Gee, it's been a while. I just kept writing and writing and writing on
this chapter, and the next thing I knew it was over twice the length of any
that came before it. So, to remain consistent, I split it into two
chapters. Here's chapter four. Chapter five IS WRITTEN, but I'm still
messing with the final scene of chapter five, so it may be another week
before it comes out. Chapter six is in progress.
Unfortunately, there is no webpage yet. Anyone who'd like to host this,
please let me know. I've already put together images and such, but I'm
terrible at actually putting together a webpage. If no one cares to, I'm
sure I'll get around to it eventually.
Thanks to everyone who has commented on previous chapters, especially
Glazius, Bart Kelsey, DB Sommer, and Stuart Ferguson.
As always, any and all C&C is craved, public or private.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: xgp4.txt
Deep in Nerv's fortification, Sigurd stood before his
commander, finishing up a combat assessment of his younger
brother. Subcommander Black stood to one side, occasionally
asking questions or commenting, but mostly he looked at various
pictures hung on the walls.
Portraits of Yui and Midori dominated, but there were
several of both Sigurd and Jessie, as well as several other men.
"So," Citan began, clasping his hands before him. "You feel
that he can take on the 'Power Seraph'," he paused at the new
term, then continued, "and win?"
Jessie spoke up from Citan's side. "Without destroying
everything around him in the process, of course."
Sigurd nodded. "I've trained him to the fullest extent of
my abilities, anything else will be up to him to figure out on his
own. By himself, I think he _could_ win, but with adequate
support I can state that he _would_ win."
"Yes, so you've said. He's a credit to you, make no
mistake. You should be proud."
Jessie was uncharacteristically silent.
"However," Citan continued, "we have a situation."
Sigurd sighed. "As always."
Jessie nodded and smiled slightly. "A _situation_... You
know, Hyuga, I've always admired your way with words."
Sigurd frowned.
Citan nodded and slid his glasses up on his nose with one
finger before returning his hands back to their original position.
"Angels are displaying new behavior now. They are, herding, for
lack of a better term, people."
Sigurd raised one eyebrow. "As opposed to squishing or
incinerating them, I see. This is bad."
Jessie smirked.
Citan didn't smile. "They're getting more aggressive when
they're in a herd. Any aircraft that flies over is immediately
destroyed, or failing that, chased out of the area. Getting close
with conventional methods is impossible, even simple infiltration
teams are never heard from again. Our best pictures come from
satellite reconnaissance, but thus far even it hasn't been very
productive.
"There are two herds, one in South America under the joint
supervision of both the Brazilian and US branches, and one in
Siberia under supervision of the Russian branch. The South
American herd is the larger of the two, with approximately ten
thousand human beings and over four hundred Seraphs, including
twenty-three Power Seraphs." He paused as Sigurd blanched.
"Twenty-three?! And over a four hundred angels? Where did
they all come from?"
"That's one of the big questions. Maybe they had kids,
maybe there were more in the ground than we'd thought, maybe God
put them there to spite us. But there's more," Jessie replied.
Citan nodded and shifted position slightly, carefully
avoiding moving his head. "The Russian herd is much smaller, with
approximately nine hundred people and a confirmed thirty-seven
angels. It's difficult to get a very good view because of
overcast skies and the heat and other electromagnetic interference
caused by the angels. This is the best picture we've got."
He leaned back and typed in a few commands on his keyboard,
bringing up a satellite image on the wall with Asia centered in
the screen. He tapped a few more keys and it zoomed in on the
northern half, stopping at a virtual height of eight kilometers.
Tiny specks crawled to and fro, although they must have been huge
to be visible at that distance. Then it zoomed in even more,
showing clear views of angels moving around, followed closely by
large groups of people.
"This image is several weeks old, and the herds have
increased several percent during that time, mainly from an influx
of new people. The truly disturbing thing is that the people
appear to be clustering around the angels as they move, possibly
because they produce heat in prodigal amounts. The heat itself
appears to be produced for the benefit of the people, although it
has the side effect of scrambling our infra-red cameras."
Sigurd looked ill. "This is definitely a situation," he
said, shaking his head in amazement.
"You haven't heard the situation yet," Jessie replied.
Sigurd looked back up. "There's more?"
