It is the year After Colony 199, and the New Unified Sphere has branched into a more cohesive unit. The controlling powers of the governing bodies distributed more powers to various parts of Earth, dividing themselves into regions that work under the influence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. These regions appointed advisors and congressional bodies to work under the sphere and more effectively relay the desires of a unified Earth.
Most of the regions appointed leaders that were to be expected, but there were two appointees that shocked the rest of the Sphere. These two seemingly came out of nowhere to take the roles of advisors, and for a great while, there was concern as to the their goals and aspirations, but they quickly became two of the most respected advisors of the Sphere.
The first was the Advisor of North Am, Aelan Marcus. The second, Kiron Gorrs; advisor to the Space Colonies. These two would soon perform actions that would cause a cataclysmic change in the future of the galaxy…
Admiral Noin stopped at the hotel room that Aelan had reserved for her. She started to walk to the door, then noticed that Aelan was walking past his room, and heading back outside the hotel.
"Aren’t you going to call it a night?" Noin asked.
Aelan turned, and replied, "Oh, no. I’m going to go bother Kiron some. It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to just talk."
Noin smirked, then replied, "All right, just remember, I’m not gonna wake you up after you’ve been up all night partying…"
"Yes, MOTHER…" Aelan moaned sarcastically, "I won’t be out long. Most likely Kiron will want to call it quits early anyway."
Noin slept peacefully, which was surprising. She had never been fully comfortable in space. So much of it was unknown, it’s empty void would occasionally sparkle with the light of a distant star, but even then, it was like a curse of the void, places that could never be reached by humans. She could look, but could not touch.
In her dreams, she could touch those places. She could see all that was out there, her only limit her imagination. It was as if she was a god, looking down at the vastness of creation, yet with the innocence of a young child, marveling at every sight.
It was during this blissful dream that Aelan’s voice rung in her mind. Usually, the advisor was welcome, but not this time. Nothing could compare right now…
"Admiral… it’s time. Wake up." Aelan said, shaking her shoulder.
"Five more minutes…" Noin complained, trying to keep her dream in focus.
"You said that five minutes ago. Come on."
Noin growled, not pleased by the intrusion. However, the dream was gone. She slowly regained conscious control, and her eyes opened.
"You know, being the one who griped about waking ME up, you sure sleep soundly. I thought you didn’t like being out in space." Aelan mused.
"I normally don’t." Noin admitted, "I don’t like not knowing… but something’s different. It seems like we’re on the verge of knowing it all…"
"I think you’re putting a little too much faith in the first test of a new device. We aren’t even fully sure what it’s supposed to accomplish yet." Aelan mused. He seemed intent on being the voice of reason.
"Still, I…" Noin started to reply, then said, "Maybe you’re right. But, I can’t help but feel we’re on the verge of something big."
"We’ll soon find out." Aelan said softly, "I’ll be outside. You get dressed, and meet me in the lobby."
"I’m ready." Noin chirped as she bounded down the spiral staircase.
"If it wasn’t for the uniform, I would doubt you were any officer of North Am. Such childish behavior wouldn’t be welcome under Admiral Noin’s command." Aelan retorted without even a hint of a smile.
Noin stuck her tongue out, proving just how childish she can be. "Come on, Advisor. I don’t want to have to count on Relena again to get us good seats for the test."
"I figured we were going to have breakfast first." Aelan replied, "That’s why I got you up so early. I saw a nice little breakfast diner about a kilometer from here as I was coming to the hotel last night. I wanted to try it out before I had to go back planet-side."
Noin did realize that she was a little hungry. With a slight frown, she said, "All right, but we better not get nosebleed seats at the test. I want to see all of it."
"Don’t worry about that. Kiron has reserved us some spots right at the front. Now come on, I’m starving."
Breakfast turned out to be very welcome. Noin realized just how hungry she was when she took her first bite. After that, it seemed like she couldn’t stop. When all was finished, she looked at her accomplishment, four empty plates that had previously been filled with food.
