thought of the elevator as the memory of smoking wreckage sprang to mind. “No. No, not the elevators. They trapped one set of elevators so they probably set a bomb on this one too. Something is definitely burning but why haven't the smoke alarms gone off? No smoke … ah, wait a minute. The computer said that there had been damage done to the control room, hence the emergency lock down. Of course. I'll have to check out the damage done to the computers and just hope that the radio is intact. I should be able to effect most repairs, depending on the type of damage, but there would be a good array of spares to work with upstairs. Stairs. Hmm. Yes, I think that the stairs would be safer than the elevator. Well, it all seems quiet enough, but the silence is eerie. I don't think that I've ever heard a silence like this. It seems almost a living thing and there I go again, letting my imagination get the better of me. And I'm talking to myself.” He slipped from the foyer and cursed softly as the door shut behind him with a decisive thud and he spun around in the hall, pressing his back against the wall and expecting someone with guns blazing to leap into the hallway and for it all to be over. The building remained silent, the pungent odor that he identified as burnt plastic surrounding him. Shaking with relief he almost ran to the stairs, pausing before the door to look around at the hallway behind him and at the open elevator doors that invited him to enter. //I am not that big a fool.// he decided, shaking his head and pushed the door to the stairs open, peering in. The stairwell was dimly lighted at the best of times, low wattage bulbs at intervals providing sufficient light to see by. The stairs were rarely used but were a safety feature that was rigidly adhered to in the construction of the base. In the early days of the project there had been numerous power failures that could have proven life threatening if there had not been so many manual and old fashioned safe guards incorporated into the design of the base. Stairs were rarely used but were always constructed in the event of power failures taking out the elevators. As someone who had had the misfortune to spend six hours trapped in an elevator on one occasion he felt more comfortable around stairs anyway. Certainly when there were psycho killers running around with a penchant for explosives. //Time to get this message sent.// He grinned as he closed the door behind him, unwilling to make it obvious that someone was in the stair well and deciding that he had already taken far too long and that he needed to hurry he practically leapt at the lower steps, uttering a short startled yelp as something caught at his foot and the world came apart around him. t.b.c.
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