Citan nodded. "As I said, the angels are more aggressive in
a herd. I've just received word from the Commander at Nerv-Russia
that they are getting dangerously close to the Moscow geofront.
Possibly they are drawn by the Evas, or maybe it's just the large
numbers of people, but they have repelled several attacks so far
and it's getting worse. We may lose Nerv-Russia."
"Another base? Can we afford that?" Sigurd asked.
Citan shook his head. "No. With the removal of this base
and the Nerv-Italy branch, Nerv-Russia is the sole remaining
defense base for the Asian continent. It's also the only branch
with enough early generation Evas to provide significant
resistance."
"So you want to send Bart to Russia."
Citan typed a command, removing the image from the wall.
"That has yet to be decided. The plan is to attack the herd
directly and break it up, thus preventing mass attack by the
angels."
"Attack and kill the people?" Sigurd asked.
"No. Several small-scale attempts have been tried, but the
angels always retaliate in groups of more than four, and in one
case seven Seraphs. We feel it would be best to attack the angels
one by one and break it up that way."
Sigurd nodded. "What do we have in offensive power?"
"They have five Evas, two second generation and three third,
the rest were lost in battle." He paused for breath. "The
question is, do we send Bart and leave only Fei here for defense,
send both, or send Fei and keep Bart? I want your opinion on
this."
Sigurd scratched his chin thoughtfully. "We could send
both, but leaving only Jessie here for defense..." he winced.
"That I don't like. We could send Fei, but Bart has far more
experience at field work than Fei, and has a more powerful Eva as
well."
"Wait," Citan ordered. "I want you to consider that the
battle there will be on open ground, but most of the defense here
will be within sight of Tokyo-three."
Sigurd nodded. "Still worried about the possibility of a
repeat occurrence?"
Citan nodded. "Until we figure out exactly what happened
and why, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the possibility without
at least considering the risks."
"Put that way..." Sigurd shook his head. "Send Fei and
Major Katsuragi. If we're lucky we _will_ see a repeat occurrence
and we'll be short one herd and several hundred traitors to the
human race."
Both Jessie and Citan nodded. "That agrees with our
assessment," Citan answered. "But is that your view, that they're
traitors?"
Sigurd nodded. "If they are not fighting the angels, they
must be with them."
"Ah. I see," he replied, nodding slightly. "Additionally,
we may have visitors here in less than three days, two if they
continue on their present course."
Sigurd frowned. "You're not talking about another
inspection team, are you." It was not a question.
Citan shook his head and brought up a tactical display map
in place of the satellite photos. It showed three blinking
indicators directly across the Sea of Japan, indicating angels
ravaging China's coastlands. "Three confirmed Seraphs appeared in
the Yangtze River valley area two days ago and are 85% likely to
be heading this way, according to Magi predictions. We were
lucky, even though that area of China is largely deserted now, we
received an emergency call from a village that had managed to
escape detection."
Sigurd nodded appreciatively. Considering the near total
devastation the plagues and subsequent collapse of the Chinese
government had caused within its borders, it was amazing that
there were enough people still clustered together to be called a
village. Civil war had not been kind to the Chinese.
Citan continued. "There is sufficient risk that we will
need to shut down the evacuation until the threat is eliminated.
We may not give aid to Nerv-Russia until after our immediate
crisis is taken care of."
"Yes. I will begin battle preparations immediately. Shall
I have Fei on standby?" Sigurd asked.
Citan nodded. "It'll be good for him. We wouldn't want him
to think we didn't trust him, now would we?"
Sigurd nodded.
"Thank you, Colonel Fatima, you may go," Citan said,
dismissing him. "Inform Major Katsuragi of the change in
development and to make defense plans accordingly. I want her to
report to my office in four hours."
Sigurd saluted. "Yes, Sir. And of the pilots?"
"Have them informed and ordered to get rest now and report
in by 0700 hours tomorrow. We go on full alert then."
Giving a final salute, Sigurd left the office.
Jessie spoke up almost inaudibly. "I never did like
Commander Oleg."
"Hmmm, yes," Citan replied implacably, bringing up a
document on his personal terminal and motioning for Jessie to
look. "It can't be helped, either way. We are doing all we can,
but our own needs must come first. Even Oleg and Smith cannot
argue with that."
Jessie nodded, smirking.
"Now to deal with Commander Smith."