"Do you eat often?" Aelan queried.
Noin grew defensive, "Hey, it takes a lot of fuel to get this soldier’s body going."
"I see."
"It’s not like you didn’t have your fair share." Noin pointed out, gesturing at the three plates in front of the Advisor.
"It was good, and pushing papers can be very draining in its own right." Aelan retorted, "I guess that you are right, though. I am in no position to criticize."
"You are right in one regard. I do need to calm down. I’m acting like a child."
"Don’t worry about that. I actually am rather interested in seeing the part of you that normally doesn’t get the chance to come out from behind that uniform of yours."
"Yeah, but the rest of the higher-ups might not." Noin replied. She smoothed out her uniform once, and reigned in her enthusiasm. "Shall we get going, Advisor?"
"Indeed."
The pair left the diner, and stepped onto the conveyor that would take them to the monorail system. As they drifted by the various streets of the colony, Noin happened to catch a glimpse of something that caught her eye. A person stepped around the corner of a building she had just passed. This wasn’t normally anything important, except that the long, flowing mane of platinum-blonde hair could only belong to one person.
"Miliardo!!!" Noin screamed, jumping the conveyor’s divider, onto the other belt heading the opposite direction.
"Admiral, what in the heavens are you trying to accomplish?" Aelan shouted as Noin leaped off the other belt, and onto the street just below.
She charged through the walkway, nearly knocking over the street vendor they had visited yesterday, barreling through anybody foolish enough to get in her way. Never had time seemed to travel so quickly. "I have to catch up to him before…"
She turned the corner of the building that she swore Miliardo had ducked behind just seconds before. "…I lose him…" Noin sighed dejectedly. She could have sworn that he had been there. But there was no sign that anybody had been in the alley, and it was unlikely that any human could have scaled the five-meter wall at the end that quickly.
"He was here. Miliardo was here…" Noin repeated, refusing to believe that her eyes might have been merely been playing tricks on her.
"Admiral, I think we need to talk." Advisor Aelan panted, finally catching up to her, "Perhaps you could entertain me as to your rationale for this recent action?"
"He was here…" Noin replied flippantly.
"Who was here?"
Noin shook her head, and said, "Never mind. We have to get moving if we want to get to the test on time."
Noin started to walk away, and it took a moment before she heard Aelan start to follow. "And I pick on Relena about her obsessions…" She muttered to herself, dismally stepping back onto the conveyor.
Aelan and Noin made it to the science bay with only a few minutes to spare. Sure enough, Aelan had been able to reserve some special seating next to the science crew, right in the front of the assembly.
"How did you manage this?" Noin asked.
"It pays to be good friends with the Colony Advisor." Aelan replied, just as the advisor in question stepped to the front of the assembly. He gestured behind him to a multi-tiered device standing in the center of the bay. Various wires, in a multitude of sizes and colors lead off to several consoles, each manned by one of the few science officers allowed onto the bay floor.
"Gathered guests, I present to you the Quantum Fold Generator." Advisor Kiron replied, "To explain further just what this device will enable us to do, here is Chief Science Officer Ryu Jumija."
A short, stocky Asian man stood up three seats away from Admiral Noin, and made his way to the front of the assembly. He attached a small microphone to his breast pocket, then said, "Thank you, Advisor Kiron. The Quantum Fold Generator will allow us to travel places that we had never thought possible. Now light years distance can be crossed in mere seconds. The stars are now truly in our grasp."
The scientist moved over to a projection display, and stared pointing at various articles of calculations and diagrams. "By using an intense graviton pulse, and generating a massive gravitational field at two points, the origin and destination, we will cause the two areas to start to develop a state similar to a black hole. The fabric of space-time will start to fold as the two quasi-holes start to pull together. Finally, the two points will converge just before singularity, causing a ‘shortcut’ in space-time."
