1:3
Ritsuko was all business as she led him towards the entry plug. "I'll give
you
a simple lecture on the operating systems."
Shinji looked over his shoulder, raising one hand in a half-hearted wave to
Misato. She turned away, and Shinji closed his eyes wearily for a moment.
Then
he returned his attention to the Doctor's lecture.
* * *
Shinji shifted around within the seat of the 'entry plug' he was inside. It
held him rather more securely than he was comfortable with although he
supposed
that there was a safety reason for that. There were a couple of hand grips
but
he wasn't entirely sure what they were for, so he kept his hands well clear
of
them, rested on the pedestal in front of him. He felt almost as if he was
chained to a chair in some mad scientist's laboratory, right down the the
little neural-whatsits tucked into his tangled hair above his forehead.
Outside the Evangelion, the pieces were moving into place.
"Cooling-down cycle Complete! All internal cage systems in docking position!"
Fluid drained away from the canal lock-sized compartments surrounding the
giant
warmachine.
"Pilot has reached the cockpit position within the Entry Plug!"
'I could have told you that myself,' sneered Shinji to himself.
"Roger! Inserting Entry Plug!"
>From the outside, it looked like piston pressing the cylindrical entry plug
into the back of EVA-01. To Shinji it felt like a poorly maintained elevator
going down just a touch too fast... almost out of control for a second.
"Plug lock-in procedure completed!"
"Initiating first level interface!"
"Flooding entry plug!"
Shinji blinked. "Flooding WHAT!?" he half screamed as a yellowish fluid
rushed
up the plug. 'Christ, it looks like urine,' he thought in distaste.
"Don't be alarmed!" Ritsuko told him. "Once your lungs are saturated with the
LCL, you'll be able to undergo direct oxygen exchange!"
"Calm down, Shinji! You'll get used to it in a minute!" resassured Misato.
"Easy for you to say," coughed the boy irritably, now completely submerged
and
regaining his composure. "You didn't just swallow a pint of this rat's piss."
The walls of the entry plug were covered for a moment by repetitions of the
phrase 'start contact' only to be replace with dozens of coloured blocks
racing
up the walls with vertigo-inducing speed. Shinji listened quietly as the
technical staff ran through the start-up sequence: "Main power connected! All
circuits fully functional! Initiating power-up sequence!" "Opening reciprocal
circuits!" "A10 neural synapses operating within normal limits! First contact
all clear!" There were three voices - two male, one female. As expected
then.
"This is _incredible_!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "Synchro errors are within 0.3
percent!" She turned to Misato. "It's going to work!"
"Evangelion Unit-01!" the purple-haired officer shouted. "Prepare to launch."
The drama of the moment was somewhat spoilt by Shinji's tart rejoinder.
"Babe,
I'm trussed up like a chicken. What do you want me to do, dance the funky
chicken?"
Ignoring, mostly, the byplay of Misato shouting and waving her arms at a
microphone, the technical crew began opening up the layers of protection
around
the EVA. The lighter defenses, mesh screens and the like, moved first. Then
the
massive clamps around the EVA disengaged one by one. "Releasing primary lock
bolt." "Release confirmed! Releasing umbilical bridge!" "Releasing primary
and
secondary restraints!"
Even the walls that had locked around the EVAs arms, restraining it by the
pauldrons, slid away, leaving the giant clamped only to a relatively small
frame behind it.
"Releasing safety locks one through fifteen." "Internal battery fully
charged!
External power outlet nominal!" The female voice (Maya, Shinji guessed) gave
the next report just as Misato finished ranting. "Transporting EVA Unit-01 to
the launch elevator!"
With the low roar of precisely maintained heavy machinery, the entire
platform
that the EVA stood on slid slowly up and backwards towards the wall of the
immense chamber.
"What was all that about external power source?" Shinji asked absently.
Ritsuko answered. "The Evangelion can only carry a five minute power supply
on
internal batteries. Therefore the main power source is in Geofront, connected
to the EVA by a power cord."
There was a moment of silence as Shinji thought that over. He already knew
that
of course, but it annoyed him nonetheless. "You mean I'm piloting a giant
robot
powered the same way as a lawnmower. What sort of budget did you get for this
thing anyway?"
"Stop whining. You're a boy, aren't you?"
"...I refuse to dignify that with a response."
Further 'repartee' was cut off as the EVA reached the wall. The platform
locked
into rails leading upwards and doors above it slid aside, revealing a
vertical
shift that reached up higher than Shinji could see.
"Gate Five, stand by!" "Launch path clear!" "All green!" "Launch preparations
are complete."
"Roger!" Misato acknowledged. Standing in the middle of the command deck, she
turned to look up and Gendo, overlooking the technical staff from his
brooding
perch. "Commander Ikari! Do we proceed?"
Ikari's clasped hands obscured most of his face but his glasses had slid down
his nose just far enough to reveal eyes as dark and purposeful as agates. "Of
course," he said calmly. "If we fail to defeat the Shito, humanity has no
future."
Misato nodded and turned back to the techs. "Launch!" she ordered.
Power surged through the motors against the rails and hurled the EVA,
platform
and all, upwards and out of the Geofront. Shinji yelped in surprise as
gravity
drove him down in the seat.
Far above, on a city street, warning lights flared around a square hatch set
flush with the road. Panels slid away just barely in time for the EVA Unit-01
to emerge from it. The giant stood there, supported by twin beams reach from
the ground to it's shoulders.
The city looked different from this perspective. Shinji was surprised to see
that his viewpoint was higher than several of them.
"This is it, Shinji!" Misato told him.
"Ready as I'll ever be," he responded, clutching at the handgrips.
"Releasing final safety locks!" she shouted. "Evangelion Unit-01, Lift off!"
With a series of clangs, clamp after clamp released as the EVA sagged
slightly,
no longer supported by the rails. Shinji felt the giant compensate for it's
shifting balance _based on his own inner ear_ and swallowed nervously.
'Welcome
to the big time,' he told himself.
He barely heard Misato's voice wish him good luck.
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