"He just loves this, doesn't he. Finally, he has the higher
ground," Jessie commenting, speed-reading the harsh terms set
forth by the American branch.
"Indeed."
****************
Several thousand miles away and many hours earlier, a thin
white and green camouflaged Eva with a pair of Eva-sized short
swords strapped to its hips sneaked down a small road in northern
Russia, doing its best to stay below the snow covered treetops.
Although slightly awkward, the tall, thick trees provided
excellent cover and the Eva managed a bent walk, always staying in
the shadow of a line of hills. Behind it came three more also in
the same green and white camouflage, but most were considerably
more stocky than their thin leader.
All of them had been on the move for over a day, moving
slowly to both conserve energy and avoid detection. They were
deep in the Siberian forest, sneaking from one small pocket of
angels and humans to another. They had already amassed huge
amounts of valuable information, but they were to check several
more groups before returning.
Signaling them with hand signals, Elehayym Van Houten
ordered her command to spread out more and peek over the ridge.
Following her own commands, her Eva stuck its head up through the
limbs until just the brow and eyes were visible through the trees
from the other side. Despite the obvious noise of falling
branches and splintering wood, the extreme distance involved made
it unlikely that they would be heard.
Several miles distant, a solitary Seraph stood motionless on
scorched bare earth, while some forty people clustered together
several hundred yards away near some buildings in the center of
the huge clearing. Although distant, the eyes of Elly's Eva were
huge and well adapted to long distance viewing. She could make
out the children crouched on the grass, the adults passing out
what was probably food, and what looked remarkably like a baby
angel laying face up on the ground at the front of the crowd. It
was humanoid, but roughly twice the size of the humans surrounding
it, a comparison made obvious by the number of people using it as
a seat.
She blinked and looked back at her troops. They were all
looking to her. One, the stockiest of the four, armed with a
large sword, signaled rapidly with its hands. Elly had no trouble
matching the sign language with the terse, low voice of her second
in command, Dominia.
'I see unknown enemy, small angel at head of group,' Dominia
signaled. 'We get closer look, question? Capture specimen if
possible?'
'No. Seraph watching. Humans watching. Orders not to
fight unless necessary,' Elly replied. 'Sound alert here and have
to fight all the way back.'
One of the other Evas, this one armed with a gun, looked
back up, then ducked down.
'Not see us if not in Eva,' Dominia reasoned.
'No. Enemy unknown. Reaction unknown. Report new type of
enemy, get instructions.' Elly commanded, finally deciding to play
it safe.
'No risk, no gain,' Dominia tried again.
'Big risk now, big gain now,' Elly pointed out. 'Dominia,
Toulone, report to base double time priority alpha. Kelvena,
stay. May learn more, but must report.'
Dominia and Toulone, the one who had peeked a second time,
signaled assent. They started easing away.
Elly and Kelvena remained for the next few hours,
motionless, watching the group. Elly had already spent a day
watching a group on the outer edges of the herd area, and had
reported and requested backup for a deeper mission. Her report
had been exhaustive, but her superiors had wanted more info. Her
request had been approved and her mission set. Now her work had
paid off even more, showing an entirely new facet of the angel
herd.
Kelvena divided her time between watching the herd and
scanning the horizon, alert for enemies. All of the Eva's
auditory sensors had been disconnected, as the electrical signals
might alert the angels. Unlike the eyes, however, Evas possessed
no 'natural' ears, leaving both girls in complete silence.
Kelvena relied on visual cues entirely as she looked for danger.
She kept her own gun at the ready.
Elly tapped her on one shoulder, alerting her to new
development with the herd.
Kelvena turned, then stared in amazement at the sight that
greeted her. She'd always had a habit of closing her eyes when
synchronized with an Eva, the better to see through its eyes, she
said. Now she blinked her real eyes in sympathetic movement with
the Eva as she tried to make sense of the scene.
The massive Seraph had lain prone on the ground and muted
its heat, allowing the group of people to approach. They swarmed
it, crawling all over its strange flesh. As Kelvena watched, what
had looked like a small Seraph with a tail crawled among them,
touching each briefly and then tearing at the grey flesh of the
large Seraph with its hands. Rivulets of liquid flowed from the
wounds, which the people eagerly drank.
Strict self-control helped Elly deal with her disgust, but
fascination also played a major role. She watched in avid horror
as the people gorged.