"Three months ago, we sent out a probe to just beyond the orbit of Pluto. There, it set up a relay point in which we will be able to generate the destination gravity well. These relay points have about a 500,000-kilometer range in which we can generate a destination point. Within 50 years, we should have a matrix that could possibly cover a quarter of the galaxy."
"Now, we are going to call in the probe from the relay point. This will be the first official test of the Fold Generator." Science Officer Ryu then nodded to one of the many technicians, who began the process.
The generator started to hum quietly, and a pulsing light began to shine through the outer shell of the machine. "Gravity well forming." A technician reported, "Connection to relay point confirmed. Beginning destination well…"
Suddenly, the science bay was bathed in red light. Alarms and klaxons blared, causing the assembly to panic slightly. The technician which had been reporting suddenly shouted, "The gravity well isn’t slowing. The origin hole is still expanding, now at 120% required size… 130%… 150%."
"At this rate, it will expand into a full-blown black hole!" Another tech shouted, "We need to power down!"
"Do it!" Officer Ryu ordered. The device stopped pulsing and humming, dying down into inactivity. At the same time, the alarms ceased.
Advisor Kiron then stepped in front of the assembly, and said, "Perhaps we haven’t worked all the bugs out of the system. It might take some time to figure out what went wrong. I will inform all of you when we have completed the diagnostics."
The assembly then filtered out of the bay, grumbling about wasted time, and getting them all excited. As Noin stood up to leave as well, Science Office Ryu walked by, mumbling, "Why did the hole keep expanding, and at such a steady rate? That sort of occurrence couldn’t have been by chance…"
"Did you hear that, Aelan?" Noin said, "Could someone have sabotaged the generator?"
"Don’t you think you’re jumping to conclusions, Admiral?" Aelan answered, "Sometimes these things happen. I’m just glad they were able to get it under control."
"Aren’t we going to investigate?" Noin asked in disbelief. Aelan was usually such a curious person. He rarely left a stone unturned.
"Any investigation into the matter is for Advisor Kiron to decide. As for me, I have work to attend to in North Am."
Noin frowned, and stood firmly in place as Aelan reached out to guide her to the door, "I’m not going anywhere until I get to the bottom of this. Something’s not right."
Aelan shook his head, and sighed, "Very well. Talk to Advisor Kiron. It will be his decision, though. Report back to me if you find anything." With that Aelan walked out of the science bay.
Quatre tapped Noin on the shoulder, and asked, "Did I hear that you were going to talk to Advisor Kiron about an investigation?"
"Quatre!" Noin remarked, surprised to see him sneak up behind her. "Yes, that’s right. If he’ll let me, though."
Quatre seemed to think for a moment, then stated, "Perhaps we could investigate this matter together, without the interference of the Colony Advisor. He has too much at stake in this whole project. He probably wouldn’t be willing to admit that there is a saboteur in the ranks."
North Am
Aelan stepped into the office, where the three Gundam Pilots were waiting.
"So, how was L1?" Duo asked conversationally.
"Not as exciting as I had hoped." Aelan motioned for them to follow him into his office. They all took their seats, and Aelan leaned back, saying, "I take you finished your scouting report."
Heero nodded, "There were signs of a White Fang presence at the facility, but it looked like they had been gone for some time. We met one woman, Amore Doran, who seemed to be guarding the place for her father, Julio. She explained that her father had left in what she called a Quantum Fold fifteen years ago."
"A Quantum Fold? Odd, I was just on the L1 colony, where they were testing a Quantum Fold generator. Noin suspected it was sabotaged. Perhaps there is some connection?"
Heero recalled his conversation with Amore, and replied, "She DID mention L1, and she didn’t seem too pleased about it."
Duo looked over at Heero, and suggested, "Could Amore have gotten someone to sabotage the Fold Generator at L1?"
"Let’s not jump to conclusions, people." Aelan replied.