In less than ten minutes they had their fill and returned to
their original position, the smaller angel with them. The Seraph
sat up, waiting for them to move. When they were far enough back,
it glowed with power, sending a streak of white light into the sky
several times before resuming its steady generation of heat.
Kelvena looked at her commanding officer, slinging the gun
back over one shoulder in order to free her hands for speech.
'Amazing. This is new,' Elly signed, her excitement causing
her hand motions to be a little vague.
'Dominia, Toulone should have waited,' Kelvena replied,
reminding Elly that it needed to be reported.
'Yes, cautious error,' she agreed. 'We wait. It may be
communicating with others.'
Kelvena nodded the giant head of her Eva and resumed her job
as sentinel, unslinging her gun.
They didn't have long to wait before finding out. Scarcely
twenty minutes had passed before Kelvena's alert scan spotted an
angel at an extreme distance away, its huge head and shoulders the
only thing sticking up as it waded through the trees. Tapping
Elly on the shoulder, she pointed at it and looked around for
more. Too her growing unease, she saw three more heading in her
direction.
Elly's swift signals indicated retreat, so they both peeked
through the trees topping another hill and checked for enemies
before darting around. The Evas were incapable of moving
silently, but they made remarkably little noise as they scuttled
across the frozen ground on their hands and feet, staying on the
road as much as possible to avoid shaking the trees and possibly
giving their position away. That and the extreme distance they
were from the angels gave them the needed advantage to escape
notice.
'Angels moving, mission abort!' Elly signed as she looked
about, alert for danger.
Kelvena nodded and scuttled down the road in a swift
military crawl. Now unsure of the angel's positions, she
carefully eased up and looked over where the road crested a hill.
Something that looked much like a small Seraph with a tail looked
back from a distance of about thirty yards.
It jerked back, looking as surprised as an angel could. A
white glow began to surround it, but was abruptly cut off as
Kelvena dropped her gun and slammed her Eva's hands around it,
squishing it to about a half of its original thickness. Thick
white angel goo dripped from between the Eva's fingers.
(Oh, no,) she thought in a rare moment of uncertainty.
Turning and keeping both hands together, she alerted her commander
to the new specimen.
Elly stared briefly, considering her options, then looked
over the same hill herself. Several humans were running in the
opposite direction, presumably screaming their lungs out. More
could be seen cresting the opposite ridge. Not pausing to curse
the situation, Elly turned back to her companion.
'Run straight to base, I distract. Catch up with the others
if possible; travel in a group, but get that back! Priority
alpha!' she indicated. (We got it, we might as well keep it,) she
thought grimly.
Dominia might have argued. In fact, that was why Dominia
was already on her way with the earlier info. But not Kelvena.
Turning according to her bearings on the land, she ran, discarding
stealth for speed.
Elly sighed. It was up to her to provide an adequate
distraction, as she already knew the angels would pick targets
according to the threat they represented. Normally, any Eva would
be on the top of the list, but she was willing to bet they'd pick
her over Kelvena.
She reached down and picked up the gun, hefting it
thoughtfully. Within the entry plug itself she brought her
consciousness back to her body, regaining control in an instant.
Not giving herself time to think about the possible consequences,
her gloved hand twisted a control attached to the waist of her
version of a plugsuit.
As fast as she was able, she relaxed her body and regained
full control of the Eva. On her waist, the little unit shot a
measured dose of chemicals up a tube running through her plugsuit,
down an IV in her arm, and directly into her bloodstream. A
potent mixture of synthetic adrenaline, endorphins, dopamine, PCP
derivatives, and countless other neurochemicals immediately
started working their magic on her brain.
Fear and doubt no longer held meaning for Elly. Standing to
the Eva's full height, her synchronization rate increased by a
wide margin, allowing greater access to its power. Then she
brought that power forth and let her Eva be bathed in a white
halo.
(There,) she thought grimly. (Let's see them ignore that.)
Letting the power wane, she began running in a slightly opposite
direction than the one Kelvena had taken. Hopefully, she'd get
their attention, then make it back out of their territory before
she was forced into a standing battle.
And if she was forced to fight... Well, that was just fine
with her.
*****************
"I don't know about you, but I am seriously glad more angels
are attacking," Bart commented to Fei as they lounged in a now
unused recreation room in one of the more damaged areas of Nerv.
Too risky to use as substitute office space during the
evacuation, and not full of valuable equipment like many others,
it was a perfect place for the two pilots to relax after briefing
and the evening meal. All of the overhead lights worked, and it
even had a TV and sound system, as well as several computer
terminals and snack machines. Nothing but the lights worked now,
as most of the electricity had been cut off from damage, but Fei
and Bart stared at the TV anyway. Some habits die hard.
Fei grunted and rummaged through a pile of snacks on the
floor between them, treasure looted from a now defunct snack
machine they'd smashed repeatedly. Finding a package of chips, he
retired to his couch. Neither of them had felt like going back to
their barracks.
Finding Fei to be particularly untalkative, he turned over
on his stomach and prepared to drift off into sleep.
So drowsy was he that he missed hearing footsteps approach
and was thus unprepared for the weight that suddenly hopped over
the back of the couch and sat in the middle of his back.
"Ugh!" he complained. "Get off me!"
"Well, you were hogging the entire couch. You ought to be
more considerate of other people," Misato replied mock-sweetly.
"Misato, ugh. I should have known," Bart replied
irritatedly, turning his head sideways so he could breathe better.
Fei waved vaguely at her from his position on the other
couch. "Hey, Misato. Come to give us a pep talk?"
"Nah," she replied, shaking her head. "That can wait. What
are you two doing?"
"Watching TV," they both replied.
She glanced at the blank screen. "So, what are we
watching?"
"One of those existential movies Sigurd is always talking
about," Bart mumbled in reply. "Starkness, bleak human soul,
angst..." he trailed off in Italian.
Misato snickered at him. "Well, you guys mind if I change
the channel?"
Fei responded by flipping the remote to her from its long
held position between the cushions of his couch. It had been
poking him uncomfortably in the back since he lay down, but it had
previously been too much effort to dig it out.
With a great show of ceremony, she began pseudo-channel
surfing. "Let's see, documentary, documentary, news, boring,
boring, seen it, boring, rerun, rerun, rerun..." she continued,
pointing the remote at the screen and randomly hitting buttons.
Finally growing tired of her little game, she dropped the
remote conveniently on Bart's head and sighed. "I knew it. Nine-
hundred and twenty-four channels and there's still nothing on."
Bart chuckled and even Fei smiled.
Turning slightly, she poked Bart in the ribs. "You boys
sure are lazy. Why, when I was your age I could stay out all
night and wake up fresh as a daisy. Still do, as a matter of
fact. Where's all that energy young boys are supposed to have?"
"It ran out," Fei replied. Bart grunted in assent.
She frowned. So much for the wind up, now here goes the
pitch... "Well, I've got just the thing to perk you two up. It's
a secret mission only you can accomplish."
They completely failed to be interested.
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun. How can you say no to a
mission that involves beer and penguins?"
Again, no response, although one of Fei's eyebrows fought to
climb his forehead.
She frowned. That really should have done it. Oh, well, time for
the direct approach. "Look, I need one or both of you two go to
my apartment and feed my pet penguin and take care of a few other
things. I'm too busy here, so I can't do it. Pleeese?"
Again, no response.
"Pretty please?"
Finally, Bart grunted. "What's in it for us?"
"A hot date." She grinned, having already thought of this
one.
He shook his head. "Not worth it."
She thought furiously. "Tell you what. You get to get into
my panties."
Fei rose up off the couch, turned, and _looked_ at her, one
eyebrow raised.
She shrugged sheepishly. "I need you to pack some of my
clothes."
He snorted and lay back down.
"All right, I see how it's going to be," she said, putting
volume and authority into her voice. "As your superior officer, I
command you to go to my apartment and feed my penguin. You must
also bring me blouses, skirts, panties, my spare shoes, my second
overnight bag..."
They both groaned in protest. "That's not fair, bringing
rank into it," Bart complained.
"Tough. Now go, or I won't leave you alone," she ordered,
getting up.
Sighing, Fei got up and grabbed Bart's arm. "Come on, we
might as well get it over with. Grumbling in annoyance, he did
so.
"Thank you!" Misato said sweetly. "Now, here's how you get
there..."
****************
"_This_ is her apartment?" Fei asked, eyeing the beer can
castle dominating the center of the living area. One entire side
had toppled away, leaving cans strewn across the floor, but the
rest had miraculously stayed upright. While the apartment hadn't
actually been hit during the attack, it still gave that
impression.