"Actually, let’s jump to conclusions." Trowe said. He was looking at his laptop screen, then read off the screen, "Amore Doran, Alliance Engineer AC 192-194. Dishonorably discharged for refusing to accept relocation orders. Seen working with the rebel group, White Fang."
"She WAS with White Fang!" Duo shouted, "The hussy lied to us!"
"If she lied to us about her allegiance, what else did she lie to us about?" Trowe asked, "Could it be that she wanted the L1 generator off-line to cover up something she’s hiding?
At that moment, Aelan’s terminal beeped, he looked over the incoming report, then said, "Well, well, well. Looks like our little Amore HAS been up to something. According to sensor data from the colonies, there has been several gravity fluxuations in the Mexican Highlands, matching the coordinates of Amore’s facility. Long-range Infrared satellite pictures show several heat sources underneath the facility in question. They appear to match the signatures of… Mobile Dolls."
"HELL NO!" Duo shouted, "We’ve been played! She tricked us!"
Aelan turned, "It appears that she has been using a functional Fold Generator to ship in Mobile Dolls, possibly from White Fang. Return to the facility, and destroy it. We can’t risk any more units coming through. I’ll try to get the Congressional Body to scrounge up some reinforcements, but that might take some time."
The three stood up, and Heero replied, "We will handle this issue, Advisor."
Back to the Mexican Highlands…
As the three Gundams approached at full speed, Heero’s comm unit blared to life, "What is the meaning of this?" Amore shouted, "I thought I had satisfied your curiosity."
"Recent revelations have caused us to question your story." Heero replied blandly.
"Like what?" She asked, seemingly confused.
"Oh, certain associations with White Fang, for one." Duo shouted.
Amore was silent for a second, then replied, "All right… Yes, I worked with White Fang. They offered to help maintain the Fold Generator in exchange for its use. I pretended to agree, but always said that there were problems. They were never able to use it once."
"Then what about the Mobile Dolls that are being shipped in as we speak?"
"WHAT!" Amore yelled, flabbergasted, "I’ve never shipped in anything with this generator. I’m waiting for my father to come back!"
"You’ve lied to us before, babe." Duo retorted, "Why should we believe you now?"
"I swear it! Yes, there are MD’s here, but they’ve been here for years! As DEFENSE!" Amore insisted.
Heero stopped his advance at the facility, and the other Gundams followed suit. Heero remembered some of Relena’s advice, "Often there are three sides to an issue, one person’s side, the other person’s side, and the truth. Usually, the truth lies somewhere in between the two differing opinions."
Heero then pronounced, "Listen, let us take you back to North Am. You can talk to Advisor Aelan. Perhaps there is just a simple misunderstanding."
"I can’t leave here now! What if my father decides to come back!"
"If you don’t agree to come with us now, we can only take your response as an act of defiance, and we will be forced to destroy this entire facility."
Amore didn’t budge, "I’m NOT leaving. The only way I leave here is in a body bag." With that, she killed the transmission.
"Amore, don’t do this." Heero warned, but there was no response. He hung his head. His options were gone, the only thing left to do was follow through with his orders.
Heero gripped the control stick in his left hand a little tighter, and said, "Duo, swoop in low along the east. Trowe, provide cover fire. I’m sure those Mobile Dolls won’t stay inactive much longer. I’ll go straight head on. Engage on my mark."
Heero ducked his head, and focused on the job at hand. Even though Amore’s defiance had left him with no other course of action, Heero didn’t like this. Not one bit. Finally, he lifted his head, eyes staring directly at his goal, focusing as if his gaze alone could cause the building to obliterate itself.
After that, he said only one word…
"Mark."
Next Time…
The three Gundams begin the assault on the Generator Facility, going up against heavy resistance. Then Wufei arrives, and helps in the defense of Amore. Just as things start to get ugly, Noin and Quatre arrive, delivering disturbing news…
Coming in Episode 4: Unusual Suspects