"Can't say I'm surprised," Bart noted idly, crunching
through the cans on his way to the kitchen. In his arms he
carried a sack full of canned fish and a six-pack of beer,
supplies for the abandoned penguin. In the kitchen he found empty
takeout boxes and instant ramen packages piled on the counters and
scattered across the floor. Noting the clear trail through the
trash, he quickly searched for what Misato had described as an
automatic can opener.
Fei, however, had headed for the bedrooms, armed only with a
list. He paused outside the bathroom door when he heard the sound
of water splashing and excited warks filtering through the door.
Although he immediately realized that this was Pen Pen, the
penguin Misato had referred to, he was still a bit surprised when
the door slid open and the penguin barreled headfirst into his
legs.
"Hey!" he protested, stumbling back. "I found the penguin!"
Pen Pen squawked furiously, pecking several times in Fei's
direction and flapping its wings madly as it tried to recover its
balance. Fortunately for Fei, penguins are forgiving birds and
Pen Pen soon abandoned him in favor of the seductive call of a can
opening.
Shaking his head, Fei continued his mission to pack for
Misato. Her bedroom was even more of a mess than the rest of the
apartment, but, unlike the rest of the apartment, the mess was
clearly not the responsibility of an abandoned penguin. Clothes
and the occasional women's magazine littered the floor, and most
of the drawers were half pulled out or otherwise rooted through.
A short search through the closet produced a large suitcase,
then, grimacing in distaste, he resolutely set about stuffing it
with 'essentials' as Misato had put it.
"Man, this place reminds me of my old room," Bart said as he
walked in.
Fei held up a lacy but otherwise plain pair of red panties
and looked at Bart oddly.
"Point," Bart conceded, then he started idly walking around
the room and prodding cautiously at various piles. "You should
have seen that penguin tear into those fish. I don't think he's
ate anything in a week."
"Misato has been very busy at Nerv. I suppose we
shouldn't complain about doing her a favor like this," Fei
replied, attempting to pack with a clinical detachment.
"Yeah, whatever. Let's just finish this and get back to
Nerv as quick as possible. I'd rather be sleeping, and if we
hurry back _right now_, we'll get almost eight hours of sleep
before we have to prepare," he said, strangely eager.
"Fine with me. Between the two of us, this battle should be
a lot easier. I'd like to avoid having everyone else I know
killed, if you know what I mean."
Bart paused in the middle of stuffing shoes in a sack, then
resumed. "No problem. After all, I'm here. Three angels will be
a cinch."
"I sure hope so," Fei replied seriously. "After all, we
can't have that penguin get killed when we went to all this
trouble to feed it, now can we?"
Bart smiled. "That's the spirit, Fei. Always have a goal
in mind."
****************
Of all the personnel at Nerv, Ritsuko Akagi resented the
disruption in her schedule the most. Not that it would affect her
sleep patterns any, as she'd always worked three shifts and then
took one off anyway, but her vital research simply couldn't be
disturbed.
Sadly, she reflected, it was anyway. Maya just couldn't
handle the task of evacuating the lab by herself. Much of the
equipment, particularly the Magi supercomputers, was not designed
to simply be unplugged and stuffed back in the box for the move.
It was with some relief that Ritsuko sat down at her
terminal in the secure lab of Nerv. None of her experiments and
research into the pilots was absolutely necessary, at least
compared to the urgency of evacuating, but she always liked to
make sure her subjects weren't suddenly going to spontaneously
combust or randomly destroy the nearest big city. She'd always
hated it when that happened.
Maya looked up from her own task nearby as her boss cursed
and banged the keyboard repeatedly. "Sempai? Is something
wrong?"
Ritsuko sighed and hit several keys in quick succession.
"Microsoft Gene Sequencer just crashed again. Billions of dollars
invested in the future of mankind, and they give us beta
versions." Shaking her head at the unfairness of it all, she
attempted to get the recalcitrant program to operate again.
"Oh," Maya nodded understandingly. "Have you managed to run
a comparison on the DNA of Pilot Wong and Unit 1-3 yet?"
Ritsuko nodded absently as she rapidly typed in commands.
"Yes, but the sample was apparently corrupted. Trail two is in
progress."
"Do you want me to load the 1-3 cell samples?" she asked,
closing the lids on a rack of microtubes.
"Yes. And load all those blood samples in the centrifuge.
We really need to get that data in the computer and correlated.
There were highly anomalous readings in Pilot Wong's blood
immediately following the attack, and I haven't been able to
isolate the cause." Ritsuko continued to read the computer's
results as she spoke. "Hmm, this is interesting. Maya, hurry up
and load those samples, then get on your terminal. I want to hear
your opinion on this."
Although she'd worked at Nerv for several years, very rarely
had her sempai refer to anything as 'interesting'. She half ran
in her haste to load the racks of tubes, spurred on by short,
harsh exclamations of surprise from Ritsuko. So distracted was
she that she barely took the time to make sure everything was
locked down securely before she hit the activate button. She
hurriedly sat down at her terminal and keyed in her password,
watching as Ritsuko bypassed her own commands and opened the files
for her.
"Wow!" she exclaimed almost immediately. "Fei's DNA has
already accepted a two percent intron acceptance from 1-3!"
"Pilot Fatima has an even higher acceptance, but that's not
what I'm referring to. Look at the Evangelion DNA, then compare
it with that of Unit 2-2."
Maya's gasp informed her that she did indeed see the
similarity.
"But, that's impossible!" Maya exclaimed. "1-3's DNA is
almost exactly as long as that of 2-2's! There's almost none of
the usual signs of degradation and loss of redundancy that follows
repeated generations!"
"So you immediately saw it, good." Ritsuko nodded. "Yes, 1-
3 doesn't actually show the signs of being a third generation Eva
at all when it's actually examined."
"But... How? How could we never have noticed this before?"
Maya asked, astonished.
"I checked, and it matches the file. We just never ran a
cross comparison with that of another Eva." She snorted. "Why?
After all, it would only confirm what we already 'knew'."
"But I thought you created 1-3 yourself?" Maya asked,
looking over at her boss.
Ritsuko shrugged. "I produced 1-3 from a cell culture taken
directly from Unit 1-2, according to specific instructions set by
Commander Uzuki." Holding her hand up to forestall another
question, she continued. "We've always simply called the third
Eva derivative as the third generation, following the earlier
research, but, as you know, each generation of Evas always display
certain characteristics. Judged by those criteria, 1-3 is
actually a second generation Evangelion. That also explains its
�ther power being so high. Why this is the case, I don't know,
but I intend to find out."
"Couldn't you have been mistaken and created it from a first
generation Eva? That would be the most logical answer," Maya
pointed out reasonably.
Ritsuko shook her head. "A good explanation, but
unworkable. The Eva I gathered the primary cell culture from was
definitely the second in the series, as we still had 1-1 on site,
and 1-2 was created from it. I was still just an assistant at the
time, but I was there during the latter stages of its
construction. I would like to get another sample of 1-2's cells,
but that's unlikely to ever happen. No, there has to be another
explanation for 1-3 really being a second generation model."
"But what about the berserker incident?" she returned.
"That's not a characteristic of a second generation."
Ritsuko nodded. "That's right. It's not. Those signals
were definitely coming from within the entry plug. Whatever was
in that little package Commander Uzuki activated caused the Eva to
go berserk, but I'm not sure how. The only way to control an
Evangelion is from within the entry plug, the 'brain' if you will.
The nanomachines, if that's what they were, left precious little
traces in the LCL, not nearly enough to recreate them from."
Maya closed several windows on her terminal and brought up
the results from the blood samples. "Why weren't we informed
about them? Technology like that could win this war!"
Ritsuko shrugged helplessly. "Only their creator knows how
they were made, and he's not around to ask. All information
regarding nanotech research is labeled 'need to know only', and
apparently we don't 'need to know'. We govern the pilot-Eva
interface, not weapons development," she continued distractedly,
analyzing the recent cell cultures from the Eva in question.
"But what about when they're reproducing _inside_ one of our
pilots?" Maya asked in a strange tone.
"That would be different, then. I'd have to talk with
Commander Uzuki."
"Then you'd better call him up, Sempai."
Ritsuko's head snapped up. "What?!" she exclaimed,
abandoning her own terminal for the speed of looking over her
assistant's shoulder.
Maya pointed to the screen, where a small, loosely connected
group of objects floated in the plasma, gradually forming another.
Although they had more than a passing resemblance, they were not
platelets. As the two scientists watched, they broke apart into
individual units, then dissolved completely into the plasma. A
replay at higher magnification showed them to actually be made of
much smaller units, which in turn were probably made of even
smaller, and so on.
"Now _this_ is interesting."
Maya could only nod.
****************
Citan dozed lightly, holding his wife in his arms. They
snuggled together in his private quarters he used when he had to
stay at Nerv. Midori slept peacefully on a smaller futon brought
in for the emergency.
His eyes snapped open, attempting to focus on a small red
light that had just started blinking beside his bed. Rather than
wake his family, he quietly eased himself away from Yui and snuck
from the room, putting his glasses on as he did so. Yui had long
since been used to his nightly comings and goings and only
protested a little.
He padded softly down the short hall that connected his
quarters and his office and took his seat behind his desk, turning
on the video link as he did so.
"Commander Uzuki, I'm sorry to wake you like this," greeted
the slightly caffinated visage of his head lab technician.
"Yes, Dr. Akagi?" he inquired gently, narrowing his eyes at
the harsh white light piped in from the brightly lit laboratory,
sliding his glasses slightly down his nose to compensate for the
glare.
"We have a situation with Pilot Wong. Analysis of his blood
samples has turned up a conclusive example of nanotechnology."
She tapped several keys and brought up the video of the not-
platelets. "We have found several of these in Pilot Wong's blood
plasma, although they resist all efforts to separate them from
such. Magi predictions are that they are replicating at a
fantastic rate."
Citan squinted in surprise at the foreign objects. "I see.
I suppose you would like access to the files on nanotech
research."
Ritsuko nodded her head in agreement, almost losing her calm
demeanor. "Yes, we need to know if these nano-clusters will be
harmful to his health."
Citan smiled slightly, almost positive he could see a gleam
in her eyes. "I don't think that they will be harmful to his
health, as they're probably there to rebuild his body from
injury." He stifled a yawn. "The appropriate investigation party
will look into it."
Ritsuko shook her head negatively. "But Commander, those
nanomachines were almost certainly the very reason the Eva went
berserk. If there are this many reproducing inside Fei, they
could easily cause a repeat of the incident later. Also, Fei
hasn't been injured lately. There is no reason for them to be
growing like this, even if they are there to repair tissue
damage."
Citan sobered, considering the possibilities that the nano-
colony inside his pilot weren't there just to heal him, as he'd
originally thought. "First thing in the morning, bring both
pilots in for a standard physical, but also take cerebrospinal
fluid samples. Run all tests immediately. We have to know if
Pilot Fatima also has a colony, and try to determine the extent of
Fei's infection. I'll be there to inspect the results."
"And the files?" Ritsuko asked, not to be dissuaded from her
goal.
"We'll see."
"Oh, and also, a recent test on 1-3 has brought a certain
fact to light," she added as an afterthought. "It doesn't show
the usual signs of degradation brought on through successive
generations. In all respects but the order in which it was
created, it is a second generation Evangelion."
Citan adjusted his glasses thoughtfully. "That's
interesting."
"I thought so too."
He sighed. "Unless it directly affects the current
situation with the nanomachine colony, it must remain a mystery
for now. Is that all?"
"Yes," she answered.
"Good. I will see you at 0630 tomorrow." At her nod, he
cut the connection. After a short pause to collect his thoughts,
he rose and crept silently back down the short hall to his room.
Yui's eyes shone in the dim light let in through the door as
he opened it. "Is there a problem?" she whispered.
He made a low negative sound as he slid into bed and laid
his glasses to one side. "Not yet, although I do need for you to
put together a modified report on nanotech research. Dr. Akagi
has discovered a replicating colony inside Fei, and thinks that
they may be the cause of the disaster."
Yui snorted softly. "Nonsense. Dr. Wong would never have
created something that would cause such devastation. She just
wants access to classified documents."
"Nevertheless, we do need to determine the exact purpose of
those clusters. Prepare a low security report for Dr. Akagi, but
do let her have enough information for an accurate diagnosis.
Meanwhile, I'd like for you to take a look at them, if you have
time."
She yawned sleepily. "Okay, but I still think it's a waste
of time. I'll get on it in the morning."